Kevin J.

Sievert
13 October 2016
Dr. Stanislava Varshavski
Music of the 20th and 21st Centuries
Essay #1
Berlin, Porter and Gershwin: Masters of Popular Music and Musical Theatre
If you would ask any layman right off the street if they could tell you
who Stephen Schwartz, Stephen Sondheim, or Alan Menken is it would be
likely that you would be met with blank stares and confusion. Ask the same
person if they have heard of Ariana Grande, Beyonc or Bruno Mars and you
would definitely get a response and a litany of opinions about any artist.
Here in our 21st century lives, the worlds of musical theatre and popular
music have very rarely collided. In recent years, lines have begun to blur
with Lin-Manuel Mirandas heavy hip-hop influenced score to the mega
Broadway hit Hamilton, Sarah Bareilles signature singer-songwriter pop style
that pens the music and lyrics for Broadways Waitress, and even infusing
music directly from the 1980s in the jukebox musicals like Rock of Ages and
Footloose. The communities have made efforts to include each other into
their cultures, but efforts pale in comparison to theatres early American
roots. In the early 1920s, Popular music and musical theatre where
intimately linked to each other in the early 1920s, and at the time many
shows could attribute its attractiveness to the success of the music and
composers attached to the show. Composers Irving Berlin, Cole Porter and
George Gershwin understood how to write popular music, and their music

has continued to stand the test of time of not only popular music, but also
classic Broadway standards. These three composers are truly the masters of
popular music and musical theatre, and it is easy to see when one examines
the development of early musical theatre, Berlins, Porters and Gershwins
origins and musical styles and each composers involvement in the Tin Pan
Alley at its role in the development of Hollywood and Broadway Musicals
throughout the subsequent years.
Music and theatre have been entertaining the masses for hundreds of
years, so by the 20th century the notion of music and theatre together as one
entity was certainly nothing new. Predated by Opera from all over the world,
the Melting Pot was very aware of that culture. However, during this time,
and more specifically the early 1900s, America began developing its own
culture of theatre and its practices, and the building blocks for musical
theatre as we know it today were laid.
One of the earlier organized versions of musical theatre and the first
modern big business entertainment was known as Vaudeville. Vaudeville
shows were an incredibly popular form of entertainment from after the Civil
War until its decline in the early 1930s. Vaudevillian entertainment
developed out of many different sources of entertainment from the time
including minstrel shows (a form of entertainment that hinges on spirituals
and black plantation culture, usually performed by whites), circuses,
medicine shows and burlesque theatre. The joy of Vaudeville shows was that
no two shows were ever alike; each evenings bill was comprised of at least a

dozen separate and unrelated acts that would often include classical and
popular musicians, dancers, comedians, trained animals, magicians,
minstrels and many more. It was even a vehicle for black performers to
present their talents, a direct opposite of the earlier minstrel shows.
Separate but related are shows known as Revues. They rose to
popularity around the turn of the 20th century, and capitalized on the same
variety aspects of early Vaudeville. The difference between the two was
merely the focus of the acts as well as the scale, and for that reason larger
cities such as New York City was the main hub for the development of these
shows. Primarily focusing on musical numbers, revues became grand
collections of various popular tunes, crowd drawing entertainment
celebrities, and beautiful girls. One of the more popular revues of the time
was known as the Ziegfeld Follies, produced by Florenz Ziegfeld. His shows
were the main attraction of every theatre season, changing and developing
its talents every year for more performance opportunities.
Even in the midst of these two art forms, the modern musical was
beginning to take root. While operettas were still being performed to some
popularity, their existence were beginning to be overshadowed by these
large collaborative shows. The combined efforts of the music, lyric and book
writers, choreographers, dancers, costumes and sets allowed these loosely
plotted musicals become more and more appealing to the masses. Even still,
there was a call for tighter more plot centric pieces and what we know today

as the modern musical is a result of that necessity for tighter more dramatic
plots.
Rightfully nicknamed King of Tin Pan Alley, Irving Berlin was born
under the name of Israel Baline on May 11th, 1888 in a small Russian village
of Tyumen. In order for his family to escape religious persecution of the
Jewish community in Russia, they immigrated to New York City sometime in
the middle of the 1890s and settled in Manhattans Lower East Side. Times
were tough for his family, and Berlins need to work to make a decent living
eventually overpowered the necessity of schooling. His father was a Jewish
cantor, and Berlin made a small living singing in synagogue and on street
corners in the city. Berlin even became a singing waiter in his younger years.
It was during these times that he began trying out songwriting, and by 1907
he has published Marie from Sunny Italy under the name Irving Berlin.
Berlin continued to work and familiarize himself with the ever-growing
music business, which was only just beginning to gain its foundation. Berlin
was working various different jobs in the same neighborhood that would
eventually become known as Tin Pan Alley, and his hard work and dedication
to his jobs would help him secure a position as a lyricist for Waterson &
Snyder, an up-and-coming music publishing firm. Even with all of his success,
Berlin really struck gold when he composed the early hit Alexanders
Ragtime Band, and this hit skyrocketed him to song-writing stardom. Berlin
was even commissioned to write music for the Ziegfeld Follies, one of the
most popular musical revues of the time, where he wrote A Pretty Girl is Like

a MelodySo, a number that is known for its production value still to this day.
Berlin capitalized on his early successes, and by the early 1920s he became
one of the most successful songwriters in the country and eventually opened
the Music Box Theater with Joseph N. Schenk and Sam Harris in 1921 where
Berlin staged his own musical revues and musical comedies. Though his
momentum was slightly interrupted and the bulk of his newfound fortune lost
in the Great Depression around 1929, it did not take long for Berlin to begin
more commissioned shows for the Music Box starting with the musical revue
Face the Music (1932).
Berlins music dominated the Great White Way in both revues and
modern musical theatre (notably Call Me Madam), and it did not take long for
his music to dance across the Silver Screen. When he finally took his talents
to Hollywood, Berlin scored some of the most classic Hollywood Movie
Musicals of all time including Top Hat (1935) and Holiday Inn (1942) that
stared one of everyones favorite crooners Bing Crosby. The movie, released
during World War II, was a tremendous success as well one of its songs
White Christmas, which rose to the top of the charts and is, in every sense
of the word, a standard in Christmas music even today.
Berlins music even followed the solider on to the battlefield and pro
Smoted hope, honor and pride in the American dream on the home front.
Having fought in World War I himself, Berlin wrote Patriotic songs for a show
Yip, Yip Yaphank (1918), and many others. It was also during this time that

he wrote God Bless America, though it was never sung publicly until 1938
when singer Kate Smith san it for an Armistice Day Celebration in 1938.
Berlins songs permeated throughout the country on stage, screen and
on the battlefield and he did it all with no formal piano training. Yes, Berlin
did not have any formal piano lessons and actually did not know how to read
sheet music. Being self-taught, Berlin developed a unique style of composing
only on black keys, and most of his early music was all written in F-sharp.
Using a transposing Keyboard, Berlin was able to compose his music in
different keys for different performers. Even still, there was a method to his
madness. Berlin described his own songwriting process. He would begin with
an idea;
"either a title or a phrase or a melody, and hum it out to
something definite.... I am working on songs all of the time, at
home and outside and in the office. I gather ideas, and then I
usually work them out between eight o'clock at night and five in
the morning."
In the next stage of writing, he would develop his ideas further with
some collaboration, however Berlin was one of only a few composers known
for writing both music and lyrics. A fully fleshed out Berlin piece would follow
a very standard formula, as did most early Tin Pan Alley songs. This would
include a brief piano introduction, a two or four bar vamp leading into the
verse, two or more verses sixteen or thirty-two bars long and a chorus with
first and second endings. However formulaic, Berlin was able to fully define
the standard for Tin Pan Alley hits and Broadway standards. His ability to

create memorable and lovable tunes has made his music stand the test of
time.
Cole Porter is another writer who not only knew how to write a catchy
hit that stands the test of time, but they could also simultaneously double as
Broadway standards. Porter was born in Peru, Indiana on June 9th, 1891 to a
rather well off family (his grandfather was James Omar Cole, a founder of a
dry goods business started out of the California Gold Rush). His childhood
was very comfortable which allowed him to study the violin as well as piano.
Porter preferred the piano to his violin, and was even able to publish a song
he wrote at age eleven with the help of his mother. Porters music education
continued into his secondary schooling. He earned his undergraduate degree
at Yale University where he composed the schools fight song as well as
many other pieces for student productions. Interestingly enough, Porter was
shipped off to Harvard Law School for a few years on the advice of his
grandfather who did not agree at all with his passion for music making.
Despite this, he decided to leave and continue his music education at Schola
Cantorum de Paris (a private music college founded in 1894), and all the
while his grandfather still believed he was in law school!
Europe was the epicenter of Porters cultural and musical beginnings.
In 1917, Porter made a larger move to Paris where he was actively
participating in Parisian life and climbing the social ladders. It was here
where he met his wife Linda Lee Thomas who was a widowed socialite. He
continued to travel and write music, though it was an act of leisure than it

was of necessity since he was able to live off of his wife fortune and the
financial support of his family.
Porter, like Berlin, was known to write his own music and lyrics. Porters
lyrics were known for being very sophisticated and suave but moreover they
were known and loved for their double- entendre, innuendo, sensuality and
humor. A great example of this was his first big hit Lets Do It (Lets Fall in
Love) from the musical Paris premiering on Broadway in 1928. The song was
a tremendous success which began a career in writing music exclusively for
Broadway and Hollywood musicals in this personal signature style. His
musical works are still done and revived today that include Anything Goes
(1934) and Kiss Me Kate (1948) and include such songs as Youre the Top,
Anything Goes, and Begin the Beguine, and even went on to become a frequent
collaborator with star of stage and screen Fred Astaire. Though he wrote his music

exclusively for movies and musicals, his songs have become popular music
standards as well due to the familiar Tin Pan Alley song structure and driving
the focus to the lighthearted catchy refrains.
Finally, George Gershwin was another heavy-hitter during this time
when we think of popular songs and musical theatre. Born Jacob Gersvin to
Russia-Jewish immigrants on September 26, 1898, Gershwin was a proud
New Yorker. Though his family was not even slightly musically inclined, he
had an interest in music at a very early age by being exposed to both
popular and classical music of his time through his schooling. Gershwin
surprised his family when he flawlessly played a popular song that he taught

himself on their piano (that they incidentally purchased for his older brother
and later songwriting partner Ira Gershwin), and immediately put him into
lessons where he studied with Charles Hambitzer.
At the age of 15, Gershwin dropped out of school, and immediately
started making a name for himself in the music industry at the time. He
worked by making piano rolls for player pianos and playing New York
nightclubs. He was may have even been one of the youngest people working
in Tin Pan Alley as a song plugger and demonstrating music published by the
Jerome Remick music company. Though he was not a huge fan of where he
was in his industrys development (he was a plugger for three years) he was
beginning to become known as one of New Yorks most talented pianists, and
he was commissioned as an accompanist for popular singers and a rehearsal
accompanist for Broadway shows, and he had not even reached his 20th
birthday yet.
Gershwin, like Berlin, got his start in musical theatre composing by
writing music for revues, and then settling in the more integrated forms of
musical theatre by the late 20s, and took his brother Ira on as his lyricist for
most of his career. His contributions to the formation of early musicals know
no bounds, writing music for the musicals Strike Up the Band (1927), Of Thee
I Sing (1931) and Girl Crazy (1930) where famed Broadway performer
popularized his song I Got Rhythm, a song of course written in popular
song form but has heavy ragtime features in sections of its refrain. In 1935,
the Gershwin brothers penned the now revered Porgy and Bess, an

American Folk Opera that centered around a poor black community of the
rural south, and one of very few shows that featured an all-black cast.
Though the score features songs such as I Got Plenty O Nuttin and
Summertime among other vocal standards, the original premiere was not
well received by Blacks in its following years, as they did not believed it
reflected legitimate African musical forms. Even still, Porgy and Besss score
is considered by many as one of Gershwins masterpieces.
Gershwin, though another driving force in the popular song and
musical theatre industry of the early 1920s just like Berlin and Porter, there
is one thing that differs Gershwin from the other two. Gershwins early piano
study and time in Tin Pan Alley had made him a student of not only popular
song traditions, but also jazz and classical traditions. Hoping to elevate the
current low brow opinions of Jazz music, Gershwin paired his know-how of the
classical traditions and jazz technique to compose what is one of his most
performed pieces Rhapsody in Blue. The piece featured onomatopoeic
instrumental effects, as well as jazz harmonies and syncopated rhythms. The
song, though written by him, is the only song he did not orchestrate, passing
that job on to arranger Ferde Grofe. His second most- famous orchestral
piece, American in Paris (1928) was based more in blues tradition, but
instruments still exhibited elements of jazz. Even still the main repeated
melody of the piece was never altered in performance like most jazz songs
tend to be. Feeling more like a ballet than a purely symphonic piece, the
piece gained its lasting popularity after being featured in the 1951 movie

musical An American in Paris and was danced by Gene Kelly in the final
sequence of the movie and this movie was the basis for the new Broadway
production of the same name making its premiere in 2015 and features other
hits written by the Gershwin brothers as the basis for its musical selections.
Music, be it popular song or musical theatre and everything in
between, will always be a common thread that connects people of different
worlds together. As a 21st century culture, the cross over between the two
can sometimes be limited, the theatre community is making moves toward
blurring the lines between what we consider to be a Broadway/pop standard.
There are efforts by both genres to bring us back to the time of Berlin, Porter and
Gershwin, who were all in their own way the Kings of Crossover Hits. We owe it to
the early developments of theatre, Berlin, Porter and Gershwins beginnings and
influence and the accessibility of Tin Pan Alley for proving to those writing today
that it is possible for popular music to tell us a story, and that a story-driven song
can entertain and serve a mass purpose.

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