Clara Edwards


Clara Edwards was an American singer, pianist, and composer of art songs. She also used the pseudonym Bernard Haigh.

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. 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 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, joining the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers in 1925. She toured in Vaudeville at about the same time, and organized the Chautauqua Concert Company in 1934. 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. 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.
Her songs were "quickly taken up by publishers", 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. They are "distinguished for their tasteful and truly lovely melodies" and considered some of the "best of the ballad style concert song". They "successfully blended the styles of art song and the sentimental popular ballad".
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. 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. She died in New York City.

Published songs

published by G. Schirmer unless noted
  • After, 1927
  • All Thine Own, Carl Fischer, 1935
  • At Twilight, 1944
  • At Your Window, 1951
  • Awake! Arise!, Oliver Ditson, 1927
  • Awake, Beloved!, 1925
  • A Benediction, 1927
  • Birds, 1958
  • Bring Back the Days, Oliver Ditson, 1945
  • By the Bend of the River, 1927
  • Can this be Summer?, 1926
  • Clementine, 1927
  • Come, Love, the Long Day Closes, 1928
  • Cradle Song
  • The Day's Begun, 1930
  • Dedication, 1961
  • Dusk at Sea, Jack Mills Inc., 1923
  • The Eastern Heavens are all aglow, 1927
  • Evening Song, 1934
  • Every One Sang, 1921
  • Fear Ye Not, O Israel, 1942
  • The Fisher's Widow, 1929
  • Forward We March, Galaxy Music Corp., 1940
  • Gipsy Life, 1932
  • I Bring you lilies from my Garden, Oliver Ditson, 1927
  • I Dream of You, 1952
  • In the Moonlight, 1951
  • Into the Night, 1939
  • I've Lived and Loved, Galaxy Music Corporation, 1941
  • Joy, 1943
  • Lady Moon, Oliver Ditson, 1927
  • Little Shepherd's Song, Jack Mills Inc., 1952
  • Lonesome, 1926
  • The Lord is Exalted, 1940
  • Love Came to Me
  • A Love Song, Oliver Ditson, 1945
  • Morning Serenade, 1928
  • My Homeland, 1934
  • My Little Brown Nest by the Sea, Jack Mills Inc., 1923
  • My Shrine, 1948
  • O Come to Me
  • O Magic Night of Love, 1927
  • Ol' Jim, 1952
  • Out of the Dusk, 1927
  • A Prayer, 1932
  • The Snow, 1962
  • Sometimes at Close of Day, 1925
  • Song of my Soul
  • Song of the Brooklet, 1932
  • Spain, 1929
  • Stars of the Night, Sing Softly, 1929
  • 'Tis Enough, Jack Mills Inc., 1923
  • To a Little Child, 1954
  • To Stars and You
  • To Thee, Divine Reedemer, 1948
  • The Twenty-Seventh Psalm, 1938
  • We Walked in the Garden, 1939
  • When I am Gone, Beloved
  • When I Behold, 1929
  • When Jesus Walked on Galilee, 1928
  • When the Sun Calls the Lark, Oliver Ditson, 1929
  • When You Stand by your Window, 1944
  • The Wild Rose Blooms, 1940
  • With the Wind and the Rain in Your Hair, 1930, reissued Paramount Music Corp., 1940
  • A Yesterday
  • Your Picture, Chappell Music, 1952

Published piano solos

published by G. Schirmer unless noted

Published choral arrangements

published by G. Schirmer unless noted
  • Awake! Arise!, mixed voices, 1958
  • By the Bend of the River, multiple arrangements
  • Clementine, women's voices
  • Come, Love, the Long Day Closes, men's voices
  • Dedication, mixed voices, 1960
  • The Eastern Heaves are all Aglow, mixed voices, 1962
  • The Herder's Song, women's voices, 1946
  • Into the Night, multiple arrangements
  • I Will Lift Mine Eyes, mixed voices
  • The Lord is My Light, mixed voices, 1940
  • A Prayer, mixed voiced
  • Sometimes at Close of Day, men's voices
  • A Song of Joy, women's voices
  • Song of the Brooklet, women's voices
  • The Twenty-Seventh Psalm, mixed voices
  • When I Behold, mixed voices
  • When Jesus Walked on Galilee, mixed voices, 1951