Ferde Grofé
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Ferdinand Rudolph von Grofé, better known as Ferde Grofé, was an American pianist, arranger and composer who was born March 27, 1892 in New York City and died April 3, 1972 in Santa Monica, California.
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[edit] Family
The Grofé family was of French origin (hence the acute accent over the "e" at the end of their surname) and of Huguenot persuasion (belonging to the Protestant Reformed Church of France, historically known as the French Calvinists).
Ferde Grofé came by his myriad musical interests naturally. He was born into a family of four generations of classical musicians. His father, Emil von Grofé, was a baritone who sang mainly light opera and and his mother, Elsa Johanna von Grofé, was a professional cellist. She was also a versatile music teacher who taught Ferde to play the violin and piano. Elsa's father, Bernardt Bierlich, was a cellist in the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra in New York and her brother, Julius Bierlich, was first violinist and concertmaster of the Los Angeles Symphony.
Ferde's father died in 1899 and Elsa took little Ferde abroad to study piano, viola and composition in Leipzig, Germany. Given such a musical background, it is perhaps understandable that Ferde became proficient over a remarkable range of instruments including piano (his favored instrument), violin, viola (he became a violist in the LA Symphony), baritone horn, alto horn and cornet.
This extraordinary command of musical instruments and composition, undoubtedly, gave Ferde the foundation to later become first a gifted arranger of other composers' music and then a masterful orchestrator of his own compositions.
[edit] Life
Grofé left home at the age of fourteen and variously worked as a milkman, truck driver, usher, newsboy, elevator operator, helper in a book bindery, iron factory worker, as a piano player in a bar for $2 a night and as an accompanist.
He continued studying piano and violin. When he was fifteen he was performing with dance bands. He also played the alto horn in brass bands.
He was 17 when he wrote his first commissioned work. Beginning about 1920, he played the jazz piano with the Paul Whiteman orchestra.
[edit] Arranger
Ferde also served as his chief arranger from 1920-1932. He made literally hundreds of arrangements of popular songs, Broadway show music, and tunes of all types for Whiteman.
Among Grofé's most memorable arrangements is that of George Gershwin's music Rhapsody in Blue, which established Grofé's reputation among jazz musicians. Grofé took what Gershwin had written for two pianos and filled it out instrumentally for Whiteman's jazz orchestra. He transformed Gershwin's musical canvas with the colors and many of the creative touches for which it is so well known. He went on to create two more arrangements in later years. His 1942 arrangement for full orchestra is the one most frequently heard today.
[edit] Composer
Grofé composed a number of original pieces of his own in a symphonic jazz style. Grofé's works include:
- Grand Canyon Suite (1931)
- Sonata for Flute and Bicycle Pump
- Trylon and Perisphere for the New York World's Fair of 1939-40
- Hollywood Suite
- Niagara Falls Suite
- Mississippi Suite (Tone Journey) (1925)
- Broadway at Night
- Three Shades of Blue
- Metropolis: a Fantasy in Blue (1928)
- Gallodoro's Serenade for Saxophone and Piano (1958) written for the virtuoso Al Gallodoro
- A Symphony in Steel
- Concerto for Piano and Orchestra in D
- Death Valley Suite.
- Halloween Fantasy for Strings.
His soundtrack to the 1950 sci-fi film Rocketship X-M included the use of the Theremin.
His monumental Grand Canyon Suite is his best known work, a masterpiece in orchestration and evocation of mood and location.
[edit] Later years
Grofé was later employed as a conductor and faculty member at the Juilliard School of Music where he taught orchestration.
Ferde Grofé was buried in the Mausoleum of the Golden West, Inglewood Park Cemetery, Inglewood, California.
[edit] Selected discography
- Grofé's Grand Canyon Suite, performed by the New York Philharmonic (with John Corigliano, Sr.as the violin soloist) conducted by Leonard Bernstein. Coupled with Bernstein conducting Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue (with Bernstein at the piano) and An American in Paris (Sony 63086)
- Grofé's Grand Canyon Suite, performed by the Detroit Symphony Orchestra conducted by Antál Dorati . Coupled with Dorati conducting Gershwin's Porgy and Bess: A Symphonic Picture (London/Decca Jubilee 430712)
- Symphonic Jazz: Grofé and Gershwin, performed by the Harmonie Ensemble/New York conducted by Steven Richman (Bridge Records 9212), playing:
- Grofé's Mississippi Suite (the original Whiteman Orchestra version)
- Gershwin's Second Rhapsody for Orchestra with Piano arranged by Grofé, with Lincoln Mayorga on the piano (premiere recording)
- Grofé's Gallodoro's Serenade for Saxophone and Piano with Al Gallodoro on alto saxophone and Mayorga on piano (premiere recording)
- Grofé's Grand Canyon Suite (original Whiteman Orchestra version; first complete recording)
[edit] Source
- Liner notes by Don Rayno for Symphonic Jazz: Grofé and Gershwin (Bridge Records 9212)
