Rudolph Edward Schirmer Jr. was a composer, lyricist, and the former chairman of the Board of G. Schirmer Music Inc., an American classical music publishing company. [1] In World War II, he worked in the U.S. Military Intelligence Service during the war in a unit called the Ritchie Boys, which was a unit that consisted of German-speaking personnel for roles in counterintelligence in Europe, translating key information from German prisoners of war (POW), and related services. [2]
Starting in 1949, Schirmer was a prolific song writer for 20 years. He occasionally used poetry by notable poets or books by notable authors as the lyrics for songs. In 1968, he wrote Hymn to the Americas (Himno a las Americas in Spanish) which was performed by the Washington National Symphony at the Fourth Inter-American Music Festival in 1968.
Rudolph Schirmer was the son of Rudolph Edward Schirmer Sr., the previous publisher and president of G. Schirmer. [3] His grandfather was Gustaf Schirmer, the founder of the G. Schirmer corporation. [4]
Rudolph E. Schirmer Jr. originally attended Princeton University. He later left Princeton during his sophomore year to attend the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, where he studied composition under Rosario Scalero. Although he left Princeton to transfer to another school, he is considered a 1941 alumni by the university. [5]
In 1949, Schirmer had copyrighted the song he had written "Remember thee!" for voice and piano, with words by the English Romantic poet Lord Byron (1788- 1824). [6] The same year, he also wrote the song "Love's Secret" with words by English poet and artist William Blake (1757- 1827) [7] as well as "So we''ll go no more a-roving" with words also by Lord Byron. [8]
In 1955, he did the music arrangement of "A Child's Prayer", which was a song for three-part chorus of women's voices accompanied by piano. The lyrics were from the 1944 book Prayer for a Child by American novelist, poet, and children's fiction writer Rachel Field (1894- 1942), which was a classic bedtime prayer. [9] [10]
Between 1961 and 1963, he wrote the music and lyrics for the following songs:
In 1964, he wrote the novel A Friend in Fantasy: Poems. [11] In 1968, he wrote Hymn to the Americas (Himno a las Americas in Spanish), which was for a four-part chorus of mixed voices with a soprano solo and piano accompaniment. The Spanish text was written Fernando Flores. It was performed by the Washington National Symphony at the Fourth Inter-American Music Festival in 1968. [12] [13]
In 1998, he was reader/performer for the published audiobook The Doors of Perception , which is reading of the 1954 book of English philosopher and writer Aldous Huxley. [14] The work ties into the earlier works of Schirmer based, in that as the song "Love's Secret" (1949) incorporates the words from the poem of the same name by William Blake, so is the title of "The Door of Perception" from Blake's 1793 book The Marriage of Heaven and Hell : [15]
If the doors of perception were cleansed every thing would appear to man as it is, Infinite. For man has closed himself up, till he sees all things thro' narrow chinks of his cavern.
Title | Date | Words | Music | Arrangement | Performer |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Remember thee! Remember thee! [6] | 1949 | Romantic poet Lord Byron (1788- 1824) | Rudolph Schirmer | ||
Love's Secret [7] | 1949 | English poet and artist William Blake (1757- 1827) | Rudolph Schirmer | ||
So we''ll go no more a-roving [8] | 1949 | Lord Byron | Rudolph Schirmer | ||
A Child's Prayer: [9] for three-part chorus of women's voices with piano accompaniment. | 1955 | American novelist, poet, and children's fiction writer Rachel Field | Gustav Klemm | Rudolph Schirmer | |
Yvonne [16] | 1957 | Rudolph Schirmer | Abbey McVay | Rudolph Schirmer | |
United States Victory March [17] | 1961 | Rudolph Schirmer | Gene von Hallberg | ||
Bluebird [18] | 1961 | Rudolph Schirmer | Rudolph Schirmer | ||
Seven Songs [19] | 1961 | Rudolph Schirmer | Rudolph Schirmer | ||
Don't Mention Love Again [20] | 1963 | Rudolph Schirmer | Rudolph Schirmer | ||
The Gift of Christmas [21] | 1963 | Rudolph Schirmer | Rudolph Schirmer | ||
Nobody Wants My Heart [22] | 1963 | Rudolph Schirmer | Rudolph Schirmer | ||
You [23] | 1963 | Rudolph Schirmer | Rudolph Schirmer | ||
Hymn to the Americas [12] | 1968 | Rudolph Schirmer | Rudolph Schirmer | ||
The Doors of Perception [14] | 1998 | English writer and philosopher Aldous Huxley | Rudolph Schirmer |
On February 8, 1958, Schirmer married Iris Flores, film actress and the granddaughter of the former president of Costa Rica, the late Rafael Yglesias Castro in New York City. [24]
The William Blake poem Love's Secret were the lyrics for the Schirmer song of the same name. The poem is presently in the public domain: [25]
Never seek to tell thy love,
Love that never told can be;
For the gentle wind doth move
Silently, invisibly.
I told my love, I told my love,
I told her all my heart,
Trembling, cold, in ghastly fears.
Ah! she did depart!
Soon after she was gone from me,
A traveller came by,
Silently, invisibly:
He took her with a sigh.
In 1960, Schirmer copyrighted his musical compositions for the musical Forty Ways to Sunday. The following:
Title | Words | Music |
---|---|---|
Forty Ways to Sunday [26] | Rudolph Schirmer | Rudolph Schirmer |
Biggest Little City [27] | Rudolph Schirmer | Rudolph Schirmer |
Divorcing Quietly [28] | Rudolph Schirmer | Rudolph Schirmer |
Don't Be a Martyr [29] | Rudolph Schirmer | Rudolph Schirmer |
Evening Star [30] | Rudolph Schirmer | Rudolph Schirmer |
Gosh, Darn, Dern It [31] | Rudolph Schirmer | Rudolph Schirmer |
Him Again [32] | Rudolph Schirmer | Rudolph Schirmer |
I Get a Yen [33] | Rudolph Schirmer | Rudolph Schirmer |
I Wonder if I'll Ever Fall in Love? [34] | Rudolph Schirmer | Rudolph Schirmer |
It's a Glowing [35] | Rudolph Schirmer | Rudolph Schirmer |
Just Do It [36] | Rudolph Schirmer | Rudolph Schirmer |
Little Old We [37] | Rudolph Schirmer | Rudolph Schirmer |
Lullaby [38] | Rudolph Schirmer | Rudolph Schirmer |
A Man Has to Get Away [39] | Rudolph Schirmer | Rudolph Schirmer |
My Man O' War [40] | Rudolph Schirmer | Rudolph Schirmer |
Wandering Man [41] | Rudolph Schirmer | Rudolph Schirmer |
Pullin' Up Stakes [42] | Rudolph Schirmer | Rudolph Schirmer |
See You Later [43] | Rudolph Schirmer | Rudolph Schirmer |
Slot Machine [44] | Rudolph Schirmer | Rudolph Schirmer |
Aldous Leonard Huxley was an English writer and philosopher. His bibliography spans nearly 50 books, including novels and non-fiction works, as well as essays, narratives, and poems.
The Doors of Perception is an autobiographical book written by Aldous Huxley. Published in 1954, it elaborates on his psychedelic experience under the influence of mescaline in May 1953. Huxley recalls the insights he experienced, ranging from the "purely aesthetic" to "sacramental vision", and reflects on their philosophical and psychological implications. In 1956, he published Heaven and Hell, another essay which elaborates these reflections further. The two works have since often been published together as one book; the title of both comes from William Blake's 1793 book The Marriage of Heaven and Hell.
Virgil Thomson was an American composer and critic. He was instrumental in the development of the "American Sound" in classical music. He has been described as a modernist, a neoromantic, a neoclassicist, and a composer of "an Olympian blend of humanity and detachment" whose "expressive voice was always carefully muted" until his late opera Lord Byron which, in contrast to all his previous work, exhibited an emotional content that rises to "moments of real passion".
The Marriage of Heaven and Hell is a book by the English poet and printmaker William Blake. It is a series of texts written in imitation of biblical prophecy but expressing Blake's own intensely personal Romantic and revolutionary beliefs. Like his other books, it was published as printed sheets from etched plates containing prose, poetry, and illustrations. The plates were then coloured by Blake and his wife Catherine.
Norman Dello Joio was an American composer active for over half a century. He won a Pulitzer Prize in 1957.
Richard Hageman was a Dutch-born American conductor, pianist, and composer.
Copyright Renewal Act of 1992, Pub. L.Tooltip Public Law 102–307, 106 Stat. 264, enacted June 26, 1992, is the first title of the Copyright Amendments Act of 1992, an act of the United States Congress that amended copyright renewal provisions of Title 17 of the United States Code enacted under Copyright Act of 1976. The act eliminated the previous requirements under US law that a second term of copyright protection is contingent on a renewal registration with the U.S. Copyright Office. It amended the Copyright Act of 1976.
Idabelle Smith Firestone was an American composer and songwriter.
Helmy Kresa, was a songwriter and the principal arranger and orchestrator for Irving Berlin.
Blanche Robinson was an American composer and well-known piano accompanist. During her prolific years as a composer, she lived in New York City. During her more active years as a piano accompanist, she lived in Los Angeles. In her published music, she was known as Mrs. M. Hennion Robinson or Mrs. M. Hennion-Robinson.
Arthur Hamilton Stern, known professionally as Arthur Hamilton, is an American songwriter. He is best known for writing the song "Cry Me a River", first published in 1953, and recorded by Julie London and numerous other artists.
Wintter Haynes Watts was an American composer of art songs.
Frank La Forge was an American pianist, vocal coach, teacher, composer and arranger of art songs.
Al Piantadosi was an American composer of popular music during the heyday of Tin Pan Alley. He started out as a saloon and vaudeville pianist and rapidly flourished as a songwriter. For about ten years he was an independent music publisher.
John Prindle Scott was an American author, lecturer, educator and composer of art songs.
Two Songs is a set of two songs for voice and piano composed in 1920 by John Ireland (1879–1962).
The following bibliography of Aldous Huxley provides a chronological list of the published works of English writer Aldous Huxley (1894–1963). It includes his fiction and non-fiction, both published during his lifetime and posthumously.