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Article: Syncopated clock, indeed: on Leroy Anderson's centennial, a defense of the popular composer from an orchestra's stage.(Music)(Biography)
- Article from:
- American Scholar
- Article date:
- June 22, 2008
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2008 Phi Beta Kappa Society. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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The conclusion of "Sleigh Ride" by Leroy Anderson is the part you never hear in the elevator or in the grocery store (it's cut from the Muzak version), but that final trumpet solo is the moment that players in the orchestra are waiting for. It's an imitation of a horse's whinny, and each year the trumpet player is going for the biggest laugh yet. At rehearsals, members of the string section crane their necks toward the brass section, a breach of orchestral etiquette, but in this case no one minds.
Leroy Anderson was born 100 years ago on June 29 and composed dozens of pieces from the mid-1930s until his death in 1975. Those compositions as well as hundreds of ...