Clara Edwards (composer)

Clara Edwards (April 17, 1880 in Decoria Township, Minnesota[1] – January 17, 1974 in New York, New York) was an American singer, pianist, and composer of art songs.[2] She also used the pseudonym Bernard Haigh.[3]

Biography

She was born Clara Gerlich in Decoria Township, Blue Earth County, Minnesota. She received her education from the Mankato State Normal School and the Cosmopolitan School of Music in Chicago.[4] She married physician John Milton Edwards before finishing her degree, and the couple moved to Vienna, where she continued musical studies and had a daughter. In Europe she prepared for a career as a singer, and gave concerts in both the United States and Europe[5] before moving to New York City in 1914. Two years later her husband died, leaving her a single mother in New York city with no steady income.

Out of financial necessity, Edwards began her career as a composer and songwriter in the 1920s,[6] joining the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) in 1925. She toured in Vaudeville at about the same time, and organized the Chautauqua Concert Company in 1934.[7] She often collaborated with Jack Lawrence, but also wrote many of the lyrics to her own songs.

Music

Edwards composed over 100 works and published over 60 songs.[8] Several of her songs are sacred, and she wrote choral arrangements for some of them. She also composed music for solo piano, for children's marionette plays and animated films. Her songs have been recorded and issued on CD and used in film soundtracks and animations.[9]

Her songs were "quickly taken up by publishers",[10] and many famous singers performed them, including soprano Lily Pons and baritones John Charles Thomas and Ezio Pinza. They also became more successful when performed on the popular radio show The Bell Telephone Hour.[11] They are "distinguished for their tasteful and truly lovely melodies" and considered some of the "best of the ballad style concert song[s]".[12] They "successfully blended the styles of art song and the sentimental popular ballad".[13]

Perhaps her most successful song was "With the Wind and the Rain in Your Hair", with text by Jack Lawrence. First published in 1930, it became a hit a decade later.[14] Two of her other well-known songs are "By the Bend of the River" and "Into the Night"; the latter is frequently used by voice teachers as a training piece, and is included in several song anthologies.[15]

Published songs

published by G. Schirmer unless noted

Published piano solos

published by G. Schirmer unless noted

Published choral arrangements

published by G. Schirmer unless noted

Footnotes

  1. ↑ A copy of Clara's birth certificate was reissued in 1997 to clear up confusion about her birthday and location Evan-and-Jami.com
  2. ↑ Baker's Biographical Dictionary, p. 479
  3. ↑ Cohen, p. 214
  4. ↑ Grattan, p. 12
  5. ↑ Grattan, p. 12
  6. ↑ Villamil, p. 153
  7. ↑ Kimble, Jami. "Clara Edwards' Life". Retrieved 22 October 2010.
  8. ↑ Villamil and others claim 50 published songs, but there are over 60 listed here.
  9. ↑ IMDB listing
  10. ↑ Villamil, p. 153
  11. ↑ Villamil, p. 153
  12. ↑ Villamil, p. 153
  13. ↑ Finn, New Grove American, p. 21
  14. ↑ Grattan, p. 12
  15. ↑ Such as Taylor, Songs by 22 Americans and Boytim, The First Book of Soprano Solos, both published by G. Schirmer.
  16. ↑ She also arranged this song for piano trio, also in 1927, and for cornet or trumpet and piano in 1946
  17. ↑ World Cat http://firstsearch.oclc.org/WebZ/FSFETCH?fetchtype=fullrecord:sessionid=fsapp7-53505-gsja82sc-ul2ryb:entitypagenum=57:0:recno=157:resultset=1:format=FI:next=html/record.html:bad=error/badfetch.html:entitytoprecno=157:entitycurrecno=157:numrecs=1 accessed 13 Sept 2011
  18. ↑ Included in the popular Fifty-Two Sacred Songs You Like to Sing, published by G. Schirmer.

References

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