Conrad Salinger

[Tarantella]

I want to pay tribute to the great Conrad Salinger, the fabulous music arranger who worked in the Arthur Freed Unit for MGM and arranged the music for such musicals as "Kiss Me Kate", "Showboat" (1951 version), "The Pirate", "Gigi", "The Bandwagon", "Silk Stockings" - there's a long list of his films. He studied at the Paris Conservatoire.

Salinger's arrangement for "Kiss Me Kate" can be briefly heard in this first U-Tube clip. Note the inventive use of mandolins and instruments which provide complex musical undercurrents. Andre Previn said of Salinger, "he could take a simple tune like 'Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star' and make it sound like 'Daphnis and Chloe'. Yes, he was a stunning and brilliant musician and the Freed Unit owes a lot of its success to this great man (who never received an Oscar). I include 5 links from amongst his greatest works. First, "Kiss Me Kate"; secondly, "Showboat"; thirdly, "The Bandwagon"; fourthly, "High Society"; and lastly, "Silk Stockings".

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AxV9t...eature=related

I include a link from "Showboat" in which you hear the opening title music and then, shortly thereafter, the "Showboat" song itself - revealing masterful orchestration. Yes, (the racial stereotypes are cliched and cloying but) he brings the best out of a beautiful score by Jerome Kern.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xLx0N...eature=related

The next link is the stunning 'Dancing in the Dark', arranged by Salinger for "The Bandwagon".

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=duLFw...eature=related

The beautiful, haunting 'Mind if I Make Love to You' from "High Society" is one of Salinger's triumphs:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OswR7...eature=related

Finally, "All of You" from "Silk Stockings" - music by Cole Porter. Just magnificent:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yg1r_...eature=related

THIS IS ALL INCANDESCENT ARRANGEMENT AND PLAYING, from the MGM Orchestra - core players of the Los Angeles Philharmonic. Salinger died in 1962; it is believed by his own hand.

[ilovebaroque]

Originally Posted by Tarantella

I want to pay tribute to the great Conrad Salinger, the fabulous music arranger who worked in the Arthur Freed Unit for MGM and arranged the music for such musicals as "Kiss Me Kate", "Showboat" (1951 version), "The Pirate", "Gigi", "The Bandwagon", "Silk Stockings" - there's a long list of his films. He studied at the Paris Conservatoire.

Simply amazing...how many outstanding "unsung" artists helped shape the American Broadway Musical. Thank you, Tarantella!

[Tarantella]

These were, of course, Broadway musicals which were put onto film by MGM (there were other studios* which produced musicals too) - and some of them never were on Broadway to start with. I need to clarify that the "Freed unit" was named after the famous MGM Producer, Arthur Freed, who was responsible for these films.

The Gershwin brothers were hired in the 1930s, for example, to write music for Astaire and Rogers at RKO. And much talent from Broadway was recruited for films, such as Vincent Minnelli (who was a production designer), Robert Alton (choreographer), Hermes Pan (choreographer) - the list is long, but I don't have it at my fingertips just now. So, a lot of cross-fertilization.

I want to present a program for my Music Appreciation group, early next year, on Conrad Salinger. He worked with Skip Martin, another well-known and respected arranger at MGM. Salinger studied in Paris with Nadia Boulanger!!

This simply stunning legacy of the great American musical as a genre has never been equalled, IMO, anywhere in the world. It all started with the European Jewish diaspora moving to the USA from the late 19th century and was also heavily influenced by Sigmund Romberg, Victor Herbert and Viennese operetta. When George Gershwin was a song-plugger at Remick's Music shop in New York Stephen Foster's music was still popular in American theatre. George provided the foothold for the music of Tin Pan Alley to gain acceptance on Broadway and the rest, as they say, is history. George Gershwin's "Porgy and Bess" is, IMO, one of three absolute masterpieces of American musical theatre: the others are "Showboat" and "West Side Story".

(This has been a passion of mine since childhood when my mother used to play Porter, Gershwin, Kern, Rodgers & Hart and Berlin on the piano at home!! My parents used to have quite a few parties and the piano featured heavily. One regular guest would always say to my mother, before the piano lid was opened, "Mary, I just happen to have my bongo drums in the car"!! They were noisy, but very musical evenings.)

[Tarantella]

I note that I'd written here in July that Salinger studied with Nadia Boulanger in Paris. My research has tentatively shown that it was, in fact, Andre Gedalge and not Boulanger who was his composition teacher. Further work is needed on this as I still have Boulanger in the back of my head. But what is definite is that Conrad Salinger lived in Paris for 7 years in the 1920's, after graduating from Harvard. There he was exposed to the popular French music of the day and 'running throughout his work are cheerful jaunty motifs, redolent of the boulevards of Paris. This influence, with its lightness of touch mixed with the solid academic background from the Conservatoire was to serve Salinger brilliantly during his remarkable career' (Hindley). As the same writer has observed, "one wonders what the look on the face of Andre Gedalge (teacher of Vaughan Williams, Milhaud and Honegger) would have been were he to have heard 'Sinbad the Sailor', Salinger's reworking of R-K's "Scheherezade" some 25 years later for Gene Kelly's "Invitation to the Dance".

Salinger's orchestrations are quite dense but he still leaves room for the singer/s. A favourite motif of his seems, inter alia, to be the use of triplets in the brass when he is energizing the material - indeed, a preference for brass seems to run through the work. (What fine players these musicians were in the "MGM orchestra".) But he also orchestrated sumptuous string sections which had complex contrapuntal undercurrents. I gather that most of these were made from original piano versions of the songs, but I have yet to clarify all this. He worked with other orchestrators such as Lenny Hayton and Skip Martin and was sometimes 'supervised' by Andre Previn, but Salinger's contribution is the stand-out. Andre Previn, who described himself as not usually given to hyperbole, said of Salinger: 'he was the greatest orchestrator in the history of the American musical - ever'. A big call.

It's proving quite difficult to find a lot of this information on Salinger as I suspect much of it - scores, etc. - is buried in the vaults of what is now Turner Entertainment. I've written to an expert in Los Angeles and am anxiously waiting to hear back from him.

I post here a link from "Easter Parade" and the famous "A Couple of Swells". Salinger's orchestration is full of humour here, and its character (no pun intended) also reflects the thwarted ambitions of the tramps during each section of the routine. And, of course, the absolutely remarkable Astaire and Garland: what can one say?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C9z9Q9KbJOg

[Tarantella]

Here's another excellent link about Conrad ("Connie") Salinger. It is 50 years this year since he died (suicide) and time for me to pay him the honour of a dissertation!! A lifetime dream is slowly unfolding, as I've been able to make contact with a well-known American jazz musician and arranger who knows all about Salinger and who has provided me directions on where to go next. He has given me important names and says that the remaining MGM sketches of Salinger are in the library at USC or UCLA - so a trip to the USA will be needed. The original orchestrations in all their detail were apparently destroyed in 1979: why do people DO THAT??!!

Nobody here on BC seems interested in this great musical talent, Salinger, but it will be listed on Google if anybody wants to pursue the subject. They can read my entries on this messageboard.

One thing I've learned is that "Connie" didn't study with Nadia Boulanger, despite what's been written in this link, but I'll have to explore this further because the article comes from an authoritative magazine, "Film Score Monthly Online". My jazz orchestrator/arranger/composer contact said he's very thrilled to hear about my interest in this project and has offered support. He also said he had met and spoken to the great orchestrator Robert Russell Bennett (who died in 1981) and said 'when I mentioned Salinger to him a huge smile came across his face".

http://allaboardforskinkersswamp.wor...m-g-m-musical/

One thing which is particularly upsetting is that Conrad Salinger never received formal recognition for this 20 years' work at the MGM "Arthur Freed Unit". If any Oscars and accolades were handed out these usually went to the Musical Supervisor/Director such as Andre Previn or Adolf Deutsch.

Here's a sample of "Connie's" last major work for MGM, orchestrating Lerner and Loewe's "Gigi" in 1958, under the Supervision of Andre Previn.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UIMqm...eature=related