The century opens, on this blog at least, with ABCs of the USA, a ditty written by George Cohan for the musical "Yankee Prince" (1908). You can be hear it being performed by Bill Murray and Ada Jones on Spotify here.
Having read up on George M Cohan after selecting this song mostly for its atmosphere, I'm pretty surprised I hadn't heard of him before. Known in this decade as "the man who owned Broadway" (also the title of one of his songs), he now has a statue erected in his honour in Times Square. Most famous for the song Yankee Doodle Boy, from a different musical, he was a vaudeville entertainer and theatrical writer - vaudeville seeming to be the pre-TV version of a variety show. He began his performing career in 1904 as a child in a family group, The Four Cohans - the song I've chosen was originally performed by himself and his sister, Josephine - and it spanned all the way to the 1940s (so he may be cropping up again later!).
George Cohan's statue in Times Square
The piece of theatre this particular song came from is "Yankee Prince", a comedy musical about boy meets girl, boy saves/gets girl. In a critical piece from the time written on the performance, it's accused that George Cohan can sometimes be a little raunchy/vulgar in his lyrics - something that's partially the reason why I chose this song. It fits with this vague idea of the atmosphere I have of the turn on the century; families sitting around gramophones, listening to seemingly innocent tunes that are actually a little suggestive. The lyrics are pretty much a courtship duet, a persistent guy going after the coy giggling girl.
Not to mention the title seemed fitting for the beginning of this blog!
More of the same: Try George M Cohan Tonight, a greatest hits that has a fantastic New York sound to it.
Asrael
The next selection is a little more somber than the bright lights and comedy of Broadway. The Asrael Symphony (or full title: The Asrael Symphony for large orchestra in C minor) is a Czech classical piece composed by Josef Suk in 1905-1906. You can listen to it in its entirety on Spotify here.
The title may seem slightly familiar to you - if you're pop-cultured like me, as the character Jason Lee plays in Dogma, or if you're slightly more sophisticated from Islamic and Jewish mythology. Either way it's the same thing; a name for the angel of the death. If you take the best bits from various mythology he's depicted as a monster made up of eyes and tongues, with four faces and four thousand wings, who writes people's names in a big book when they're born and erases them when they die.
Knowing this, it's no surprise to find out this piece was written at an emotionally turbulent time in the Czech composer and violinist Josef Suk's life. Begun when his father-in-law and teacher Antonin Dvorak (nb: there should be more accents in that), his wife also died halfway through the composition.
More of the same: Try listening to the quite dramatic sounding Cello Concerto in B Minor by Antonin Dvorak, the man who inspired Asrael.
Andrew B Sterling
Andrew Sterling was a vaudeville writer and lyricist. He mainly partnered with Harry Von Tilzer, who I'll probably take a look at later. Like George Cohan, he's inducted into the the Songwriters Hall of Fame. He didn't seem to be a performer, and although he had a lot of hits in the 1900's/is said to be one of the greatest American popular standard lyricists there doesn't seem to be a lot of information on him around!
The two biggest songs he wrote words for in this decade are Meet Me in St Louis, Louis (performed here by Judy Garland, original performance by Bill Murray in poor quality here) and Wait Til The Sun Shines, Nellie (performed here by Buddy Holly).
More of the same: His partner Harry Von Tilzer is much better documented - try one of his greatest hits, Bird in a Gilded Cage.
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