1. Leroy Anderson was an American composer of short, light concert pieces, many of which were introduced by the Boston Pops Orchestra under the direction of Arthur Fiedler.
20 Facts About Leroy Anderson
1. 2.
Leroy Anderson continued studying piano at the New England Conservatory of Music.
3.
In 1925, Anderson entered Harvard College, where he studied musical harmony with Walter Spalding, counterpoint with Edward Ballantine, canon and fugue with William C Heilman, orchestration with Edward B Hill and Walter Piston, composition, with Piston, and double bass with Gaston Dufresne.
4.
Leroy Anderson continued studying at Harvard, working towards a PhD in German and Scandinavian languages; Leroy Anderson spoke English and Swedish during his youth, and eventually became fluent in Danish, Norwegian, Icelandic, German, French, Italian, and Portuguese.
5.
Fiedler suggested writing a companion piece, and Leroy Anderson wrote '"Jazz Legato" later that same year.
6.
In 1942, Leroy Anderson joined the United States Army, and was assigned in Iceland with the US Counterintelligence Corps as a translator and interpreter, writing as well as monitoring local news media; in 1945 he was reassigned to the Pentagon as Chief of the Scandinavian Desk of Military Intelligence.
7.
Leroy Anderson's duties did not prevent him from composing, and in 1945 he wrote "The Syncopated Clock" and "Promenade".
8.
Leroy Anderson became a reserve officer and was recalled to active duty for the Korean War.
9.
Leroy Anderson wrote his first hit, "Blue Tango", in 1951, earning a Golden Disc and the No 1 spot on the Billboard charts.
10.
Mitchell Parish added words to "The Syncopated Clock", and later wrote lyrics for other Leroy Anderson tunes, including "Sleigh Ride", which was not written as a Christmas piece, but as a work that describes a winter event.
11.
Leroy Anderson started the work during a heat wave in August 1946.
12.
Leroy Anderson wrote his Piano Concerto in C in 1953 but withdrew it, feeling that it had weak spots.
13.
The Leroy Anderson family decided to publish the work in 1988.
14.
In 1958, Anderson composed the music for the Broadway show Goldilocks with orchestrations by Philip J Lang.
15.
Leroy Anderson never wrote another musical, preferring instead to continue writing orchestral miniatures.
16.
Leroy Anderson appeared with the Boston Pops on May 18,1972, which was broadcast by PBS.
17.
Leroy Anderson conducted "The Typewriter" as an encore, and Arthur Fiedler played the carriage return percussive part.
18.
Leroy Anderson was initiated as an honorary member of the Gamma Omega chapter of Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia at Indiana State University in 1969.
19.
In 1975, Leroy Anderson died of cancer in Woodbury, Connecticut and was buried there.
20.
Leroy Anderson was posthumously inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1988, and his music continues to be a staple of "pops" orchestra repertoire.