February 22. Washington’s birthday. Not the contemporary holiday (a.k.a. Presidents Day), mind you, but the actual anniversary of his birth.
Anybody else a fan of “Holiday Inn” (1942), with Bing Crosby and Fred Astaire? Irving Berlin astounds with a dozen songs constructed on holidays from the American calendar. Some have earned their immortality (“White Christmas” and “Easter Parade”). Others are completely forgettable. The song celebrating Washington’s Birthday falls soundly into the latter category – which, I argue, only makes it all the more enjoyable.
I find “Holiday Inn” vastly superior to its remake-of-sorts, “White Christmas” (1954), which pairs Crosby with Danny Kaye. Unfortunately Berlin’s celebration of Lincoln’s Birthday as a jaw-dropping black face number hasn’t aged particularly well. (At one point, Bing actually interjects, “Who dat?”) This number, more than anything, is probably what damns “Holiday Inn” to comparative obscurity – except for “White Christmas,” anyway – which is a shame, because the movie is very entertaining. These days, the segment is edited out of most television airings of the film, with the exception of those broadcast on TCM, which doesn’t attempt to whitewash history.
Washington’s Birthday is represented by “I Can’t Tell a Lie.” The number features Bing in a disheveled powdered wig, attempting to undermine Astaire, his rival in love, with a schizophrenic musical accompaniment that ping-pongs wildly (in the film) between 18th century minuet and 1940s big band.
Get a load of Berlin’s excruciatingly contrived lyrics. They can’t all be “White Christmas,” you know.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bxh52CY7EsU
Tag: George Washington
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Real Presidents Don’t Lie (Compulsively)
My heart’s not really in Presidents Day this year. Draw your own conclusions. I started typing something up this morning, but as I warmed to the topic, it grew and grew, and then I didn’t have time to come back to it and wrangle it into shape. It’s a shame, because the material is time sensitive. Maybe I’ll rework it for the Fourth of July, when hardly anyone will see it. In the meantime, here’s a comic featuring antifa George Washington, making America great.
Also, to keep it musical, I’ll include a link to Virgil Thomson’s ballet, “Parson Weems and the Cherry Tree,” a Bicentennial commission which, for some reason, is not to be found on the internet in its orchestral guise. Who knew that my recording would turn out to be such a collector’s item? Here, the work is posted in a transcription for piano. If you’re interested, it plays continuously over twelve tracks.
Looking for Lincoln? Search for my post for February 12, Honest Abe’s birthday.
Neither of these guys could tell a lie. Remind you of anyone we know? Me neither. Happy Presidents Day. -
Washington & Lincoln in Music: Forgotten Gems
One never told a lie. The other gave everything to keep us united. We’ve come a long way, baby.
Hard to believe, but Virgil’s Thomson’s George Washington ballet “Parson Weems and the Cherry Tree” (a Bicentennial commission) doesn’t seem to be posted anywhere online in the version for chamber orchestra. I did, however, find it for piano. You just have to let it play through, from tracks 10-21.
Concert overture “McKonkey’s Ferry (Washington at Trenton)” by Trenton’s own George Antheil. Curious that a local boy would spell McConkey with two k’s!
John Lampkin, “George Washington Slept Here”
Roy Harris’ setting of Vachel Lindsay’s “Abraham Lincoln Walks at Midnight.” (The poem is posted below the video.)
Florence Price’s setting of the same poem
From “Abraham Lincoln: A Likeness in Symphony Form,” by Robert Russell Bennett
More Lincoln music under my post for Lincoln’s birthday on February 12
https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=1489109922008066&set=a.883855802533484
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Presidents Day Music Lincoln Washington & More
It’s Presidents Day. Before you hit the white sales, I’ve got a few musical selections for you.
Here’s a melody called “Lincoln and Liberty” (originally “Rosin the Beau/Bow”), a tune Lincoln appropriated for his campaign song in 1860. If you note the pattern on the performer’s pants, you might deduce he is an escaped convict.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Es3J4yxPFiI
Variations on the tune by Paul Turok:
This is a concert overture titled “McKonkey’s Ferry (Washington at Trenton)” by Trenton’s own George Antheil. I think you’ll agree, Washington has never sounded so Soviet.
Which presidents to celebrate, anyway?
Chester A. Arthur, our 21st president, thought “Hail to the Chief” too undignified, so he requested a new piece from John Philip Sousa. The result was the “Presidential Polonaise” (1886).
I wonder if anyone ever thought to write a polka for Polk?
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Happy Birthday George Washington Trenton’s Tribute
Happy birthday, George Washington! First in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen.
Here’s an overture, “McKonkey’s Ferry,” subtitled “Washington in Trenton” by Trenton’s own George Antheil. Curious that a local boy would spell McConkey with two “K”s!
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