- Title Pages
- Show Tunes
- Dedication
- Foreword
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- How to Use this Book
- Part I Composers of the Early Years
- Part II New Composers of the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s
- Hugh Martin
- Leonard Bernstein
- Frederick Loewe
- Jule Styne
- Frank Loesser
- Richard Adler
- Jerry Bock
- Bob Merrill
- Meredith Willson
- Stephen Sondheim
- Charles Strouse
- Harvey Schmidt
- Cy Coleman
- Jerry Herman
- John Kander
- Mitch Leigh
- PART III New Composers of the 1970s and Beyond
- PART IV Notable Scores by Other Composers
- Appendix 1 Chronological Listing of Productions
- Appendix 2 Collaborator Reference Listing
- Appendix 3 Bibliography
- Song Title Index
- Show Index
- People Index
Meredith Willson
Meredith Willson
Born: May 8, 1902, Mason City, Iowa
Died: June 15, 1984, Santa Monica, California
- Chapter:
- (p.261) Meredith Willson
- Source:
- Show Tunes
- Author(s):
Steven Suskin
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
This chapter examines the work of Meredith Willson. Willson, as a small-town child, despite musical tendancies did not take up the trumpet as he had a lisp. Rather, he sang barber shop songs and became proficient on the flute and piccolo. His mother gave him piano lessons, though. By the age of nineteen, Willson was playing flute in John Philip Sousa’s band, and in 1924 he moved over to the New York Philharmonic. At the decade’s end he headed to the West Coast and began a successful career in radio as performer and conductor.
Keywords: Meredith Willson, flute, piccolo, musical theater, show tunes, John Philip Sousa, conductor
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- Title Pages
- Show Tunes
- Dedication
- Foreword
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- How to Use this Book
- Part I Composers of the Early Years
- Part II New Composers of the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s
- Hugh Martin
- Leonard Bernstein
- Frederick Loewe
- Jule Styne
- Frank Loesser
- Richard Adler
- Jerry Bock
- Bob Merrill
- Meredith Willson
- Stephen Sondheim
- Charles Strouse
- Harvey Schmidt
- Cy Coleman
- Jerry Herman
- John Kander
- Mitch Leigh
- PART III New Composers of the 1970s and Beyond
- PART IV Notable Scores by Other Composers
- Appendix 1 Chronological Listing of Productions
- Appendix 2 Collaborator Reference Listing
- Appendix 3 Bibliography
- Song Title Index
- Show Index
- People Index