Patrick Bade
Irving Berlin
Summary
Arriving in New York from Imperial Russia at the age of 5, Irving Berlin began his career as a singing waiter and went on to become the great American song writer. He composed an estimated 1500 songs over a life that lasted 101 years. We look at his songs, such as ‘Always’, ‘White Christmas’, ‘Cheek to Cheek’, ‘Puttin’ on the Ritz’ and ‘God Bless America’.
Patrick Bade
Patrick Bade is a historian, writer, and broadcaster. He studied at UCL and the Courtauld Institute of Art. He was a senior lecturer at Christie’s Education for many years and has worked for the Art Fund, Royal Opera House, National Gallery, and V&A. He has published on 19th- and early 20th-century paintings and historical vocal recordings. His latest book is Music Wars: 1937–1945.
Ed, Edward, who’s just been on a wonderful trip with me, amazing contribution he made to that trip. You would know better than me, surely. I don’t think I can really judge an American accent used in the songs of the 1930s. It’s certainly more comprehensible to me than, for instance, I’ve just watched “Oppenheimer” at the movies, and I found that really hard to follow, the American accent in that movie.
Not initially, but I know he did learn musical notation later on.
That I would be surprised, because, as I said, there’s certainly the script for it was prepared for Jerome Kern, not for him, but he may have added lyrics for individual songs. I don’t know about that, actually.