Richard Rodgers

For other uses of "Richard Rodgers", see Richard Rodgers (disambiguation).

Richard Charles Rodgers (June 28, 1902 – December 30, 1979) was one of the great composers of musical theater, best known for his song writing partnerships with Lorenz Hart and Oscar Hammerstein II. He wrote more than 900 published songs, and forty Broadway musicals. Many of his compositions continue to have a broad appeal and have had a significant impact on the development of popular music.

Career

Born in New York City to a prosperous Jewish family, Rodgers attended the same public school as Bennett Cerf. While studying at Columbia University, he met his writing partner, Lorenz Hart. After dabbling in amateur composition for the Varsity Show, a student-run production, Rodgers left Columbia University to seriously pursue music at the Institute of Musical Art, known today as Juilliard. Faced with great pressure, Rodgers considered quitting “the biz” to sell children’s underwear. However, following the success of The Garrick Gaieties Rodgers and Hart became a Broadway songwriting force.

During the 1920s and 1930s, they produced numerous successful musical comedies, including Babes In Arms, Pal Joey and The Boys From Syracuse. Their partnership foundered over Hart's alcohol problems, finally coming to an end with the latter's death in 1943.

Anticipating the end of a partnership, Rodgers began working with Oscar Hammerstein II. Their first musical, Oklahoma! (1943), was ground-breaking, and marked the beginning of the most successful partnership in musical theatre history. The new duo pumped out ten musicals: Allegro, Me And Juliet, Pipe Dream, Flower Drum Song and long-lasting hits such as Oklahoma!, Carousel, South Pacific, The King And I and The Sound of Music. (State Fair was their only production written directly for the screen, and they also collaborated on a television musical, Cinderella.) Rodgers changed the musical theatre scene by seamlessly weaving music, words and dance. His work with George Balachine, Agnes DeMille and Jerome Robbins popularized the unique advent of a “dream ballet” in Oklahoma! and Carousel. The Rodgers & Hammerstein musicals earned a total of 34 Tony Awards, 15 Academy Awards, two Pulitzer Prizes, two Grammy Awards and two Emmy Awards.

Rodgers worked without a lyricist to provide music for the groundbreaking World War II television documentary "Victory at Sea" (1952-53). This NBC production (26 half-hour episodes) pioneered the "compilation documentary"--programming based on pre-existing footage--and would be eventually syndicated for broadcast in dozens of countries worldwide. Just as with his musicals, Rodgers was credited as composer; his contribution, however, was limited to a dozen short piano compositions, which he characterized as "themes." Robert Russell Bennett, who orchestrated many of Rodgers's Broadway shows as well as the "Oklahoma!" film, transformed Rodgers's VAS themes to fit a variety of onscreen moods, and actually contributed more composed music than did Rodgers, while orchestrating the whole score and conducting the NBC Symphony for the recording sessions.

After Hammerstein's death in 1960, Rodgers continued to write for the stage and screen. Other collaborators included Stephen Sondheim, Sheldon Harnick and Martin Charnin.

A survivor of cancer of the jaw, a heart attack and a laryngectomy, Richard Rodgers died aged 77 in 1979. In 1990 he was honored posthumously when the 46th Street Theatre was renamed The Richard Rodgers Theatre. In 2002, his centennial was celebrated worldwide.

His family

Rodgers' daughter, Mary, is the composer of Once Upon A Mattress and an author of children's books. Rodgers' grandson, Adam Guettel, also a musical theatre composer, recently won the 2005 Tony Award for Best Score and Best Orchestrations for The Light in the Piazza. Peter Melnick, another grandson and composer, is currently receiving his world premiere production of Adrift In Macao, debuting at the Philadelphia Theatre Company. Bobby Lee Rodgers of The Codetalkers, who is a prolific songwriter and master musician and accomplished singer with well over 100 songs in his repertoire, is reported to be Richard Rodgers' direct descendent (Bobby Lee's great aunt claimed direct descent from Richard but this is currently being verified.) http://thecodetalkers.com

Major works

The Garrick Gaieties (1925–26) (lyrics by Hart)
Dearest Enemy (1925) (lyrics by Hart)
A Connecticut Yankee (1927) (lyrics by Hart)
On Your Toes (1936) (lyrics by Hart)
Babes in Arms (1937) (lyrics by Hart)
I'd Rather Be Right (1937) (lyrics by Hart)
I Married an Angel (1938) (lyrics by Hart)
The Boys from Syracuse (1938) (lyrics by Hart)
Too Many Girls (1939) (lyrics by Hart)
Higher and Higher (1940) (lyrics by Hart)
Pal Joey (1940–41) (lyrics by Hart)
By Jupiter (1942) (lyrics by Hart)
Oklahoma! (1943) (lyrics by Hammerstein)
Carousel (1945) (lyrics by Hammerstein)
Allegro (1947) (lyrics by Hammerstein)
South Pacific (1949) (lyrics by Hammerstein)
The King and I (1951) (lyrics by Hammerstein)
Me and Juliet (1953) (lyrics by Hammerstein)
Pipe Dream (1955) (lyrics by Hammerstein)
Cinderella (1957) (lyrics by Hammerstein)
Flower Drum Song (1958) (lyrics by Hammerstein)
The Sound of Music (1959) (lyrics by Hammerstein)
No Strings (1962) (lyrics by Rodgers)
Do I Hear a Waltz? (1965) (lyrics by Stephen Sondheim)
Two By Two (1970) (lyrics by Martin Charnin)
Rex (1976) (lyrics by Sheldon Harnick)
I Remember Mama (1979) (lyrics by Martin Charnin)

Wider influence

In 1960, the waltz "My Favorite Things" from The Sound of Music was adopted and transformed into a seminal jazz performance by the saxophonist John Coltrane (Coltrane would frequently play the tune until his death).
"Blue Moon", a song written with lyricist Lorenz Hart, has become a pop standard.
"You'll Never Walk Alone", originally from Carousel, is the anthem of Liverpool F.C. and has become almost synonymous with that football club.
"Oh What a Beautiful Mornin'" from the musical Oklahoma! is sometimes mistaken for an authentic folk song.
Equally, "Edelweiss", the "Ländler" (Rodgers' version of a traditional Austrian dance-tune) and "Do-Re-Mi", from The Sound of Music frequently go unrecognized as Rodgers' work.''

External links

References