Meredith Willson
Meredith Willson (born May 18, 1902 in Mason City , Iowa , † June 15, 1984 in Santa Monica , California ) was an American musical and hit composer . He gained particular fame through his musical Music Man from 1957, for which he wrote not only the music, but also books and lyrics.
Life
Meredith Willson's real name was Robert Meredith Reiniger. He learned to play the piano from his mother. He later received professional training at the New York Institute of Music Art, which later became known as the Juilliard School .
From 1921 to 1923 he was the first flutist in the John Philipp Sousa Band. From 1924 to 1929 he played under Arturo Toscanini with the New York Philharmonic .
In 1929 he became musical director of the ABC radio company in its Northwest District subdivision, the station was called KFRC. In the early 1930s he gained some prominence as the music director of NBC in San Francisco . He moved to Hollywood in the late 1930s and became music director on many of the radio shows that were popular at the time.
In the 1940s he composed film music for Charlie Chaplin's The Great Dictator and William Wyler's The Little Foxes , for which he was nominated for an Academy Award both times . In 1941 he wrote his first hit "You and I" . During the Second World War he served as a major in the US Army and was a member of the Armed Forces Radio Service .
He experienced his greatest success in 1951 with the Christmas song It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas , which became a classic, and in 1957 with his first musical The Music Man , for which he was inspired by the musical composer Frank Loesser . What is less well known is that the Beatles title "Till There Was You" from 1963 comes from this musical.
Two later musicals The Unsinkable Molly Brown from 1960 and Here's Love from 1963 could not build on the success of Music Man .
literature
- Charles B. Axton, Otto Zehnder: Reclam's musical guide . In: Reclam's Universal Library . 2nd Edition. No. 10358 . Reclam, Stuttgart 1990, ISBN 3-15-010358-4 .
Web links
- Meredith Willson in the Internet Broadway Database (IBDb)
- Meredith Willson in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Biography - Songwriters Hall of Fame (English)
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Willson, Meredith |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Cleaner, Robert Meredith |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American musical and hit composer |
| DATE OF BIRTH | May 18, 1902 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Mason City , Iowa |
| DATE OF DEATH | June 15, 1984 |
| Place of death | Santa Monica , California |