Beyond possessing a most ingratiating lyric invention and a consummate command of orchestration, Anderson boasts an irresistible sense of humor and a fine flair for burlesque. He is probably at his best in programmatic pieces in which extra-musical sounds are neatly adapted to and often serve as a background for his sprightly tunes—ranging from the clicking of a typewriter to the meowing of a cat.
Blue Tango is the first strictly instrumental composition ever to achieve first place on the Hit Parade. For almost a year it was the leading favorite on juke boxes, and its sale of over two million records represents Anderson’s healthiest commercial success. Scored for violins, this music neatly combines an insistent tango rhythm with a sensual melody in a purple mood. Bugler’s Holiday is a musical frolic for three trumpets. A Christmas Festival provides a colorful orchestral setting to some of the best loved Christmas hymns, including “Joy to the World,” “Deck the Halls,” “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen,” “Silent Night,” “Jingle Bells,” and “Come All Ye Faithful.”
Fiddle-Faddle is a merry burlesque-escapade for the violins, inspired from a hearing of Paganini’s Perpetual Motion; this, then, is a modern style “Perpetual Motion.” In Horse and Buggy, the music nostalgically evokes a bygone day with a sprightly, wholesome tune presented against the rhythms of a jogging horse. The Irish Suite was commissioned by the Eire Society of Boston, and is a six-movement adaptation of six of Thomas Moore’s Irish Melodies. They are: “The Irish Washerwoman,” “The Minstrel Boy,” “The Rakes of Mallow,” “The Wearing of the Green,” “The Last Rose of Summer,” and “The Girl I Left Behind Me.” Jazz Legato and Jazz Pizzicato are studies in contrasting moods and dynamics. The Jazz Pizzicato consists of a jazz melody presented entirely by plucked strings; its companion piece is a broader jazz melody for bowed strings. Plink, Plank, Plunk also makes effective use of pizzicato strings, this time attempting to simulate the sounds suggested by the descriptive title. Saraband brings about the marriage between the very old and very new in musical styles. The old classical dance in slow triple time and accented second beat is exploited with a quickening of tempo and with modern rhythmic and melodic embellishments.
In Sleigh Bells, jangling sleighbells and the sound of a cracking whip, provide a delightful background to a jaunty tune that has the bite and sting of outdoor winterland. This piece has become something of a perennial favorite of the Christmas season. In The Syncopated Clock, the rhythm of a clicking grandfather’s clock, presented by percussion instruments in a modern rhythm, is placed against a bouncy, syncopated melody. This number has become popular as theme music for the CBS-TV “Early Show.” The Trumpeter’s Lullaby is a sensitive melody with the soothing accompaniment of a lullaby.
The Typewriter permits members of the percussion section to imitate the incisive, rigid rhythm of a functioning typewriter, punctuated by the regular tinkle of the bell to provide the warning signal that the carriage has come to the end of a line. Against this rhythm moves a vivacious message in strings. The Typewriter was played in the motion picture But Not for Me, starring Clark Gable, released in 1959. In The Waltzing Cat, an imaginary cat dances gracefully to a waltz melody made up mainly of meows.
Daniel François Auber
Daniel François Esprit Auber, genius of opéra-comique, was born in Caen, Normandy, France, on January 29, 1782. In his youth he lived in London, where he studied both the business of art, in which he hoped to engage, and music. There he wrote several songs which were heard at public entertainments. After returning to France and settling in Paris in 1804, he gave himself up completely to music. Two minor stage works with music were privately performed between 1806 and 1811 before his first opera received its première performance: Le Séjour militaire in 1813. His first success came seven years after that with La Bergère châtelaine. From then on he was a prolific writer of both light and grand operas, many to texts by Eugène Scribe. La Muette de Portici in 1828 was a triumph, and was followed by such other major successes Fra Diavolo (1830), Le Cheval de bronze (1835), Le Domino noir (1837) and Les Diamants de la couronne (1841). His last opera, Rêves d’amour, was completed when he was eighty-seven. Auber was one of France’s most highly honored musicians. From 1842 until his death he was director of the Paris Conservatory, and in 1857 he was made by Napoleon III Imperial Maître de Chapelle. Auber died in Paris on May 12, 1871.
With Adam and Boieldieu, Auber was one of the founding fathers of the opéra-comique. He was superior to his two colleagues in the lightness of his touch, surpassing wit, and grace of lyricism. But Auber’s charm and gaiety were not bought at the expense of deeper emotional and dramatic values; for all their lightness of heart, his best comic operas are filled with pages that have the scope and dimension of grand opera. As Rossini once said of him, Auber may have produced light music, but he produced it like a true master.
Overtures to several of his most famous operas are standards in the light-classical repertory.
The Black Domino (Le Domino noir), text by Eugène Scribe, was introduced in Paris on December 2, 1837. The central character is Lady Angela, an abbess, who attends a masked ball where she meets and falls in love with Horatio, a young nobleman. Numerous escapades and adventures follow before Angela meets up again with her young man. Now released from her religious vows by the Queen, Angela is free to marry him.