Leroy Anderson

Leroy Anderson was an American composer of short, light concert pieces, many of which were introduced by the Boston Pops Orchestra under the direction of Arthur Fiedler. John Williams described him as "one of the great American masters of light orchestral music."

Early life

Born in Cambridge, Massachusetts to Swedish parents, Anderson was given his first piano lessons by his mother, who was a church organist. He continued studying piano at the New England Conservatory of Music. In 1925, Anderson entered Harvard College, where he studied musical harmony with Walter Spalding, counterpoint with Edward Ballantine, canon and fugue with William C. Heilman, orchestration with Edward B. Hill and Walter Piston, composition, also with Piston, and double bass with Gaston Dufresne. He also studied organ with Henry Gideon. He graduated with a Bachelor of Arts, magna cum laude in 1929 and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. At Harvard University Graduate School, he studied composition with Walter Piston and George Enescu and received a Master of Arts in Music in 1930. He and his brother played in dance orchestras on Scandinavian cruise ships in the summers of 1930 and 1931.

Career

Anderson continued studying at Harvard, working towards a PhD in German and Scandinavian languages; Anderson spoke English and Swedish during his youth, and eventually became fluent in Danish, Norwegian, Icelandic, German, French, Italian, and Portuguese.
At the time, he was working as organist and choir director at the East Milton Congregational Church, leading the Harvard University Band, and conducting and arranging for dance bands around Boston. In 1936 his arrangements came to the attention of Arthur Fiedler, who asked to see any original compositions that he could use in his concerts as the 18th conductor of the Boston Pops Orchestra at Symphony Hall. Anderson's first work was the 1938 "Jazz Pizzicato", but at just over ninety seconds, the piece was too short for a three-minute 78 rpm single of the period. Fiedler suggested writing a companion piece, and Anderson wrote '"Jazz Legato" later that same year. The combined recording went on to become one of Anderson's signature compositions.
In 1942, Anderson joined the United States Army, and was assigned in Iceland with the U.S. Counterintelligence Corps as a translator and interpreter, writing as well as monitoring local news media; in 1945 he was reassigned to the Pentagon as Chief of the Scandinavian Desk of Military Intelligence. His duties did not, however, prevent him from composing, and in 1945 he wrote "The Syncopated Clock" and "Promenade". Anderson became a reserve officer and was recalled to active duty for the Korean War. He wrote his first hit, "Blue Tango", in 1951, earning a Golden Disc and the No. 1 spot on the Billboard charts.
His pieces and his recordings during the 1950s conducting a studio orchestra were immense commercial successes. "Blue Tango" was the first instrumental recording ever to sell one million copies. His most famous pieces are probably "Sleigh Ride" and "The Syncopated Clock". In February 1951, WCBS-TV in New York City selected "The Syncopated Clock" as the theme song for The Late Show, the WCBS late-night movie, using Percy Faith's recording. Mitchell Parish added words to "The Syncopated Clock", and later wrote lyrics for other Anderson tunes, including "Sleigh Ride", which was not written as a Christmas piece, but as a work that describes a winter event. Anderson started the work during a heat wave in August 1946. The Boston Pops' recording of it was the first pure orchestral piece to reach No. 1 on the Billboard Pop Music chart. From 1952 to 1961, Anderson's composition "Plink, Plank, Plunk!" was used as the theme for the CBS panel show I've Got a Secret.
Anderson's musical style employs creative instrumental effects and occasionally makes use of sound-generating items such as typewriters and sandpaper.
Anderson wrote his Piano Concerto in C in 1953 but withdrew it, feeling that it had weak spots. The Anderson family decided to publish the work in 1988. Erich Kunzel and the Cincinnati Pops Orchestra released the first recording of this work; four other recordings, including one for piano and organ, have since been released.
In 1958, Anderson composed the music for the Broadway show Goldilocks with orchestrations by Philip J. Lang. Even though it earned two Tony awards, Goldilocks did not achieve commercial success. Anderson never wrote another musical, preferring instead to continue writing orchestral miniatures. His pieces, including "The Typewriter", "Bugler's Holiday", and "A Trumpeter's Lullaby" are performed by orchestras and bands ranging from school groups to professional organizations.
Anderson appeared with the Boston Pops on May 18, 1972, which was broadcast by PBS. He conducted "The Typewriter" as an encore, and Arthur Fiedler played the carriage return percussive part. The Boston Pops used the audio of that performance along with some video in a tribute film to Fiedler.
Anderson was initiated as an honorary member of the Gamma Omega chapter of Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia at Indiana State University in 1969.

Personal life

Anderson married Eleanor Jane Firke in 1942. They raised two sons and a daughter, while living in a custom-designed house in Woodbury, Connecticut.

Death

In 1975, Anderson died of cancer in Woodbury, Connecticut and was buried there. He was 66.

In popular culture

For his contribution to the recording industry, Leroy Anderson has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1620 Vine Street. He was posthumously inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1988, and his music continues to be a staple of "pops" orchestra repertoire. In 1995 the new headquarters of the Harvard University Band was named the Anderson Band Center in honor of Leroy Anderson. The Leroy Anderson House in Woodbury, Connecticut has been placed on the National Register of Historic Places.
In 2006, one of his piano works, "Forgotten Dreams", written in 1954, became the background for a British TV advertisement for mobile phone company 3. Previously, Los Angeles station KABC-TV used the song as its sign-off theme at the end of broadcast days in the 1980s, and Mantovani's recording of the song had been the closing theme for WABC-TV's Eyewitness News for much of the 1970s. "Forgotten Dreams" was used as a recurring theme in the French film Populaire.
"The Typewriter" was used as the theme song for Esto no tiene nombre, a Puerto Rican television comedy program produced by Tommy Muñiz between the late 1960s and late 1970s. It is also the signature tune for the BBC Radio 4 series The News Quiz, which has been running since 1977.
American comedian Jerry Lewis, dressed in formal wear as "Pietro Del Canto", performed "The Typewriter" as the typist in a sketch in an early television program. He reprised his performance in the 1963 motion picture Who's Minding the Store?, "typing" on an imaginary typewriter.
British comedian/musician Bill Bailey performed "The Typewriter" at the Last Night of the BBC Proms at the Royal Albert Hall in September 2025.

Works

;Orchestral compositions

Alma Mater
# Chapel Bells
# Freshman on Main Street
# Library Reading Room
# Class Reunion
Arietta
Balladette
Belle of the Ball
Blue Tango
Brunoniana: Songs of Brown, a medley of Brown University songs
Bugler's Holiday
The Captains and the Kings
Concerto in C Major for Piano and Orchestra
China Doll
Clarinet Candy
Fiddle-Faddle
The First Day of Spring
Forgotten Dreams
The Girl in Satin
The Golden Years
Governor Bradford March
Harvard Sketches
# Lowell House Bells
# Freshman in Harvard Square
# Widener Reading Room
# Class Day Confetti Battle
Home Stretch
Horse and Buggy
Jazz Legato
Jazz Pizzicato
Lullaby of the Drums
March of the Two Left Feet
Mother's Whistler
The Penny Whistle Song
The Phantom Regiment
Pirate Dance
Plink, Plank, Plunk!
Promenade
The Pussy Foot Ballet Music
Pyramid Dance
Sandpaper Ballet
Saraband
Serenata
Sleigh Ride
Song of the Bells
Summer Skies
The Syncopated Clock
Ticonderoga March
A Trumpeter's Lullaby
The Typewriter
Waltz Around the Scale
The Waltzing Cat

;Orchestral arrangements

Birthday Party
Chicken Reel
A Christmas Festival
Classical Jukebox
Harvard Fantasy
A Harvard Festival
Irish Suite
# The Irish Washerwoman
# The Minstrel Boy
# The Rakes of Mallow
# The Wearing of the Green
# The Last Rose of Summer
# The Girl I Left Behind Me
Scottish Suite
# Bonnie Dundee
# Turn Ye to Me
# The Bluebells of Scotland
# The Campbells Are Coming
Second Regiment Connecticut National Guard March
Song of Jupiter
Suite of Carols for Brass Choir
Suite of Carols for String Orchestra
Suite of Carols for Woodwind Ensemble
To a Wild Rose
Old MacDonald Had a Farm
Seventy-Six Trombones

;Musical theater compositions

My Sister Eileen
Goldilocks
# Overture
# Bad Companions
# Come to Me
# Give the Little Lady
# Guess Who
# Heart of Stone
# He'll Never Stray
# Hello
# I Can't Be in Love
# I Never Know When to Say When
# If I Can't Take it With Me
# Lady in Waiting
# Lazy Moon
# Little Girls
# My Last Spring
# No One Will Ever Love You
# Save a Kiss
# Shall I Take My Heart and Go?
# Tag-a-long Kid
# The Beast in You
# The Pussy Foot
# There Never Was a Woman
# Town House Maxixe
# Two Years in the Making
# Who's Been Sitting in My Chair?
Gone With the Wind
# I'm Too Young to Be a Widow
# Fiddle-Dee-Dee
# This Lovely World

;Vocal compositions

Do You Think That Love Is Here to Stay?
Love May Come and Love May Go
The Music in My Heart
You Can Always Tell a Harvard Man
What's the Use of Love?

;Organ compositions

Cambridge Centennial March of Industry
Easter Song
Wedding March for Jane and Peter

;Other compositions

Hens and Chickens
Chatterbox
Melody on Two Notes
An Old Fashioned Song
Piece for Rolf
The Cowboy and His Horse
The Whistling Kettle
''Woodbury Fanfare''