Jerome Kern »

Stephen Banfield is Stanley Hugh Badock Professor of Music, University of Bristol, England.

A founding father of the modern American musical, Jerome Kern (1885–1945) was the composer of legions of popular songs, including such standards as “Smoke Gets in Your Eyes” and “Ol’ Man River.” His 1927 Show Boat with Oscar Hammerstein II helped to set a new standard for musical theater.

This book is the first to provide a critical overview of Kern’s musical accomplishments throughout his career. Stephen Banfield ranges from Broadway, to Hollywood, and to London’s West End, drawing on unpublished manuscripts and scores to assess the composer’s extraordinary oeuvre.

Kern’s life, personality, and working methods are given due attention, as is the development of his work from the early musical comedies through the collaborations with Hammerstein and P. G. Wodehouse up to the later film scores. Banfield focuses especially on the musical and lyrical structures of Kern’s compositions, illuminating beloved works and shedding light on compositions often overlooked.

Library Journal

In this volume of the "Yale Broadway Masters" series, Banfield (music, Univ. of Bristol, U.K.) takes a scholarly look at the composer of Show Boat, which many commentators have lauded as the most important Broadway musical of all time. Instead of writing a full-fledged biography, however, Banfield focuses on the music and cultural artifacts created by the composer and his collaborators. Here, footnotes appear throughout, unlike in previous books on Kern (including Gerald Bordman's biography, Jerome Kern: His Life and Music). The five lengthy chapters describe Kern's life, his place in musical comedy, his collaboration with Oscar Hammerstein II, several shows in act-by-act detail, and Kern's move to Hollywood toward the end of his life. Three shows in particular are examined: Sitting Pretty, Show Boat, and The Cat and the Fiddle. Of special note is an extended discussion of the relationship between Kern and his musical collaborators and orchestrators, Robert Russell Bennett and Frank Saddler, which emphasizes the collaborative nature of Broadway musicals. An important contribution to the literature on the American musical; highly recommended, especially for academic libraries.-Bruce R. Schueneman, Texas A&M Univ. Lib., Kingsville Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

Contents

Foreword by Geoffrey Block....................ix
Acknowledgments....................xi
Editorial Method....................xiii
CHAPTER 1. Introducing Kern....................1
CHAPTER 2. Kern and Musical Comedy....................68
CHAPTER 3. Kern the Romantic: Three Shows....................131
CHAPTER 4. Mostly Hammerstein....................199
CHAPTER 5. Kern and Hollywood....................253
List of Works by Jerome Kern....................307
Notes....................309
Bibliography....................327
Permissions....................333
General Index....................353
Index of Kern's Works....................367