Oley Speaks

Oley Speaks
Born June 28, 1874(1874-06-28), Canal Winchester, Ohio
Died August 7, 1948(1948-08-07) (aged 74), New York, New York
Genres Art song, choral music
Occupations Singer, composer
Instruments Voice
Years active 1898–1944

Oley Speaks (June 28, 1874 – August 7, 1948) was an accomplished composer and songwriter who was born in Canal Winchester, Franklin County, Ohio.[1] The Canal Winchester Area Historical Society Museum has exhibits about the life of Oley Speaks, including original sheet music written by him.[2]

Contents

Biography

Speaks started his career as a railroad clerk at a station in Columbus, Ohio,[3] until he decided to pursue his musical passions. He was a fine baritone singer in churches at Columbus before he moved to New York City in 1898 and started taking lessons. One of his voice teachers was the American soprano Emma Thursby.[4] Speaks had a successful career as a singer, touring the US giving recitals[5] and also appearing in oratorios.

Speaks began to write songs, much of his output being on religious themes.[6] He studied composition with Will Macfarlane and Max Spicker.[4] In 1907, he wrote On the Road to Mandalay using the words of Rudyard Kipling's poem "Mandalay", which sold over one million copies.[1] The song was a popular parlour ballad, particularly in the United Kingdom and British territories worldwide, and was boosted by the recording by Frank Sinatra which was released on the Come Fly with Me album in 1958. However, after some resistance from the Kipling estate over the omission of several verses, this version of the song remained embargoed in the British Commonwealth until it appeared on the digitally-remastered release of the album many years later. Speaks had two further million-selling successes, Morning to a lyric by Frank Lebby Stanton in 1910 and Sylvia to a lyric by Clinton Scollard in 1914, but neither has been popular in the age of the gramophone, though his material turns up in anthologies;[7] distinguished American baritone Robert Merrill has a recording of Sylvia, and Irish tenor John McCormack has recordings of all three famous titles available on CD. More recently, American baritone Thomas Hampson has also recorded On the Road to Mandalay.[8]

Speaks was a prominent member of ASCAP, where he was elected Director 1924 – 1943.[1] He was also a National Patron of Delta Omicron, an international professional music fraternity.[9]

In the movies

Speaks can be described as a "one-hit wonder", but his most famous work was included in the soundtrack of several films:

Musical Works

Over 250 songs,[16] originally published by G. Schirmer or The John Church Company,[17] including:

Sacred Anthems, including:

Choral Partsongs, including:

Footnotes

  1. ^ a b c Oley Speaks at IMDb http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1672696/bio
  2. ^ Franklin County at USGenWeb Ohio
  3. ^ Oley Speaks
  4. ^ a b Villamil, p. 347
  5. ^ Mr Oley Speaks's Recital New York Times 3 May 1903
  6. ^ In the End of the Sabbath
  7. ^ Composer Oley Speaks Discography
  8. ^ EMI CD 7-54051-2, Villamil, p. 347
  9. ^ Delta Omicron
  10. ^ Paul Tremaine and His Aristocrats soundtrack at IMDb
  11. ^ Metro Movietone Revue soundtrack at IMDb
  12. ^ Mandalay soundtrack at IMDb
  13. ^ China Seas soundtrack at IMDb
  14. ^ Metropolitan soundtrack at IMDb
  15. ^ They Met in Bombay soundtrack at IMDb
  16. ^ Echols, New Grove online
  17. ^ https://urresearch.rochester.edu/viewContributorPage.action;jsessionid=642CF1ED2BB08653358692AC4720BE79?personNameId=2801

References

External links