No Song is Safe From Us

No Song Is Safe From Us - The NYFOS Blog
 |  Joseph Thalken

Most of you have certainly heard of Duke Ellington, but how many of you are familiar with the work of the lyricist Marshall Barer (1923-1998)? He had his greatest Broadway success as the lyricist for the musical Once Upon a Mattress, written with composer Mary Rodgers, whose songs are part of this week’s NYFOS “Rodgers, Rodgers, & Guettel” concerts. Barer is often referred to as the greatest lyricist you have never heard of.




 |  Joseph Thalken

By the 1950s, the influence of Rodgers and Hammerstein was enormous, and many younger theatre songwriters—peers of Richard Rodgers’ daughter Mary—aspired to the success of R&H, and shared some of their aesthetic principles. As we look at songs written by contemporaries of this week’s NYFOS composers “Rodgers, Rodgers & Guettel,” one can’t ignore the contributions of Richard Adler (1921–2012) and Jerry Ross (1926–1955).




 |  Joseph Thalken

Ah, the pleasures that come from a well-sung note held for a long, looooong time. Rodgers and Hart had a lot of fun with that idea in their song “Johnny One Note,” from their 1937 musical, Babes In Arms. Of course, that wasn’t the first time a composer used that clever device. In continuing to look at songs written by contemporaries of this week’s NYFOS composers “Rodgers, Rodgers & Guettel,” I’ve been thinking of other notable long-noter composers.




 |  Joseph Thalken

There’s no way you could grow up in a Rodgers household without hearing the family music—great songs created by a certain father, daughter and grandson. But in anticipation of this week’s NYFOS “Rodgers, Rodgers & Guettel” concerts, I got to wondering: What other music were they all listening to, and what other songwriters may have had an influence on their work?