Consider the following bits of text: “Doe, a deer, a female deer,” “Oh, what a beautiful morning!”, “We’ll have Manhattan,” “Some enchanted evening.”
Unless you are wholly ignorant of popular music before the Beatles, you will not be able to read those words without hearing in your head the music that drapes them as perfectly as designer clothes. The words are by Oscar Hammerstein II and Lorenz Hart. The music that makes the words live is by Richard Rodgers.
Richard Rodgers in 1948. (Public Domain)
Richard Rodgers (1902–1979) was one of the most important composers of the 20th century. He never wrote a symphony or a concerto, let alone a string quartet or piano sonata, yet his music resides in the subconscious of millions worldwide.
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