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78-552: Richard Charles Rodgers (June 28, 1902 – December 30, 1979) was an American composer who worked primarily in musical theater . With 43 Broadway musicals and over 900 songs to his credit, Rodgers was one of the most well-known American composers of the 20th century, and his compositions had a significant influence on popular music. Rodgers is known for his songwriting partnerships, first with lyricist Lorenz Hart and then with Oscar Hammerstein II . With Hart he wrote musicals throughout

156-415: A sheet music "score" , which is then performed by the composer or by other musicians. In popular music and traditional music , songwriting may involve the creation of a basic outline of the song, called the lead sheet , which sets out the melody , lyrics and chord progression. In classical music, orchestration (choosing the instruments of a large music ensemble such as an orchestra which will play

234-711: A special Pulitzer Prize in 1944 for Oklahoma! . In 1954, Rodgers conducted the New York Philharmonic Orchestra in excerpts from Victory at Sea , Slaughter on Tenth Avenue and the Carousel Waltz for a special LP released by Columbia Records . Rodgers and Hammerstein musicals earned a total of 37 Tony Awards , 15 Academy Awards , two Pulitzer Prizes , two Grammy Awards , and two Emmy Awards . Rodgers composed five new musicals between Hammerstein's death in 1960 and his own in 1979. In chronological order, they are: No Strings (1962), Do I Hear

312-410: A string section , wind and brass sections used in a standard orchestras to electronic instruments such as synthesizers . Some common group settings include music for full orchestra (consisting of strings, woodwinds, brass, and percussion), concert band (which consists of larger sections and greater diversity of woodwind, brass, and percussion instruments than are usually found in the orchestra), or

390-595: A Beautiful Mornin' ", " People Will Say We're in Love ", " Oklahoma " (which also became the state song of Oklahoma), "It's A Grand Night For Singing", " If I Loved You ", " You'll Never Walk Alone ", " It Might as Well Be Spring ", " Some Enchanted Evening ", " Younger Than Springtime ", " Bali Hai ", " Getting to Know You ", " My Favorite Things ", " The Sound of Music ", " Sixteen Going on Seventeen ", " Climb Ev'ry Mountain ", " Do-Re-Mi ", and " Edelweiss ", Hammerstein's last song. Much of Rodgers' work with both Hart and Hammerstein

468-547: A Broadway songwriting force. Throughout the rest of the decade, the duo wrote several hit shows for both Broadway and London, including Dearest Enemy (1925), The Girl Friend (1926), Peggy-Ann (1926), A Connecticut Yankee (1927), and Present Arms (1928). Their 1920s shows produced standards such as " Here in My Arms ", " Mountain Greenery ", " Blue Room ", " My Heart Stood Still " and " You Took Advantage of Me ". With

546-525: A Rodgers song, with a dramatically different arrangement from that originally conceived by him, Rodgers said, "I don't know why Peggy picked on me, she could have fucked up Silent Night ". Mary Martin said that Richard Rodgers composed songs for her for South Pacific , knowing she had a small vocal range, and the songs generally made her look her best. She also said that Rodgers and Hammerstein listened to all her suggestions and she worked extremely well with them. Both Rodgers and Hammerstein wanted Doris Day for

624-521: A Waltz? (1965), Two by Two (1970), Rex (1976), and I Remember Mama (1979). Rodgers wrote both words and music for his first new Broadway project No Strings , which earned two Tony Awards and played 580 shows. The show was a minor hit and featured the song, " The Sweetest Sounds ". Rodgers also wrote both the words and music for two new songs used in the film version of The Sound of Music . (Other songs in that film were from Rodgers and Hammerstein.) Each of his final Broadway musicals faced

702-584: A chamber group (a small number of instruments, but at least two). The composer may also choose to write for only one instrument, in which case this is called a solo . Solos may be unaccompanied, as with works for solo piano or solo cello, or solos may be accompanied by another instrument or by an ensemble. Composers are not limited to writing only for instruments, they may also decide to write for voice (including choral works, some symphonies, operas , and musicals ). Composers can also write for percussion instruments or electronic instruments . Alternatively, as

780-495: A circular issued by the United States Copyright Office on Copyright Registration of Musical Compositions and Sound Recordings, a musical composition is defined as "A musical composition consists of music, including any accompanying words, and is normally registered as a work of the performing arts. The author of a musical composition is generally the composer, and the lyricists if any. A musical composition may be in

858-489: A collection of songs, dances and comic turns held together by a tenuous plot became a fully integrated narrative. Even though Show Boat is considered to be the earliest example of a book musical, Oklahoma! epitomized the innovations for which Show Boat had laid the groundwork and is considered the first production in American history to be intentionally marketed as a fully integrated musical. In 1943, Richard Rodgers became

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936-434: A composition for different musical ensembles is called arranging or orchestration , may be undertaken by the composer or separately by an arranger based on the composer's core composition. Based on such factors, composers, orchestrators, and arrangers must decide upon the instrumentation of the original work. In the 2010s, the contemporary composer can virtually write for almost any combination of instruments, ranging from

1014-405: A declining level of success as Rodgers was overshadowed by up-and-coming composers and lyricists. This was evident by the steady drop in run times and critic reviews. Do I Hear a Waltz? ran 220 performances; Two by Two, 343 performances; Rex only 49 performances; and I Remember Mama, 108 performances. While Rodgers went on to work with lyricists: Stephen Sondheim ( Do I Hear a Waltz? ), who

1092-481: A lesser degree than in popular music. Music from the Baroque music era (1600–1750), for example, used only acoustic and mechanical instruments such as strings, brass, woodwinds, timpani and keyboard instruments such as harpsichord and pipe organ . A 2000s-era pop band may use an electric guitar played with electronic effects through a guitar amplifier , a digital synthesizer keyboard and electronic drums . Piece

1170-594: A melody for which Hart wrote three consecutive lyrics which were either cut, not recorded or not a hit. The fourth lyric resulted in one of their most famous songs, " Blue Moon ". Other film work includes the scores to The Phantom President (1932), starring George M. Cohan , Hallelujah, I'm a Bum (1933), starring Al Jolson , and, in a quick return after having left Hollywood, Mississippi (1935), starring Bing Crosby and W. C. Fields . In 1935, they returned to Broadway and wrote an almost unbroken string of hit shows that ended shortly before Hart's death in 1943. Among

1248-443: A new CD that year in tribute to Rodgers, entitled My Favorite Things: A Richard Rodgers Celebration . Alec Wilder wrote the following about Rodgers: Of all the writers whose songs are considered and examined in this book, those of Rodgers show the highest degree of consistent excellence, inventiveness, and sophistication ... [A]fter spending weeks playing his songs, I am more than impressed and respectful: I am astonished. Rodgers

1326-408: A new maturity by telling stories that were focused on characters and drama rather than the earlier light-hearted entertainment of the genre. Rodgers was the first person to win all four of the top American entertainment awards in theater, film, recording, and television – an Emmy , a Grammy , an Oscar , and a Tony  – now known collectively as an EGOT . In addition, he

1404-416: A performer. Copyright is a government-granted monopoly which, for a limited time, gives a composition's owner—such as a composer or a composer's employer, in the case of work for hire —a set of exclusive rights to the composition, such as the exclusive right to publish sheet music describing the composition and how it should be performed. Copyright requires anyone else wanting to use the composition in

1482-442: A recording. If music is composed before being performed, music can be performed from memory (the norm for instrumental soloists in concerto performances and singers in opera shows and art song recitals), by reading written musical notation (the norm in large ensembles, such as orchestras, concert bands and choirs ), or through a combination of both methods. For example, the principal cello player in an orchestra may read most of

1560-487: A restaurant chain serving inexpensive meals, popular with middle- and working-class people. In later stanzas, other places they will go to are likewise free – Central Park , "the Bronx Zoo ", Coney Island , Brighton Beach , and to view the much-criticized statue of " Civic Virtue ". Since its debut, it has regularly appeared in popular culture. Early hits in 1925 were by Ben Selvin and Paul Whiteman . It

1638-646: A specific mode ( maqam ) often within improvisational contexts , as does Indian classical music in both the Hindustani and the Carnatic system. As technology has developed in the 20th and 21st century, new methods of music composition have come about. EEG headsets have also been used to create music by interpreting the brainwaves of musicians. This method has been used for Project Mindtunes, which involved collaborating disabled musicians with DJ Fresh, and also by artists Lisa Park and Masaki Batoh. The task of adapting

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1716-480: A walk down Delancey Street , which was in the 1920s a boisterous commercial strip, part of the working-class Lower East Side . In the third stanza, they plan to go to Greenwich Village , to watch "Modern men itch to be free". In the fourth stanza, it is revealed that the only rural retreat they can afford to go to is " Yonkers ", and the only restaurant they can afford is to "starve together in Childs' " –

1794-409: A week for conducting. Within a year they had three shows on Broadway simultaneously. The song describes, in several choruses, the simple delights of Manhattan for a young couple in love. The joke is that these "delights" are really some of the worst, or cheapest, sights that New York has to offer; for example, the stifling, humid stench of the subway in summertime is described as "balmy breezes", while

1872-530: Is "compulsory" because the copyright owner cannot refuse or set terms for the license. Copyright collectives also typically manage the licensing of public performances of compositions, whether by live musicians or by transmitting sound recordings over radio or the Internet. Even though the first US copyright laws did not include musical compositions, they were added as part of the Copyright Act of 1831 . According to

1950-403: Is a "general, non-technical term [that began to be] applied mainly to instrumental compositions from the 17th century onwards....other than when they are taken individually 'piece' and its equivalents are rarely used of movements in sonatas or symphonies....composers have used all these terms [in their different languages] frequently in compound forms [e.g. Klavierstück]....In vocal music...the term

2028-526: Is a member of the American Theater Hall of Fame . Along with the Academy of Arts and Letters, Rodgers also started and endowed an award for non-established musical theater composers to produce new productions either by way of full productions or staged readings. It is the only award for which the Academy of Arts and Letters accepts applications and is presented every year. Below are the previous winners of

2106-417: Is called aleatoric music and is associated with contemporary composers active in the 20th century, such as John Cage , Morton Feldman and Witold Lutosławski . A more commonly known example of chance-based, or indeterminate, music is the sound of wind chimes jingling in a breeze. The study of composition has traditionally been dominated by examination of methods and practice of Western classical music, but

2184-428: Is most frequently used for operatic ensembles..." Composition techniques draw parallels from visual art's formal elements . Sometimes, the entire form of a piece is through-composed , meaning that each part is different, with no repetition of sections; other forms include strophic , rondo , verse-chorus , and others. Some pieces are composed around a set scale , where the compositional technique might be considered

2262-421: Is the case with musique concrète , the composer can work with many sounds often not associated with the creation of music, such as typewriters , sirens , and so forth. In Elizabeth Swados ' Listening Out Loud , she explains how a composer must know the full capabilities of each instrument and how they must complement each other, not compete. She gives an example of how in an earlier composition of hers, she had

2340-481: Is the composer of Adrift In Macao, which debuted at the Philadelphia Theatre Company in 2005 and was produced Off-Broadway in 2007. Mary Rodgers' book Shy: The Alarmingly Outspoken Memoirs of Mary Rodgers was published posthumously in 2022, and included her frank revelations and assessments of her father, family and herself. Rodgers was an atheist . He was prone to depression and alcohol abuse and

2418-490: Is the ordering and disposing of several sounds...in such a manner that their succession pleases the ear. This is what the Ancients called melody . The second is the rendering audible of two or more simultaneous sounds in such a manner that their combination is pleasant. This is what we call harmony and it alone merits the name of composition. Since the invention of sound recording , a classical piece or popular song may exist as

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2496-812: The Barnard Medal of Distinction . Rodgers was an honoree at the first Kennedy Center Honors in 1978. At the 1979 Tony Awards ceremony—six months before his death—Rodgers was presented the Lawrence Langner Memorial Award for Distinguished Lifetime Achievement in the American Theatre. One of Rodger's final works was a revival of Fly With Me for the 1980 Varsity Show, to which he added several new songs. He died less than four months before its premiere in April 1980. In 1930, Rodgers married Dorothy Belle Feiner (1909–92). Their daughter, Mary (1931–2014),

2574-598: The Depression in full swing during the first half of the 1930s, the team sought greener pastures in Hollywood. The hardworking Rodgers later regretted these relatively fallow years, but he and Hart did write some classic songs and film scores while out west, including Love Me Tonight (1932) (directed by Rouben Mamoulian , who would later direct Rodgers's Oklahoma! on Broadway), which introduced three standards: " Lover ", " Mimi ", and " Isn't It Romantic? ". Rodgers also wrote

2652-528: The Richard Rodgers Theatre in his memory. In 1999, Rodgers and Hart were each commemorated on United States postage stamps. In 2002, the centennial year of Rodgers' birth was celebrated worldwide with books, retrospectives, performances, new recordings of his music, and a Broadway revival of Oklahoma! . The BBC Proms that year devoted an entire evening to Rodgers' music, including a concert performance of Oklahoma! The Boston Pops Orchestra released

2730-525: The accompaniment parts in a symphony, where she is playing tutti parts, but then memorize an exposed solo, in order to be able to watch the conductor . Compositions comprise a huge variety of musical elements, which vary widely from between genres and cultures. Popular music genres after about 1960 make extensive use of electric and electronic instruments, such as electric guitar and electric bass . Electric and electronic instruments are used in contemporary classical music compositions and concerts, albeit to

2808-431: The structure of a musical piece or to the process of creating or writing a new piece of music. People who create new compositions are called composers . Composers of primarily songs are usually called songwriters ; with songs, the person who writes lyrics for a song is the lyricist . In many cultures, including Western classical music , the act of composing typically includes the creation of music notation , such as

2886-422: The 1750s onwards, there are many decisions that a performer or conductor has to make, because notation does not specify all of the elements of musical performance. The process of deciding how to perform music that has been previously composed and notated is termed "interpretation". Different performers' or conductor's interpretations of the same work of music can vary widely, in terms of the tempos that are chosen and

2964-502: The 1920s and 1930s, including Pal Joey , A Connecticut Yankee , On Your Toes and Babes in Arms . With Hammerstein he wrote musicals through the 1940s and 1950s, such as Oklahoma! , Flower Drum Song , Carousel , South Pacific , The King and I , and The Sound of Music . His collaborations with Hammerstein, in particular, are celebrated for bringing the Broadway musical to

3042-494: The 1950 Pulitzer Prize for Drama), The King and I (1951), and The Sound of Music (1959). Other shows include the minor hit Flower Drum Song (1958), as well as relative failures Allegro (1947), Me and Juliet (1953), and Pipe Dream (1955). They also wrote the score to the film State Fair (1945) (which was remade in 1962 with Pat Boone ) and a special TV musical of Cinderella (1957). Their collaboration produced many well-known songs, including " Oh, What

3120-593: The 2007 AMC production Mad Men episode "New Amsterdam". In the film All About Eve (1950), the song is played on the piano at the party when Margo and Max are in the kitchen. As times progress, the song's reference to whatever long-running show is popular on Broadway changes with each cover version. The original lyrics reference Abie's Irish Rose , which ran on Broadway from 1922 to 1927. The Ella Fitzgerald rendition from 1956 mentions My Fair Lady , as does Dinah Washington 's 1959 recording, while Lee Wiley and Rosemary Clooney reference South Pacific . In

3198-584: The Institute of Musical Art (now the Juilliard School ). Rodgers was influenced by composers such as Victor Herbert and Jerome Kern , as well as by the operettas his parents took him to see on Broadway when he was a child. In 1919, Richard met Lorenz Hart , thanks to Phillip Levitt, a friend of Richard's older brother. Rodgers and Hart struggled for years in the field of musical comedy, writing several amateur shows. They made their professional debut with

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3276-672: The World ", " My Romance ", " Little Girl Blue ", " I'll Tell the Man in the Street ", " There's a Small Hotel ", " Where or When ", " My Funny Valentine ", " The Lady Is a Tramp ", " Falling in Love with Love ", " Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered ", and " Wait till You See Her ". In 1939, Rodgers wrote the ballet Ghost Town for the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo , with choreography by Marc Platoff . Rodgers' partnership with Hart began having problems because of

3354-447: The award: Rosemary Clooney recorded a version of " Falling in Love with Love " by Rodgers, using a swing style. After the recording session Richard Rodgers told her pointedly that it should be sung as a waltz. After Doris Day recorded " I Have Dreamed " in 1961, he wrote to her and her arranger, Jim Harbert, that theirs was the most beautiful rendition of his song he had ever heard. After Peggy Lee recorded her version of " Lover ",

3432-531: The composer's work. Contract law, not copyright law, governs these composer–publisher contracts, which ordinarily involve an agreement on how profits from the publisher's activities related to the work will be shared with the composer in the form of royalties . The scope of copyright in general is defined by various international treaties and their implementations, which take the form of national statutes , and in common law jurisdictions, case law . These agreements and corresponding body of law distinguish between

3510-533: The definition of composition is broad enough to include the creation of popular music and traditional music songs and instrumental pieces, and to include spontaneously improvised works like those of free jazz performers and African percussionists such as Ewe drummers . In the 2000s, composition is considered to consist of the manipulation of each aspect of music ( harmony , melody, form, rhythm and timbre ), according to Jean-Benjamin de Laborde (1780 , 2:12): Composition consists in two things only. The first

3588-509: The different parts of music, such as the melody, accompaniment , countermelody , bassline and so on) is typically done by the composer, but in musical theatre and in pop music , songwriters may hire an arranger to do the orchestration. In some cases, a pop or traditional songwriter may not use written notation at all and instead compose the song in their mind and then play, sing or record it from memory. In jazz and popular music, notable sound recordings by influential performers are given

3666-425: The early and mid-1950s, singer Julius La Rosa became a national celebrity for his exposure on several of the shows hosted by one of the most popular television stars of the era, Arthur Godfrey . On October 19, 1953, La Rosa sang "Manhattan" on one of Godfrey's radio shows. Immediately after he finished, Godfrey fired him on the air, saying, "that was Julie's swan song with us", although the song had nothing to do with

3744-420: The firing. On another CBS radio program, the crime drama Broadway Is My Beat , its closing theme was a version of "Manhattan" played piano-bar style. Crazy Otto released a version of the song on his 1958 EP Crazy Otto International, Vol. 2. as part of medley with the songs " Dungaree Doll " and " I Wonder Who's Kissing Her Now ". For many years during the 1960s and 1970s, radio station WABC (AM) used

3822-455: The form of a notated copy (for example sheet music) or in the form of a phonorecord (for example cassette tape, LP, or CD). Sending a musical composition in the form of a phonorecord does not necessarily mean that there is a claim to copyright in the sound recording." Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 defines a musical work to mean "a work consisting of music, exclusive of any words or action intended to be sung, spoken or performed with

3900-587: The lead in the film version of South Pacific and she reportedly wanted the part. They discussed it with her, but after her manager/husband Martin Melcher would not budge on his demand for a high salary for her, the role went to Mitzi Gaynor . Rodgers is the first entertainer to have won the EGOT ( Emmy , Grammy , Oscar , and Tony ). Musical composition Musical composition can refer to an original piece or work of music , either vocal or instrumental ,

3978-406: The lyricist's unreliability and declining health from alcoholism . Rodgers began working with Oscar Hammerstein II , with whom he had previously written songs (before ever working with Lorenz Hart). Their first musical, the groundbreaking hit Oklahoma! (1943), is a notable example of a " book musical ", a musical play in which the songs and dances are fully integrated into the plot. What was once

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4056-524: The lyrics and a third person orchestrates the songs. A piece of music can also be composed with words, images or, since the 20th century, with computer programs that explain or notate how the singer or musician should create musical sounds. Examples range from 20th century avant-garde music that uses graphic notation , to text compositions such as Karlheinz Stockhausen 's Aus den sieben Tagen , to computer programs that select sounds for musical pieces. Music that makes heavy use of randomness and chance

4134-511: The main title theme for the 1963–64 historical anthology television series The Great Adventure . In 1950, Rodgers and Hammerstein received The Hundred Year Association of New York 's Gold Medal Award "in recognition of outstanding contributions to the City of New York." Rodgers, Hammerstein, and Joshua Logan won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama for South Pacific . Rodgers and Hammerstein had won

4212-493: The most notable are Jumbo (1935), On Your Toes (1936, which included the ballet " Slaughter on Tenth Avenue ", choreographed by George Balanchine), Babes in Arms (1937), I Married an Angel (1938), The Boys from Syracuse (1938), Pal Joey (1940), and their last original work, By Jupiter (1942). Rodgers also contributed to the book on several of these shows. Many of the songs from these shows are still sung and remembered, including " The Most Beautiful Girl in

4290-487: The music." Manhattan (song) In 1925, Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart had been song-writing partners for six years but only sold one song to be put in a Broadway show, "Any Old Place with You", that was bought by former vaudeville performer, now a producer, Lew Fields . On August 26, 1919, he inserted it into his current musical, A Lonely Romeo , at the Casino Theater. (Inserting new songs into running musicals

4368-504: The music." In India The Copy Right Act, 1957 prevailed for original literary, dramatic, musical and artistic work until the Copyright (Amendment) Act, 1984 was introduced. Under the amended act, a new definition has been provided for musical work which states "musical works means a work consisting of music and included any graphical notation of such work but does not included any words or any action intended to be sung, spoken or performed with

4446-471: The ninth president of the Dramatists Guild of America . In November that year he and Hart mounted a revival of A Connecticut Yankee ; Hart died from alcoholism and pneumonia just days after its opening. Rodgers and Hammerstein went on to create four more hits that are among the most popular in musical history. Each was made into a successful film: Carousel (1945), South Pacific (1949, winner of

4524-402: The noisy, grating pushcarts on Mott Street are "gently gliding by". A particular Hart delight is the use of New York dialect to rhyme "spoil" with "boy and goil". In the first stanza, the couple is obviously too poor to afford a honeymoon to the popular summertime destinations of " Niag'ra " or " other places ", so they claim to be happy to "save our fares". In the second stanza, they go for

4602-406: The non-lyrical elements. Many jurisdictions allow for compulsory licensing of certain uses of compositions. For example, copyright law may allow a record company to pay a modest fee to a copyright collective to which the composer or publisher belongs, in exchange for the right to make and distribute CDs containing a cover band 's performance of the composer or publisher's compositions. The license

4680-541: The piano at the age of six. He attended P.S. 166, Townsend Harris Hall and DeWitt Clinton High School . Rodgers spent his early teenage summers in Camp Wigwam ( Waterford, Maine ) where he composed some of his first songs. Rodgers, Lorenz Hart , and later collaborator Oscar Hammerstein II all attended Columbia University . At Columbia, Rodgers joined the Pi Lambda Phi fraternity. In 1921, Rodgers shifted his studies to

4758-414: The playing or singing style or phrasing of the melodies. Composers and songwriters who present their own music in a concert are interpreting their songs, just as much as those who perform the music of others. The standard body of choices and techniques present at a given time and a given place is referred to as performance practice , whereas interpretation is generally used to mean the individual choices of

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4836-428: The rights applicable to sound recordings and the rights applicable to compositions. For example, Beethoven 's 9th Symphony is in the public domain , but in most of the world, recordings of particular performances of that composition usually are not. For copyright purposes, song lyrics and other performed words are considered part of the composition, even though they may have different authors and copyright owners than

4914-408: The same ways to obtain a license (permission) from the owner. In some jurisdictions, the composer can assign copyright , in part, to another party. Often, composers who are not doing business as publishing companies themselves will temporarily assign their copyright interests to formal publishing companies, granting those companies a license to control both the publication and the further licensing of

4992-455: The song "Any Old Place With You", featured in the 1919 Broadway musical comedy A Lonely Romeo . Their first professional production was the 1920 Poor Little Ritz Girl , which also had music by Sigmund Romberg . Their next professional show, The Melody Man , did not premiere until 1924. When he was just out of college Rodgers worked as musical director for Lew Fields . Among the stars he accompanied were Nora Bayes and Fred Allen . Rodgers

5070-502: The tuba playing with the piccolo. This would clearly drown the piccolo out. Each instrument chosen to be in a piece must have a reason for being there that adds to what the composer is trying to convey within the work. Arranging is composition which employs prior material so as to comment upon it such as in mash-ups and various contemporary classical works. Even when music is notated relatively precisely, as in Western classical music from

5148-462: The usage of a particular scale. Others are composed during performance (see improvisation ), where a variety of techniques are also sometimes used. Some are used from particular songs which are familiar. The scale for the notes used, including the mode and tonic note, is important in tonal musical composition. Similarly, music of the Middle East employs compositions that are rigidly based on

5226-402: The weight that written or printed scores play in classical music . Although a musical composition often uses musical notation and has a single author, this is not always the case. A work of music can have multiple composers, which often occurs in popular music when all members of a band collaborate to write a song or in musical theatre, when one person writes the melodies, a second person writes

5304-440: Was a common practice at that period.) Since then, they had not sold another. They continued writing but were only able to donate songs to a long list of amateur or benefit shows. Rodgers was so discouraged he briefly considered going into a business when they got an offer from the prestigious Theater Guild to contribute all the songs for a two–performance benefit musical review on Sunday, May 17, 1925. Called Garrick Gaieties , it

5382-685: Was a protégé of Hammerstein, Martin Charnin ( Two by Two, I Remember Mama ) and Sheldon Harnick ( Rex ), he never found another permanent partner. These partnerships proved to be unsuccessful as a result of issues of collaboration. Sondheim's reluctance to participate in Do I Hear a Waltz? led to tension between the two. In addition, Charnin and Rodgers were met with opposing ideas when creating Two by Two . Nevertheless, his overall successful lifetime career did not go unrecognized. At its 1978 commencement ceremonies, Barnard College awarded Rodgers its highest honor,

5460-463: Was at one time hospitalized. Rodgers was portrayed by Tom Drake in the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer film Words and Music , a semi-fictionalized depiction of the partnership of Rodgers and Hart. Rodgers died in 1979, aged 77, after surviving cancer of the jaw, a heart attack, and a laryngectomy . He was cremated, and his ashes were scattered at sea. In 1990, the 46th Street Theatre was renamed

5538-546: Was awarded a Pulitzer Prize , making him the first ever to receive all five awards (later joined by Marvin Hamlisch ). In 1978, Rodgers was in the inaugural group of Kennedy Center Honorees for lifetime achievement in the arts. Rodgers was born into a Jewish family in Queens, New York, the son of Mamie (Levy) and Dr. William Abrahams Rodgers, a prominent physician who had changed the family name from Rogazinsky. Rodgers began playing

5616-571: Was considering quitting show business altogether to sell children's underwear, when he and Hart finally broke through in 1925. They wrote the songs for a benefit show presented by the prestigious Theatre Guild , called The Garrick Gaieties , and the critics found the show fresh and delightful. Although it was meant to run only one day, the Guild knew they had a success and allowed it to re-open later. The show's biggest hit—the song that Rodgers believed "made" Rodgers and Hart—was " Manhattan ". The two were now

5694-580: Was first heard on film in the 1929 short Makers Of Melody , a tribute to Rodgers and Hart sung by Ruth Tester and Allan Gould. Since then, it has been used in the Rodgers and Hart biopic Words And Music (1948), Two Tickets To Broadway (1951), Don't Bother To Knock (1952) (sung by Anne Bancroft), Beau James (1957), Silent Movie (1976), Tempest (1982), Mighty Aphrodite (1995), The English Patient (1996), Kissing Jessica Stein (2001) and many other movies and TV shows, most recently in

5772-628: Was later taken from the Victory at Sea theme entitled "Beneath the Southern Cross". Rodgers won an Emmy for the music for the ABC documentary Winston Churchill: The Valiant Years , scored by Eddie Sauter , Hershy Kay , and Robert Emmett Dolan . Rodgers composed the theme music, " March of the Clowns ", for the 1963–64 television series The Greatest Show on Earth , which ran for 30 episodes. He also contributed

5850-425: Was only one more scheduled performance. They convinced the Guild to present matinees during the next week, before the evening performances of the Guild's current production. When these performances were all standing–room only, Rodgers convinced the Guild to close its current production and replace it with Garrick Gaieties. It ran for 211 performances with both getting $ 50 a week in royalties and Rodgers an additional $ 83

5928-422: Was orchestrated by Robert Russell Bennett . Rodgers composed twelve themes, which Bennett used in preparing the orchestra score for the 26-episode World War II television documentary Victory at Sea (1952–53). This NBC production pioneered the "compilation documentary"—programming based on pre-existing footage—and was eventually broadcast in dozens of countries. The melody of the popular song " No Other Love "

6006-498: Was the composer of Once Upon a Mattress and an author of children's books. The Rodgers later lost a daughter at birth. Another daughter, Linda (1935–2015), also had a brief career as a songwriter . Mary's son and Richard Rodgers's grandson, Adam Guettel (b. 1964), also a musical theater composer, won Tony Awards for Best Score and Best Orchestrations for The Light in the Piazza in 2005. Peter Melnick (b. 1958), Linda Rodgers's son,

6084-523: Was to raise money for curtains for the Theater Guild's new theater. Given the Theater Guild’s reputation, they accepted. Rodgers also conducted the eleven member orchestra. Halfway through the matinee's second act, Holloway and Cochran performed the song in front of a plain curtain. It stopped the show. They sang two encores, using all the lyrics they had. Rodgers and Hart knew they had a hit, but there

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