>At 5:20 PM -0500 6/22/02, John Howell wrote: >> >> >>Irving Berlin not only survived but flourished not being able to read or >>write a note of music.
Christopher wrote: >I've heard that account from many different sources, and I find it >hard to beleive that Berlin's assistants were only taking down >musical dictation. Berlin's harmonic sense was (by all other reports >of people who heard him play his own songs, like Alec Wilder!) quite >limited, and the harmonies of his tunes are quite sophisticated at >times, to which I think the credit should go to his assistants. Well, I'd call that hearsay evidence at best, although I can't refute it. But we know that Berlin was very, very possessive of his music, and very upset when it was arranged in ways that he felt did not do justice to his songs. There are also stylistic matters in his songs, and yes, particularly in the harmonizations, which are remarkably consistent throughout his career, which would not be the case if a series of different "secretaries" had been tweaking his songs. But the matter is basically unproveable, unless there is documented evidence available from people who would not have had an axe to grind. John John & Susie Howell Virginia Tech Department of Music Blacksburg, Virginia, U.S.A. 24061-0240 Vox (540) 231-8411 Fax (540) 231-5034 (mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]) http://www.music.vt.edu/faculty/howell/howell.html _______________________________________________ Finale mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://mail.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
