Leroy Anderson

Leroy Anderson was born June 29, 1908 in Cambridge, Massachusetts. His parents, as children, immigrated to the United States from Sweden with their families. His father, Bror Anton Anderson, worked as a postal clerk in the Central Square post office. He also played the mandolin. Anna Margareta Anderson, his mother, was the organist at the Swedish church in Cambridge. He lived in the suburbs of Boston for twenty seven years with his parents and brother.

Anderson had a very strong musical education. At age eleven he began piano lessons and music studies at the New England Conservatory of Music in Cambridge. At his high school graduation from the Cambridge High and Latin School, Anderson composed, orchestrated, and conducted his class song. In 1925 he entered Harvard College. While at Harvard he studied musical harmony with Walter Spalding, counterpoint with Edward Ballantine, canon and fugue with William C. Heilman, and orchestration with Edward B. Hill and Walter Piston. Between 1926 and 1929 he played trombone for the Harvard University Band. He eventually became the director of the Harvard University Band for four years. In 1929 Anderson received a B.A. magna cum laude in Music from Harvard. The magna cum laude is the next-to-highest of three special honors for grades above the average. He was also elected into Phi Beta Kappa. Anderson continued into graduate school at Harvard. In 1930, he earned an M.A. with a major in music. He began studying composition with Walter Piston and Georges Enesco; organ with Henry Gideon and double bass with Gaston Dufresne of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. As well as his studies in music, he continued for his PhD in German and Scandinavian languages. He ultimately mastered Danish, Norwegian, Icelandic, German, French, Italian, and Portuguese in addition to the English and Swedish of his upbringing. He was also working with a tutor in music from Radcliffe College. At a point in his life, Anderson believed a career in music was not promising, so he was instead going to become a language teacher. He finally decided to give his music career one last try.

In 1931, when he became the director of the Harvard Universities Band, he wrote many brilliant arrangements that brought him into the spotlight for Arthur Fiedler, the director of the Boston Pops Orchestra. In 1936, Anderson moved to New York City. His first composition for Fiedler was an arrangement of Harvard songs called Harvard Fantasy. The Boston Pops Orchestra, in 1938 performed Anderson’s first formal music composition Jazz Pizzicato, which was an instant hit. Fiedler encouraged him to write more compositions, which came Jazz Legato and other short pieces. During this time Anderson and his brother Russ began performing in an assortment of popular dance orchestras. Also, they played on cruise ships of the Norwegian Line crossing from New York to Scandinavia.

In 1940, at the start of World War II, he was drafted as a private into the U.S. Army. His fluency in the languages he knew was very helpful to his position. In 1942, before shipping of to Iceland, where he worked as a translator and an interpreter, he married Eleanor Firke. After his promotion to Captain and during his time working at the Pentagon as Chief of the Scandinavian Desk of Military Intelligence, he composed The Syncopated Clock. He found time while still in service to conduct the premieres of The Syncopated Clock and Promenade. While living in Arlington, Virginia, the Anderson’s first child, Jane, was born. His passion for music drove him to turn down the position of U.S. Military Attachй to Sweden. In 1945, Anderson was released from active duty in the army. Soon after he moved to New York City where the couples second child, Eric, was born.

During the summer of 1946, Anderson and his family stayed in Woodbury, Connecticut, where he composed Sleigh Ride. Two