Willie Eckstein

William "Willie" Eckstein (also Billy Eckstein ; born December 6, 1888 in Montreal , Canada ; † September 23, 1963 ibid) was a Canadian pianist and composer.

Life

Eckstein was the youngest of fourteen children in a Swedish-German immigrant family. His musical talent was recognized early on; He started taking piano lessons at the age of three and was taught by a teacher at McGill University at the age of six . At the age of twelve he was considered a musical child prodigy; he played the piano on Broadway and toured Canada and the United States. He has been compared to Ignacy Jan Paderewski and hailed as The Boy Paderewski . He appeared before President Roosevelt at the Canadian National Exhibition and the White House, and in 1905 made a successful European tour.

In 1906 Eckstein returned to Montreal and worked there as a silent film pianist. From 1912 to 1930 he was employed at George Ganetakos ' Strand Theater , where he was heralded as "The World's Foremost Motion Picture Interpreter" and was known as Mr. Finger . Musicians such as Eubie Blake , Józef Hofmann , Vladimir de Pachmann and the famous Sergei Rachmaninov , who was taken with his playing, heard him here .

Eckstein's pianistic career fell into the heyday of ragtime . He was not only an excellent interpreter of this music, but also composed numerous ragtime pieces in addition to songs such as Goodbye Soldierboy , You Are My All In All (with Harry Thomas ; text: Walter Bruce ) and Goodbye Sunshine, Hello Moon (text: Gene Buck ) like the Delirious Rag (with Harry Thomas).

In 1919 he became the first pianist to perform live (as the accompanist for singer Gus Hill ) in North America's broadcasting history . Around the same time he played in one of Canada's first jazz bands , Eckstein's Jazz Band , led by his brother Jack Eckstein . He also directed his own instrumental ensemble with piano, cello and xylophone, The William Eckstein Trio . With this he recorded arrangements of songs such as Goodbye Sunshine, Hello Moon (on His Master's Voice ), That Tumble-Down Shack in Athlone and Gitz Rice's Burmah Moon .

As a soloist, Eckstein made recordings for the Apex and Okeh labels (partly under the pseudonym Vi Palmer ) and Victor in the late 1920s. In 1922 he recorded Music makes the Word Go Round , which he composed with Billy Munro . In 1923 he played the first recorded recording of Scott Joplin's Meaple Leaf Rag .

With the decline of silent films, Eckstein left the Strand Theater in 1930. He performed in cabaret, radio, and early television shows, and gave a. a. improvised piano duo concerts with Robert Langlois . With Vera Guilaroff , he gave performances in nightclubs and on the radio under the name The Piano Ramblers .

In 1959, Eckstein received letters of thanks from Governor General Vincent Massey and Prime Minister John Diefenbaker for his piece Queen of Canada , which he had composed on the occasion of Queen Elizabeth II's trip to Canada . In May 1963 his friends honored him with a festive event. On the night of that event, he suffered a stroke, from which he died four months later. His music was continued, a. a. by jazz singer Sarah Vaughn , Mimi Blais recorded his musical Massacre in 1999 . In 2005, Eckstein was inducted into the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame .

Compositions

• Royal Highlanders March and Two Step , 1910
• Some Rag: A Real Live One , 1910
• Down in the Meadow Where the Daisies Grow , 1910
• The Sunny Summertime , 1911
• Beautiful Thoughts , 1916
• Valse Deluxe , 1916
• All Erin is Calling Mavourneen , 1916
• Delerious Rag: One Step , 1917
• Perpetual Rag , 1917
• Good-Bye Soldier Boy , 1917
• You Are My All in All , 1917
• Goodbye Sunshine, Hello Moon , 1919
• I Just Can't Help Lovin 'Em All , 1920
• Oriental Fan-Ta-Si , 1920
• Valse Liane , 1920
• The Sunshine Trail , 1920
• Egypt , 1920
• When I'm Dreaming of You , 1920
• Romance of Love , 1921
• Rose Land , 1921
• Trail O'Dreams , 1921
• Valse Inspiration , 1922
• Valse Amoureuse , 1922
• You've Got to Hand it to Me , 1922
• Just a Memory of You (clay souvenir) , 1922
• S'Nice (Naughty But It's Nice) , 1923
• Read You Forget , 1923
• You, Just You , 1923
• My Heart Wants Love and You , 1923
• Lonesome Rose , 1923
• Hey You Want Any Codfish? , 1923
• Music (Makes the World Go Round) , 1923
• My Baby Just Cares for Me , 1923
• A Musical Massacre , 1923
• I'm Going Back to My Home Sweet Home , 1924
• I'm All A Twitter , 1927
• If You But Knew , 1928
• Uptown 6303 , 1929
• Won't You Meet Me at Murray’s , 1929
• The Lost Melody , 1932
• Where the Niagara Flows , 1933
• Dance to a Lovely Melody (La Saison du Bonheur) , 1935
• To the King and Queen (From Over There) , 1939
• The Song That Leads to Victory , 1941
• Cheers for the CPC , 1941
• Hats Off to Canada , 1941
• The “V” Song , 1941
• Ode to Ike , 1944
• Tessa From Odessa , 1944
• Montreal, Montreal, Montreal , 1945
• Got a Date at the Chateau (for Chateau St. Rose) , 1948
• Strollin 'on the Mountain , 1938
• Bonsoir Chérie! , 1951
• Queen of Canada , 1959

Web links

• The Canadian Encyclopedia - Willie Eckstein
• "Perfessor" Bill Edwards Professional Purvoyer of Pianistic Pyrotechnics - Willie Eckstein
• Library and Archives Canada - The Virtual Gramophone - Willie Eckstein

Individual evidence

1. ^ Delirious Rag at the Library of Congress