Ferde Grofé
He is best known for his 1931 five-movement symphonic poem, Grand Canyon Suite, and for orchestrating George Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue for its 1924 premiere.
His mother, Elsa Johanna Bierlich von Grofé, was a professional cellist and a versatile music teacher who taught Ferde to play both the violin and the piano.
[6] Grofé left home at age 14 and variously worked as a milkman, truck driver, usher, newsboy, elevator operator, helper in a book bindery, iron factory worker, and played in a piano bar for two dollars a night, and as an accompanist.
[15] Some captured performances were embellished with additional notes after the initial recording took place to attempt to convey the thick lush nature of his orchestra's style.
In a review of a Whiteman jazz concert in New York, one writer said the music was expected to be pleasing, and "it proved so when it was repeated last night, in spite of the excessive instrumentation of Ferde Grofé.
"[16] A writer of a later generation said "the Grofé and Gould pieces were the essence of slick commercialism..."[17] Mardi Gras (from Mississippi Suite) was recorded in the radio transcription series Shilkret Novelties in 1931.
The piano version sheet music of the suite includes lyrics to the central section of "On the Trail" by songwriter Gus Kahn.
[23] On March 25, 1938, Ferde Grofe and his Symphony Orchestra played a concert at Carnegie Hall for the benefit of "Free Milk Fund for Babies, Inc.", Mrs. William Randolph Hearst, President and Founder.
The concert included a number of premieres, with George Gershwin's "Three Preludes" for orchestra (scored by Ferde Grofé) featured.
[26] In 1934, Grofé announced he was working on an opera, to be based on the Edgar Allan Poe story "The Fall of the House of Usher".
He wrote a number of other pieces, including a theme for the 1939 New York World's Fair and suites for Niagara Falls and the Hudson River.
[33] Grofé is best known for his composition of the Grand Canyon Suite (1931), a work regarded highly enough to be recorded for RCA Victor with the NBC Symphony conducted by Arturo Toscanini (in Carnegie Hall in 1945, with the composer present).
Robert Moses, master urban planner, commissioned Grofé to compose the music for the 1964 New York World's Fair.
[38] A review for the 1944 Joseph Lewis film Minstrel Man stated, "the music, scored by Ferde Grofé, is an outstanding item.
"[39] Grofé was nominated, along with Leo Erdody, for an Academy Award in the category "Scoring of a Musical Picture" for this film.
The score he composed for Rocketship X-M (1950) was the first science fiction movie to feature the electronic instrument known as the theremin.
His other original film scores included Early to Bed (1928), Diamond Jim (1935), Time Out of Mind (1947) and The Return of Jesse James (1950).
Although he spent the first half of his life living in New Jersey and working in and around New York City, by 1945 he had moved to Los Angeles full-time.
[40] Grofé married his first wife, Mildred Fanchette Grizzelle, a lyric soprano singer, in San Francisco, CA on March 14, 1916, and divorced in 1928.
