128-475: Jerome David Kern (January 27, 1885 – November 11, 1945) was an American composer of musical theatre and popular music. One of the most important American theatre composers of the early 20th century, he wrote more than 700 songs, used in over 100 stage works, including such classics as " Ol' Man River ", " Can't Help Lovin' Dat Man ", " A Fine Romance ", " Smoke Gets in Your Eyes ", " The Song Is You ", " All
256-532: A singer in a choir , as a player in a youth orchestra , or as a performer on a solo instrument (e.g., piano , pipe organ , or violin ). Teens aspiring to be composers can continue their postsecondary studies in a variety of formal training settings, including colleges, conservatories, and universities. Conservatories , which are the standard musical training system in countries such as France and Canada, provide lessons and amateur orchestral and choral singing experience for composition students. Universities offer
384-712: A 1952 remake called Lovely to Look At . Their next film, Swing Time (1936) included the song " The Way You Look Tonight ", which won the Academy Award in 1936 for the best song. Other songs in Swing Time include " A Fine Romance ", " Pick Yourself Up " and " Never Gonna Dance ". The Oxford Companion to the American Musical calls Swing Time "a strong candidate for the best of the Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers musicals" and says that, although
512-661: A Tony Award for her performance in Jerome Kern Goes to Hollywood in 1986, and Show Boat received Tony nominations in both 1983 and 1995, winning for best revival in 1995 (among numerous other awards and nominations), and won the Laurence Olivier Award for best revival in 2008. In 1986, Big Deal was nominated for the Tony for best musical, among other awards, and Bob Fosse won as best choreographer. In 2000, Swing! , featuring Kern's "I Won't Dance"
640-401: A band collaborates to write a song, or in musical theatre , where the songs may be written by one person, the orchestration of the accompaniment parts and writing of the overture is done by an orchestrator, and the words may be written by a third person. A piece of music can also be composed with words, images, or, in the 20th and 21st centuries, computer programs that explain or notate how
768-508: A career that lasted for more than four decades. His musical innovations, such as 4/4 dance rhythms and the employment of syncopation and jazz progressions, built on, rather than rejected, earlier musical theatre tradition. He and his collaborators also employed his melodies to further the action or develop characterization to a greater extent than in the other musicals of his day, creating the model for later musicals. Although dozens of Kern's musicals and musical films were hits, only Show Boat
896-426: A composition professor , ensemble experience, and graduate courses in music history and music theory, along with one or two concerts featuring the composition student's pieces. A master's degree in music (referred to as an M.Mus. or M.M.) is often a required minimum credential for people who wish to teach composition at a university or conservatory. A composer with an M.Mus. could be an adjunct professor or instructor at
1024-515: A conventional Western piece of instrumental music, in which all of the melodies , chords , and basslines are written out in musical notation, the performer has a degree of latitude to add artistic interpretation to the work, by such means as by varying their articulation and phrasing , choosing how long to make fermatas (held notes) or pauses, and — in the case of bowed string instruments, woodwinds or brass instruments — deciding whether to use expressive effects such as vibrato or portamento . For
1152-717: A daughter, Mabel, and Terriss gave birth to their second child, Elizabeth ("Betty), in 1904. In early 1900, the Hickses played in their only Broadway show together, My Daughter-in-law , at the Frohman brothers' old Lyceum Theatre . They then joined forces with producer Charles Frohman and, in his company, over a period of seven years, they played the leads in a series of musicals written by Hicks, including Bluebell in Fairyland (1901 with music by Walter Slaughter and lyrics by Charles Taylor – this Christmas show for children
1280-600: A girl from Hoboken, New Jersey (near Kern's childhood home), who becomes a Broadway star. Opening just before the stock market crash, it received rave reviews, but the elaborate, old-fashioned piece was a step back from the innovations in Show Boat , or even the Princess Theatre shows. In January 1929, at the height of the Jazz Age , and with Show Boat still playing on Broadway, Kern made news on both sides of
1408-571: A hundred of Kern's songs had been used in about thirty productions, mostly Broadway adaptations of West End and European shows. Kern contributed two songs to To-Night's the Night (1914), another Rubens musical. It opened in New York and went on to become a hit in London. The best known of Kern's songs from this period is probably " They Didn't Believe Me ", which was a hit in the New York version of
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#17327803240001536-408: A lifelong friendship and collaboration. As a young man, Kern had been an easy companion with great charm and humor, but he became less outgoing in his middle years, sometimes difficult to work with: he once introduced himself to a producer by saying, "I hear you're a son of a bitch. So am I." He rarely collaborated with any one lyricist for long. With Hammerstein, however, he remained on close terms for
1664-610: A man). When she missed several performances due to illness, Hicks played the role – possibly the only case in the history of a musical where a husband succeeded to his wife's role. The piece was based on A Court Scandal , in which Hicks had played in 1899. Hicks then wrote and starred in Captain Kidd (1910), an adaptation with music and lyrics by Leslie Stuart and Adrian Ross , of the American farce The Dictator (1904 by Richard Harding Davis ). This flopped, bringing an end to
1792-487: A musical comedy. ... I like the way the action slides casually into the songs. ... I like the deft rhyming of the song that is always sung in the last act by two comedians and a comedienne. And oh, how I do like Jerome Kern's music. And all these things are even more so in Oh, Lady! Lady!! than they were in Oh, Boy! Oh, Lady! Lady!! was the last successful "Princess Theatre show". Kern and Wodehouse disagreed over money, and
1920-441: A performer of Western popular music creates a "cover" of an earlier song, there is little expectation of exact rendition of the original; nor is exact faithfulness necessarily highly valued (with the possible exception of "note-for-note" transcriptions of famous guitar solos ). In Western art music, the composer typically orchestrates their compositions, but in musical theatre and pop music, songwriters may hire an arranger to do
2048-411: A posthumous nomination in each of 1945 and 1946. One nomination was in 1945 for Best Original Music Score . Kern was not eligible for any Tony Awards, which were not created until 1947. In 1976, Very Good Eddie was nominated for a Drama Desk Award as Outstanding Revival, and the director and actors received various Tony, Drama Desk and other awards and nominations. Elisabeth Welsh was nominated for
2176-473: A range of composition programs, including bachelor's degrees, Master of Music degrees, and Doctor of Musical Arts degrees. As well, there are a variety of other training programs such as classical summer camps and festivals, which give students the opportunity to get coaching from composers. Bachelor's degrees in composition (referred to as B.Mus. or B.M) are four-year programs that include individual composition lessons, amateur orchestra/choral experience, and
2304-415: A record for a single-owner sale that stood for over fifty years. Among the books he sold were first or early editions of poems by Robert Burns and Percy Bysshe Shelley , and works by Jonathan Swift , Henry Fielding and Charles Dickens , as well as manuscripts by Alexander Pope , John Keats , Shelley, Lord Byron , Thomas Hardy and others. In 1929 Kern made his first trip to Hollywood to supervise
2432-733: A revival of Little Jack Sheppard at the Gaiety Theatre, London . This brought him to the attention of the impresario George Edwardes . In 1894, Hicks joined his wife in the successful "Fairy pantomime ", Cinderella , produced by Henry Irving at the Lyceum Theatre with music by Oscar Barrett, where she had been playing the title role. He played Thisbe, one of Cinderella's half-sisters who, in this version, were " Girton College girls who can jabber Greek and Latin, read French, play golf, and indulge in manly exercises. Thisbe has an affectation for intellectuality – Ibsen, Spooks, and
2560-453: A sequence of courses in music history, music theory, and liberal arts courses (e.g., English literature), which give the student a more well-rounded education. Usually, composition students must complete significant pieces or songs before graduating. Not all composers hold a B.Mus. in composition; composers may also hold a B.Mus. in music performance or music theory. Master of Music degrees (M.mus.) in composition consists of private lessons with
2688-658: A short run and then toured in America in 1895 with his wife, where they befriended the American novelist Richard Harding Davis . At the instance of W. S. Gilbert , Hicks wrote a drama called One of the Best , a vehicle for his father-in-law William Terriss at the Adelphi Theatre , based on the famous Dreyfus Trial . The Hickses were frequent guests of Gilbert at his estate in Grim's Dyke . Hicks hurried back from America for
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#17327803240002816-438: A singer or instrumental performer, the process of deciding how to perform music that has been previously composed and notated is termed "interpretation". Different performers' interpretations of the same work of music can vary widely, in terms of the tempos that are chosen and the playing or singing style or phrasing of the melodies. Composers and songwriters who present their music are interpreting, just as much as those who perform
2944-467: A tendency to cluster in specific cities throughout history. Based on over 12,000 prominent composers listed in Grove Music Online and using word count measurement techniques, the most important cities for classical music can be quantitatively identified. Paris has been the main hub for western classical music in all periods. It was ranked fifth in the 15th and 16th centuries but first in
3072-637: A time, Kern worked as a rehearsal pianist in Broadway theatres and as a song-plugger for Tin Pan Alley music publishers. While in London, he secured a contract from the American impresario Charles Frohman to provide songs for interpolation in Broadway versions of London shows. He began to provide these additions in 1904 to British scores for An English Daisy , by Seymour Hicks and Walter Slaughter , and Mr. Wix of Wickham , for which he wrote most of
3200-686: A university, but it would be difficult in the 2010s to obtain a tenure track professor position with this degree. To become a tenure track professor, many universities require a doctoral degree . In composition, the key doctoral degree is the Doctor of Musical Arts , rather than the PhD ; the PhD is awarded in music, but typically for subjects such as musicology and music theory . Doctor of Musical Arts (referred to as D.M.A., DMA, D.Mus.A. or A.Mus.D) degrees in composition provide an opportunity for advanced study at
3328-492: A very difficult time breaking through and getting the credit they deserve." During the Medieval eras, most of the art music was created for liturgical (religious) purposes and due to the views about the roles of women that were held by religious leaders, few women composed this type of music, with the nun Hildegard von Bingen being among the exceptions. Most university textbooks on the history of music discuss almost exclusively
3456-444: A whole. Across cultures and traditions composers may write and transmit music in a variety of ways. In much popular music, the composer writes a composition , and it is then transmitted via oral tradition . Conversely, in some Western classical traditions music may be composed aurally—i.e. "in the mind of the musician"—and subsequently written and passed through written documents . In the development of European classical music ,
3584-446: Is a staple of stock productions and has been revived numerous times on Broadway and in London. A 1946 revival integrated choreography into the show, in the manner of a Rodgers and Hammerstein production, as did the 1994 Harold Prince – Susan Stroman revival, which was nominated for ten Tony Awards , winning five, including best revival. It was the first musical to enter a major opera company's repertory (New York City Opera, 1954), and
3712-542: Is descended from Latin , compōnō ; literally "one who puts together". The earliest use of the term in a musical context given by the Oxford English Dictionary is from Thomas Morley 's 1597 A Plain and Easy Introduction to Practical Music , where he says "Some wil [ sic ] be good descanters [...] and yet wil be but bad composers". "Composer" is a loose term that generally refers to any person who writes music. More specifically, it
3840-468: Is now regularly revived. Songs from his other shows, however, are still frequently performed and adapted. Many of Kern's songs have been adapted by jazz musicians to become standard tunes . Kern was born in New York City, on Sutton Place , in what was then the city's brewery district. His parents were Henry Kern (1842–1908), a Jewish German immigrant, and Fannie Kern née Kakeles (1852–1907), who
3968-473: Is often used to denote people who are composers by occupation, or those who work in the tradition of Western classical music . Writers of exclusively or primarily songs may be called composers, but since the 20th century the terms ' songwriter ' or ' singer-songwriter ' are more often used, particularly in popular music genres. In other contexts, the term 'composer' can refer to a literary writer, or more rarely and generally, someone who combines pieces into
Jerome Kern - Misplaced Pages Continue
4096-411: Is sold out for months in advance. You can get a seat for Oh, Lady! Lady!! somewhere around the middle of August for just about the price of one on the stock exchange. If you ask me, I will look you fearlessly in the eye and tell you in low, throbbing tones that it has it over any other musical comedy in town. But then Bolton and Wodehouse and Kern are my favorite indoor sport. I like the way they go about
4224-526: The 1929 film version of Sally , one of the first "all-talking" Technicolor films. The following year, he was there a second time to work on Men of the Sky , released in 1931 without his songs, and a 1930 film version of Sunny . There was a public reaction against the early glut of film musicals after the advent of film sound; Hollywood released more than 100 musical films in 1930, but only 14 in 1931. Warner Bros. bought out Kern's contract, and he returned to
4352-619: The Aldwych Theatre in 1905 and the Hicks Theatre in 1906, which was renamed the "Globe Theatre" in 1909 and then the "Gielgud Theatre" in 1994. The Beauty of Bath was the first production at the theatre. In The Dashing Little Duke (1909; with C. Hayden Coffin , Courtice Pounds and Louie Pounds ), produced by Hicks at the Hicks Theatre, which was less successful, Hicks' wife played the title role (a woman playing
4480-650: The Anglican church of St. Mary's in Walton on October 25, 1910. The couple then lived at the Swan when Kern was in England. Kern is believed to have composed music for silent films as early as 1912, but the earliest documented film music which he is known to have written was for a twenty-part serial, Gloria's Romance in 1916. This was one of the first starring vehicles for Billie Burke , for whom Kern had earlier written
4608-604: The Baroque music era, many composers were employed by aristocrats or as church employees. During the Classical period , composers began to organize more public concerts for profit, which helped composers to be less dependent on aristocratic or church jobs. This trend continued in the Romantic music era in the 19th century. In the 20th century, composers began to seek employment as professors in universities and conservatories. In
4736-517: The Deanna Durbin Western musical, Can't Help Singing (1944), with lyrics by Harburg, Kern "provided the best original score of Durbin's career, mixing operetta and Broadway sounds in such songs as 'Any Moment Now,' 'Swing Your Partner,' 'More and More,' and the lilting title number." "More and More" was nominated for an Oscar. Kern composed his last film score, Centennial Summer (1946) in which "the songs were as resplendent as
4864-518: The Paul Rubens and Sidney Jones musical, The Girl from Utah (1914), for which Kern wrote five songs. Kern's song, with four beats to a bar, departed from the customary waltz -rhythms of European influence and fitted the new American passion for modern dances such as the fox-trot . He was also able to use elements of American styles, such as ragtime, as well as syncopation, in his lively dance tunes. Theatre historian John Kenrick writes that
4992-531: The Renaissance music era, composers typically worked for aristocratic employers. While aristocrats typically required composers to produce a significant amount of religious music, such as Masses , composers also penned many non-religious songs on the topic of courtly love : the respectful, reverential love of a great woman from afar. Courtly love songs were very popular during the Renaissance era. During
5120-427: The 17th to 20th centuries inclusive. London was the second most meaningful city: eighth in the 15th century, seventh in the 16th, fifth in the 17th, second in the 18th and 19th centuries, and fourth in the 20th century. Rome topped the rankings in the 15th century, dropped to second in the 16th and 17th centuries, eighth in the 18th century, ninth in the 19th century but back at sixth in the 20th century. Berlin appears in
5248-422: The 20th century, composers also earned money from the sales of their works, such as sheet music publications of their songs or pieces or as sound recordings of their works. In 1993, American musicologist Marcia Citron asked, "Why is music composed by women so marginal to the standard 'classical' repertoire?" Citron "examines the practices and attitudes that have led to the exclusion of women composers from
Jerome Kern - Misplaced Pages Continue
5376-429: The 20th century, such as John Cage , Morton Feldman , and Witold Lutosławski . The nature and means of individual variation of the music are varied, depending on the musical culture in the country and the time period it was written. For instance, music composed in the Baroque era , particularly in slow tempos, often was written in bare outline, with the expectation that the performer would add improvised ornaments to
5504-676: The Academy Award-winning " The Way You Look Tonight " (both from Swing Time , 1936), " All the Things You Are " (1939) and " I'm Old Fashioned " (1942). Another Oscar winner was " The Last Time I Saw Paris ". One of Kern's last hits was " Long Ago (and Far Away) " (1944). Composer A composer is a person who writes music . The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music , or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. The term
5632-694: The Air (1932) was another Kern-Hammerstein collaboration and another show-biz plot, best remembered today for " The Song Is You " and " I've Told Ev'ry Little Star ". It was "undoubtedly an operetta", set in the German countryside, but without the Ruritanian trimmings of the operettas of Kern's youth. Roberta (1933) by Kern and Harbach included the songs " Smoke Gets in Your Eyes ", " Let's Begin " and " Yesterdays " and featured, among others, Bob Hope , Fred MacMurray , George Murphy and Sydney Greenstreet all in
5760-465: The Atlantic for reasons wholly unconnected with music. He sold at auction, at New York's Anderson Galleries , the collection of English and American literature that he had been building up for more than a decade. The collection, rich in inscribed first editions and manuscript material of eighteenth and nineteenth century authors, sold for a total of $ 1,729,462.50 (equivalent to $ 30,687,895 in 2023) –
5888-607: The Gaiety Theatre's most successful shows, A Runaway Girl (1898), in which Terriss played the title role. This was followed by With Flying Colours (1899). Also in 1899, Hicks starred as the Duc De Richelieu in A Court Scandal , a comedy adapted by Aubrey Boucicault and Osmond Shillingford from Les Premières Armes de Richelieu by Dumanoir , at the Court Theatre. The same year, he and Terriss adopted
6016-738: The Lark"), the last having a distinctly operetta-like character. Kern and his wife, Eva, often vacationed on their yacht Show Boat . He collected rare books and enjoyed betting on horses. At the time of Kern's death, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer was filming a fictionalized version of his life, Till the Clouds Roll By , which was released in 1946 starring Robert Walker as Kern. In the film, Kern's songs are sung by Judy Garland , Kathryn Grayson , June Allyson , Lena Horne , Dinah Shore , Frank Sinatra and Angela Lansbury , among others, and Gower Champion and Cyd Charisse appear as dancers. Many of
6144-765: The London hit Theodore & Co (1916; most of the songs are by the young Ivor Novello ) and to revues like the Ziegfeld Follies . The most notable of his scores were those for a series of shows written for the Princess Theatre , a small (299-seat) house built by Ray Comstock . Theatrical agent Elisabeth Marbury asked Kern and librettist Guy Bolton to create a series of intimate and low-budget, yet smart, musicals. The "Princess Theatre shows" were unique on Broadway not only for their small size, but their clever, coherent plots, integrated scores and naturalistic acting, which presented "a sharp contrast to
6272-480: The Things You Are ", " The Way You Look Tonight " and " Long Ago (and Far Away) ". He collaborated with many of the leading librettists and lyricists of his era, including George Grossmith Jr. , Guy Bolton , P. G. Wodehouse , Otto Harbach , Oscar Hammerstein II , Dorothy Fields , Johnny Mercer , Ira Gershwin and Yip Harburg . A native New Yorker , Kern created dozens of Broadway musicals and Hollywood films in
6400-418: The attention of impresario George Edwardes . Edwardes cast Hicks in his next show, The Shop Girl , in 1894. Its success led to his participation in two more of Edwardes's hit "girl" musicals, The Circus Girl (1896) and A Runaway Girl (1898), both starring Terriss. He first played the role of Ebenezer Scrooge in 1901 and eventually played it thousands of times onstage. Hicks, along with his wife, joined
6528-467: The biographical elements are fictionalized. In the fall of 1945, Kern returned to New York City to oversee auditions for a new revival of Show Boat , and began to work on the score for what would become the musical Annie Get Your Gun , to be produced by Rodgers and Hammerstein. On November 5, 1945, at 60 years of age, he suffered a cerebral hemorrhage while walking at the corner of Park Avenue and 57th Street. Identifiable only by his ASCAP card, Kern
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#17327803240006656-526: The commission, Kern oversaw an arrangement by Charles Miller and Emil Gerstenberger of numbers from the show into the orchestral work Scenario for Orchestra: Themes from Show Boat , premiered in 1941 by the Cleveland Orchestra conducted by Rodziński. Kern's last Broadway show in the 1920s was Sweet Adeline (1929), with a libretto by Hammerstein. It was a period piece, set in the Gay 90s, about
6784-550: The composer decided to move on to other projects. Kern's importance to the partnership was illustrated by the fate of the last musical of the series, Oh, My Dear! (1918), to which he contributed only one song: "Go, Little Boat". The rest of the show was composed by Louis Hirsch and ran for 189 performances: "Despite a respectable run, everyone realized there was little point in continuing the series without Kern." The 1920s were an extremely productive period in American musical theatre, and Kern created at least one show every year for
6912-528: The day, dismissed it as "American inanity," though both Kern and Hammerstein were strong and knowledgeable Anglophiles. Kern's last Broadway show (other than revivals) was Very Warm for May (1939), another show-biz story and another disappointment, although the score included the Kern and Hammerstein classic " All The Things You Are ". In 1935, when musical films had become popular once again, thanks to Busby Berkeley , Kern returned to Hollywood, where he composed
7040-536: The decade, and popularized the song " Look for the Silver Lining " (which had been written for an earlier show), performed by the rising star Marilyn Miller . It also had a long run in London in 1921, produced by George Grossmith Jr. Kern's next shows were Good Morning, Dearie (1921, with Caldwell) which ran for 347 performances; followed in 1922 by a West End success, The Cabaret Girl in collaboration with Grossmith and Wodehouse; another modest success by
7168-528: The definition of composition is broad enough for the creation of popular and traditional music songs and instrumental pieces and to include spontaneously improvised works like those of free jazz performers and African percussionists such as Ewe drummers . During the Middle Ages, most composers worked for the Catholic church and composed music for religious services such as plainchant melodies. During
7296-431: The early stages of their careers. Kern's Three Sisters (1934), was his last West End show, with a libretto by Hammerstein. The musical, depicting horse-racing, the circus, and class distinctions, was a failure, running for only two months. Its song " I Won't Dance " was used in the film Roberta . Some British critics objected to American writers essaying a British story; James Agate , doyen of London theatre critics of
7424-417: The entire decade. His first show of 1920 was The Night Boat , with book and lyrics by Anne Caldwell , which ran for more than 300 performances in New York and for three seasons on tour. Later in the same year, Kern wrote the score for Sally , with a book by Bolton and lyrics by Otto Harbach . This show, staged by Florenz Ziegfeld, ran for 570 performances, one of the longest runs of any Broadway show in
7552-422: The era of supremacy in London's musical theatre of Hicks and Terriss. Hicks appeared in his first Shakespeare play that year, Richard III . The same year, he penned the first of several autobiographies. The following year, he took a company on a tour of South Africa. After the outbreak of World War I , Hicks was the first British actor to bring a tour to France (with Terriss), giving concerts to British troops at
7680-498: The film version of the stage musical Me and My Girl , Young Man's Fancy (1939), Pastor Hall (1940) and Busman's Honeymoon (1940). Hicks wrote for films until 1941 ( Kisses for Breakfast , in which he starred). When World War II began, he acted, on 12 November 1939, as the master of ceremonies at the first concert given in France by the newly formed ENSA (Entertainment National Service Association). For this action, Hicks
7808-470: The first to introduce Kern's songs to the London stage. In 1909 during one of his stays in England, Kern took a boat trip on the River Thames with some friends, and when the boat stopped at Walton-on-Thames , they went to an inn called the Swan for a drink. Kern was much taken with the proprietor's daughter, Eva Leale (1891–1959), who was working behind the bar. He wooed her, and they were married at
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#17327803240007936-481: The first. With Hammerstein, he wrote songs for the film versions of his recent Broadway shows Music in the Air (1934), which starred Gloria Swanson in a rare singing role, and Sweet Adeline (1935). With Dorothy Fields , he composed the new music for I Dream Too Much (1935), a musical melodrama about the opera world, starring the Metropolitan Opera diva Lily Pons . Kern and Fields interspersed
8064-660: The front. Because of this, he was awarded the French Croix de Guerre . Hicks was briefly declared bankrupt in 1915. Hicks and Terriss concentrated on comedy roles and music hall tours in later years, including Pebbles on the Beach (1912), singing and dancing 'Alexander's Ragtime Band'. Their one return to musical comedy, Cash on Delivery (1917), confirmed the public's preference for comedy revues and music hall. Hicks continued to write light, escapist comedies, such as The Happy Day (1916), Sleeping Partners (1917) and, after
8192-522: The function of composing music initially did not have much greater importance than that of performing it. The preservation of individual compositions did not receive enormous attention and musicians generally had no qualms about modifying compositions for performance. In the Western world, before the Romantic period of the 19th century, composition almost always went side by side with a combination of either singing, instructing and theorizing . Even in
8320-503: The guidance of faculty composition professors. Some schools require DMA composition students to present concerts of their works, which are typically performed by singers or musicians from the school. The completion of advanced coursework and a minimum B average are other typical requirements of a D.M.A program. During a D.M.A. program, a composition student may get experience teaching undergraduate music students. Some composers did not complete composition programs, but focused their studies on
8448-552: The highest artistic and pedagogical level, requiring usually an additional 54+ credit hours beyond a master's degree (which is about 30+ credits beyond a bachelor's degree). For this reason, admission is highly selective. Students must submit examples of their compositions. If available, some schools will also accept video or audio recordings of performances of the student's pieces. Examinations in music history, music theory, ear training/dictation, and an entrance examination are required. Students must prepare significant compositions under
8576-453: The large-scale Ruritanian operettas then in vogue" or the star-studded revues and extravaganzas of producers like Florenz Ziegfeld . Earlier musical comedy had often been thinly plotted, gaudy pieces, marked by the insertion of songs into their scores with little regard to the plot. But Kern and Bolton followed the examples of Gilbert and Sullivan and French opéra bouffe in integrating song and story. "These shows built and polished
8704-447: The last phase of his theatrical composing career, Kern continued to work with his previous collaborators but also met Oscar Hammerstein II and Otto Harbach, with whom Kern wrote his most lasting, memorable, and well-known works. The most successful of these are as follows: In addition to revivals of his most popular shows, Kern's music has been posthumously featured in a variety of revues, musicals and concerts on and off Broadway. Among
8832-543: The latter with a new hit show, The Beauty of Bath . His stage performances were less successful in later years, and he opted instead to star in music hall tours, including Pebbles on the Beach (1912). He continued to write light comedies, the most popular of which was The Happy Day (1916). On film, he first appeared in Scrooge and David Garrick both from 1913. Later notable films included The Lambeth Walk (1939) and Busman's Honeymoon (1940), and his last film
8960-471: The long run of Oh Boy! An anonymous admirer wrote a verse in their praise that begins: This is the trio of musical fame, Bolton and Wodehouse and Kern. Better than anyone else you can name Bolton and Wodehouse and Kern. In February 1918, Dorothy Parker wrote in Vanity Fair : Well, Bolton and Wodehouse and Kern have done it again. Every time these three gather together, the Princess Theatre
9088-494: The melody line during a performance. Such freedom generally diminished in later eras, correlating with the increased use by composers of more detailed scoring in the form of dynamics, articulation et cetera; composers became uniformly more explicit in how they wished their music to be interpreted, although how strictly and minutely these are dictated varies from one composer to another. Because of this trend of composers becoming increasingly specific and detailed in their instructions to
9216-400: The mid-20th century was Nadia Boulanger . Philips states that "[d]uring the 20th century the women who were composing/playing gained far less attention than their male counterparts." Women today are being taken more seriously in the realm of concert music, though the statistics of recognition, prizes, employment, and overall opportunities are still biased toward men. Famous composers have
9344-423: The mold from which almost all later major musical comedies evolved. ... The characters and situations were, within the limitations of musical comedy license, believable and the humor came from the situations or the nature of the characters. Kern's exquisitely flowing melodies were employed to further the action or develop characterization." The shows featured modern American settings and simple scene changes to suit
9472-423: The more than 700 songs by Kern are such classics as " They Didn't Believe Me " (1914), " Look for the Silver Lining " (1920), " Ol' Man River ", " Can't Help Lovin' Dat Man ", " Make Believe ", " You Are Love " and " Bill " (all from Show Boat , 1927), " The Song Is You " (1932), " Smoke Gets in Your Eyes ", " Yesterdays " and " Let's Begin " (all from Roberta , 1933), " I Won't Dance " (1935), " A Fine Romance " and
9600-540: The most notable such shows from this period: From 1912 to 1924, the more-experienced Kern began to work on dramatically concerned shows, including incidental music for plays, and, for the first time since his college show Uncle Tom's Cabin , he wrote musicals as the sole composer. His regular lyricist collaborators for his more than 30 shows during this period were Bolton, Wodehouse, Caldwell, Harry B. Smith and Howard Dietz . Some of his most notable shows during this very productive period were as follows: During
9728-417: The music of others. The standard body of choices and techniques present at a given time and a given place is referred to as performance practice , whereas interpretation is generally used to mean the individual choices of a performer. Although a musical composition often has a single author, this is not always the case. A work of music can have multiple composers, which often occurs in popular music when
9856-456: The new humor." Edwardes gave Hicks the chance to star in his next show, The Shop Girl (1894), which became a hit at the Gaiety in 1894, playing for 546 performances. Hicks's wife joined Edwardes's company during the run of the show, replacing the star in the title role, and together they made the musical an even bigger hit. The following year, Hicks transferred with the show to Broadway for
9984-516: The only one of his shows that is regularly performed today." The score is, arguably, Kern's greatest and includes the well-known songs " Ol' Man River " and " Can't Help Lovin' Dat Man " as well as " Make Believe ", " You Are Love ", "Life Upon the Wicked Stage", "Why Do I Love You", all with lyrics by Hammerstein, and " Bill ", originally written for Oh, Lady! Lady! , with lyrics by P. G. Wodehouse. The show ran for 572 performances on Broadway and
10112-609: The only time he set a pre-written lyric, and his only hit song not written as part of a musical. Originally a hit for Tony Martin and later for Noël Coward , the song was used in the film Lady Be Good (1941) and won Kern another Oscar for best song. Kern's second and last symphonic work was his ' Mark Twain Suite (1942). In his last Hollywood musicals, Kern worked with several new and distinguished partners. With Johnny Mercer for You Were Never Lovelier (1942), he contributed "a set of memorable songs to entertain audiences until
10240-476: The opening in December 1895. It ran for over a year. Another early success for the young couple was The Circus Girl (1896). Hicks and Terriss both had a comedy background, and they transformed the "lovers" roles in the new genre of Edwardian musicals from overly sentimental to mischievous and light-hearted characters exchanging witty banter. Hicks then worked as co-author on The Yashmak and then on one of
10368-460: The opera numbers with their songs, including "the swinging 'I Got Love,' the lullaby 'The Jockey on the Carousel,' and the entrancing title song." Also with Fields, he wrote two new songs, " I Won't Dance " and "Lovely to Look At", for the Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers film version of Roberta (1935), which was a hit. The show also included the song " I'll Be Hard to Handle ". This was given
10496-435: The orchestration. In some cases, a pop songwriter may not use notation at all, and, instead, compose the song in their mind and then play or record it from memory. In jazz and popular music, notable recordings by influential performers are given the weight that written scores play in classical music. The study of composition has traditionally been dominated by the examination of methods and practice of Western classical music, but
10624-559: The performance of voice or an instrument or on music theory , and developed their compositional skills over the course of a career in another musical occupation. Seymour Hicks Sir Edward Seymour Hicks (30 January 1871 – 6 April 1949), better known as Seymour Hicks , was a British actor, music hall performer, playwright, actor-manager and producer. He became known, early in his career, for writing, starring in and producing Edwardian musical comedy , often together with his famous wife, Ellaline Terriss . His most famous acting role
10752-408: The performer, a culture eventually developed whereby faithfulness to the composer's written intention came to be highly valued (see, for example, Urtext edition ). This musical culture is almost certainly related to the high esteem (bordering on veneration) in which the leading classical composers are often held by performers. The historically informed performance movement has revived to some extent
10880-496: The piece to give it its full epic grandeur. According to the theatre historian John Kenrick: "After the opening night audience filed out of the Ziegfeld Theatre in near silence, Ziegfeld thought his worst fears had been confirmed. He was pleasantly surprised when the next morning brought ecstatic reviews and long lines at the box office. In fact, Show Boat proved to be the most lasting accomplishment of Ziegfeld's career –
11008-459: The plot came to its inevitable conclusion". The film starred Astaire and Rita Hayworth and included the song " I'm Old Fashioned ". Kern's next collaboration was with Ira Gershwin on Cover Girl starring Hayworth and Gene Kelly (1944) for which Kern composed "Sure Thing","Put Me to the Test," "Make Way for Tomorrow" (lyric by E. Y. Harburg ), and the hit ballad " Long Ago (and Far Away) ". For
11136-427: The possibility of the performer elaborating seriously the music as given in the score, particularly for Baroque music and music from the early Classical period . The movement might be considered a way of creating greater faithfulness to the original in works composed at a time that expected performers to improvise . In genres other than classical music, the performer generally has more freedom; thus for instance when
11264-518: The producer Charles Frohman in his theatre company and wrote and starred in a series of extraordinarily successful musicals, including Bluebell in Fairyland (1901), Quality Street (1902), The Earl and the Girl (1903) and The Catch of the Season (1904). Hicks used his fortune from these shows to commission the building of the Aldwych Theatre in 1905 and the Hicks Theatre in 1906, opening
11392-479: The received ' canon ' of performed musical works." She argues that in the 1800s, women composers typically wrote art songs for performance in small recitals rather than symphonies intended for performance with an orchestra in a large hall, with the latter works being seen as the most important genre for composers; since women composers did not write many symphonies, they were deemed to be not notable as composers. According to Abbey Philips, "women musicians have had
11520-500: The rediscovery of the 1927 score with Robert Russell Bennett 's original orchestrations led to a large-scale EMI recording in 1987 and several opera-house productions. In 1941, the conductor Artur Rodziński wished to commission a symphonic suite from the score, but Kern considered himself a songwriter and not a symphonist. He never orchestrated his own scores, leaving that to musical assistants, principally Frank Saddler (until 1921) and Robert Russell Bennett (from 1923). In response to
11648-579: The rest of his life. Their first show, written together with Harbach, was Sunny , which featured the song " Who (Stole My Heart Away)? " Marilyn Miller played the title role, as she had in Sally . The show ran for 517 performances on Broadway, and the following year ran for 363 performances in the West End, starring Binnie Hale and Jack Buchanan . Because of the strong success of Sally and Sunny and consistent good results with his other shows, Ziegfeld
11776-430: The role of male composers. As well, very few works by women composers are part of the standard repertoire of classical music. In Concise Oxford History of Music , " Clara Shumann [ sic ] is one of the only female composers mentioned", but other notable women composers of the common practice period include Fanny Mendelssohn and Cécile Chaminade , and arguably the most influential teacher of composers during
11904-610: The same team, The Beauty Prize (1923); and a Broadway flop, The Bunch and Judy , remembered, if at all, as the first time Kern and Fred Astaire worked together. Stepping Stones (1923, with Caldwell) was a success, and in 1924 the Princess Theatre team of Bolton, Wodehouse and Kern reunited to write Sitting Pretty , but it did not recapture the popularity of the earlier collaborations. Its relative failure may have been partly due to Kern's growing aversion to having individual songs from his shows performed out of context on radio, in cabaret, or on record, although his chief objection
12032-535: The school's first musical, a minstrel show , in 1901, and for an amateur musical adaptation of Uncle Tom's Cabin put on at the Newark Yacht Club in January 1902. Kern left high school before graduation in the spring of his senior year in 1902. In response, Kern's father insisted that his son work with him in business, instead of composing. Kern, however, failed miserably in one of his earliest tasks: he
12160-536: The scores to a dozen more films, although he also continued working on Broadway productions. He settled permanently in Hollywood in 1937. After suffering a heart attack in 1939, he was told by his doctors to concentrate on film scores, a less stressful task, as Hollywood songwriters were not as deeply involved with the production of their works as Broadway songwriters. This second phase of Kern's Hollywood career had considerably greater artistic and commercial success than
12288-407: The screenplay is contrived, it "left plenty of room for dance and all of it was superb. ... Although the movie is remembered as one of the great dance musicals, it also boasts one of the best film scores of the 1930s." For the 1936 film version of Show Boat , Kern and Hammerstein wrote three new songs, including "I Have The Room Above Her" and "Ah Still Suits Me". High, Wide, and Handsome (1937)
12416-441: The singer or musician should create musical sounds. Examples of this range from wind chimes jingling in a breeze, to avant-garde music from the 20th century that uses graphic notation , to text compositions such as Aus den Sieben Tagen , to computer programs that select sounds for musical pieces. Music that makes heavy use of randomness and chance is called aleatoric music , and is associated with contemporary composers active in
12544-497: The small theatre. The team's first Princess Theatre show was an adaptation of Paul Rubens' 1905 London show, Mr. Popple (of Ippleton) , called Nobody Home (1915). The piece ran for 135 performances and was a modest financial success. However, it did little to fulfill the new team's mission to innovate, except that Kern's song, "The Magic Melody", was the first Broadway showtune with a basic jazz progression. Kern and Bolton next created an original piece, Very Good Eddie , which
12672-476: The song "Mind the Paint", with lyrics by A. W. Pinero . The film is now considered lost , but Kern's music survives. Another score for the silent movies, Jubilo , followed in 1919. Kern was one of the founding members of ASCAP . Kern's first complete score was Broadway's The Red Petticoat (1912), one of the first musical-comedy Westerns. The libretto was by Rida Johnson Young . By World War I , more than
12800-517: The song put Kern in great demand on Broadway and established a pattern for musical comedy love songs that lasted through the 1960s. In May 1915, Kern was due to sail with Charles Frohman from New York to London on board the RMS Lusitania , but Kern missed the boat, having overslept after staying up late playing poker. Frohman died in the sinking of the ship. Kern composed 16 Broadway scores between 1915 and 1920 and also contributed songs to
12928-613: The songs. In 1905, Kern contributed the song "How'd you like to spoon with me?" to Ivan Caryll 's hit musical The Earl and the Girl when the show transferred to Chicago and New York in 1905. He also contributed to the New York production of The Catch of the Season (1905), The Little Cherub (1906) and The Orchid (1907), among other shows. From 1905 on, he spent long periods of time in London, contributing songs to West End shows like The Beauty of Bath (1906; with lyricist P. G. Wodehouse ) and making valuable contacts, including George Grossmith Jr. and Seymour Hicks, who were
13056-513: The stage. He collaborated with Harbach on the Broadway musical The Cat and the Fiddle (1931), about a composer and an opera singer, featuring the songs " She Didn't Say Yes " and "The Night Was Made for Love". It ran for 395 performances, a remarkable success for the Depression years, and transferred to London the following year. It was filmed in 1934 with Jeanette MacDonald . Music in
13184-546: The story and characters were mediocre. ... Oscar Hammerstein, Leo Robin , and E. Y. Harburg contributed lyrics for Kern's lovely music, resulting in the soulful ballad 'All Through the Day,' the rustic 'Cinderella Sue,' the cheerful 'Up With the Lark,' and the torchy 'In Love in Vain.'" "All Through the Day" was another Oscar nominee. The music of Kern's last two films is notable in the way it developed from his earlier work. Some of it
13312-568: The task of writing the score for Annie Get Your Gun to the veteran Broadway composer Irving Berlin . Kern is interred at Ferncliff Cemetery in Westchester County, New York . His daughter, Elizabeth "Betty" Jane Kern (1918–1996) married Artie Shaw in 1942 and later Jack Cummings . Kern's wife eventually remarried, to a singer named George Byron. Jerome Kern was nominated eight times for an Academy Award, and won twice. Seven nominations were for Best Original Song ; these included
13440-560: The theatrical company of Mr. and Mrs. Kendal for an American tour where they presented a repertory of contemporary plays. Hicks starred as Dr. Watson in the first revue show ever staged in London, Under the Clock (1893), a parody of Sherlock Holmes and Watson written by Hicks with Charles Brookfield (who played Holmes), at the Royal Court Theatre . That same year, he married Ellaline Terriss . After that, he starred in
13568-440: The top ten rankings only in the 18th century and was ranked third most important city in both the 19th and 20th centuries. New York City entered the rankings in the 19th century (in fifth place) and stood at second rank in the 20th century. The patterns are very similar for a sample of 522 top composers. Professional classical composers often have a background in performing classical music during their childhood and teens, either as
13696-485: The war, satiric farces, such as Good Luck and Head Over Heels (1923) and adaptations of French farces ( The Man in Dress Clothes ). Hicks appeared in three early silent films: Scrooge and David Garrick in 1913, and A Prehistoric Love Story in 1915, all directed by Leedham Bantock . He decided in 1923 to produce his own films. His first film, in which he starred, was Always Tell Your Wife , which
13824-628: Was a surprise hit, running for 341 performances, with additional touring productions that went on into the 1918-19 season. The British humorist, lyricist and librettist P. G. Wodehouse joined the Princess team in 1917, adding his skill as a lyricist to the succeeding shows. Oh, Boy! (1917) ran for an extraordinary 463 performances. Other shows written for the theatre were Have a Heart (1917), Leave It to Jane (1917) and Oh, Lady! Lady!! (1918). The first opened at another theatre before Very Good Eddie closed. The second played elsewhere during
13952-622: Was also a success in London. Although Ferber's novel was filmed unsuccessfully as a part-talkie in 1929 (using some songs from the Kern score), the musical itself was filmed twice, in 1936 , and, with Technicolor , in 1951 . In 1989, a stage version of the musical was presented on television for the first time, in a production from the Paper Mill Playhouse telecast by PBS on Great Performances . While most Kern musicals have largely been forgotten, except for their songs, Show Boat remains well-remembered and frequently seen. It
14080-576: Was an American Jew of Bohemian parentage. At the time of Kern's birth, his father ran a livery stable ; later he became a successful merchant. Kern grew up on East 56th Street in Manhattan , where he attended public schools. He showed an early aptitude for music and was taught to play the piano and organ by his mother, a professional player and teacher. In 1897, the family moved to Newark, New Jersey , where Kern attended Newark High School (which became Barringer High School in 1907). He wrote songs for
14208-673: Was awarded the Legion of Honour for his promotion of French drama on the English stage. Hicks was knighted in 1935. In 1934, he had taken over Daly's Theatre in London, where he produced and appeared in a series of successful plays including Vintage Wine that he and Ashley Dukes adapted from a novel. He also directed and appeared in The Miracle Man at the Victoria Palace Theatre . Hicks's most famous role
14336-430: Was based on one of his plays. While making that film, Hicks fired the director and hired an unknown young director to make his debut: Alfred Hitchcock . Hicks directed Sleeping Partners (1930) and Glamour (1931). In addition, over a dozen films were made either from his plays or his scripts, and he starred in about twenty films, many with his wife. One of his early films was Money for Nothing (1932) In 1931, he
14464-500: Was continually revived for the next four decades) and The Cherry Girl (1902). Hicks and Terriss also starred in Quality Street in 1902. At that time, they moved to a new home, The Old Forge, at Merstham, Surrey. Their cul-de-sac was renamed "Quality Street". Hicks also wrote the highly successful The Earl and the Girl (1903) and the successful The Catch of the Season (1904 with Herbert Haines and Taylor). Ellaline
14592-495: Was found guilty and sentenced to 8 months imprisonment. Hicks wrote, and Frohman produced, The Talk of the Town (1905 with Haines and Taylor), The Beauty of Bath (1906 with Haines and Taylor; the show included additional lyrics by newcomer P. G. Wodehouse and additional music by Jerome Kern ), My Darling (1907 with Haines), and The Gay Gordons (1907). Hicks used some of the fortune he received from these shows to build
14720-668: Was in the year of his death, 1949. Hicks was born in St. Hélier on the island of Jersey . At the age of nine, he appeared as Little Buttercup in Gilbert and Sullivan 's H.M.S. Pinafore at his school in Bath . After that, he was determined to be an actor. Hicks first appeared professionally on stage at the age of sixteen in a production of In the Ranks at the Grand, Islington. In 1889, he joined
14848-476: Was initially taken to the indigent ward at City Hospital, later being transferred to Doctors Hospital in Manhattan. Hammerstein was at his side when Kern's breathing stopped. Hammerstein hummed or sang the song "I've Told Ev'ry Little Star" from Music in the Air (a personal favorite of the composer's) into Kern's ear. Receiving no response, Hammerstein realized Kern had died. Rodgers and Hammerstein then assigned
14976-681: Was intentionally similar in plot and style to Show Boat , but it was a box-office failure. Kern songs were also used in the Cary Grant film, When You're in Love (1937), and the first Abbott and Costello feature, One Night in the Tropics (1940). In 1940, Hammerstein wrote the lyric " The Last Time I Saw Paris ", in homage to the French capital, recently occupied by the Germans. Kern set it,
15104-595: Was named after Kern by his Dixieland bandleader father. Note: All shows listed are musical comedies for which Kern was the sole composer unless otherwise specified. During his first phase of work (1904–1911), Kern wrote songs for 22 Broadway productions, including songs interpolated into British musicals or featured in revues (sometimes writing lyrics as well as music), and he occasionally co-wrote musicals with one or two other composers. During visits to London beginning in 1905, he also composed songs that were first performed in several London shows. The following are some of
15232-669: Was nominated for the Tony for Best Musical, among others. In 2002, Elaine Stritch at Liberty , featuring Kern's "All in Fun", won the Tony Award for Best Special Theatrical Event. In 2004, Never Gonna Dance received two Tony nominations. Kern was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame posthumously, in 1970. In 1985, the U.S. Post Office issued a postage stamp (Scott #2110, 22¢), with an illustration of Kern holding sheet music. The Grateful Dead guitarist Jerry Garcia
15360-608: Was pregnant with Betty, and so Zena Dare originated the leading role in The Catch of the Season until Terriss could assume the role. Dare's sister Phyllis Dare left the stage abruptly in 1905 and a Frederick Henry Wolfries spread rumors that she was pregnant by Hicks, and Hicks received written and verbal abuse for his alleged conduct. In November 1906, Wolfries appeared at the Liverpool Assizes accused of libelling Hicks, while passing himself off as Dare's brother. He
15488-536: Was seldom seen due to the popularity of the 1938 and the 1951 film versions of Dickens's novel. Poor-quality prints were shown on television in the 1980s, but in 2002 the film was restored to its original eight-reel length and issued on DVD. In 2007 the hour-long version was issued in a colourised edition. Among his other film appearances, Hicks starred in the film version of his show Vintage Wine (1935) and as Sir John Tremayne in The Lambeth Walk (1939),
15616-741: Was supposed to purchase two pianos for the store, but instead he ordered 200. His father relented, and later in 1902, Kern became a student at the New York College of Music , studying the piano under Alexander Lambert and Paolo Gallico, and harmony under Dr. Austin Pierce. His first published composition, a piano piece, At the Casino , appeared in the same year. Between 1903 and 1905, he continued his musical training under private tutors in Heidelberg , Germany, returning to New York via London. For
15744-546: Was that of Ebenezer Scrooge in Charles Dickens 's A Christmas Carol . Making his stage début at the age of nine and performing professionally by sixteen, Hicks joined a theatrical company and toured America before starring in Under the Clock in 1893, the first musical revue ever staged in London. Following this, he starred in a revival of Little Jack Sheppard at the Gaiety Theatre, London which brought him to
15872-439: Was that of Ebenezer Scrooge in Charles Dickens 's A Christmas Carol . He first played this role in 1901 and eventually played it thousands of times onstage, often at benefits, and twice on film: the 1913 silent film Scrooge and the 1935 film Scrooge , produced in England. In 1926, Pathé Pictures released the 1913 film in America under the title Old Scrooge . This 1926 print has been released on DVD. The 1935 Scrooge
16000-481: Was the first feature-length film version of the story with sound. The film has been praised for its vivid atmosphere, but most of the ghosts in the film are not seen on screen, except for the Ghost of Christmas Present ( Oscar Asche ). Donald Calthrop portrays Bob Cratchit, and Maurice Evans has a bit part as one of Scrooge's debtors. Most prints in circulation are of the abridged, six-reel (hour-long) version. The film
16128-455: Was to jazz interpretations of his songs. He called himself a "musical clothier – nothing more or less," and said, "I write music to both the situations and the lyrics in plays." When Sitting Pretty was produced, he forbade any broadcasting or recording of individual numbers from the show, which limited their chance to gain popularity. 1925 was a major turning point in Kern's career when he met Oscar Hammerstein II , with whom he would entertain
16256-406: Was too advanced for the film companies; Kern's biographer, Stephen Banfield , refers to "tonal experimentation ... outlandish enharmonics" that the studios insisted on cutting. At the same time, in some ways his music came full circle: having in his youth helped to end the reigns of the waltz and operetta, he now composed three of his finest waltzes ("Can't Help Singing", "Californ-i-ay" and "Up With
16384-405: Was willing to gamble on Kern's next project in 1927. Kern had been impressed by Edna Ferber 's novel Show Boat and wished to present a musical stage version. He persuaded Hammerstein to adapt it and Ziegfeld to produce it. The story, dealing with racism, marital strife and alcoholism, was unheard of in the escapist world of musical comedy. Despite his doubts, Ziegfeld spared no expense in staging
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