| Irving Berlin was one of the best, most famous and most popular composers in America because of the many great songs he wrote. Although he never learned how to read music or play the piano properly, he wrote magnificent songs for Hollywood movies, Broadway musicals, and other occasions. Irving Berlin was born on May 11th, 1888 in Tyumen, Siberia. When he was young, he believed he had been born in Tolochin, Russia but later learned otherwise. At birth, his name was Israel Baline. He abstained from changing it for the majority of his childhood. In the nineteenth century Russia was in a political state of chaos. While Revolutionaries were attempting to initiate a revolution, the Tsar and nobility spent a great deal of time preventing one. One result of the mess was pogroms against the Jews. In a pogrom, vigilantes raided Jewish settlements. Most people�s earliest memories are scary or unhappy. Today, they are usually merely an inconsequential event such as a ghost in the closet. However Israel�s first memory was not only horrifying by a child�s standards, but by an adult�s as well. It was of him lying in the road with his family, wrapped up in a blanket, witnessing his home and village burn in a pogrom. Besides pogroms, there were also many other terrible things that Jews endured at this time in Russia. Jews were not permitted to farm, enter civil service, or travel. They were allowed to reside only in certain areas. From Tyumen, Israel and his family traveled to Tolochin to be with Israel�s uncle. After they had dwelled there for a short time, Israel�s uncle assisted them in their efforts to reach America in 1893. After eleven days at sea, the Balines� ship, the Rhynland, disembarked in New York. The Balines were �conspicuous in their �Jew clothes�� and spoke only Yiddish. They passed by the Statue of Liberty on which is engraved Emma Lazarus� poem. Later in life, Irving Berlin wrote a musical called Mrs. Liberty. It featured Emma Lazarus� poem, which he had transformed into a song. Israel inherited a love of music from his father, Moses Baline, a cantor, and his grandfather, a rabbi. When his father died, Israel was forced to quit school. He worked full time by finding whatever work he could, usually by working as a busker singing for pennies. While he was a busker, he left his family�s home because he thought he did not did not make a large enough contribution enough to the family. After a year as busker, Berlin auditioned and received a role in the chorus of a musical called The Show Girl. That was the beginning of his productive role in show business. He had several jobs at the beginning of his career in show business. They included working as a boomer, who is an employee of a show company who sits in the audience and claps to encourage other members of the audience to clap. Berlin also worked as a singing waiter in Chinatown. There he began his career as a songwriter. In 1907 after he had changed his name to Irving Berlin, he published his first song which was �Mary From Sunny Italy.� His envy of the Tin Pan Alley�s success with �My Mariucci Take a Steamboat� inspired him to write it. Berlin had his first major international hit with �Alexander�s Ragtime Band.� What made this song so great was that Berlin mixed black, white, ragtime, and military music with excellent lyrics. From then until 1935, Irving Berlin wrote songs for various musicals. In 1935 he moved to Hollywood, where he wrote songs for many movies. There he met up again with a childhood friend who helped him succeed in Hollywood. One of the most famous songs Berlin wrote in Hollywood was �I�m Dreaming of a White Christmas� for the movie White Christmas. It is queer that one of a Jewish boy�s most famous songs is about a Christian holiday. In the forties, Berlin continued to write Broadway musicals including a big hit, Annie Get Your Gun. Berlin also wrote songs that were not for shows. One of the most famous of these, and one that most people do not know who wrote, is �God Bless America.� In an interview with The American Magazine, Berlin explained his nine rules for writing popular songs: 1. The melody should be within the range of most singers. 2. The title should be attention-getting and, in addition, repeated within the body of the song. 3. The song should be �sexless�: able to be sung by men and women. 4. The song requires �heart interest.� 5. And at the same time, it should be original in idea, words, and music. 6. Stick to nature. Not nature in a visionary, abstract way, but nature as demonstrated in homely, concrete, everyday manifestations. 7. Sprinkle the lyrics with �open �vowels� so that it will be euphonious. 8. Make the song as simple as possible. 9. The songwriter must look upon his work as a business, that is, to make a success of it, he must work and work, and then WORK Irving Berlin married two times. Unfortunately, his first wife died after they were married only five months. Fifteen years later he met Ellin Mackay, a wealthy, upper crust Christian journalist. Her father did not want her to marry a Jewish songwriter. So they eloped. Her father disowned her. Their romance so well known that a movie was produced describing their affair. Despite their fame, they ended up happily married and had several children. Irving Berlin stopped writing all together in the late 1960�s. He died at the age of 101 in 1989 but the songs he wrote did not. �God Bless America� continues to motivate us today after September 11th. |
| Irving Berlin |
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