Conversations at the Piano

It sure is interesting that time is such a concern to everyone these days. One of my father’s favorite pastimes was to sit out in the sun. Contrary to what many of you might think was relaxing e.g. laying on a beach in Cancun, my dad enjoyed people so much that he would sit out in the sun in front of the local post office. He would often comment to me about how many people stopped and from their cars would ask him if he knew what time it was. He found this fascinating and would usually ask me if anyone wears a watch anymore. I told him that this was no longer necessary, because cell phones have clocks, cars have clocks and a variety of other electronic devices maintain digital timekeepers. As a result, neither one of us could really figure out why people would ask him what time it was. I suppose that this is today’s climate. Most of us are in a hurry and yet we don’t seem to be able to control our time. When it came to looking at today’s song, I Didn’t Know What Time It Was, I was reminded of how things were a couple of generations ago.

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In the years that I studied composition with the compositional masters Lukas Foss, Tom McKinley, Marjorie Merryman and Charles Fussell, I probably composed more types of instrumental music than I even thought were possible. Beginning with my long-awaited dream of composing a trio for flute cello and piano (something I begun back in 1971), my classical compositional career extended for about 16 years (1989-2005).

After a couple of years of studies, the one thing that had been missing was the technique of putting words to music. This had always been a challenge for me. Fortunately, Charles Fussell was a master at this. In our lessons we talked about the mastery of American composer Virgil Thomson. Charles even recommended Thomson’s book Music With Words. In his humility he never told me that he had been practically the co-author.

If I had to boil the book’s (and Charles’) lessons down to one concept, it would be this: speak the words and set them to the music in the same way that you would imagine them sounding. Since that time, I’ve had the experience of noticing how incorrectly words are set to music in a variety of styles. Nevertheless, when it comes to how composer Richard Rodgers put music to the words of Lorenz Hart, There is no one better.

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The longer I write these blog posts more I learn. There are so many musical treasures around that it’s practically impossible to know every song. Even after playing the piano professionally for more than 30 years I have only scratched the surface of the number of songs that actually exist. Even if we eliminate rap, rock ‘n roll, folk music and original songs, the American Popular Songbook boasts of so many wonderful standards. Such is the case with today’s selection, There’s a Small Hotel. This song composed in 1936 by Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart was initially dropped from the musical Billy Rose’s Jumbo and then used in another show called On Your Toes. About 20 years later this treasure appeared again in the 1957 film version of Pal Joey featuring the vocal talents of Frank Sinatra.

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Boy was I disappointed…. I knew that Blue Moon was sung in the early 1960s by the doo-wop group called The Marcels. This classic rock ‘n roll hit version of Rodgers and Hart’s American Popular Songbook standard echoes in the ears of all of us baby boomers. Despite this, I figured that since the song is so well-known, so seamlessly structured and so beautifully crafted by one of the 20^th century’s best songwriting teams, I thought that there would be many jazz interpretations to be found in the Rhapsody Music Service catalog. Was I wrong!

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