Mid-Day Music at Melville
Presented and performed by pianist Brad Halls. The music series “Mid-Day Music at Melville” will present the first concerts of this 3rd “season” during the month of October, on each of the five Wednesdays in the month, commencing on Wednesday, October 2 at Melville United Church in downtown Fergus. Each performance begins at 12 noon and runs to approximately 1 p.m. In our previous season pianist and singer Brad Halls took the audience on a guided musical tour through the past 100 years of the history of the Broadway musical, with a presentation of the many enduring classic songs from some of the greatest of the past century’s songwriters. This season, Brad will lead a similar voyage, with the concerts focusing on great songs which have come to us through the world of the movies.
On Wednesday, October 2, the songs come from the earliest movies from the historic period of the dawn of sound pictures or “talkies” which soon brought an end to the silent picture era. Featured songs will include music from some of the earliest sound films including the historic “The Jazz Singer” and others from the period including “Ramona”, “The Singing Fool”, “Seventh Heaven”, “Chasing Rainbows” and “The Hollywood Revue”, which introduced their audiences to enduring standards such as Blue Skies, Charmaine, Louise, Am I Blue?, Happy Days are Here Again, Singin’ in the Rain and many more
On Wednesday, October 9, we will celebrate movies released from 1930 to 1932, a period that marked the movie debuts of popular stars of the period including Bing Crosby, Maurice Chevalier, Jeannette Macdonald, Eddie Cantor and many more. From movies such as “Whoopee!”, “Love Me Tonight” and “The Big Broadcast”, we will enjoy songs like Beyond the Blue Horizon, Out of Nowhere, My Baby Just Cares for Me, Isn’t It Romantic and many more.
The concert on Wednesday, October 16 presents songs from the period from 1933 and 1934, when the movie musical reaches an enormous peak of popularity. Featured films will include the classic Warner Brothers productions “42nd Street”, “Gold Diggers of 1933”, and “Dames”, all of which featured Warner’s stars Ruby Keeler, Dick Powell, Al Jolson and and the film debut of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers. Music begins to emerge from more dramatic films such as I Cover the Waterfront and Depression era movies such as “Hallelujah, I’m a Bum”. These movies produced enduring standards such as You are Too Beautiful, Love in Bloom, The Boulevard of Broken Dreams, I Only Have Eyes for You, The Continental and more memorable hits.
On Wednesday, October 23, our focus shifts to films made from 1935 and 1936, a period when Hollywood producers lured the best Broadway songwriters to come west to California to write new music for the movies. Composers such as Rodgers and Hart, Cole Porter, and Irving Berlin wrote songs popular films of the period including some of the best featuring Astaire and Rogers such as “Top Hat” and “Roberta”, and producing songs such as My Old Flame, The Lullaby of Broadway, Cheek to Cheek, I’ve Got You Under My Skin and When I Grow Too Old to Dream, among others.
In our final concert for our opening month, on Wednesday, October 23, our song selection comes from movies released in 1936 and 1937. George and Ira Gershwin join the contingent of Broadway songwriters moving west to try their hand composing for the movies, resulting in their great songs A Foggy Day and Nice Work If You Can Get It. Jerome Kern’s movie debut as composer gives us A Fine Romance and the Oscar winning The Way You Look Tonight. Rising movie star Bing Crosby introduces hits such as Pennies from Heaven and I’m an Old Cowhand (from the Rio Grande).
There is no admission charge for these presentations, but a voluntary contribution to Melville United to help keep the heat and lights on, and the piano tuned, is always gratefully received.