Word: tunesmithing
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...sprawling, sometimes rambling narrative indulges in an uncomfortable amount of kitchen psychoanalysis ("The only thing that can explain this man, with his chain smoking, pills, liquor, insomnia, and need for crowds, is incredible pain") in arguing that Bernstein's background has forged the schizoid musician, from slick tunesmith to leonine conductor, that he has become. In Peyser's view -- formed with the partial cooperation of Bernstein, who gave her permission to use some personal letters -- the works of the artist cannot be understood without taking into account the character...
DIED. Johnny Marks, 75, Tin Pan Alley tunesmith whose Christmas songs include I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day (1956), Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree (1960) and Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (first recorded by Gene Autry in 1949), which went on to become one of the most popular tunes of all time, with 150 million records and 8 million sheet music copies sold worldwide; in New York City...
DIED. John Frederick Coots, 87, Tin Pan Alley-era tunesmith who composed the music for Santa Claus Is Coming to Town, Love Letters in the Sand, You Go to My Head and hundreds of other songs, as well as the scores for a dozen 1920s Broadway shows, of which the best known was Sons o' Guns (1929); in New York City...
George Gershwin was the archetypal American composer: a Tin Pan Alley tunesmith with high artistic aspirations. The man who set the country humming Oh, Lady, Be Good and Someone to Watch Over Me also wrote more formally complex, jazz-tinged "crossover" works like Rhapsody in Blue, three Preludes for piano, and most ambitious of all, the Concerto in F for piano and orchestra...