Jerome Kern: His Life and Music
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Book Overview
In what has become the biography of the father of American musical theatre, Gerald Bordman demonstrates a keen understanding and sympathy for Kern the man, as well as Kern the musician. No "rags-to-riches" folk hero, Jerome Kern grew up on the periphery of the American-Jewish elite, achieved early success, and moved throughout his life among the era's leading personalities and performers. Bordman follows Kern's career from its beginnings on Broadway and London's West End before World War I to his death in 1945. He reveals how Kern's 1914 hit "They Didn't Believe Me" established the pattern for the modern popular ballad; how his famous Princess Theatre shows during World War I helped end the dominance of European musicals on Broadway; and how with Show Boat he initiated the Americanized operetta style that dominated the American stage for decades. Examining the scores for all of Kern's shows and films (including fascinating discussions of such famous songs as "Look for the Silver Lining," "Ol' Man River," and "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes"), Bordman demonstrates not only how Kern dramatically changed perceptions of what theatre music should or could be, but also how developments around Kern influenced him and his music.
Format:Hardcover
Language:English
ISBN:0195026497
ISBN13:9780195026498
Release Date:May 1980
Publisher:Oxford University Press, USA
Length:438 Pages
Weight:1.85 lbs.
Customer Reviews
1 rating
The whole story
Published by Thriftbooks.com User , 15 years ago
The author is a distinguished historian of American musicals. In this volume we learn not only about Jerome Kern but about the theater and music industry from the early and mid-twentieth century. Bordman has a full command of the primary and secondary sources, and it's doubtful that any other historian will attempt a more exhaustive Kern biogaphy. But there's the fault: the story is overwhelmed by details. It takes a dedicated reader to wade through the barrage of facts about Kern and the theater. I made it, but many others, I'm afraid, won't. The word "definitive," controversial as it is, may surely be used in this case. Bordman is a fine writer as well as researcher, and this helps enormously.
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