Someone once asked Irving Berlin what kind of songs he liked to write best. He replied, "Hits"

Irving Berlin never took a music lesson in his life. He couldn't read music and only used the black keys to play for many years. A genius.

@retiredmusiceducator3612

Жыл бұрын

How is that even possible - not be able to read music but he could write it? or did he write the songs in his head - and play them and then have someone else write down the music?

@andrewbarrett1537

Жыл бұрын

​@@retiredmusiceducator3612 Mr Berlin couldn't write music either. He had several musical secretaries who would take down the music he composed, starting with his friend Ted Snyder who also gave him his start, and then continuing with Cliff Hess, Arthur Johnston, Doris Tauber, and Helmy Kresa. There were probably others, but these are the folks whose names I know. All these folks also were well versed in harmony and 'fed' Mr. Berlin many, many different possible chord progressions for a given melody (he nearly always originated all the lyrics, and the melody itself), at which point he would select what he felt was the best chords for him, which almost inevitably would be something rather novel or unusual for the time. Although I'm not aware of commercially-issued audio recordings, Ted Snyder made at least one or two extremely rare rolls for Aeolian (Universal) and since he lived into the 1950s there *might* be an audio recording of him somewhere. Cliff Hess is one of my top 5 favorite ragtime/pop pianists. Fortunately he made a number of wonderful, tasty piano rolls for the Aeolian company on the MelODee and Duo-Art labels circa 1920-1924 (as well as a few very rare earlier ones for Vocalstyle), plus is audible as accompanist on some rare Aeolian-Vocalion records (to a violinist on a salon selection; and to at least one or two singers), as well as a couple of piano duets with Frank Banta. In his day, Arthur Johnston was considered one of the best pianists in vaudeville as as well as harmonically one of the most advanced. Arthur Johnston recorded as accompanist to the Brox Sisters, the Giersdorf Sisters, Keller Sisters & Lynch, the Three Wainwright Sisters, and also a few more records with a handful of dance bands, generally for Victor. His accompaniments reveal a masterful pianist with great technique. see: adp.library.ucsb.edu/index.php/mastertalent/detail/108725/Johnston_Arthur He also recorded two piano solos in Hollywood in 1930 ("It's Yours" and "When the Folks High Up Do the Mean Low-Down", both Irving Berlin songs), but they were never commercially issued and it's unknown to me whether test-pressings exist (I hope so, and if so, I'd LOVE to hear them!). He also made a few piano rolls, I *think*, although I can't remember for which companies (Welte?). I am not aware of any recordings of Doris Tauber (there must be some since she lived until 1996) or Helmy Kresa (maybe Michael Feinstein or Peter Mintun know of some).

@StacheBigote

Жыл бұрын

@@retiredmusiceducator3612 At first I thought you were asking how he could be a songwriter without being able to read music and, given your username, was thoroughly confused 😂

@StacheBigote

Жыл бұрын

@@andrewbarrett1537 Awesome answer

@mattredman98

Жыл бұрын

@@andrewbarrett1537 Fantastic depensal of details and knowledge, Andrew! I've always wondered specifically to what degree they advised, suggested, corrected the harmony, melody, countermelodies, answering phrases, exact nature of the setting of the piano accompaniment and shaped whatever material he presented in whatever state of completion. Are there any detailed interviews given for a musical not general audience? I like the Giersdorf Sisters with Johnston doing 'Blue Skies' in 1927, which I first heard a few years ago. In my opinion they were very able vocally in comparison to what one hears in general of the period and recorded genre, and I now wonder if he actually wrote it with Irving? Not sure of the precise chronology of his composer-pianist assistant folks you mention, as to whether that would fit the timeline. But small ensembles such as those with less prominence and not accompanied by larger bands are great primary sources for people wanting to hear authentic music of the 1920s in my view.

Those of you who don't know who this great man is, you certainly know his music. He wrote the music AND lyrics to (among many others): "White Christmas", "Easter Parade", "No Business Like Show Business", "Blue Skies", "Cheek to Cheek", "Let's Face The Music and Dance", "Puttin' on the Ritz", and "God Bless America". Not bad for an immigrant from Russia.

@WSenator1

3 жыл бұрын

...and not bad for a piano player that could play in only one key!

@stephenthompson5413

3 жыл бұрын

At first I thought he was the owner of the dry-cleaning establishment at the end of the block on East Wetmore Ave. -is my face RED!

@GIGI_NYC

3 жыл бұрын

💖

@Miriam-fk9wr

2 жыл бұрын

Not bad at all 🌷

@user-wt3oc4mh4b

2 жыл бұрын

Irving Berlin as well as George Gershwin and Leonard Bernstein were geniuses of American musical Theatre and wrote hundreds of best evergreen songs and jazz standards ever.Not bad for immigrants from Russia and Ukraine,isn't it?

What an inspiration his life was. I'm 62 but still too young to really "know" his music. He was incredibly blessed with the gift of song crafting and never stopped loving the country that, in his words, "allowed" him to succeed in life. If we could all be so lucky! God rest your soul, Mr. Berlin!!

What a treasure he was!

Who could give a thumbs down to Irving Berlin ? A great American composer .

@littlewhitepetals8790

6 жыл бұрын

Maybe somebody who don't know their directions?!

@imanoldsoul59

3 жыл бұрын

How about those who are hard of hearing?

@Arkelk2010

3 ай бұрын

Someone who was rushed or tired or had bad eyesight and didn't hit the right spot on the phone touch screen, perhaps? It has happened to me, but I think I have corrected Ted all the mistakes. (Oh how I miss a physical keyboard!)

Wow! This is amazing seeing film of Irving Berlin as a younger man. I've only seen photos of him as a wizened old man. He was quite dorky looking in his younger years...resembling an accountant or a high school geometry teacher, and nothing of what you might expect a brilliant composer to look like...which often brings to mind images of Beethoven with his wild hair-do, or the pensive intensity of a Liszt. Definitely an American treasure.

I also loved it, just listening to him you can hear the enthusiasm for what he did. A true hero of mine personally. Although I am not American, I love your writers, Foster, Berlin, and of course others.

@MrBenbaruch

3 жыл бұрын

He was born in Russia and became an American citizen in his 30s.

@tartertime89

2 жыл бұрын

@@MrBenbaruch I was aware but he's so entrenchedin the American Tradition he embodied the spirit of American music of that period.

God damn this show looks wholesome and great, look at the hosts dancing to his music god damn nothing like this in the 35 years I've been alive.

Wow. To see and 'hear' Irving Berlin made my day. Until now, all I ever saw of him was in photos. What a treat to see his talent on display. Thank you for sharing!!!

What can possibly add ? TOTAL GENIUS isn't NEARLY enough......

This is pure GOLD! Thank you so much for posting.

i want that piano! Beautiful man, thanks for this. I am amazed at how little views this videos has... the guy's a legend

@witardedphuc

10 жыл бұрын

Sadly, I think people these days would rather watch a goat sing a Taylor Swift song.

@danishcanadian

10 жыл бұрын

Irving Berlin is one of my musical heroes!!! As for what folks my age would rather watch, they wouldn't know music if it was sitting right in front if them!! I wish I could have met Irving Berlin. I also play by ear, and can greatly identify with him.

@johnnycanoeiro4200

10 жыл бұрын

***** i would rather watch a goat sing myself too. but i do prefer iving than taylor swift if thats what you mean

@valross4886

4 жыл бұрын

You can get that piano. All of the electronic pianos now have features that let you transpose the key.

@amohanjazz

4 жыл бұрын

@@witardedphuc LOL...!!

Amazing 🤩

This man was a genius.

What I always wondered was how he could play something like How Deep Is the Ocean, with its maj7/7th/6th. He must have used the white keys for passing notes like that, and the 4th/maj7 of the scale. What the lever or wheel was for is hinted at in this 1944 letter he wrote: "With this piano I was able to transpose into my singing key, or rather to keep it within the range of my voice." So he'd set the key at the start, instead of using it throughout the song. One anecdote from a Broadway producer made it sound like Iriving's actual performances of his songs utterly unlistenable, but the snippet we get here is lively stuff, and his voice gets the job done, so I don't know what that guy was on about. Also the accounts I've read say his first piano had a wheel, then later he got one with a lever, contrary to how he says this was his first. Apparently he'd lug the thing around everywhere too. His musical secretaries figured out what he wanted. Johnny Mercer is mostly known as the greatest of American lyricists but wrote the music sometimes too. He'd play everything with one finger, and had a simple notation system, then he'd play for an arranger, who'd replicate what Johnny played, and Johnny would correct him on the chords until it sounded right. I imagine Irving - and a lot of other musically unsophisticated composers - did something similar with their staff. What songs this man wrote! "Irving Berlin isn't part of American music - Irving Berlin is American Music." - Jerome Kern

@andrewbarrett1537

Жыл бұрын

Well, when he / they say or write "all on the black keys" that's a slight exaggeration. Gb/F# major is indeed MOSTLY on the black keys, but does use two white keys: Cb (aka B natural) and F natural (aka E# in the key of F#). I'm talking about the diatonic scale. Of course for passing notes and chromatic notes he'd need to 'borrow' some white keys. The reason so many 'ear-players' played in highly flatted/sharped keys like Gb/F#, or Cb/B, or Db/C#, is that besides the rich and mellow tone of those particular keys, they were very ear-player-friendly since they very clearly demarcate the half-steps (adjacent white keys, as well as black-to-white and white-to-black keys), as well as keeping more melodious whole-steps and larger between black keys (on the standard keyboard, no two black keys are less than a whole-step apart, and some are a minor third apart). So, for ear players, it was much harder to accidentally hit a 'clam' (wrong note) when playing mostly on the black keys, than in keys like C where the half and whole steps 'feel' the same due to being adjacent to each other. Many other 'ear playing' pianists either started out, or played their entire lives, mostly on the black keys, such as other famous songwriters / ragtime and pop pianists like Eubie Blake, Donald Lambert, Lewis F. Muir, Luckey Roberts, Willy White, Vincent Youmans, and others. In the case of Eubie Blake and Luckey Roberts, even though they started out as 'ear players' on the black keys, within a few years (or decades) they were able to get formal music lessons and learned how to read/write music, play in every key, and formal music theory and harmony/counterpoint, which shows up in most of their extant compositions. Donald Lambert was also taught a lot of this by his mother (a pianist and music teacher) but he still refused to learn how to read/write music so although he did play the classics (and a huge pop and jazz repertoire), he learned it all by ear! It is believed that Lewis Muir, Willy White and Vincent Youmans never learned how to read/write music and remained ear players their entire lives, although listening to Mr. Youmans' piano rolls and examining the scores of his pieces, I feel that he must have been able to play in more keys than Gb, given how harmonically adventurous his songs get, although that was obviously his favored key on the piano rolls.

@beforeourveryeyes

2 ай бұрын

@@andrewbarrett1537 Thank you!

one of the best song writers of all time

@ronaldcammarata3422

4 жыл бұрын

@@Billy219 You'd get a lot of arguments there, I bet. Anyway, there is no one answer...in my humble opinion, of course.

Could he be any sweeter and adorable??

Wonderful!

Wow I'm in awe of him and that piano!

"I wrote my first hit on it" I think that is why it is his The Piano! Great man!

Just as C maj utilises all the white keys, F# maj utilises all the black keys (and 2 white) and is an equivalently easy key to pick out melodies on. The notes are nicely spaced and although you have to remember B and F (two white keys in that signature) it quickly becomes a relatively easy way to play a piano. Yes there would be other white notes in his music but he obviously became more competent and comfortable playing only in F# and so got a transposing piano that could sound in any key (and play along with other instruments and singers (who might struggle to play in six sharps) without the hassle of learning to play in those keys. Saves having to learn scales in other keys. While there are few orchestral arrangements in this key it is popular in piano compositions, many by Messiaen esp in the Turangalîla-Symphonie , some by Scriabin and Grieg.

@consensusworks5823

5 жыл бұрын

Great information. Thanks!!!

"I don't care, it's early in the program" !!! --- "As Thousands Cheer" biography of Irving berlin is SUPERB. Buy it.

Incredible upload. Thank you very much.

LOVE it!!! Thank you so much!!! :))

Amazing

bravoooooooo, !!!!

@LoveTheOConnor That piano was specially built for Berlin. How amazing, huh? Glad you loved it too !!

That iconic piano belongs in thew Smithsonian museu

@YouzTube99

3 жыл бұрын

@David Hirsch It is indeed in the National Museum of American History.

amazing

Good voice!

I've read that Irving Berlin had such a transposing piano because he could only play in one key, but I find it quite implausible that the one key he could play in is F sharp! Was that really true? If so, there's got to be an amazing story there. As anyone who has taken even the first piano lesson knows, you start learning in the key of C, and the key of F sharp is usually the LAST key you learn, and never the only!

@davidkroenlein4685

9 жыл бұрын

I've heard he had such a piano, but had never seen it before!

@Strebor513

9 жыл бұрын

I doubt he only knew how to play in F# and was joking around (which is one of the reasons why this video's great). Now I haven't researched it specifically, but due to the fact that many of the songs he wrote contained modulations of all sorts, I'm willing to bet that's not true. But I bet that transposing piano was a good tool to have when he was working and composing! edit: so I'm wrong according to wikipedia. But in this video, Irving himself says he didn't write his first song on that piano. So who knows! Now I'm thinking he probably knew other keys and could do modulations...but he became accustomed to that piano. Like you said, F# is so random, haha. Fascinating stuff!

@selmerd

9 жыл бұрын

I presume it's because F# uses the black keys, which would be easier to locate since they stick up. Still, it's very unusual of course.

@nk5otr

9 жыл бұрын

He was self-taught on the piano

@TranscendentBen

8 жыл бұрын

I just found this in the Wikipedia entry on transposing piano: Berlin never learned to read music, playing his songs entirely by ear in the key of F-sharp (keeping all five notes of the pentatonic scale on the “black keys”),... So apparently the reason for "learning" that key is the pentatonic scale (which includes most of the notes of the major scale) being on sharps starting at F sharp. Now I can understand how one might learn to play piano like that. It's not so amazing, but it's still interesting. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transposing_piano

He might’ve only been using the black keys here, but he knew how to use em. It’s kind of astonishing that he could play so naturally and yet for many years he didn’t translate it to the white keys.

WHAT a FUCKKK’N BAD ASS ! ✨✨✨👌🏼

So the great American songbook began.

This option ought to be available on electronic keyboards.

I thought that was Dinah Shore, didn't recognize Tony Martin.

When was this recorded?

Happy Birthday to Irving Berlin! We have featured this clip in our blog today: dailyhitofmusic.blogspot.com/

Is there more footage of this out there or is this clip the only surviving part?

👍

What Year Was This Broadcast?

@joelweisberg

4 жыл бұрын

This broadcast must have been in the early 50s. The original Dinah Shore show began on television in 1951. That is singer Tony Martin standing next to her. Pricelss video clip.

@ronaldcammarata3422

4 жыл бұрын

Irving Berlin lived until 1989 (101 years old). I clearly remember him being interview on television. He's a significant part of American history.

@wasittoyoutoo: Do you have any idea who owns the rights to this video?

What year was this filmed?

what is this one called?

What's the name of the song he's singing?? it's marvelous.

@nk5otr

9 жыл бұрын

Call Me Up Some Rainy Afternoon

@12dan231

9 жыл бұрын

Avi Steinberg thanks mate! great to have another favorite song written by him.

@lawrencecentrullo7554

7 жыл бұрын

12dan231 abba

@amohanjazz

4 жыл бұрын

@@nk5otr Oh, thanks!! I also wanted to know what song it was...it is marvellous...

@robinredmon3804

2 ай бұрын

@@nk5otr My Grandfather used to sing this song to me.

If you have fat fingers, its actually easier to play in all black keys

Bailin

More historical proof that formal education is overrated.

@ARIZJOE

4 жыл бұрын

Most of us gentiles need formal education. Mr. Berlin possessed the high literacy and love of learning of the Jewish people.

@bernardbrenner6088

3 жыл бұрын

Abraham Lincoln only had about a year of formal education.

@bba

back when America wasn't a woke mess.