Vernon Duke

Vernon Duke ( born October 10, 1903 in Parafjanawa, today Belarus, . † January 16, 1969 Born in Santa Monica, as Russian Владимир Александрович Дукельский, Vladimir Aleksandrovich Dukelski, English transcription Vladimir Dukelsky ;) was an American composer of Russian origin. He wrote both classical music and musicals and songs.

Life and work

The Dukelski family was partly of noble descent and lived in Kiev; from the age of 11 he attended the local conservatory, where he studied composition with Reinhold Gliere and music theory with Boleslaw Jaworski. 1919 the family emigrated from the country, which was shaken by the Russian Civil War, first in Istanbul and then in 1921 to New York City. There he learned in 1922 George Gershwin know, who convinced him to Americanize his name and call themselves Vernon Duke. Vernon Duke's first songs were created in the same year; but he continued to write under the name Vladimir Dukelsky art music. In 1924 he went to Paris, where he Serge Diaghilev commissioned to compose a ballet: Zephyr et Flora in 1925 by the Ballets Russes performed with a choreography by Massine Léonide and a stage design by Georges Braque; it got good reviews. Sergei Prokofiev said in an overview of the sophisticated melodies, very well designed, harmonious nice and not too modernistic. Prokofiev was impressed by the talent of the younger ones; the two composers became friends for a long time regularly saw and corresponded to 1946 (as Prokofiev had to break off contact for political reasons ). In 1928, the first symphony by Sergei Aleksandrovich Koussevitzky Dukelsky and his orchestra was performed in Paris.

In the late 1920s, he wrote songs for English in London musicals and revues, such as for the musical "The Yellow Mask", which was based on a script by Edgar Wallace. In 1929 he returned to the United States. Direct his first Broadway musical, "Walk a Little Faster", in 1932 became a success. It contained the song " April in Paris ", which became a worldwide hit and later became a jazz standard; additional hits and standards such as "Autumn in New York " (1934 ), "I Can not Get Started" (1936 ) or "Taking A Chance On Love " followed. Vernon Duke worked there along with lyricists like Ira Gershwin and Yip Harburg. At the same time he published under his birth name Dukelsky continue to create new music of traditional character, such as the oratorio The End of St. Petersburg or premiered by the Boston Symphony under Koussevitzky Piano Concerto Dédicaces. In 1937 he completed Gershwin soundtrack to The Goldwyn Follies. The American citizenship he acquired 1939. 1940 he had his greatest success with the Broadway musical Cabin in the Sky.

For the musical " Two's Company " in 1952, he worked with Ogden Nash and Sammy Cahn together. In 1955 he passed his birth name completely and composed since then in the field of classical music as " Vernon Duke"; In the same year he published his autobiography, Passport to Paris. In 1957 he married the singer Kay McCracken. In 1962, he submitted a tape of poems in Russian.

Sources and links

• Vernon Duke: Passport to Paris. Boston - Toronto: Little, Brown and Co., 1955
• Biography (English )

• Composer of classical music ( 20th century)
• American composer
• Composer ( Musical)
• Composer (Jazz)
• Americans
• Born in 1903
• Died in 1969
• Man