Former Foreign Affairs editor Hyland sends an uninspired valentine to the music of his youth. Despite the subtitle, this is not an all-encompassing history of popular song from 1900 to 1950. Rather, Hyland focuses primarily on five of his favorite composers—Irving Berlin, Jerome Kern, George Gershwin, Cole Porter, and Richard Rodgers—and their lyricists. Beginning with Berlin's work at the turn of the century, he briefly sketches the period's theatrical history, then alternates among his chosen composers, examining their better songs and outlining their professional and personal lives. All of this has been well documented elsewhere, and Hyland draws on the usual sources (Alec Wilder's American Popular Song, not reviewed, and the many fine works of Gerald Bordman, including The American Musical Theatre, 1978) to flesh out his narrative and analyses. He tells once again the familiar stories of how Hammerstein and Kern's Show Boat and Rodgers and Hammerstein's Oklahoma! transformed the musical theater, relying on readily available published sources rather than any new research. Hyland brings no radical new thoughts to the table, and pop-song aficionados are likely to be familiar with most of the lore he recounts, so it's hard to say what purpose his overview might serve. Furthermore, the book virtually ignores the lasting contributions to popular music made by black composers and performers. Hyland's history of ragtime focuses on Irving Berlin and his famous pseudo-ragtime song, ``Alexander's Ragtime Band,'' while he spends a paltry three paragraphs discussing the contributions of Scott Joplin, and he barely acknowledges the fine popular songs of Duke Ellington, Fats Waller, James P. Johnson, and Eubie Blake, to name just a few. A trip down memory lane that turns out to be a critical dead end.
Pub Date: March 1, 1995
ISBN: 0-19-508611-2
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Oxford Univ.
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 1995
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)
Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996
ISBN: 0-15-100227-4
Page Count: 136
Publisher: Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
An extravaganza in Bemelmans' inimitable vein, but written almost dead pan, with sly, amusing, sometimes biting undertones, breaking through. For Bemelmans was "the man who came to cocktails". And his hostess was Lady Mendl (Elsie de Wolfe), arbiter of American decorating taste over a generation. Lady Mendl was an incredible person,- self-made in proper American tradition on the one hand, for she had been haunted by the poverty of her childhood, and the years of struggle up from its ugliness,- until she became synonymous with the exotic, exquisite, worshipper at beauty's whrine. Bemelmans draws a portrait in extremes, through apt descriptions, through hilarious anecdote, through surprisingly sympathetic and understanding bits of appreciation. The scene shifts from Hollywood to the home she loved the best in Versailles. One meets in passing a vast roster of famous figures of the international and artistic set. And always one feels Bemelmans, slightly offstage, observing, recording, commenting, illustrated.
Pub Date: Feb. 23, 1955
ISBN: 0670717797
Page Count: -
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: Oct. 25, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1955
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