Nineteenth-century
America saw the emergence of a musically literate middle class and an increase
in popular music that people could entertain with in their own homes. We looked
at Stephen Foster, who is often considered America’s first popular songwriter
to compose as a profession. Moving into the 20th-century, we see
many more popular song writers emerge during the Tin Pan Alley generation. What
is Tin Pan Alley? Today you will learn just that as well as the story of Irving
Berlin (1888–1989) who, like Foster, became famous for capturing American
sentiments in his music.
So what is Tin
Pan Alley? In the 1880s, a district on West 28th Street in New York
City became a popular spot for song publishers to locate their business. Many
of these publishers would pay singers to perform specific pieces in a show
making it popular so people would in turn come purchase the sheet music. They
also hired song pluggers to perform the piece on site for arrangers who came in
looking for new tunes. This is how many young musicians such as Irving Berlin
and George Gershwin got their start!
How did Irving
Berlin, a Russian Jewish immigrant, become one of the greatest American song
writers of all time? This writer of “God Bless America” got his start as a
street singer and later a singing waiter to make extra money for his
poverty-stricken family. He went on to publish his first work in 1907, “Marie
from Sunny Italy.” A few years later, “Alexander’s Ragtime Band” gave him
international success. Did you know that Berlin quotes Stephen Foster’s “Old
Folks at Home” in this piece? Though he published over 1000 songs during his
lifetime, Berlin never learned how to read music and could only play in one
key. When composing, he figured out how to play the tune on a transposing
keyboard. Then he would pull its lever, allowing it to transpose to any desired
key! He also used a music transcriber to write out the music into notes while
he played it on his keyboard.
Berlin wrote his
first ballad in 1912. “When I Lost You” was his form of grieving the loss of
his young bride, who died after contracting typhoid fever on their honeymoon in
Havana. Though famous for many of the tunes he contributed to revues and
operettas during the early 20th-century, today I want to focus our
time looking at this ballad. In a later month we will look closer at Berlin’s
life and his other work, including many of his Broadway and film hits! You can
listen to Bing Crosby sing Berlin’s beautiful first ballad below. This may be
lesser-known to you than many of his other works. Do you have a favorite?
I lost the
sunshine and roses, I lost the heavens of blue,
I lost the
beautiful rainbow, I lost the morning dew.
I lost the angel
who gave me summer, the whole winter too.
I lost the
gladness that turned into sadness,
When I lost you.
And I lost the
angel who gave me summer, the whole winter too.
I lost the
gladness that turned into sadness,
When I lost you.
