There are few things more precious and interesting than a Golden Age. There was a Golden Age of a particular kind of music that ran from the twenties through the fifties: the golden age of popular standards; the songs that constitute The Great American Song Book. These tunes were written by dapper, creative giants like Cole Porter, Rodgers and Hart, the Gershwins, Johnny Mercer, Hoagy Charmichael, Jerome Kern, and Dorothy Fields. Urbane sophisticated talents who created a body of work that effortlessly captures that urbanity and sophistication. They created tunes focused on the subject of romantic love and exploring all the stages and aspects of the arc of a great love affair: from the initial “walking on air” to the jaded ennui of “never again”. They were obsessed with this theme and subject. Describing, exploring, and driving deep into all its mysteries. These composers and lyricists were in love with Love. These tunes wed lyrics and music into songs that were crafted by songwriting teams originally centered around Tin Pan Alley; The Brill Building on Broadway in Mid town Manhattan. These songwriting teams in many cases split the composing tasks along functional lines: one writing the music and on writing the lyrics. The composers were writing vehicles for others to perform and usually pitched the tunes in the context of a Broadway or Hollywood musical. They were cranking out tunes for the Hollywood and Broadway dream factories at a prodigious pace. They really worked! Cranking out so many songs, they have a tossed off, effortless quality and a guileless directness. They feel unpretentious and casual: genuine and authentic. But their craft and genius raise these songs to high art. Many of these tunes became popular hits in their own right, lifted out of the shows and movies, and have been recorded by all the great performers. Fred Astaire debuted many of these tunes and was a favorite of the writing teams. He was known as much for his singing as his dancing! Diana Krall, Harry Connick Jr. and Michael Buble are some of the latest to pay homage to the songbook.

1. The Great American Songbook

2. John Cousins

3. Resources

4. The Golden Age
Popular Standards
• Musicals
• American Musical Theater
• Tin Pan Alley
• Musicians and Singers
• Big Bands
• Arrangers
• Jazz Musicians
• Sheet Music and pianos
• Phonograph and Radio
• Records and Broadcasting

5. The Great American Songbook
• The Shows
• The Movies
• The Songwriters
• The Performers
• The Songs
• The Repertoire

7. Broadway & Hollywood
• Theater and Film
• Fred Astaire
• Revues
• Musical Theater
• Movie Musicals

8. Hollywood & Broadway

9. Songs:
Words & Music

10. Music Fundamentals
• Beat and Tempo
• Meter
• Rhythm
• Pitch
• Melody
• Intervals
• Harmony

11. Music
• 32 bar form
• AABA
• A section: Chorus
• B section: Bridge or
Release
• Verse: Rubato intro
• Melody
• Rhythm and tempo
• Harmony

12. Melody
• The part that is sung
• Catchy
• Hooks
• Range
• Tessitura
• Key of Song
•

13. Lyrics
• Witty
• Urbane
• Wordplay
• Scansion
• Rhyme
• Internal rhyme
• Double rhyme
• Rhyming Dictionary

14. Composition
• Piano based
• Piano is orchestral in
range
• Role of the piano in home
and entertainment
• Entry of guitar/drum
based music; and the rise
of the iconic performer
• Sheet music and home
performance – recorded
music

15. The Songwriters

16. Irving Berlin 1888-1989
• God Bless America
• Easter Parade
• White Christmas
• Cheek to Cheek (from
Top Hat)

17. Jerome Kern 1885-1945
• Show Boat
• The Way You Look
Tonight
– Academy Award
– Lyrics Dorothy Fields
– Fred & Ginger
– Swing Time 1936
• The Song is You
• Bing Crosby
• Oscar Hammerstein II

18. Billy Strayhorn 1915-1967
• Sweet Pea
• Duke Ellington’s
collaborator
• Take the A Train
• composer, pianist,
lyricist, and arranger
• Lush Life

19. Hoagy Carmichael 1899-1981
• Jazz performer
• Appeared in 14 films
• To Have and Have Not
– Bogey & Bacall
• Star Dust
• Skylark
• Johnny Mercer lyrics

20. Johnny Mercer
• Autumn Leaves
• Too Marvelous
• Midnight Sun
• Fools Rush In
• In 1961, he wrote the lyrics to "Moon
River" for Audrey Hepburn
in Breakfast at Tiffany's and for Days
of Wine and Roses, both with music
by Henry Mancini, and Mercer
received his third and fourth Oscars
for Best Song.
• He wrote the lyrics to more than
fifteen hundred songs, including
compositions for movies
and Broadway shows.
• He received nineteen Academy
Award nominations, and won four.

21. The Gershwins
• George 1989-1937
• Ira 1896 – 1983
• S’Wonderful
• They Can’t Take That
Away From Me
• Summertime
• A Foggy Day
• Our Love is Here To Stay

22. George and Ira

23. Michael Feinstein
• Born 1956
• is an American singer,
pianist, and
music revivalist. He is an
interpreter
of, and archivist for, the
repertoire known as
the Great American
Songbook.
• Feinstein is also a multi-
platinum-selling, five-
time Grammy-nominated
recording artist.

24. Feinstein

25. Rodgers & Hart
• Mountain Greenery
• Falling in Love with Love
• Isn’t It Romantic
• Blue Moon
• Manhattan
• My Romance

26. Richard & Lorenz
• They worked together
on 28 stage musicals
and more than 500
songs from 1919 until
Hart’s death in 1943.

27. List of Well-Known Songs
• (1925) "Manhattan", "Mountain Greenery" (from The Garrick Gaieties)
• (1927) "Thou Swell" (from A Connecticut Yankee)
• (1928) "You Took Advantage of Me" (from Present Arms)
• (1930) "Spring is Here", "Yours Sincerely" and "With a Song in My Heart" (from Spring Is Here
(film))
• (1932) "Lover", "Mimi", "Isn't It Romantic?", (from Love Me Tonight)
• (1933) "You Are Too Beautiful", from Hallelujah, I'm a Bum
• (1934) "Blue Moon" (from Manhattan Melodrama)
• (1935) "Little Girl Blue", "The Most Beautiful Girl in the World" (from Jumbo)
• (1936) "There's a Small Hotel" (from On Your Toes)
• (1937) "Where or When", I Wish I Were in Love Again", "My Funny Valentine", "Johnny One
Note", "The Lady is a Tramp" (from Babes in Arms)
• (1938) "This Can't Be Love", "Falling in Love with Love" (from The Boys from Syracuse)
• (1939) "I Didn't Know What Time It Was" (from Too Many Girls (musical))
• (1940) "It Never Entered My Mind," (from Higher and Higher)
• (1940) "Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered", "I Could Write a Book" (from Pal Joey)
• (1942) "Wait Till You See Her", "Nobody's Heart", "Ev'rything I've Got" (from By Jupiter)

28. Cole Porter 1891-1964
• Night and Day
• What is this Thing
Called Love
• Every Time We Say
Goodbye
• Begin the Beguine

29. Cole Porter

30. Cole Porter

31. New York Nightlife

32. Homes
Paris Venice

33. Wake Up and Dream 1929

34. Gay Divorce 1932
Gay Divorcee 1934

35. Performers

36. Fred Astaire

37. Fred

38. Ella
• Songbook Records
• Nelson Riddle Arranger

39. Ella Fitzgerald

40. Jazz
• Use of Standards as
“blowing vehicles”
• Miles
• Bill Evans
– trio
• Keith Jarrett
– Standards Trio

41. Today
• Alive and Well
• Diana Krall
• Michael Buble
• Michael Feinstein
• The Carlysle
• Oak Room
• Keith Jarrett
• Jazz at Lincoln Center

42. Thank You!
• Email address for future music events