Biografia Proveniente da una famiglia di genitori svedesi emigrati negli Stati Uniti, frequentò da adolescente i corsi di Pianoforte e Teoria Musicale al New England Conservatory di Boston. Nel 1925 entrò alla Harvard University, dove studiò composizione (con Walter Piston e George Enescu), pianoforte, trombone, organo e contrabbasso. In quel periodo suonò il trombone nella Harvard Band. Per un periodo si divise fra la musica e le lingue straniere: dopo aver conseguito il Masters Degree in Music ad Harvard, continuò a frequentare corsi di laurea in lingue al Radcliffe College. I brani e gli arrangiamenti per la Harvard College Band furono notati da Arthur Fiedler, allora direttore della Boston Pops, che cominciò ad eseguirli con la sua orchestra e ad invitarlo per dirigere i suoi pezzi, con concerti negli Stati Uniti ed in Canada. Anderson decise di tentare la carriera del musicista, trasferendosi a New York nel 1936 e negli anni successivi, dopo aver lavorato al Pentagono come interprete durante la seconda guerra mondiale, quando i suoi lavori divennero sempre più popolari, fondò una sua orchestra. Scrisse diversi brani che diventarono dei grandi successi e che ebbero grande diffusione attraverso la radio. "Blue Tango", un brano che combinò i ritmi latini con i linguaggi melodici del jazz americano, fu un successo strepitoso nel 1951. Raggiunse la prima posizione nella Billboard Hot 100 per cinque settimane e fu la prima registrazione strumentale a vendere un milione di copie. Diversi capi orchestra, da Hugo Winterhalter a Guy Lombardo, realizzarono delle versioni di questa composizione.
Alcune composizioni sono state impiegate in film: The Typewriter nel film Dove vai sono guai (Who's Minding the Store?), regia di Jerry Lewis (1963) Sleigh Ride nel film Insonnia d'amore (Sleepless in Seattle), regia di Nora Ephron (1993)
Opere 1935- Do You Think That Love Is Here To Stay? 1935- Love May Come and Love May Go 1935- The Music in My Heart 1935- What's the Use of Love? 1936- Harvard Fantasy 1938- Jazz Legato 1938- Jazz Pizzicato 1939 - Ticonderoga March 1940- Easter Song 1940- Mother's Whistler 1945- The Syncopated Clock 1945- Promenade 1946- Cambridge Centennial March of Industry 1946- Chicken Reel 1947- Fiddle-Faddle 1947 & 1949- The Irish Suite: 1947 The Irish Washerwoman 1947 The Minstrel Boy 1947 The Rakes of Mallow 1947 The Last Rose of Summer 1949 The Wearing of the Green 1949 -The Girl I Left Behind Me 1947- Old MacDonald Had a Farm 1947- Serenata 1948- Governor Bradford March 1948- Saraband 1948- Sleigh Ride 1949- A Trumpeter's Lullaby 1950- A Christmas Festival (9:00) 1950- Classical Jukebox 1950- The Typewriter 1950- The Waltzing Cat 1951- Belle of the Ball 1951- Blue Tango 1951- China Doll 1951- Horse and Buggy 1951- The Penny Whistle Song 1951- The Phantom Regiment 1951- Plink, Plank, Plunk! 1951- Song of Jupiter 1952- A Christmas Festival (5:45) 1953- The Girl in Satin 1953- Concerto per pianoforte ed orchestra in Do maggiore 1953- Song of the Bells 1953- Summer Skies 1954- Alma Mater 1954- Bugler's Holiday 1954- The First Day of Spring 1954- Forgotten Dreams 1954- Sandpaper Ballet 1954- Scottish Suite: The Bluebells of Scotland Turn Ye To Me 1955- Suite of Carols for Strings 1955- Suite of Carols for Brass 1955- Suite of Carols for Woodwinds 1958 Goldilocks: Goldilocks Overture Come to Me Guess Who Heart of Stone (Pyramid Dance) He'll Never Stray Hello If I Can't Take it With Me I Never Know When to Say When Lady in Waiting Lazy Moon Little Girls My Last Spring Save a Kiss Shall I Take My Heart and Go? Tag-a-long Kid The Pussy Foot Town House Maxixe Who's Been Sitting in My Chair? 1959- Woodbury Fanfare 1960- An Old Fashioned Song 1961- Piece for Rolf 1962- Arietta 1962- Balladette 1962- The Captains and the Kings 1962- Clarinet Candy 1962- The Golden Years 1962- Home Stretch 1962- You Can Always Tell a Harvard Man 1966- Chatterbox 1966- The Cowboy and His Horse 1966- Hens and Chickens 1966- Melody on Two Notes 1966- The Whistling Kettle 1970- Birthday Party 1970- Lullaby of the Drums 1970- March of the Two Left Feet 1970- To a Wild Rose (Edward MacDowell) 1970- Waltz Around the Scale 1972- Wedding March for Jane and Peter 1973- Second Regiment Connecticut National Guard March Leroy Anderson: A Bio-Bibliography, Praeger 2004, chapitre 2 - Compositions, p.15-81
Discografia Registrazioni del compositoreLeroy Anderson: A Bio-Bibliography; Burgess Speed, Eleanor Anderson, Steve Metcalf. "Discography - Recordings by the Composer", Praeger, Westport CT USA; 2004, pp 84-94 Leroy Anderson's Irish Suite (Decca DL 4050; 1952) Leroy Anderson conducts Blue Tango and other Favorites (Decca DL 8121; 1958) A Christmas Festival (Decca DL 78925 (s); 1959) Leroy Anderson Conducts Leroy Anderson (Decca DL 78865 (s); 1959) Leroy Anderson Conducts His Music (Decca DL 78954 (s); 1960) The New Music of Leroy Anderson (Decca DL 74335 (s); 1962) The Leroy Anderson Collection (Digitally remastered from original Decca analog recordings) (MCA Classics MCAD2-9815-A&B; 1988) The Best of Leroy Anderson: Sleigh Ride (Digitally remastered from original Decca analog master recordings) (MCA Classics MCAD -11710; 1997)
Note
Bibliografia Libri riguardanti Leroy Anderson: Inglese Libri Burgess Speed, Eleanor Anderson, Steve Metcalf: Leroy Anderson: A Bio-Bibliography (Praeger, 2004) ISBN 0-313-32176-0 Howard Pollack, Harvard Composers - Walter Piston and his Students (The Scarecrow Press, 1992) ISBN 0-8108-2493-0 Edward Jablonski, The Encyclopedia of American Music (Doubleday & Co., Inc. 1981) ISBN 0-385-08088-3 George McCue, Music in American Society 1776-1976 (Transaction Books., 1977) ISBN 978-0-87855-634-2 Christopher Pavlakis, The American Music Handbook (MacMillan Publishing Co., Inc., 1974) ISBN 0-385-08088-3 David Ewen, Popular American Composers - from Revolutionary Times to the Present (H.W. Wilson Co., 1962) Jan-Erik Ander & Jeremy Lamb (translator): New Sweden 1638-1988 (Swedish National Committee for New Sweden '88, 1992) ISBN 91-7176-146-2 Steven Ledbetter: 100 Years of the Boston Pops (Boston Symphony Orchestra, Inc., 1985)
Riviste Joseph Smith: Leroy Anderson - Scandinavian Review (American-Scandinavian Foundation, 2009) Eliot Spalding: Vita: Leroy Anderson (Harvard Review, 1993) Janet Frank: Syncopated Clock, Indeed! (The American Scholar - Phi Beta Kappa Society, 2008) Jane Anderson Vercelli: Composer Leroy Anderson: Cambridge Born and Bred (The Newetowne Chronicle - Cambridge Historical Society, 2008) Joanne Kaufmann: Leroy Anderson: Tuneful Blade Runner (Wall Street Journal, 1995) Anthony Tommasini: Tuneful Gems from a Master: Leroy Anderson (New York Times, 1996) Frederick Fennell: Music by Leroy Anderson (The Instrumentalist, 1990) Anders Neumueller, editor: Leroy Anderson (Swedish Press Society, 1994) Andrew & Martha Sherman, editors: Annual Report dedication to Leroy Anderson (Town of Woodbury, 2008)
Svedese Norra Strö Hembygdsförening: Norra Strö: Bygden och Folket (Norra Strö Hembygdsförening, 2009) - documentation of Leroy Anderson's parents birthplaces in Sweden Carin Dohlman: Leroy Andersons Julmusik; Wellesley, Massachusetts USA; (Gult och Blatt i Boston-New England, 2009)
Tedesco Hans-Walter Berg: Leroy Anderson: ein Meister der Miniatur; Buchloe, Germany; (Neue Blasmusik, 1992)
Voci correlate Sleigh Ride Celebrità della Hollywood Walk of Fame
Collegamenti esterni
Leroy Anderson (sito ufficiale) www.leroyanderson.com Leroy Anderson Foundation www.leroyandersonfoundation.org PBS (Public Broadcasting System) Once Upon a Sleigh Ride website devoted to a 1999 documentary about Anderson;
Categoria:Svedesi-statunitensi