When I Lost You

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

When I Lost You is a song with music and lyrices by Irving Berlin written in 1912 after his wife of five months, the former Dorothy Goetz, died of typhoid fever. In it he poured out the grief of his loss, the only song he has ever written from his personal experience. The song, a ballad was unlike any of Berlin's previous songs which were upbeat tunes written to take advantage of the dance craze. In this song melody is a slow, simple waltz with a bittersweet harmony with diminished seventh cords. It became the Berlin's first hit ballad.[1]

Berlin had published one hundred and thirty songs by this point, but none previously had revealed his ability to write with moving sentiment by about his personal pain.[2]

[edit] Footnotes

  1. ^ Furia, Philip (1990). The Poets of Tin Pan Alley:A History of America's Great Lyriscists. New York: Oxford University Press, pp. 51–52. ISBN 0-19-506408-9. 
  2. ^ Wilder, Alec (1990). American Popular Song: The Great Innovators 1900-1950. New York & Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. 96. ISBN 0-19-501445-6.