Louis Alter

Louis Alter was born in Haverhill, Massachusetts, on June 18, 1902, where he received his academic education in the public schools, and his initial instruction in music. Music study was completed with Stuart Mason at the New England Conservatory. In 1924 Alter came to New York, where for five years he worked as accompanist for Nora Bayes, Irene Bordoni and other stars of the stage; he also did arrangements for a publishing firm in Tin Pan Alley. Between 1925 and 1927 he wrote his first popular songs and contributed a few of them to Broadway productions. Since then he has written many song hits, as well as scores for Broadway musicals and Hollywood films. His best known songs include “A Melody from the Sky” and “Dolores,” both of which were nominated for Academy Awards; also “Twilight on the Trail,” such a favorite of President Franklin D. Roosevelt that the manuscript, together with a recording by Bing Crosby, repose in the Roosevelt Museum in Hyde Park, New York.

Alter has been successful in writing skilful compositions for piano and orchestra in which the popular element is pronounced, encased within a symphonic structure. Some of them are now staples in the symphonic-jazz repertory. His best compositions were inspired by the sights, sounds and moods of New York City.

Jewels from Cartier (1953), as the title indicates, was inspired not by New York but by one of the city’s most famous jewelers when Alter was one day allowed to inspect its collection. In his suite, Alter attempts in eight sections to translate various jewels into tones. The first movement is “Emerald Eyes.” Since many beautiful emeralds come from South America, this section emphasizes the rumba beat and other Latin-American rhythms. “The Ruby and the Rose” is a romantic ballad in which voices supplement the instruments of the orchestra. “Pearl of the Orient” consists of an oriental dance. “Black Pearl of Tahiti” exploits exotic Polynesian rhythms and its languorous-type melodies. “Diamond Earrings” is a swirling waltz while “Star Sapphire” is a beguine. In “Cat’s Eye in the Night,” the music suggests a playful kitten darting about in a room. The finale, “Lady of Jade,” is in the style of Chinese processional music.

Manhattan Masquerade (1932) is the most dramatic of Alter’s New York murals. It consists of a Viennese-type waltz played in fox-trot time, a suggestion on the part of the composer that Vienna and New York are not too far apart spiritually.

Manhattan Moonlight (1932) is, on the other hand, atmospheric. It opens with four chords in a nebulous Debussy vein. The core of the work is an extended melody for strings against piano embellishments. A light and frivolous mood is then invoked before the main melody returns in an opulent scoring.

Manhattan Serenade (1928) is the most famous of all Alter’s instrumental works and the one that first made him known. He published it first as a piano solo, but soon rewrote it for piano and orchestra. Paul Whiteman and his orchestra made it popular in 1929 on records and in public concerts. This work is extremely effective in laying bare the nerves of the metropolis through syncopations, and jazz tone colorations. Its main melody is a plangent song to which, in 1940, Howard Johnson adapted a song lyric. Manhattan Serenade is often heard as background music on radio and television programs about New York.

Side Street in Gotham (1938) attempts to portray the city from river to river. The composition begins with a few notes suggesting “London Bridge Is Falling Down,” which is later elaborated in a vigorous and amusing tempo; the reason this theme is here used is because it is referred to in the lyric of “The Sidewalks of New York.” Some of the mystery of New York’s side streets can also be found in this music.

Leroy Anderson

Leroy Anderson is one of America’s most successful and best known composers of light orchestral classics. He was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on June 29, 1908. His early musical training took place at the New England Conservatory, after which he studied the bass and organ with private teachers. In 1929 he was graduated from Harvard magna cum laude, and one year after that he received there his Master’s degree in music on a Naumberg Fellowship. For the next few years he served as organist and choirmaster in Milton, Massachusetts; as a member of the music faculty at Radcliffe College; and as director of the Harvard University Band. In 1935 he became a free-lance conductor, composer and arranger in Boston and New York. As orchestrator for the Boston Pops Orchestra, for which he made many orchestral arrangements over a period of several years, Anderson completed his first original semi-classical composition, Jazz Pizzicato, successfully introduced by the Boston Pops Orchestra in 1939. Since then the Boston Pops Orchestra has introduced most of Anderson’s compositions, many of which proved exceptionally popular in concerts throughout the country and on records. Anderson has also appeared frequently as guest conductor of important American symphony orchestras and has conducted his own compositions with his orchestra for records. In 1958, his first musical comedy, Goldilocks, was produced on Broadway.