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Horace W. Henderson (November 22, 1904 – August 29, 1988), the younger brother of Fletcher Henderson, was an American jazz pianist, organist, arranger, and bandleader.^[1]

Born in Cuthbert, Georgia, while later attending Wilberforce University he formed a band called the Collegians, which included Benny Carter and Rex Stewart. This band was later known as the Horace Henderson Orchestra and then as the Dixie Stompers. Henderson left the band to work with Sammy Stewart, then in 1928 organized a new band called the Collegians.^[1] Don Redman took over this band in 1931; Henderson continued to work as the band's pianist and arranger before leaving to work for his brother.

He arranged for many of the most important jazz musicians of the era, including his brother. Fletcher Henderson's book contained about as many of Horace's arrangements as of Fletcher's. Although Horace worked continually, led bands, arranged, recorded, and composed into the 1980s, and although he is considered by many the more talented and skillful of the Henderson brothers, Fletcher remained more popular and accomplished more in the field.^[1]

Among his better known clients for arrangements, in addition to his brother, were Charlie Barnet, the Casa Loma Orchestra, Tommy Dorsey, Benny Goodman, Earl Hines, and Jimmie Lunceford. His best known arrangements are of his own "Hot and Anxious" which later became "In The Mood" and of "Christopher Columbus",^[1] which he was one of the writers of but never got the credit (both for his brother). He also wrote another popular song of the big band era called "Big John Special." These were three of the defining songs of the period.

At different times in his career, Horace was pianist and musical director for both Lena Horne and Billie Holiday.

References[link]

External links[link]

• Horace Henderson at Find a Grave

Horace
Horace, as imagined by Anton von Werner
Born	Quintus Horatius Flaccus 8 December 65 BC Venusia, Lucania, Roman Republic
Died	27 November 8 BC (age 56) Rome, Roman Empire
Resting place	Rome
Occupation	Soldier, scriba quaestorius, poet
Language	Latin
Nationality	Roman
Genres	Lyric poetry
Notable work(s)	Odes, Satires, Ars Poetica
Influenced Garcilaso de la Vega, Juan Boscán Almogáver, Torquato Tasso, Pierre de Ronsard, Luis de León

Quintus Horatius Flaccus (8 December 65 BC – 27 November 8 BC), known in the English-speaking world as Horace, was the leading Roman lyric poet during the time of Augustus. The rhetorician Quintillian regarded his Odes as almost the only Latin lyrics worth reading, justifying his estimate with the words: "He can be lofty sometimes, yet he is also full of charm and grace, versatile in his figures, and felicitously daring in his choice of words."^{[nb 1]}

Horace also crafted elegant hexameter verses (Sermones and Epistles) and scurrilous iambic poetry (Epodes). The hexameters are playful and yet serious works, leading the ancient satirist Persius to comment: "as his friend laughs, Horace slyly puts his finger on his every fault; once let in, he plays about the heartstrings".^{[nb 2]} Some of his iambic poetry, however, can seem wantonly repulsive to modern audiences.^[1]

His career coincided with Rome's momentous change from Republic to Empire. An officer in the republican army that was crushed at the Battle of Philippi in 42 BC, he was befriended by Octavian's right-hand man in civil affairs, Maecenas, and became something of a spokesman for the new regime. For some commentators, his association with the regime was a delicate balance in which he maintained a strong measure of independence (he was "a master of the graceful sidestep")^[2] but for others he was, in John Dryden's phrase, "a well-mannered court slave".^{[3][nb 3]}

His poetry became "the common currency of civilization", and he still retains a devoted following, despite some stigmatization after World War I (perhaps due to popular mistrust of old-fashioned patriotism and imperial glory, with which he was identified, fairly or unfairly).^[4] Horatian studies have become so diverse and intensive in recent years that it is probably no longer possible for any one scholar to command the whole range of arguments and issues.^[5]

Life[link]

Most of what we know about Horace comes from self-disclosures in his poetry, supplemented by a short biography probably written by Suetonius (Vita Horati).^[6] He has been considered the world's first autobiographer.^[7] Recent scholarship tends to frown on biographical interpretations of an author's works (critical analysis reveals only the author's mask or persona) but Horace not only invites our interest, he also mentions events that are verifiable, and thus it is valid to make some inferences about the individual behind the poems.^[8]

As Boy[link]

He was born on 8 December 65 BC^{[nb 4]} in Italy's Hellenized south-east. His home town, Venusia, lay on a trade route in the border region between Apulia and Lucania (Basilicata). Various dialects were spoken in the area and maybe this enriched his feeling for language. He could have been familiar with Greek words even as a young boy and later he poked fun at the jargon of mixed Greek and Oscan spoken in neighbouring Canusium (Satires 1.10.30). Literary Latin must have sounded to him like a semi-foreign language, heard only at school.^[9] One of the works he probably studied in school was the Odyssia of Livius Andronicus, crammed into Italian boys with threats and floggings by teachers like the 'Orbilius' mentioned in one of his poems (Epistles 2.1.69 ff.). School was made even more irksome by a number of his fellow pupils, the over-grown sons of beefy centurions (Satires 1.6.71 ff.). The army veterans could have been settled there at the expense of local families uprooted by Rome as punishment for their part in the Social War (91–88 BC).^[10] Such state-sponsored migration must have added still more linguistic variety to the area. According to a local tradition reported by Horace (Satires 2.1.34), a colony of Romans or Latins had been installed in Venusia after the Samnites had been driven out early in the third century. In that case, Horace could have felt himself to be Roman^[11][12] though there are also indications that he regarded himself as a Samnite or Sabellus (Epistles 1.16.49).^[13] Italians in modern and ancient times have always been devoted to their home towns, even after success in the wider world, and Horace was no different. Images of his childhood setting and references to it are found throughout his poems.^[14]

Horace's father was probably a Venusian taken captive by Romans in the Social War, or possibly he was descended from a Sabine captured in the Samnite Wars. Either way, he was a slave for at least part of his life. He was evidently a man of strong abilities however and managed to gain his freedom and improve his social position. Thus Horace claimed to be the free-born son of a prosperous 'coactor'.^[9] The term 'coactor' could denote various roles, such as tax collector, but its use by Horace (Satires 1.6.86) was explained by scholia as a reference to 'coactor argentareus' i.e. an auctioneer with some of the functions of a banker, paying the seller out of his own funds and later recovering the sum with interest from the buyer.^[15]

The father spent a small fortune on his son's education, eventually accompanying him to Rome to oversee his schooling and moral development. The poet later paid tribute to him in a poem (Satires 1.6) that one modern scholar considers the best memorial by any son to his father.^{[nb 5]} The poem includes this passage:

If my character is flawed by a few minor faults, but is otherwise decent and moral, if you can point out only a few scattered blemishes on an otherwise immaculate surface, if no one can accuse me of greed, or of prurience, or of profligacy, if I live a virtuous life, free of defilement (pardon, for a moment, my self-praise), and if I am to my friends a good friend, my father deserves all the credit... As it is now, he deserves from me unstinting gratitude and praise. I could never be ashamed of such a father, nor do I feel any need, as many people do, to apologize for being a freedman's son. Satires 1.6.65–92

He never mentioned his mother in his verses and he might not have known much about her. Perhaps she also had been a slave.^[9]

Young Man[link]

Horace left Rome, possibly after his father's death, and continued his formal education in Athens, the Oxbridge or Harvard of the ancient world, where he arrived at nineteen years of age, enrolling in The Academy. Founded by Plato, The Academy was now dominated by Epicureans and Stoics, whose theories and practises made a deep impression on the young man from Venusia.^[16] Meanwhile he mixed and lounged about with the elite of Roman youth, such as Marcus, the idle son of Cicero, and the Pompeius to whom he later addressed a poem (Odes 2.7). It was in Athens too that he probably acquired deep familiarity with the ancient tradition of Greek lyric poetry, at that time largely the preserve of grammarians and academic specialists (access to such material was easier in Athens than in Rome, where the public libraries had yet to be built by Asinius Pollio and Augustus).^[17]

Rome's troubles were soon to catch up with him in Athens. It was here that Marcus Junius Brutus turned, after the assassination of Julius Caesar, seeking support for a republican cause that was bereft of ideas, the much-vaunted ideal of liberty actually being irrelevant to a conflict that was essentially a struggle between elites.^[18] The Athenians however had a tradition of honouring tyrannicides, as types of their own heroes Harmodius and Aristogeiton, beside whose statues Brutus and his colleague Cassius were, by a popular decree, scheduled to be immortalized in bronze. Brutus was fêted around town in grand receptions and he made a point of attending academic lectures, all the while recruiting supporters among the impressionable young men studying there — Horace among them.^[19] An educated young Roman could begin military service high in the ranks and Horace was made tribunus militum (one of six senior officers of a typical legion), a post usually reserved for men of senatorial or equestrian rank and which seems to have inspired jealousy among his well-born confederates (Satires 1.6.48).^[20] He undoubtedly learned the basics of military life while on the march, particularly in the wilds of northern Greece, whose rugged scenery became a backdrop to some of his later poems.^[21] It was there in 42 BC that Octavian (later Augustus) and his associate Mark Antony crushed the republican forces at the Battle of Philippi. Horace later recorded it as a day of embarrassment for himself, when he fled without his shield (Odes 2.7.10), but allowance should be made for his self-deprecating humour and his self-identification with a tradition of poets who had long ago abandoned their shields in battle, notably his heroes Alcaeus and Archilochus (the latter did so in a part of Thrace near to Philippi, and was deeply involved in the Greek colonization of Thasos, where by coincidence the republican army finally surrendered).^[20]

Octavian offered an early amnesty to his opponents and the deflated ex-military tribune quickly accepted it. On returning to Italy, however, he was confronted with yet another loss: his father's estate in Venusia was one of many throughout Italy to be confiscated for the settlement of veterans (Virgil lost his estate in the north about the same time). Horace later claimed that he was reduced to poverty and this led him to try his hand at poetry (Epistles 2.2.51–2) yet there was no money to be had directly from versifying. At best, it offered future prospects through contacts with other poets and their patrons among the rich.^[22] Meanwhile he somehow obtained the sinecure of scriba quaestorius, a civil service position at the aerarium or Treasury, profitable enough to be purchased even by members of the ordo equester and not very demanding in its work-load, since tasks could be delegated to scribae or permanent clerks.^[23] It was about this time that he began writing his Satires and Epodes.

As Poet[link]

The Epodes belong to the iambic genre of 'blame poetry', as practised by Archilochus, and it seems that Horace wrote them like his literary hero in order to shame his fellow citizens into a proper sense of their social responsibilities. Social bonds in Rome had been decaying since the destruction of Carthage a little more than a hundred years earlier, under the alluring prospect of vast wealth attainable by plunder and corruption,^[24] and the troubles weren't over yet, with Octavian, Mark Antony and confederates like Sextus Pompey all jockeying for a bigger share of the spoils. One modern scholar has counted a dozen civil wars in the hundred years leading up to 31 BC, including the Spartacus rebellion, eight years before Horace's birth.^[25] As the heirs to Hellenistic culture, Horace and his fellow Romans were not equipped intellectually for collective answers to their most pressing problems:

Horace reads before Maecenas, by Fyodor Bronnikov

"At bottom, all the problems that the times were stirring up were of a social nature, which the Hellenistic thinkers were ill qualified to grapple with. Some of them censured oppression of the poor by the rich, but they gave no practical lead, though they may have hoped to see well-meaning rulers doing so. Philosophy was drifting into absorption in self, a quest for private contentedness, to be achieved by self-control and restraint, without much regard for the fate of a disintegrating community." — V.G. Kiernan^[26]

Satire was a genre unique to Latin literature and Horace introduced to it a style and outlook suited to the social and ethical issues confronting Rome. Ironically, his approach radically changed its role from public, social engagement to private meditation.^[27] Meanwhile, the poet was beginning to interest Octavian's supporters, a gradual process described by him in Satires 1.6. The way was opened for him by his friend, the poet Virgil, who had gained admission into the privileged circle around Maecenas, Octavian's lieutenant, following the success of his Eclogues. An introduction soon followed and, after a discreet interval, Horace too was accepted. He depicted the process as an honourable one, based on merit and mutual respect, eventually leading to true friendship, and there is reason to believe that his relationship was genuinely friendly, not just with Maecenas but afterwards with Augustus as well.^[28] On the other hand, the poet has been unsympathetically described by one scholar as "a sharp and rising young man, with an eye to the main chance."^[29] There were advantages on both sides: Horace gained encouragement and material support, the politicians gained a hold on a potential dissident.^[30] His republican sympathies, and his role at Philippi, may have caused him some pangs of remorse over his new status. However most Romans considered the civil wars to be the result of contentio dignitatis, or rivalry between the foremost families of the city, and he too seems to have accepted the principate as Rome's last hope for much needed peace.^[31]

In 37 BC, Horace accompanied Maecenas on a journey to Brundisium, described in one of his poems (Satires 1.5) as a series of amusing incidents and charming encounters with other friends along the way, such as Virgil. In fact the journey was political in its motivation, with Maecenas en route to negotiatie the Treaty of Tarentum with Antony, a fact Horace artfully keeps from the reader (political issues are largely avoided in the first book of satires).^[30] Horace was probably also with Maecenas on one of Octavian's naval expeditions against the piratical Sextus Pompeius, which ended in a disastrous storm off Palinurus in 36 BC, briefly alluded to by Horace in terms of near-drowning (Odes 3.4.28).^{[nb 6]} There are also some indications in his verses that he was with Maecenas at the Battle of Actium in 31 BC, where Octavian put an end to Antony's hopes (Epodes 1 and 9).^{[nb 7]} By then Horace had already received from Maecenas the famous gift of his Sabine farm, probably not long after the publication of the first book of Satires. The gift, which included income from five tenants, may have ended his career at the Treasury, or at least allowed him to give it less time and energy.^[32] It signalled his identification with the Octavian regime yet, in the second book of Satires that soon followed, he continued the apolitical stance of the first book. By this time, he had attained the status of eques Romanus (Satires 2.7.53), perhaps as a result of his work at the Treasury.^[33]

And Knight[link]

Odes 1–3 were the next focus for his artistic creativity. He adapted their forms and themes from Greek lyric poetry of the seventh and sixth centuries. The fragmented nature of the Greek world had enabled his literary heroes to express themselves freely and maybe his semi-retirement from the Treasury in Rome to his own estate in the Sabine hills empowered him to some extent also.^[34] Thus even when his lyrics touched on public affairs they reinforced the importance of private life.^[2]

Nevertheless his work in the period 30–27 BC began to show his closeness to the regime and his sensitivity to its developing ideology. In Odes 1.2, for example, he eulogized Octavian in hyperboles that echo Hellenistic court poetry. The name Augustus, which Octavian assumed in January 27 BC, is first attested in Odes 3.3 and 3.5. In the period 27–24 BC, political allusions in the Odes concentrated on foreign wars in Britain (1.35), Arabia (1.29) Spain (3.8) and Parthia (2.2). He greeted Augustus on his return from abroad in 24 BC as a beloved ruler whose recent illness had endangered his own happiness (3.14).^[35]

The public reception of Odes 1–3 disappointed him however. He attributed the lack of success to jealousy among imperial courtiers and to his isolation from literary cliques (Epistles 1.19.35–44). Perhaps it was disappointment that led him to put aside the genre in favour of verse letters. He addressed his first book of Epistles to a variety of friends and acquaintances in an urbane style reflecting his new social status as a knight. In the opening poem, he professed a deeper interest in moral philosophy than poetry (Epistles 1.1.10) but, though the collection demonstrates a leaning towards stoic theory, it reveals no sustained thinking about ethics.^[36] Maecenas was still the dominant confidante but Horace had now begun to assert his own independence, suavely declining constant invitations to attend him (Epistles 1.7). In the final poem of the first book of Epistles, he revealed himself to be forty-four years old in the consulship of Lollius and Lepidus i.e. 21 BC, and "of small stature, fond of the sun, prematurely grey, quick-tempered but easily placated" (Epistles 1.20.24–5).^[37]

According to Suetonius, the second book of Epistles was prompted by Augustus, who desired a verse epistle to be addressed to himself. Augustus was in fact a prolific letter-writer and he once asked Horace to be his personal secretary. Horace refused the secretarial role but complied with the emperor's request for a verse letter.^[38] The letter to Augustus however may have been slow in coming, being published possibly as late as 11 BC. It celebrated, among other things, the 15 BC military victories of his stepsons, Drusus and Tiberius, yet it and the following letter (Epistles 2.2) were largely devoted to literary theory and criticism. The literary theme was explored still further in Ars Poetica, published separately but written in the form of an epistle and sometimes referred to as Epistles 2.3 (possibly the last poem he ever wrote).^[39] He was also commissioned to write odes commemmorating the victories of Drusus and Tiberius (Odes 4.4 and 4.14) and one to be sung in a temple of Apollo for the Secular Games, a long abandoned festival that Augustus revived in accordance with his policy of recreating ancient customs (Carmen Saeculare).

Suetonius is also the source for gossip about Horace's sexual activities towards the end of his life, involving mirrors.^{[nb 8]} The poet died at 56 years of age, not long after his friend Maecenas, near whose tomb he was laid to rest. Both men bequeathed their property to Augustus, an honour that the emperor expected of his friends.^[40]

Works[link]

The dating of Horace's works isn't known precisely and scholars often debate the exact order in which they were first 'published'. There are good arguments for the following chronology:^[41]

• Satires 1 (c. 35–34 BC)
• Satires 2 (c. 30 BC)
• Epodes (30 BC)
• Odes 1–3 (c. 23 BC)^{[nb 9]}
• Epistles 1 (c. 21 BC)
• Carmen Saeculare (17 BC)
• Epistles 2 (c. 11 BC)^{[nb 10]}
• Odes 4 (c. 11 BC)
• Ars Poetica (c. 10–8 BC)^{[nb 11]}

Historical context[link]

Latin poetry was a product of the Hellenistic period and thus it was self-consciously a literary artifact. Horace's works were written in Greek metres, ranging from the hexameters of the Satires and Epistles and iambs of the Epodes, which were relatively easy to adapt into Latin, to the more complex measures used in the Odes, such as alcaics and sapphics, which were sometimes a difficult fit for Latin structure and syntax. He incorporated literary theory and criticism in his poems throughout his career and he considered himself a partisan in the development of a new and sophisticated style, influenced by the Callimachian aesthetics of brevity, elegance and polish.^[42]

"As soon as Horace, stirred by his own genius and encouraged by the example of Virgil, Varius, and perhaps some other poets of the same generation, had determined to make his fame as a poet, being by temperament a fighter, he wanted to fight against all kinds of prejudice, amateurish slovenliness, philistinism, reactionary tendencies, in short to fight for the new and noble type of poetry which he and his friends were endeavouring to bring about." — Eduard Fraenkel^[43]

In modern literary theory, a distinction has often been made between immediate personal experience (Urerlebnis) and a mediated form of experience derived from cultural norms such as literature, philosophy and the visual arts (Bildungserlebnis). The distinction has little relevance for Horace however since his poetry is a complete blend of personal and literary experiences, such as Satires 1.5, which recounts in realistic details an actual trip Horace made with Virgil and some other literary friends and which is closely modelled on a Satire by Lucilius, his predecessor.^[44] Unlike much Hellenistic-inspired literature, his poetry was not composed primarily for a small coterie of admirers and fellow poets, nor does it rely on abstruse allusions for many of its effects. It was elitist in its literary standards yet it was written for a wide readership, as a publicly accessible form of art.^[45] A similar kind of ambivalence characterizes his literary persona, since his presentation of himself as part of a small community of philosophically aware people, seeking true peace of mind and shunning vices like greed, was well suited to Augustus's ambitious plans to reform public morality, corrupted by greed. His plea for moderation was part of a grand message to the nation.^[46]

His general practise was to follow the examples of poets established as classics in different genres, such as Archilochus in Epodes, Lucilius in Satires and Alcaeus in the Odes, later broadening his scope for the sake of variation and because his models were ultimately unsuited to the realities confronting him in his own life. Archilochus was an aristocratic Greek whose iambic poetry had a social function that was immediately intelligible to an audience in the seventh century but which became a mere contrivance or literary motif when transposed to Rome, and Lucilius was a senator's son who could castigate his peers with impunity, whereas Horace was a mere freedman's son who had to tread carefully.^[47] His craftsmanship, as a wordsmith, is evident even in his earliest attempts in any particular genre, but his handling of each genre tended to improve over time as he adapted it to his own needs.^[47] Thus for example it is generally agreed that his second book of Satires, where human folly identifies itself through dialogue between characters, is superior to the first, where human folly is pointed out in the poet's monologues (though the first book also includes somes of his most popular poems).^[48]

Lucilius, his model in satire, was an aggressively Roman poet and a significant voice in Roman self-awareness, endearing himself to his countrymen by his blunt frankness and explicit politics, indicative of libertas. His style included 'metrical vandalism' and looseness of structure. Horace instead adopted an oblique and ironic style of satire, ridiculing stock characters and anonymous targets. His libertas was the private freedom of a philosophical outlook, not a political or social privilege.^[49] His use of meter in the Satires is relatively easy-going (relative to his later use of tight lyric meters in the Odes)^[50] but formal and highly controlled relative to the rough and ready Lucilius, whom he mocked for his sloppy standards (Satires 1.10.56–61)^{[nb 12]}

Horace proudly claimed to introduce into Latin the spirit and iambic meter of Archilochus but (unlike Archilochus) without persecuting anyone (Epistles 1.19.23–5). It was no idle boast. His Epodes were modelled on the verses of the Greek poet in their meter and in some formal aspects of the iambic genre, as 'blame poetry', yet he avoided targeting real scapegoats. Whereas Archilochus presented himself as a serious and vigorous opponent of wrong-doers, Horace aimed for comic effects and adopted the persona of a weak and ineffectual critic of his times (as symbolized for example in his surrender to the witch Canidia in the final epode).^[51] He also claimed to be the first to introduce into Latin the lyrical methods of Alcaeus (Epistles 1.19.32–3) and he actually was the first Latin poet to make consistent use of Alcaeic meters and themes: love, politics and the symposium. He imitated many other Greek lyric poets as well, and many scholars believe he employed a 'motto' technique, beginning each ode with some reference to a Greek original and then diverging from it.^[52]

Reception[link]

Horace, portrayed by Giacomo Di Chirico

The reception of Horace's work has varied from one epoch to another. In a verse epistle to Augustus (Epistle 2.1), in 12 BC, he argued for classic status to be awarded to contemporary poets, including Virgil and apparently himself.^[53] In the final poem of his third book of Odes he claimed to have created for himself a monument more durable than bronze ("Exegi monumentum aere perennius", Carmina 3.30.1). For one modern scholar, his personal qualities are more notable than the monumental quality of his achievement:

"...when we hear his name we don't really think of a monument. We think rather of a voice which varies in tone and resonance but is always recognizable, and which by its unsentimental humanity evokes a very special blend of liking and respect. — Niall Rudd^[54]

Yet for men like Wilfred Owen, scarred by experiences of World War I, his poetry stood for discredited values:

My friend, you would not tell with such high zest
To children ardent for some desperate glory,
The Old Lie: Dulce et decorum est
Pro patria mori.^{[nb 13]}

The same motto, Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori, was echoed sympathetically in the lyrics of early Christian poets, such as Prudentius, being adapted to an ethos of martydom.^[55]

Appreciation of Horace's work varied markedly in his own lifetime. Odes 1–3 were not well received when first 'published' in Rome, yet Augustus later commissioned a ceremonial ode for the Centennial Games in 17 BC and encouraged the publication of Odes 4, after which Horace's reputation as Rome's premier lyricist was assured. His Odes were to become the best received of all his poems in ancient times, acquiring a classic status that discouraged imitation: no other poet produced a comparable body of lyrics in the four centuries that followed^[56] (though that may have had more to do with social causes, particularly the parasitism that Italy was sinking into).^[57] In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, ode-writing became highly fashionable in England and a large number of aspiring poets imitated him both in English and in Latin.^[58]

These preliminary comments touch on a small sample of developments in the reception of Horace's work. More developments are covered epoch by epoch in the following sections.

Antiquity[link]

Horace's influence can be traced in the works of his younger contemporaries, Ovid and Propertius. The former rivalled him in creating a completely natural style of expression in hexameter verse, and the latter cheekily mimicked him in his third book of elegies.^{[nb 14]} His Epistles provided them with a model for their own verse letters and also for Ovid's exile poetry.^{[nb 15]} His influence also seems to have had an ironically negative power. As mentioned above, the brilliance of his Odes may have discouraged imitation. Moreover publication of Odes 1–3 may have created a vogue for Pindar's lyrics, due to the fact that Horace had largely neglected that form (see Pindar#Influence and legacy).^[59] His criticism of the unpolished style of his predecessor in satire, Lucilius, may have revived popular interest in him. For Persius, and later for Juvenal, both Horace and Lucilius offered valid models — thus Persius described his own satires as lacking Lucilian acerbity and Horace's gentler touch.^{[nb 16]} Juvenal's caustic satire was influenced mainly by Lucilius but Horace by then was a school classic and echoes of his work could be identified by Juvenal in a round-about way as "themes worthy of the Venusine lamp".^{[nb 17]} The iambic genre seems almost to have disappeared after publication of Horace's Epodes. Ovid's Ibis was a rare attempt at the form, inspired mainly by Callimachus, and there are some iambic elements in Martial but they owe more to Catullus than Horace.^[60]

Statius paid homage to Horace by composing one poem in Sapphic and one in Alcaic meter (the verse forms most often associated with Odes), which he included in his collection of occasional poems, Silvae. Ancient scholars wrote commentaries on the lyric meters of the Odes. Caesius Bassus was one such metrical theorist, as well as being a poet himself. By a process called derivatio, he varied established meters through the addition or omission of syllables, a technique that Seneca the Younger borrowed when adapting Horatian meters to the stage.^[61]

Horace's poems continued to be school texts into late antiquity. Works attributed to Helenius Acro and Pomponius Porphyrio are just the remnants of a much larger body of Horatian scholarship. Porphyrio arranged the poems in non-chronological order, beginning with the Odes, reflecting their general popularity and/or appeal to scholars (the Odes generally kept this privileged position in the medieval manuscript tradition and thus in modern editions also). Horace was often evoked by poets of the fourth century, such as Ausonius and Claudian. Approaching the fifth century, Prudentius, presented himself in the role of a Christian Horace, adapting Horatian meters and giving Horatian motifs a Christian tone.^{[nb 18]} St Jerome however modelled an uncompromising response to pagan literature, observing: "What harmony can there be between Christ and the Devil? What has Horace to do with the Psalter?"^{[nb 19]} By the early 6th century, Horace and Prudentius were both part of a classical heritage that was struggling to survive the disorder of the times. Boethius, the last major author of classical Latin literature, could still take inspiration from Horace, sometimes mediated by Senecan tragedy.^[62] It can be argued that Horace's influence extended beyond poetry to dignify core themes and values, such as self-sufficiency, inner contentment and courage.^{[nb 20]}

Middle Ages and Renaissance[link]

Horace in his Studium: German print of the XV century, summarizing the final ode 4.15 (in praise of Augustus).

The copying of classical texts virtually ceased in the period between the mid sixth century and the Middle Ages. Horace's work survived probably just in two or three books imported into northern Europe from Italy, these being the ancestors of six extant manuscripts dated to the ninth century. Two of the six manuscripts are French in origin, one was produced in Alsace, and the other three show Irish influence, probably written in continental monasteries (Lombardy for example).^[63] By the last half of the ninth century, direct knowledge of Horace's poetry was not unusual. His influence on the Carolingian Renaissance can be found in the poems of Heiric of Auxerre^{[nb 21]} and in some manuscripts marked with neumes, possibly intended as an aid to the memorization and discussion of his lyric meters. Ode 4.11 is even neumed with the melody of a hymn to John the Baptist, Ut queant laxis, both composed in Sapphic stanzas. The hymn became the basis of the solfege system — an association with western music quite appropriate for a lyric poet, though the language of the hymn is Prudentian rather than Horatian.^[64]

The German scholar, Ludwig Traube, once dubbed the tenth and eleventh centuries The age of Horace (aetas Horatiana), and placed it between the aetas Vergiliana of the eighth and ninth centuries, and the aetas Ovidiana of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, a distinction supposed to reflect the dominant classical Latin influences of those times. It was over-schematized: Horace was a substantial influence in the ninth century as well, and it seems Traube had focused on Horace's Satires.^[65] Medieval scholars also over-schematized: they associated Horace's different genres with the different ages of man. A twelfth century scholar encapsulated the theory: "...Horace wrote four different kinds of poems on account of the four ages, the Odes for boys, the Ars Poetica for young men, the Satires for mature men, the Epistles for old and complete men."^[66] It was even thought that Horace had composed his works in the order in which they had been placed by ancient scholars.^{[nb 22]} Despite its naivety, the schematism involved an appreciation of Horace's works as a collection, the Ars Poetica, Satires and Epistles appearing to find as much favour as the Odes. Dante referred to him as Orazio satiro, an epithet perhaps reflecting the special status that the Satires and Epistles had attained by the later Middle Ages, and he awarded him a privileged position in the first circle of Hell, with Homer, Ovid and Lucan.^[67]

One measure of Horace's popularity is the large number of quotes from all his works found in almost every genre of medieval literature, and the number of imitators composing in ancient quantitative Latin meter . The most prolific imitator of his Odes was the Bavarian monk, Metellus of Tegernsee, who composed a large collection of poems dedicated to the patron saint of Tegernsee Abbey, St Quirinus, around the year 1170. He imitated all Horace's lyrical meters then followed these up with imitations of other meters used by Prudentius and Boethius, indicating that variety, as first modelled by Horace, was considered a fundamental aspect of the genre. The content of his poems however was restricted to simple piety.^[68] Among the most successful imitators of Horace's hexameters was another Germanic author, calling himself Sextus Amarcius, around 1100, who composed four books, the first two exemplifying vices, the second pair mainly virtues, modelled on Horace's Satires and Epistles and exhibiting some of the stylistic differences between the two genres.^[69]

Petrarch is a key figure in the transition from imitations of Horace in quantitative Latin meter to imitations in accentual meters. His verse letters in Latin were modelled on the Epistles and he wrote a letter to Horace in the form of an ode. However he also borrowed from Horace when composing his Italian sonnets. One modern scholar has speculated that authors who imitated Horace in meters based on accentual rhythms (including stressed Latin and vernacular languages) may have considered their work a natural sequel to Horace's metrical variety.^[70] In France, Horace and Pindar were the inspiration for a group of vernacular authors called the Pléiade, including for example Pierre de Ronsard and Joachim du Bellay. Montaigne made constant and inventive use of Horatian quotes.^[71] The vernacular languages were dominant in Spain and Portugal in the sixteenth century, where Horace's influence is notable in the works of such authors as Garcilaso de la Vega, Juan Boscán Sá de Miranda, Antonio Ferreira and Fray Luis de León, the latter for example writing odes on the Horatian theme beatus ille (happy the man).^[72] The sixteenth century in western Europe was also an age of translations (except in Germany, where Horace wasn't translated until well into the next century). The first English translator was Thomas Drant, who placed translations of Jeremiah and Horace side by side in Medicinable Morall, 1566, the same year that the Scot George Buchanan paraphrased the Psalms in a Horatian context. Ben Jonson put Horace on the stage in 1601 in Poetaster, along with other classical Latin authors, giving them all their own verses to speak in translation. Horace's part evinces the independent spirit, moral earnestness and critical insight that many readers look for in his poems.^[73]

Age of Enlightenment[link]

During the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, or the Age of Enlightenment, neo-classical culture was pervasive and English literature in the middle of that period has been dubbed Augustan. It is not always easy to separate out Horace's influence during those centuries (the mixing of influences is shown for example in one poet's pseudonym, Horace Juvenal).^{[nb 23]} However a measure of his influence can be found in the diversity of the people interested in his works, both among readers and authors.^[74]

New editions of his works were published almost yearly. There were three new editions In 1612 (two in Leiden, one in Frankfurt) and again in 1699 (Utrecht, Barcelona, Cambridge). Cheap editions were plentiful and fine editions were also produced, including one whose entire text was engraved by John Pine in copperplate. The poet James Thomson owned five editions of Horace's work and the physician James Douglas had five hundred books with Horace-related titles. Horace was often commended in periodicals such as The Spectator, as a hallmark of good judgement, moderation and manliness, a focus for moralising.^{[nb 24]} His verses offered a fund of mottoes, such as simplex munditiis, splendide mendax, sapere aude, nunc est bibendum, carpe diem (the latter perhaps being the only one still in common use today),^[62] quoted even in works as prosaic as Edmund Quincy's A treatise of hemp-husbandry (1765). The fictional hero Tom Jones recited his verses with feeling.^[75] His works were also used to justify commonplace themes, such as patriotic obedience, as in James Parry's English lines from an Oxford University collection in 1736:^[76]

What friendly Muse will teach my Lays

To emulate the Roman fire?

Justly to sound a Caeser's praise

Demands a bold Horatian lyre.

Horatian-style lyrics were increasingly typical of Oxford and Cambridge verse collections for this period, most of them in Latin but some like the previous ode in English. John Milton's Lycidas first appeared in such a collection. It has few Horatian echoes^{[nb 25]} yet Milton's associations with Horace were lifelong. He composed a controversial version of Odes 1.5, and Paradise Lost includes references to Horace's 'Roman' Odes 3.1–6 (Book 7 for example begins with echoes of Odes 3.4).^[77] Yet Horace's lyrics could offer inspiration to libertines as well as moralists, and neo-Latin sometimes served as a kind of discrete veil for the risqué. Thus for example Benjamin Loveling authored a catalogue of Drury Lane and Covent Garden prostitutes, in Sapphic stanzas, and an encomium for a dying lady "of salacious memory".^[78] Some Latin imitations of Horace were politically subversive, such as a marriage ode by Anthony Alsop that included a rallying cry for the Jacobite cause. On the other hand, Andrew Marvel took inspiration from Horace's Odes 1.37 to compose his English masterpiece Horatian Ode upon Cromwell's Return from Ireland, in which subtly nuanced reflections on the execution of Charles I echo Horace's ambiguous response to the death of Cleopatra (Marvel's ode was suppressed in spite of its subtlety and only began to be widely published in 1776). Samuel Johnson took particular pleasure in reading The Odes.^{[nb 26]} Alexander Pope wrote direct Imitations of Horace (published with the original Latin alongside) and also echoed him in Essays and The Rape of the Lock. He even emerged as "a quite Horatian Homer" in his translation of the Iliad.^[79] Horace appealed also to female poets, such as Anna Seward (Original sonnets on various subjects, and odes paraphrased from Horace, 1799) and Elizabeth Tollet, who composed a Latin ode in Sapphic meter to celebrate her brother's return from overseas, with tea and coffee substituted for the wine of Horace's sympotic settings:

Horace's Ars Poetica is second only to Aristotle's Poetics in its influence on literary theory and criticism. Milton recommended both works in his treatise of Education.^[82] Horace's Satires and Epistles however also had a huge impact, influencing theorists and critics such as John Dryden.^[83] There was considerable debate over the value of different lyrical forms for contemporary poets, as represented on one hand by the kind of four-line stanzas made familiar by Horace's Sapphic and Alcaic Odes and, on the other, the loosely structured Pindarics associated with the odes of Pindar. Translations occasionally involved scholars in the dilemmas of censorship. Thus Christopher Smart entirely omitted Odes 4.10 and re-numbered the remaining odes. He also removed the ending of Odes 4.1. Thomas Creech printed Epodes 8 and 12 in the original Latin but left out their English translations. Philip Francis left out both the English and Latin for those same two epodes, a gap in the numbering the only indication that something was amiss. French editions of Horace were influential in England and these too were regularly bowdlerized.

Most European nations had their own 'Horaces': thus for example Friedrich von Hagedorn was called The German Horace and Maciej Kazimierz Sarbiewski The Polish Horace (the latter was much imitated by English poets such as Henry Vaughan and Abraham Cowley). Pope Urban VIII wrote voluminously in Horatian meters, including an ode on gout.^[84]

19th century, on[link]

The 'Von Trapp Family': a semi-professional cast in a small town performance of The Sound of Music, Georgia, USA.
The solfege system (Do, Re, Mi), which is the theme of a song by the Von Trapp children, is just a small sample of Horace's all-pervasive influence on western culture, even among people who might never have heard the name Quintus Horatius Flaccus.

Horace maintained a central role in the education of English-speaking elites right up until the 1960s.^[85] A pedantic emphasis on the formal aspects of language-learning at the expense of literary appreciation may have made him unpopular in some quarters^[86] yet it also confirmed his influence — a tension in his reception that underlies Byron's famous lines from Childe Harold (Canto iv, 77):^[87]

Then farewell, Horace, whom I hated so

Not for thy faults, but mine; it is a curse

To understand, not feel thy lyric flow,

To comprehend, but never love thy verse.

William Wordsworth's mature poetry, including the preface to Lyrical Ballads, reveals Horace's influence in its rejection of false ornament^[88] and he once expressed "a wish / to meet the shade of Horace...".^{[nb 27]} John Keats echoed the opening of Horace's Epodes 14 in the opening lines of Ode to a Nightingale.^{[nb 28]}

The Roman poet was presented in the nineteenth century as an honourary English gentleman. William Thackery produced a version of Odes 1.38 in which Horace's questionable 'boy' became 'Lucy', and Gerard Manley Hopkins translated the boy innocently as 'child'. Horace was translated by Sir Theodore Martin (biographer of Prince Albert) but minus some ungentlemanly verses, such as the erotic Odes 1.25 and Epodes 8 and 12. Lord Lytton produced a popular translation and William Gladstone also wrote translations during his last days as Prime Minister.^[89]

Edward FitzGerald's Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, though formally derived from the Persian ruba'i, nevertheless shows a strong Horatian influence, since, as one modern scholar has observed,"...the quatrains inevitably recall the stanzas of the 'Odes', as does the narrating first person of the world-weary, ageing Epicurean Omar himself, mixing sympotic exhortation and 'carpe diem' with splendid moralising and 'memento mori' nihilism."^{[nb 29]} Matthew Arnold advised a friend in verse not to worry about politics, an echo of Odes 2.11, yet later became a critic of Horace's inadequacies relative to Greek poets, as role models of Victorian virtues, observing: "If human life were complete without faith, without enthusiasm, without energy, Horace...would be the perfect interpreter of human life."^[90] Christina Rossetti composed a sonnet depicting a woman willing her own death steadily, drawing on Horace's depiction of 'Glycera' in Odes 1.19.5–6 and Cleopatra in Odes 1.37.^{[nb 30]} A. E. Housman considered Odes 4.7, in Archilochian couplets, the most beautiful poem of antiquity^[91] and yet he generally shared Horace's penchant for quatrains, being readily adapted to his own elegiac and melancholy strain.^[92] The most famous poem of Ernest Dowson took its title and its heroine's name from a line of Odes 4.1, Non sum qualis eram bonae sub regno Cynarae, as well as its motif of nostalgia for a former flame. Kipling wrote a famous parody of the Odes, satirising their stylistic idiosyncracies and especially the extraordinary syntax, but he also used Horace's Roman patriotism as a focus for British imperialism, as in the story Regulus in the school collection Stalky & Co., which he based on Odes 3.5.^[93] Wilfred Owen's famous poem, quoted above, incorporated Horatian text to question patriotism while ignoring the rules of Latin scansion. However there were few other echoes of Horace in the war period, possibly because war is not actually a major theme of Horace's work.^[94]

Bibendum (the symbol of the Michelin tyre company) takes his name from the opening line of Ode 1.37, Nunc est bibendum.

Both W.H.Auden and Louis MacNeice began their careers as teachers of classics and both responded as poets to Horace's influence. Auden for example evoked the fragile world of the 1930s in terms echoing Odes 2.11.1–4, where Horace advises a friend not to let worries about frontier wars interfere with current pleasures.

And, gentle, do not care to know

Where Poland draws her Eastern bow,

     What violence is done;

Nor ask what doubtful act allows

Our freedom in this English house,

     Our picnics in the sun.^{[nb 31]}

The American poet, Robert Frost, echoed Horace's Satires in the conversational and sententious idiom of some of his longer poems, such as The Lesson for Today (1941), and also in his gentle advocacy of life on the farm, as in Hyla Brook (1916), evoking Horace's fons Bandusiae in Ode 3.13. Now at the start of the third millennium, poets are still absorbing and re-configuring the Horatian influence, sometimes in translation (such as a 2002 English/American edition of the Odes by thirty-six poets)^{[nb 32]} and sometimes as inspiration for their own work (such as a 2003 collection of odes by a New Zealand poet).^{[nb 33]}

Horace's Epodes have largely been ignored in the modern era, excepting those with political associations of historical significance. The obscene qualities of some of the poems have repulsed even scholars^{[nb 34]} yet more recently a better understanding of the nature of Iambic poetry has led to a re-evaluation of the whole collection.^[95][96] A re-appraisal of the Epodes also appears in creative adaptations by recent poets (such as a 2004 collection of poems that relocates the ancient context to a 1950s industrial town).^{[nb 35]}

See also[link]

• Horatia (gens)
• Otium
• Translation
• Prosody (Latin)

Notes[link]

1. ^ Quintilian 10.1.96. The only other lyrical poet Quintillian thought comparable with Horace was the now obscure poet/metrical theorist, Caesius Bassus (R. Tarrant, Ancient receptions of Horace, 280)
2. ^ Translated from Persius' own 'Satires' 1.116–17: "omne vafer vitium ridenti Flaccus amico / tangit et admissus circum praecordia ludit."
3. ^ Quoted by N. Rudd from John Dryden's Discourse Concerning the Original and Progress of Satire, excerpted from W.P.Ker's edition of Dryden's essays, Oxford 1926, vol. 2, pp. 86–7
4. ^ The year is given in Odes 3.21.1 ("Consule Manlio"), the month in Epistles 1.20.27, the day in Suetonius' biography Vita (R. Nisbet, Horace: life and chronology, 7)
5. ^ "No son ever set a finer monument to his father than Horace did in the sixth satire of Book I...Horace's description of his father is warm-hearted but free from sentimentality or exaggeration. We see before us one of the common people, a hard-working, open-minded, and thoroughly honest man of simple habits and strict convictions, representing some of the best qualities that at the end of the Republic could still be found in the unsophisticated society of the Italian municipia" — E. Fraenkel, Horace, 5–6
6. ^ Odes 3.4.28: "nec (me extinxit) Sicula Palinurus unda"; "nor did Palinurus extinguish me with Sicilian waters". Maecenas' involvement is recorded by Appian Bell. Civ. 5.99 but Horace's ode is the only historical reference to his own presence there, depending however on interpretation. (R. Nisbet, Horace: life and chronology, 10)
7. ^ The point is much disputed among scholars and hinges on how the text is interpreted. Epodes 9 for example may offer proof of Horace's presence if 'ad hunc frementis' ('gnashing at this' man i.e. the traitrous Roman ) is a misreading of 'at huc...verterent' (but hither...they fled) in lines descibing the defection of the Galatian cavalry, "ad hunc frementis verterunt bis mille equos / Galli canentes Caesarem" (R. Nisbet, Horace: life and chronology, 12).
8. ^ Suetonius signals that the report is based on rumours by employing the terms "traditur...dicitur" / "it is reported...it is said" (E. Fraenkel, Horace, 21)
9. ^ According to a recent theory, the three books of Odes were issued separately, possibly in 26, 24 and 23 BC (see G. Hutchinson (2002), Classical Quarterly 52: 517–37
10. ^ 19 BC is the usual estimate but c. 11 BC has good support too (see R. Nisbet, Horace: life and chronology, 18–20
11. ^ The date however is subject to much controversy with 22–18 BC another option (see for example R. Syme, The Augustan Aristocracy, 379–81
12. ^ "[Lucilius]...resembles a man whose only concern is to force / something into the framework of six feet, and who gaily produces / two hundred lines before dinner and another two hundred after." – Satire 1.10.59–61 (translated by Niall Rudd, The Satires of Horace and Persius, Penguin Classics 1973, p 69)
13. ^ Wilfred Owen, Dulce et decorum est (1917), echoes a line from Carmina 3.2.13, "it is sweet and honourable to die for one's country", cited by Stephen Harrison, The nineteenth and twentieth centuries, 340.
14. ^ Propertius published his third book of elegies within a year or two of Horace's Odes 1–3 and mimicked him, for example, in the opening lines, characterizing himself in terms borrowed from Odes 3.1.13 and 3.30.13–14, as a priest of the Muses and as an adaptor of Greek forms of poetry (R. Tarrant, Ancient receptions of Horace, 227)
15. ^ Ovid for example probably borrowed from Horace's Epistle 1.20 the image of a poetry book as a slave boy eager to leave home, adapting it to the opening poems of Tristia 1 and 3 (R. Tarrant, Ancient receptions of Horace), and Tristia 2 may be understood as a counterpart to Horace's Epistles 2.1, both being letters addressed to Augustus on literary themes (A. Barchiesi, Speaking Volumes, 79–103)
16. ^ The comment is in Persius 1.114–18, yet that same satire has been found to have nearly 80 reminiscences of Horace; see D. Hooley, The Knotted Thong, 29
17. ^ The allusion to Venusine comes via Horace's Sermones 2.1.35, while lamp signifies the lucubrations of a conscientious poet. According to Quintillian (93), however, many people in Flavian Rome preferred Lucilius not only to Horace but to all other Latin poets (R. Tarrant, Ancient receptions of Horace, 279)
18. ^ Prudentius sometimes alludesto the Odes in a negative context, as expressions of a secular life he is abandoning. Thus for example male pertinax, employed in Prudentius's Praefatio to describe a wilful desire for victory, is lifted from Odes 1.9.24, where it describes a girl's half-hearted resistance to seduction. Elsewhere he borrows dux bone from Odes 4.5.5 and 37, where it refers to Augustus, and applies it to Christ (R. Tarrant, Ancient receptions of Horace, 282
19. ^ St Jerome, Epistles 22.29, incorporating a quote from 2 'Corinthians 6.14: qui consensus Christo et Belial? quid facit cum psalterio Horatius?(cited by K. Friis-Jensen, Horace in the Middle Ages, 292)
20. ^ Odes 3.3.1–8 was especially influential in promoting the value of heroic calm in the face of danger, describing a man who could bear even the collapse of the world without fear (si fractus illabatur orbis,/impavidum ferient ruinae). Echoes are found in Seneca's Agamemnon 593–603, Prudentius's Peristephanon 4.5–12 and Boethius's Consolatio 1 metrum 4.(R. Tarrant, Ancient receptions of Horace, 283–85)
21. ^ Heiric, like Prudentius, gave Horatian motifs a Christian context. Thus the character Lydia in Odes 3.19.15, who would willingly die for her lover twice, becomes in Heiric's Life of St Germaine of Auxerre a saint ready to die twice for the Lord's commandments (R. Tarrant, Ancient receptions of Horace, 287–88)
22. ^ According to a medieval French commentary on the Satires: "...first he composed his lyrics, and in them, speaking to the young, as it were, he took as subject-matter love affairs and quarrels, banquets and drinking parties. Next he wrote his Epodes, and in them composed invectives against men of a more advanced and more dishonourable age...He next wrote his book about the Ars Poetica, and in that instructed men of his own profession to write well...Later he added his book of Satires, in which he reproved those who had fallen a prey to various kinds of vices. Finally he finished his oeuvre with the Epistles, and in them, following the method of a good farmer, he sowed the virtues where he had rooted out the vices." (cited by K. Friis-Jensen, Horace in the Middle Ages, 294–302)
23. ^ 'Horace Juvenal' was author of Modern manners: a poem, 1793
24. ^ see for example Spectator 312, 27 Feb. 1712; 548, 28 Nov. 1712; 618, 10 Nov. 1714
25. ^ One echo of Horace may be found in line 69: "Were it not better done as others use,/ To sport with Amaryllis in the shade/Or with the tangles of Neaera's hair?", which points to the Neara in Odes 3.14.21 (Douglas Bush, Milton: Poetical Works, 144, note 69)
26. ^ Cfr. James Boswell, "The Life of Samuel Johnson" Aetat. 20, 1729 where Boswell remarked of Johnson that Horace's Odes "were the compositions in which he took most delight."
27. ^ The quote, from Memorials of a Tour of Italy (1837), contains allusions to Odes 3.4 and 3.13 (S. Harrison, The nineteenth and twentieth centuries, 334–35)
28. ^ "My heart aches, and a drowsy numbness pains / my sense..." echoes Epodes 14.1–4 (S. Harrison, The nineteenth and twentieth centuries, 335)
29. ^ Comment by S. Harrison, editor and contributor to The Cambridge Companion to Horace (S. Harrison, The nineteenth and twentieth centuries, 337
30. ^ Rossetti's sonnet, A Study (a soul), dated 1854, was not published in her own lifetime. Some lines: She stands as pale as Parian marble stands / Like Cleopatra when she turns at bay... (C. Rossetti, Complete Poems, 758
31. ^ Quoted from Auden's poem Out on the lawn I lie in bed, 1933, and cited by S. Harrison, The nineteenth and twentieth centuries, 340
32. ^ Edited by McClatchy, reviewed by S. Harrison, Bryn Mawr Classical Review 2003.03.05
33. ^ I. Wedde, The Commonplace Odes, Auckland 2003, (cited by S. Harrison, The nineteenth and twentieth centuries, 345)
34. ^ 'Political' Epodes are 1, 7, 9, 16; notably obscene Epodes are 8 and 12. E. Fraenkel is among the admirers repulsed by these two poems, for another view of which see for example Dee Lesser Clayman, 'Horace's Epodes VIII and XII: More than Clever Obscenity?', The Classical World Vol. 6, No. 1 (September 1975), pp 55–61 online here
35. ^ M. Almond, The Works 2004, Washington, cited by S. Harrison, The nineteenth and twentieth centuries, 346

Citations[link]

1. ^ E. Fraenkel, Horace, 58
2. ^ ^{a b} J. Michie, The Odes of Horace, 14
3. ^ N. Rudd, The Satires of Horace and Persius, 10
4. ^ V. Kiernan, Horace: Poetics and Politics, ix
5. ^ S. Harrison, The Cambridge Companion to Horace, 1
6. ^ E. Fraenkel, Horace, 1–2.
7. ^ R. Barrow R., The Romans Pelican Books, 119
8. ^ N. Rudd, The Satires of Horace and Persius, 13
9. ^ ^{a b c} V. Kiernan, Horace: Poetics and Politics, 24
10. ^ E. Fraenkel, Horace, 2–3
11. ^ T. Frank, Catullus and Horace, 133–34
12. ^ A. Campbell, Horace: A New Interpretation, 84
13. ^ R. Nisbet, Horace: life and chronology, 7
14. ^ E. Fraenkel, Horace, 3–4
15. ^ E. Fraenkel, Horace, 4–5
16. ^ V. Kiernan, Horace: Poetics and Politics, 25
17. ^ E. Fraenkel, Horace, 8–9
18. ^ V. Kiernan, Horace: Politics and Poetics, 21
19. ^ E. Fraenkel, Horace, 9–10
20. ^ ^{a b} R. Nisbet, Horace: life and chronology, 8
21. ^ V. Kiernan, Horace, 25
22. ^ V. Kiernan, Horace: Poetics and politics
23. ^ E. Fraenkel, Horace, 14–15
24. ^ D. Mankin, Horace: Epodes, 6
25. ^ R. Conway, New Studies of a Great Inheritance, 49–50
26. ^ V. Kiernan, Horace: Poetics and Politics, 18–19
27. ^ F. Muecke, The Satires, 109–10
28. ^ R. Lyne, Augustan Poetry and Society, 599
29. ^ J. Griffin, Horace in the Thirties, 6
30. ^ ^{a b} R. Nisbet, Horace: life and chronology, 10
31. ^ D. Mankin, Horace: Epodes, 5
32. ^ E. Fraenkel, Horace, 15
33. ^ R. Nisbet, Horace: life and chronology, 11
34. ^ V. Kiernan, Horace: Poetics and Politics, 61–2
35. ^ R. Nisbet, Horace: life and chronology, 13
36. ^ V. Kiernan, Horace: Poetics and Politics, 149, 153
37. ^ R. Nisbet, Horace: life and chronology, 14–15
38. ^ E. Fraenkel, Horace, 17–18
39. ^ R. Ferri, The Epistles, 121
40. ^ E. Fraenkel, Horace, 23
41. ^ R Nisbet, Horace: life and chronology, 17–21
42. ^ S. Harrison, Style and poetic texture, 262
43. ^ E. Fraenkel, Horace, 124–5
44. ^ E. Fraenkel, Horace, 106–7
45. ^ E. Fraenkel, Horace, 74
46. ^ E. Fraenkel, Horace, 95–6
47. ^ ^{a b} E. Fraenkel, Horace, 32, 80
48. ^ V. Kiernan, Horace: Poetics and Politics, 28
49. ^ L. Morgan, Satire, 177–8
50. ^ S. Harrison, Style and poetic texture, 271
51. ^ S. Harrison, Lyric and Iambic, 192
52. ^ S. Harrison, Lyric and Iambic, 194–6
53. ^ R. Lyme, Augustan Poetry and Society, 603
54. ^ Niall Rudd, The Satires of Horace and Persius, 14
55. ^ R. Tarrant, Ancient receptions of Horace, 282–3
56. ^ R. Tarrant, Ancient receptions of Horace, 279
57. ^ V. Kiernan, Horace: Poetics and Politics, 176
58. ^ D. Money, The seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, 326, 332
59. ^ R. Tarrant, Ancient receptions of Horace, 280
60. ^ R. Tarrant, Ancient receptions of Horace, 278
61. ^ R. Tarrant, Ancient receptions of Horace, 280–81
62. ^ ^{a b} R. Tarrant, Ancient receptions of Horace, 283
63. ^ R. Tarrant, Ancient receptions of Horace, 285–87
64. ^ R. Tarrant, Ancient receptions of Horace, 288–89
65. ^ B. Bischoff, Living with the satirists, 83–95
66. ^ K. Friis-Jensen,Horace in the Middle Ages, 291
67. ^ K. Friis-Jensen, Horace in the Middle Ages, 293, 304
68. ^ K. Friis-Jensen, Horace in the Middle Ages, 296–8
69. ^ K. Friis-Jensen, Horace in the Middle Ages, 302
70. ^ K. Friis-Jensen, Horace in the Middle Ages, 299
71. ^ Michael McGann, Horace in the Renaissance, 306
72. ^ E. Rivers, Fray Luis de León: The Original Poems
73. ^ M. McGann, Horace in the Renaissance, 306–7, 313–16
74. ^ D. Money, The seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, 318, 331, 332
75. ^ D. Money, The seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, 322
76. ^ D. Money, The seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, 326–7
77. ^ J. Talbot, A Horatian Pun in Paradise Lost, 21–3
78. ^ B. Loveling, Latin and English Poems, 49–52, 79–83
79. ^ D. Money, The seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, 329–31
80. ^ E. Tollet, Poems on Several Occasions, 84
81. ^ Translation adapted from D. Money, The seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, 329
82. ^ A. Gilbert, Literary Criticism: Plato to Dryden, 124, 669
83. ^ W. Kupersmith, Roman Satirists in Seventeenth Century England, 97–101
84. ^ D. Money, The seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, 319–25
85. ^ S. Harrison, The nineteenth and twentieth centuries, 340
86. ^ V. Kiernan, Horace: Poetics and Politics, x
87. ^ S. Harrison, The nineteenth and twentieth centuries, 334
88. ^ D. Money, The seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, 323
89. ^ S. Harrison, The nineteenth and twentieth centuries, 335–37
90. ^ M. Arnold, Selected Prose, 74
91. ^ W. Flesch, Companion to British Poetry, 19th Century, 98
92. ^ S. Harrison, The nineteenth and twentieth centuries, 339
93. ^ S. Medcalfe, Kipling's Horace, 217–39
94. ^ S. Harrison, the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, 340
95. ^ D. Mankin, Horace: Epodes, 6–9
96. ^ R. McNeill, Horace, 12

References[link]

• Arnold, Matthew (1970). Selected Prose. Penguin Books. ISBN 978-0-14-043058-5. 
• Barrow, R (1949). The Romans. Penguin/Pelican Books. 
• Barchiesi, A (2001). Speaking Volumes: Narrative and Intertext in Ovid and Other Latin Poets. Duckworth. 
• Bischoff, B (1971). "Living with the satirists". Classical Influences on European Culture AD 500–1500. Cambridge University Press. 
• Bush, Douglas (1966). Milton: Poetical Works. Oxford University Press. 
• Campbell, A (1924). Horace: A New Interpretation. London. 
• Conway, R (1921). New Studies of a Great Inheritance. London. 
• Ferri, Rolando (2007). "The Epistles". The Cambridge Companion to Horace. Cambridge University Press. 
• Flesch, William (2009). The Facts on File Companion to British Poetry, 19th Century. Infobase Publishing. ISBN 978-0-8160-5896-9. 
• Frank, Tenney (1928). Catullus and Horace. New York. 
• Fraenkel, Eduard (1957). Horace. Oxford University Press. 
• Friis-Jensen, Karsten (2007). "Horace in the Middle Ages". The Cambridge Companion to Horace. Cambridge University Press. 
• Griffin, Jasper (1993). "Horace in the Thirties". Horace 2000. Ann Arbor. 
• Harrison, Stephen (2005). "Lyric and Iambic". A Companion to Latin Literature. Blackwell Publishing. 
• Harrison, Stephen (2007). "Introduction". The Cambridge Companion to Horace. Cambridge University Press. 
• Harrison, Stephen (2007). "Style and poetic texture". The Cambridge Companion to Horace. Cambridge University Press. 
• Harrison, Stephen (2007). "The nineteenth and twentieth centuries". The Cambridge Companion to Horace. Cambridge University Press. 
• Hooley, D (1997). The Knotted Thong: Structures of Mimesis in Persius. Ann Arbor. 
• Hutchinson, G (2002). "The publication and individuality of Horace's Odes 1–3". Classical Quarterly 52. 
• Kiernan, Victor (1999). Horace: Poetics and Politics. St Martin's Press. 
• Kupersmith, W (1985). Roman Satirists in Seventeenth Century England. Lincoln, Nabraska and London. 
• Loveling, Benjamin (1741). Latin and English Poems, by a Gentleman of Trinity College, Oxford. London. 
• Lyne, R (1986). "Augustan Poetry and Society". The Oxford History of the Classical World. Oxford University Press. 
• Mankin, David (1995). Horace: Epodes. Cambridge university Press. 
• McNeill, Randall (2010). Horace. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-980511-2. 
• Michie, James (1967). "Horace the Man". The Odes of Horace. Penguin Classics. 
• Money, David (2007). "The seventeenth and eighteenth centuries". The Cambridge Companion to Horace. Cambridge University Press. 
• Morgan, Llewelyn (2005). "Satire". A Companion to Latin Literature. Blackwell Publishing. 
• Muecke, Frances (2007). "the Satires". The Cambridge Companion to Horace. Cambridge University Press. 
• Nisbet, Robin (2007). "Horace: life and chronology". The Cambridge Companion to Horace. Cambridge University Press. 
• Rivers, Elias (1983). Fray Luis de León: The Original Poems. Grant and Cutler. 
• Rossetti, Christina (2001). The Complete Poems. Penguin Books. 
• Rudd, Niall (1973). The Satires of Horace and Persius. Penguin Classics. 
• Syme, R (1986). The Augustan Aristocracy. Oxford University Press. 
• Talbot, J (2001). "A Horatian Pun in Paradise Lost". Notes and Queries 48 (1). Oxford University Press. 
• Tarrant, Richard (2007). "Ancient receptions of Horace". The Cambridge Companion to Horace. Cambridge University Press. 
• Tollet, Elizabeth (1755). Poems on Several Occasions. London. 

Further reading[link]

• Davis, Gregson (1991). Polyhymnia the rhetoric of Horatian lyric discourse. Berkeley: University of California Press. ISBN 0-520-91030-3. 
• Fraenkel, Eduard (1957). Horace. Oxford: Clarendon Press. 
• Horace (1983). The complete works of Horace. Charles E. Passage, trans. New York: Ungar. ISBN 0-8044-2404-7. 
• Johnson, W.R. (1993). Horace and the dialectic of freedom : readings in Epistles 1. Ithaca: Cornell University Press. ISBN 0-8014-2868-8. 
• Lyne, R.O.A.M. (1995). Horace : behind the public poetry. New Haven: Yale Univ. Press. ISBN 0-300-06322-9. 
• Lyons, Stuart (1997). Horace's Odes and the Mystery of Do-Re-Mi. Aris & Phillips. 
• Lyons, Stuart (2010). Music in the Odes of Horace. Aris & Phillips. 
• Michie, James (1964). The Odes of Horace. Rupert Hart-Davis. 
• Newman, J.K. (1967). Augustus and the New Poetry. Brussels: Latomus, revue d’études latines. 
• Noyes, Alfred (1947). Horace: A Portrait. New York: Sheed and Ward. 
• Perret, Jacques (1964). Horace. Bertha Humez, trans. New York: New York University Press. 
• Putnam, Michael C.J. (1986). Artifices of eternity : Horace's fourth book of Odes. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press. ISBN 0-8014-1852-6. 
• Reckford, Kenneth J. (1969). Horace. New York: Twayne. 
• Rudd, Niall, ed. (1993). Horace 2000: a celebration : essays for the bimillennium. Ann Arbor: Univ. of Michigan Press. ISBN 0-472-10490-X. 
• Sydenham, Colin (2005). Horace The Odes. Duckworth. 
• West, David (1997). Horace The Complete Odes and Epodes. Oxford University Press. 
• Wilkinson, L.P. (1951). Horace and His Lyric Poetry. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 

Translations[link]

• John Dryden successfully adapted three of the Odes (and one Epode) into verse for readers of his own age. Samuel Johnson favored the versions of Philip Francis. Others favor unrhymed translations.
• In 1964 James Michie published a translation of the Odes—many of them fully rhymed—including a dozen of the poems in the original Sapphic and Alcaic metres.
• More recent verse translations of the Odes include those by David West (free verse), and Colin Sydenham (rhymed).
• Ars Poetica was first translated into English by Ben Jonson and later by Lord Byron.
• Horace's Odes and the Mystery of Do-Re-Mi Stuart Lyons (rhymed) Aris & Phillips ISBN 978-0-85668-790-7

External links[link]

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Horace

Latin Wikisource has original text related to this article: Latin texts of Quintus Horatius Flaccus

English Wikisource has original text related to this article: English translations of texts of Quintus Horatius Flaccus

Wikisource has the text of the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica article Horace.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Quintus Horatius Flaccus

• Full text (in Latin): Horace’s Satirae (= Satires), Epistolae (= Epistles, Letters), etc. From archive.org. Retrieved 13 September 2010.
• Works by Horace at Project Gutenberg
• Common sayings from Horace
• The works of Horace at The Latin Library
• Selected Poems of Horace
• The Perseus Project — Latin and Greek authors (with English translations), including Horace
• Biography and chronology
• Horace's works: text, concordances and frequency list
• SORGLL: Horace, Odes I.22, read by Robert Sonkowsky
• Translations of several odes in the original meters (with accompaniment).
• A discussion and comparison of three different contemporary translations of Horace's Odes
• Some spurious lines in the Ars Poetica?
• Works by or about Horace in libraries (WorldCat catalog)

For the basketball player, see Sid Catlett (basketball).

Sid Catlett and Freddie Robbins

Sidney Catlett (January 17, 1910 – March 25, 1951), was a swinging jazz drummer often referred to as "Big Sid Catlett" because of his large frame.

Biography[link]

Catlett was born in Evansville, Indiana, and started at piano, but switched to drums and entered formal study when his family moved to Chicago. His career began in Chicago in 1928 with Darnell Howard. In adulthood, he moved to New York City and worked with Benny Carter, Fletcher Henderson, Elmer Snowden, Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker, Ben Webster, and others. In 1941, he joined Benny Goodman's band and after that joined Teddy Wilson's Sextet. In 1944, he did an album with pianist Harry Gibson. He also had his own band and played for Louis Armstrong's All Stars from 1947 to 1949 and became his drummer of choice. He played bop, dixieland, and other styles.

In early 1951, he began to suffer from pneumonia. In that same year, he died of a heart-attack while visiting friends backstage at an Hot Lips Page benefit concert in Chicago, Illinois.

In 1996, he was inducted into the Big Band and Jazz Hall of Fame.

External links[link]

• BBC radio 2 Profile
• Music Match Bio
• Drum solo artist site
• Drummerworld Profile

Coleman Hawkins
Coleman Hawkins, circa September 1946. Photo: William P. Gottlieb.
Background information
Birth name	Coleman Randolph Hawkins
Born	(1904-11-21)November 21, 1904
Origin	Saint Joseph, Missouri, United States
Died	May 19, 1969(1969-05-19) (aged 64)
Genres	Swing music, bebop
Instruments	Tenor saxophone, bass saxophone, clarinet
Years active	1921-1969[1]
Associated acts	Ben Webster, Max Roach

Coleman Randolph Hawkins (November 21, 1904 – May 19, 1969) was an American jazz tenor saxophonist.^[2] Hawkins was one of the first prominent jazz musicians on his instrument. As Joachim E. Berendt explained, "there were some tenor players before him, but the instrument was not an acknowledged jazz horn".^[3] While Hawkins is most strongly associated with the swing music and big band era, he had a role in the development of bebop in the 1940s.^[2]

Lester Young, who was called "Pres", in a 1959 interview with The Jazz Review, said "As far as I'm concerned, I think Coleman Hawkins was the President first, right? As far as myself, I think I'm the second one."^[3] Miles Davis once said: "When I heard Hawk, I learned to play ballads."^[3] Hawkins was nicknamed "Hawk" and sometimes "Bean".

Biography[link]

Coleman Hawkins (incorrectly spelled "Haskins" in the caption) pictured in the Topeka High School orchestra, from the 1921 yearbook.

Early life and the swing era[link]

Hawkins was born in Saint Joseph, Missouri, in 1904. Some out-of-date sources say 1901, but there is no evidence to prove an earlier date; instead, there is record of Hawkins's parents' first female child being born on 8 March 1901 and dying in 1903 at the age of two, possibly basis for the mistaken belief.^[4] He was named Coleman after his mother Cordelia's maiden name.

He attended high school in Chicago, then in Topeka, Kansas at Topeka High School. He later stated that he studied harmony and composition for two years at Washburn College in Topeka while still attending THS. In his youth he played piano and cello, and started playing saxophone at the age of nine; by the age of fourteen he was playing around eastern Kansas.

Hawkins's first major gig was with Mamie Smith's Jazz Hounds in 1921, whom he joined permanently in April 1922 and toured with through 1923, when he settled in New York City. Hawkins joined Fletcher Henderson's Orchestra, where he remained until 1934, sometimes doubling on clarinet and bass saxophone. Hawkins's playing changed significantly during Louis Armstrong's tenure with the Henderson Orchestra during 1924-25. In the late 20's, Hawkins also participated in some of the earliest interracial recording sessions with the Mound City Blue Blowers. During the time with Henderson, he became a star soloist with an increasing amount of star solos on record. While with the band, he and Henry "Red" Allen recorded a series of small group sides for ARC (on their Perfect, Melotone, Romeo, and Oriole labels). Hawkins also recorded a number of solo recordings, with either piano or with a pick-up band of Henderson's musicians in 1933-34, just prior to his European trip. He was also featured on a landmark Benny Goodman February 2, 1934 session for Columbia, which also featured Mildred Bailey as guest vocalist.

In late 1934, Hawkins accepted an invitation to play with Jack Hylton's band in London, and toured Europe as a soloist until 1939, memorably working with Django Reinhardt and Benny Carter in Paris in 1937.^[5] Having returned to the United States, on October 11, 1939, he recorded a two-chorus performance of the pop standard "Body and Soul", which he had been performing at Kelly's Stables. A landmark recording of the swing era, recorded as an afterthought at the session, it is notable in that Hawkins ignores almost all of the melody, only the first four bars are stated in a recognizable fashion. In its exploration of harmonic structure^[5] it is considered by many to be the next evolutionary step in jazz recording from where Louis Armstrong's "West End Blues" in 1928 left off.

The bebop era[link]

Hawkins with Miles Davis at Three Deuces on 52nd Street in NYC, ca. July 1947. Photo: William P. Gottlieb.

After an unsuccessful attempt to establish a big band, he led a combo at Kelly's Stables on Manhattan's 52nd Street with Thelonious Monk, Oscar Pettiford, Miles Davis, and Max Roach as sidemen. Hawkins always had a keen ear for new talent and styles, and he was leader on what is generally considered the first ever bebop recording session with Dizzy Gillespie and Max Roach in 1944.^[6][7] Later he toured with Howard McGhee and recorded with J. J. Johnson and Fats Navarro. He also toured with Jazz at the Philharmonic.

In 1948 Hawkins recorded Picasso, an early piece for unaccompanied saxophone.

After 1948 Hawkins divided his time between New York and Europe, making numerous freelance recordings. In the 1960s, he appeared regularly at the Village Vanguard in Manhattan.

Hawkins directly influenced many bebop performers, and later in his career, recorded or performed with such adventurous musicians as Sonny Rollins, who considered him as his main influence, and John Coltrane. He appears on the Thelonious Monk with John Coltrane (Riverside) record. In 1960 he recorded on Max Roach's We Insist! - Freedom Now suite.^[2]

Later life[link]

The grave of Coleman Hawkins

In the 1950s, Hawkins performed with more traditional musicians such as Henry "Red" Allen and Roy Eldridge with whom he appeared at the 1957 Newport Jazz Festival and recorded Coleman Hawkins Encounters Ben Webster with fellow tenor saxophonist Ben Webster along with Oscar Peterson (piano), Herb Ellis (guitar), Ray Brown (bass), and Alvin Stoller (drums).

In the 1960s, Hawkins began to drink heavily and his recording output began to wane. However, he did manage to record some notable albums with musicians such as Duke Ellington, among others. His last recording was in 1967.

With failing health, Hawkins succumbed to pneumonia in 1969 and is interred in the Yew Plot at the Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx.^[2]

The Song of the Hawk, a 1990 biography written by British jazz historian John Chilton, chronicles Hawkins's career as one of the influential jazz performers of the 20th century.

Discography[link]

"Chicago"--Decca # 661--1935 "Netcha's Dream"--Decca--# 661--1935

As leader[link]

• Body and Soul (1939–1956, RCA)
• Picasso (album) (1948)
• The Hawk in Paris (1956, RCA Victor Gold)
• The Hawk Flies High (1957)
• Bean Bags (Atlantic, 1958)
• Hawk Eyes! (1959)
• In a Mellow Tone (1960)
• Bean Stalkin' (1960)
• At Ease with Coleman Hawkins (1960), Rerelease (1985) OJC-181
• Night Hawk (1961, with Eddie Lockjaw Davis, Swingville)
• The Hawk Relaxes (1961, Moodsville)
• Good Old Broadway (1962, Moodsville)
• Alive! (1962)
• Sonny Meets Hawk! with Sonny Rollins (1963)
• Sirius (1966)
• Jazz Reunion (with Pee Wee Russell, Candid Records)

Impulse! Records

• 1962: Duke Ellington Meets Coleman Hawkins
• 1962: Today and Now
• 1962: Desafinado
• 1965: Wrapped Tight

Pablo Records

• 1967: The Greatest Jazz Concert in the World

Verve Records

• 1957: Coleman Hawkins Encounters Ben Webster
• 1957: The Genius of Coleman Hawkins
• 1958: Coleman Hawkins and Confreres
• 1962: Hawkins! Eldridge! Hodges! Alive at the Village Gate

As sideman[link]

With Abbey Lincoln

• Straight Ahead (Candid, 1961)

With Shelly Manne

• 2-3-4 (Impulse!, 1962)

With Thelonious Monk

• Thelonious Monk with John Coltrane (Riverside, 1957)

With Max Roach

• We Insist! - Freedom Now (Candid, 1960)

References[link]

External links[link]

Biography portal

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Coleman Hawkins

• Internet Movie Database
• BookRags biography
• The Red Hot Jazz Archive biography
• Jazz for Beginners biography
• Coleman Hawkins Legacy Jazz Festival
• Coleman Hawkins at Find a Grave

Perry Como
Perry Como on The Perry Como Show set, 1956.
Background information
Birth name	Pierino Ronald Como
Born	(1912-05-18)May 18, 1912 Canonsburg, Pennsylvania, U.S.
Died	May 12, 2001(2001-05-12) (aged 88) Jupiter Inlet Colony, Florida, U.S.
Genres	Easy Listening, Adult Contemporary, Pop, Big Band, Jazz, Latin, Swing, Country, Rock and Roll, Religious music
Instruments	Vocalist
Years active	1933–1998
Labels	Decca, RCA Victor
Associated acts	Freddy Carlone Orchestra Ted Weems Orchestra

Pierino Ronald "Perry" Como (May 18, 1912 – May 12, 2001) was an American singer and television personality. During a career spanning more than half a century he recorded exclusively for the RCA Victor label after signing with them in 1943.^[1] "Mr. C.", as he was nicknamed, sold millions of records for Radio Corporation of America (RCA) and pioneered a weekly musical variety television show, which set the standards for the genre and proved to be one of the most successful in television history. Como was seen weekly on television from 1949 to 1963, then continued hosting the Kraft Music Hall variety program on a monthly basis until 1967.^[2][3][4] His television shows and seasonal specials were broadcast throughout the world.^[5][6] Also a popular recording artist, Perry Como produced numerous hit records with record sales so high the label literally stopped counting at Como's behest.^[7] His combined success on television and popular recordings was not matched by any other artist of the time.^[8] Como's appeal spanned generations and he was widely respected for both his professional standards and the conduct in his personal life. In the official RCA Records Billboard magazine memorial, his life was summed up in these few words: "50 years of music and a life well lived. An example to all."^[9] Composer Ervin Drake said of him, "... [o]ccasionally someone like Perry comes along and won't 'go with the flow' and still prevails in spite of all the bankrupt others who surround him and importune him to yield to their values. Only occasionally."^[10]

One of the many factors in his success was Como's insistence on his principles of good taste; if he considered something to be in bad or poor taste, it was not in the show or broadcast.^[11][12] When a remark made by Julius La Rosa about television personality Arthur Godfrey on The Perry Como Show was misconstrued, Como offered an on-air apology at the beginning of his next show, against the advice of his staff.^[13][14][15] While his performance of "Ave Maria" was a tradition of his holiday television programs, Como refused to sing it at live performances, saying, "It's not the time or place to do it", even though it was the number one request of his audiences.^[16][17] Another was his naturalness; the man viewers saw on the screen was the same person who could be encountered behind a supermarket shopping cart, at a bowling alley, or in a kitchen making breakfast.^[18][19][20] From his first Chesterfield Supper Club television show, if scripts were written at all, they were based on the way Como would say something.^[12][21] Como was not devoid of a temper, and it could be seen at times as a result of the frustrations of daily life. His music director from 1948 – 1963, Mitchell Ayres, said, "Perry has a temper like everyone else. And he loses his temper at the normal things everyone else does. When we're driving, for instance, and somebody cuts him off, he really lets the offender have it."^[22][23]

Como received the 1959 Grammy Award for Best Vocal Performance, Male, five Emmys from 1955 to 1959,^[24] a Christopher Award (1956) and shared a Peabody Award with good friend Jackie Gleason in 1956.^[25][26] He was inducted into the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences Hall of Fame in 1990^[27][28][29] and received a Kennedy Center Honor in 1987.^[30] Posthumously, Como received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2002;^[31] he was inducted into the Long Island Music Hall of Fame in 2006 and the Hit Parade Hall of Fame in 2007.^[32][33] Como has the distinction of having three stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for his work in radio, television, and music.^[34]

Personal life[link]

Como was born in Canonsburg, Pennsylvania.^[35] He was the seventh of the 13 children of Pietro Como (1877–1945),^[27] and Lucia Travaglini (1883–1961),^[36][37] who both emigrated to the US in 1910 from the Abruzzese town of Palena, Italy.^[38][39][40] Perry was the first of their children born in the United States.^[40] He did not begin speaking English until he entered school, since the Comos spoke Italian at home.^[41] The family had a second-hand organ Pietro had bought for $3; as soon as Perry was able to toddle, he would head to the instrument, pump the bellows, and play music he had heard by ear.^[42] His father, a mill hand and an amateur baritone, had all his children attend music lessons even if he could barely afford them.^[43] In a rare 1957 interview, Como's mother, Lucia, described how her young son also took on other jobs to pay for more music lessons; Como learned to play many different instruments, but never had a voice lesson.^[40] Perry showed more musical talent in his teenage years as a trombone player in the town's brass band, playing guitar, singing at weddings, and as an organist at church.^[44][45] He was a member of the Canonsburg Italian Band along with the father of singer Bobby Vinton, bandleader Stan Vinton, who was often a customer at his barber shop.^[46][47][48]

Young Como started helping his family at age 10, working before and after school in Steve Fragapane's barber shop for 50¢ a week. By age 13, he had graduated to having his own chair in the Fragapane barber shop, although he stood on a box to tend to his customers.^[42][49][50] It was also around this time when young Como lost his week's wages in a dice game. Filled with shame, he locked himself in his room and did not come out until hunger got the better of him. He managed to tell his father what had happened to the money his family depended on. His father told him he was entitled to make a mistake and that he hoped his son would never do anything worse than this.^[42] When Perry was 14, his father became unable to work due to a severe heart condition. Como and his brothers became the support of the household.^[43]

Despite his musical ability, Como's primary ambition was to become the best barber in Canonsburg. Practicing on his father, young Como mastered the skills well enough to have his own shop at age 14.^[27][51] One of Como's regular customers at the barber shop owned a Greek coffee house that included a barber shop area, and asked the young barber if he would like to take over that portion of his shop. Como had so much work after moving to the coffee house, he had to hire two barbers to help with it. His customers mainly worked at the nearby steel mills. They were well-paid, did not mind spending money on themselves and enjoyed Como's song renditions. Perry did especially well when one of his customers would marry. The groom and his men would avail themselves of every treatment Como and his assistants had to offer. Como sang romantic songs while busying himself with the groom as the other two barbers worked with the rest of the groom's party. During the wedding preparation, the groom's friends and relatives would come into the shop with gifts of money for Como. He became so popular as a "wedding barber" in the Greek community he was asked to provide his services in Pittsburgh and Ohio.^[49]

In 1929, the 17 year old Como met Roselle Belline at a picnic on Chartiers Creek that attracted many young people from the Canonsburg area. Como, who attended the cookout with another girl, did not spot Roselle until everyone was around the campfire singing and the gathering was coming to a close. When it came Como's turn to sing, he chose More Than You Know, with his eyes on Roselle for the entire song.^[49] The teenage sweethearts were married July 31, 1933.^[27][52] They raised three children, Ronnie, David, and Terri, with traditional, non-show-business values.^[44][53] Because Perry Como believed his professional life and his personal life should be kept separate, he declined repeated interview requests from Edward R. Murrow's Person to Person.^[25][27][54]

In 1958, the Comos celebrated their silver wedding anniversary with a family trip to Italy. On the itinerary was an audience with Pope Pius XII.^[55] Como, who sat in a side wing of the Long Island church where he attended Sunday Mass in an effort to avoid attracting attention, was both puzzled and upset on returning home that photos from the visit made the newspapers throughout the world. A thorough check of both the Como and National Broadcasting Company (NBC) publicity offices found that neither was responsible for the release of the photos to the media; it was done by the Vatican's press department. When Perry and Roselle became Knight Commander and Lady Commander of the Equestrian Order of the Order of the Holy Sepulchre in 1952, it was a news item only after Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen, who had been honored at the same ceremony, mentioned it some time later.^{[7][18][27][44][56][57]}

Como suffered a debilitating fall from a stage platform in 1971 while taping Perry Como's Winter Show in Hollywood.^[58] X-rays showed no serious injury to his knee, but by the next morning, it was twice normal size. The ailing Como chartered a jet back to his home and doctors in Florida, where a second exam showed it had been seriously broken. His knee was re-set and placed in a cast with a recuperation time of eight months.^[59][60] In 1993, he was successfully treated for bladder cancer.^[52] When Roselle died suddenly on August 12, 1998 at age 84, the couple had been married for 65 years.^[52] Como was reportedly devastated by her loss.^[27][61][62]

Bing Crosby once described Como as, "the man who invented casual".^[63] His preference for casual clothing did not keep him from being named one of the Best Dressed Men beginning in 1946, and continuing long after Como stopped appearing on weekly television.^[64][65][66] Como also had his own line of sports/casual men's clothing made by Bucknell circa early 1950s.^[67]

Perry was an accomplished golfer; there was always time to try getting in a game of golf.^[6][68] "Perry Como Putters" were sold by MacGregor, each stamped with a Como facsimile autograph.^[69] His colleagues held an annual Perry Como Golf Tournament to honor him and his love for the game.^[70][71] In what must have been one of his favorite shows of his weekly series, Como's guests on the October 3, 1962 broadcast were Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer, and Gary Player. The four golfers played 18 holes for the cameras at Sands Point, New York, where the Comos made their home in the television years.^[18][27][72] Como also enjoyed fishing and could be found out on his boat almost every day after the family moved to Florida. Perry's "catches" would turn out to be the Como family's dinners.^[6][73] Como also used his boat as a rehearsal hall with pre-recorded instrumental tapes sent to him by RCA Victor. Perry would work on material while he was waiting for the fish to bite.^[74] Having enjoyed golfing and fishing in the North Carolina mountains for several years, Como built a vacation home in Saluda, North Carolina in 1980. He allowed no photos of his home, as it was his private place to get away from the celebrity life.^[75][76][77]

Professional singer[link]

Freddy Carlone and Ted Weems[link]

In 1932, Como left Canonsburg, moving about 100 miles away to Meadville, Pennsylvania, where his uncle had a barber shop in the Hotel Conneaut. About 80 miles from Cleveland, it was a stop on the itinerary for dance bands who worked up and down the Ohio Valley. Como, Roselle, and their friends had gone to nearby Cleveland; their good times took them to the Silver Slipper Ballroom where Freddy Carlone and his orchestra were playing. Carlone invited anyone who thought he might have singing talent to come up and sing with his band. Young Como was terrified, but his friends urged him onto the stage. Carlone was so impressed with his performance that he offered him a job.^[78]

The young man was not certain if he should accept the offer Freddy Carlone made, so he returned to Canonsburg to talk the matter over with his father. Perry expected he would tell him to stay in the barber business, but to his surprise, the senior Como told him if he did not try this, he would never know whether or not he could be a professional singer.^[78] The decision was also made with an eye on finances; Como earned $125 per week from his barber shop while the job with Carlone paid $28 per week.^[53] Roselle was willing to be a wife on the road, traveling with her husband and the band, but the salary could not support two people like this.^[27] Perry and Roselle were married in Meadville on July 31, 1933; four days later, Como joined Freddy Carlone's band and began working with them.^[79][80] Roselle returned home to Canonsburg; her new husband would be on the road for the next 18 months.^[81]

Como in 1939, when he was with the Ted Weems Orchestra.

Three years after joining the Carlone band, Como moved to Ted Weems' Orchestra and his first recording dates.^[1][82] Como and Weems met in 1936 while the Carlone orchestra was playing in Warren, Ohio.^[83] Perry initially did not take the offer to join Weems' orchestra. Apparently realizing it was the best move for his young vocalist, Freddy Carlone urged him to sign with Weems.^[84] Art Jarrett had just left the Weems organization to start his own band. Weems was in need of a vocalist; Como got a raise, as Weems paid $50 per week, and his first chance for nationwide exposure. Ted Weems and his orchestra were based in Chicago, and were regulars on radio shows such as The Jack Benny Program and Fibber McGee and Molly.^[85][86][87] The Weems band also had its own weekly radio program on the Mutual Broadcasting System from 1936 – 1937.^[88][89][90]

It was here where the young Como acquired polish and his own unique style, with the help of Ted Weems. Mutual Broadcasting System member WGN radio threatened to stop carrying the Weems broadcasts from Chicago's Palmer House if Weems' new singer did not improve. Weems had recordings of some previous radio programs; one evening he and Como listened to them after the show. From listening to them, Como realized no one could make out the words to the songs he was singing. Weems told Como there was no need for him to resort to vocal tricks; what was necessary was to sing from the heart.^[91][92]

Como's first recording with the Weems band was a novelty tune called "You Can't Pull the Wool Over My Eyes", recorded for the Decca Records label in May, 1936. During one of Como's early Decca recording sessions with the Weems orchestra, Weems was told to get rid of "that kid" (Como) because he sounded too much like Bing Crosby. Before Como could reply, Ted Weems spoke up, saying that Como was part of the session or it was over.^[41] By the time Como had been with Ted Weems about a year, he was mentioned in a 1937 Life magazine NBC Radio ad for Fibber McGee and Molly as "causing cardiac flutters with his crooning."^[93] The weekly radio show, Beat the Band, which ran on NBC from 1940 – 1944, was a "stump the band" type musical quiz show where Weems and his orchestra were the featured band from 1940 – 1941.^[88][89]

RCA Victor and radio[link]

Arriving in Chicago for performances in 1947, Como is met by his young fans who get a trim along with a song.

The Como's first child, Ronnie, was born in 1940 while the Weems band was working in Chicago. Como left the performance to be at his wife's side even though he was threatened with dismissal if he did so.^[52] Though Perry was now making $250 a week and travel expenses for the family were no problem, young Ronnie could not become used to a normal routine when they were able to stay in one place for a period of time. The radio program Beat the Band did not always originate from Chicago, but was often done from locations such as Milwaukee, Denver and St. Louis, as the band continued to play road engagements while part of the radio show cast.^[94] The Comos decided road life was no place to try raising a child, and Roselle and the baby went back to Canonsburg.

In late 1942, Como made the decision to quit the Weems band, even if it meant giving up singing.^[81] He returned to Canonsburg, his family, and his trade, tired of life on the road without his wife and young son.^[95] Como received an offer to become a Frank Sinatra imitator, but chose to keep his own style.^[96][97] While Perry was negotiating for a store lease to re-open a barber shop, he had a call from Tommy Rockwell at General Artists Corporation, who also represented Ted Weems. Como had many other calls bringing offers; what was different was that he knew and trusted Rockwell, who was offering him his own sustaining (non-sponsored) Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS) radio show and to get him a recording contract.^[98] It also mattered that the offers meant staying in New York with no more road tours.^[27][84][99] As Perry pondered the offer, Roselle Como told him, "You can always get another barber shop if it doesn't work out!"^[1][44][100] Until the radio show and recording contract offers, he did not really view singing as his career, believing the years with Carlone and Weems had been enjoyable, but now it was time to get back to work. Como said in an 1983 interview, "I thought I'd have my fun and I'd go home to work."^[41][101]

Perry went on the air for CBS on March 12, 1943.^[102] Rockwell's next move was to book Como into the renowned Copacabana night club for two weeks beginning on June 10, 1943.^[27] One week later he signed his first RCA Victor contract and three days after that cut his first record for the company: "Goodbye, Sue".^[103][104] It was the beginning of a 44 year professional relationship; no major artist has been with a recording company longer.^[1][27][51] He became a very successful performer in theater and night club engagements; Como's initial two weeks at the Copacabana in June stretched into August.^[27] There were times when Frank Sinatra would ask Como to fill in for him at his Paramount Theater performances.^[105] The crooning craze was at its height during this time and the "bobby soxer" and "swooner" teenage girls who were wild about Sinatra added Como to their list, a "swooners" club voting him "Crooner of the Year" in 1943.^[106] The line for a Perry Como Paramount performance was three deep and wound around the city block. Como's popularity also extended to a more mature audience when he played the Versailles and returned to the Copacabana, where the management placed "SRO-Swooning Ruled Out" cards on their tables.^{[25][106][107]}

Doug Storer, who was an advertising manager with the Blackman Company at the time, became convinced of Como's abilities after hearing him on his non-sponsored CBS Radio show. Storer produced a demo radio program recording with Como and the Mitchell Ayres Orchestra which he brought to the advertising agency that handled the Chesterfield cigarettes account. Initially, the agency liked the format of the show, but wanted someone else as the star, asking Storer to obtain the release of the singer they preferred, so he would be free for their new program. Storer decided to do nothing about getting the singer released from his contract. When he was contacted by the agency some weeks later, saying they were ready to put the program on the air on NBC, Storer bluntly told them the man for their show was the man they had heard on the demo recording. The program was scheduled to make its debut in about a week; the only option was to hire Como for the show. Storer then arranged for Como's release from his CBS contract.^[108] On December 11, 1944, he moved from CBS to NBC for a new radio program, Chesterfield Supper Club.^{[109][110][111]}

The April 5, 1946 broadcasts of the Chesterfield Supper Club took place 20,000 feet in the air; these were the first known instances of a complete radio show being presented from an airplane. Como, Jo Stafford, the Lloyd Shaffer Orchestra and the entire "Supper Club" crew made the flights for the shows.^[27][112] There were two "Supper Club" broadcast flights that evening: at 6 PM and again at 10 PM for the West Coast broadcast of the show. In addition to the instruments for the band, the plane also carried a small piano. Because the stand-held microphones were not very useful on the plane, hand-held mikes were then used, but due to the cabin pressure, they became extremely heavy to hold after a few minutes.^[113] This mid-air performance caused the American Federation of Musicians to consider this a new type of engagement and issue a special set of rates for it.^[114]

Como in concert[link]

After 26 years of not making night club appearances, Como accepted an engagement at the International Hotel in Las Vegas in June 1970, which also resulted in his first "live" album, Perry Como in Person at the International Hotel, Las Vegas.^[11] Ray Charles, whose Ray Charles Singers were heard with Como for over 35 years, formed a special edition of the vocal group for his Las Vegas opening. Prior to this he had last appeared at New York's Copacabana in 1944.^{[51][115][116][117]} Como continued to do periodic engagements in Las Vegas and Lake Tahoe, limiting his night club appearances to Nevada.^[118]

Performing live again brought Como a new sense of enjoyment. In May 1974, he embarked on his first concert appearance outside of the United States, a show at the London Palladium for the Variety Club of Great Britain to aid children's charities.^[119][120] It was here where he discovered what he had been missing when the audience cheered for ten minutes after he walked onstage. At the show's end, Como sat in a chair, delightedly chatting back and forth with his equally delighted fans.^[73] Perry returned to the United Kingdom (UK) in November for a Royal Variety Performance to benefit the Entertainment Artistes' Benevolent Fund with the Queen Mother in attendance.^{[121][122][123]} Como was invited to visit Buckingham Palace the day after the show. Since the invitation did not extend to his associates traveling and working with him, Como politely declined.^[124] When word reached the Palace regarding the reason for Perry's turning down the invitation, it was then extended to include all in the Como party.^[125] Soon after, he announced his first concert tour that began in the UK in the spring of 1975.^[126]

In 1982, Como and Frank Sinatra were invited to entertain Italian President Sandro Pertini at a White House State dinner when he made an official visit. President Pertini enjoyed their performance enough to join them in singing "Santa Lucia".^[127] The pair reprised this routine the next year in California as part of the entertainment for Queen Elizabeth's Royal visit.^[41][128] Perry was on the program by special request of the Queen.^[129][130]

1984 found Como traveling the US with his 50th Anniversary tour. Having spent most of his professional life in radio or recording studios and on television soundstages, he was enjoying doing live performances.^[131] Even after his 80th birthday, Perry continued the concert tours.^[78][132] Gone however, were the cardigan sweaters which were a staple of his weekly television shows. Como now performed in a tuxedo, saying, "It shows respect for the audience." ^[133][134] The return to live appearances also provided Como with an opportunity to have a little fun with his "Mister Nice Guy" image in a song Ray Charles and Nick Perito^[135][136] his closest collaborator since 1963,^[137] wrote for him:^{[95][138][139]}

It doesn't take a guy equipped with ESP, to see what's cookin' with your curiosity!
Is "Mister Nice Guy" just a press agent's pitch? his dearest friends say he's a . . .
You never thought you'd see me in Las Vegas 'live' I haven't played a "club" since 1885!
It's spelled out in dollar signs ( you better believe it! ) I can almost read your minds!

–Nick Perito and Ray Charles, "If I Could Almost Read Your Mind"

Vocal characteristics[link]

Perry Como credited Bing Crosby for influencing his voice and style.^[140][141] Perry Como's voice is widely known for its good-natured vocal acrobatics as portrayed in his highly popular novelty songs such as "Hot Diggity (Dog Ziggity Boom)", but there was another side to Perry Como. Music critic Gene Lees describes it in his sleeve note to Como's 1968 album Look To Your Heart:^[142]

Despite his immense popularity, Como is rarely given credit for what, once you stop and think of it, he so clearly is: one of the great singers and one of the great artists of our time.

Perhaps the reason people rarely talk about his formidable attributes as a singer is that he makes so little fuss about them. That celebrated ease of his has been too little understood. Ease in any art is the result of mastery over the details of the craft. You get them together to the point where you can forget about how you do things and concentrate on what you are doing. Como got them together so completely that the muscles don’t even show. It seems effortless, but a good deal of effort has gone into making it seem so. Como is known to be meticulous about rehearsal of the material for an album. He tries things out in different keys, gives the song thought, makes suggestions, tries it again, and again, until he is satisfied. The hidden work makes him look like Mr. Casual, and too many people are taken in by it — but happily so.

–Gene Lees-sleeve note, Look To Your Heart

From 1989 until his death in 2001, Como co-hosted a weekly syndicated radio show with John Knox, called Weekend With Perry.^{[143][144][145]}

Films[link]

Fox publicity photo of Perry Como.

Como's Hollywood type good looks earned him a seven year contract with 20th Century-Fox in 1943. He made five films: Something for the Boys (1944), March of Time (1945), Doll Face (1945),^{[146][147][148]} If I'm Lucky (1946), and Words and Music (1948), but he never appeared to be truly comfortable with the medium, feeling his roles did not match his personality.^{[21][149][150]}

Some misguided advisers sought to alter Como's life story by changing his previous occupation from barber to coal miner, claiming it would make for better press.^[146] Fred Othman, a Hollywood columnist, publicly stated he believed Como the barber was just a publicity gimmick. Perry gave him a shave and haircut at the Fox Studios barber shop to prove him wrong.^[101][151] In 1985, Como related the story of his first film role experience in Something for the Boys. He sat ready to work in his dressing room for two weeks without being called. Perry spent the next two weeks playing golf, still not missed by the studio.^[95] It was five weeks before he was actually called to the set, despite the studio's initial urgent report for work notice. When Como finally appeared, the director had no idea who he was.^[152]

At the time Como was signed, fewer musicals were being made by the studios because audiences were not going to the box office for this type of film. He was put into a sort of stock company, where the actors or actresses worked only when the studio needed to fill out a schedule.^[152] Though his last movie, Words and Music, was a Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer production, Como fared no better. Less than two weeks before the film's release, Walter Winchell printed in his syndicated column, "Someone at MGM must have been dozing when they wrote the script for Words and Music. In most of the film Perry Como is called Eddie Anders and toward the end (for no reason) they start calling him Perry Como."^[153] Como asked for and received a release from the remainder of his movie contract in the same year.^{[51][140][154]} Quoting Como, "I was wasting their time and they were wasting mine." ^[95]

Como's comments during a 1949 interview were prophetic, as far as his success was concerned. At the time he was doing the Chesterfield Supper Club on both radio and television, "Television is going to do me a lot more personal good than the movies ever have...The reason should be obvious. On television, I'm allowed to be myself; in pictures, I was always some other guy. I come over like just another bum in a tuxedo."^[21] Como received some movie offers that pleased him while he was doing the weekly television shows, but there was just never enough time to pursue the film work.^[2][3][155]

Television[link]

Early years: 1948 – 1955[link]

Perry Como made the move to television when NBC initially televised the Chesterfield Supper Club radio program on December 24, 1948. A very special guest on that first television show was Como's eight year old son, Ronnie, as part of a boys' choir singing "Silent Night" with his father.^[4][156] The show was the usual Friday night Chesterfield Supper Club with an important exception—it was also being broadcast on television.^[157] The experimental simulcast was to continue for three Friday "Supper Club" shows, but had gone so well, NBC decided to extend the televised version through August 1949.^[21][158] Years later, Como admitted to being scared and feeling awkward initially, but somehow managed to just be himself.^[159] Said Como, "You can't act on TV. With me, what you see is what you get." While still in its experimental phase, Como and the television show survived an on location broadcast in Durham, North Carolina, on April 15, 1949.^[27]

On September 8, 1949, it became a weekly half-hour offering on Sunday nights, directly opposite Ed Sullivan's Toast of the Town.^[111][160] In 1950, Perry moved to CBS and the show's title was changed to The Perry Como Chesterfield Show, again sponsored by Liggett & Myers' Chesterfield cigarettes.^[27] Como hosted this informal 15 minute musical variety series on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, immediately following the CBS Television News. The Faye Emerson Show was initially broadcast in the same time slot on Tuesday and Thursday.^[53][161] By 1952, it was evident that television would replace radio as the major entertainment medium. Gary Giddins, the biographer of Bing Crosby, said in 2001, "He (Como) came from this whole generation of crooners--Crosby and Sinatra, but he was the only one of them who figured out TV." ^[27] Como's 15-minute television show was also simulcast on radio via the Mutual Broadcasting System beginning on August 24, 1953; while the Chesterfield Supper Club broadcasts were simulcast on radio and television, this was the first instance of a simulcast between two networks.^[27]

Como's CBS contract was to expire on July 1, 1955.^[162] The year before, he had been asked to be the master of ceremonies and narrator of the NBC Radio 35th anniversary special.^[163] That April, Perry Como signed a 12 year "unbreakable" contract with NBC.^[162] On his last CBS show, June 24, 1955, Como was in high spirits, bringing all those who worked off camera on the air for introductions. Perry tried his hand at camera work, getting a picture on the air but one that was upside-down.^[27] In appreciation for the 11 year association, his sponsor, Chesterfield, presented him with all the musical arrangements used during this time as a parting gift.^[164]

Sing to me, Mr. C.: 1955 – 1959[link]

He moved back to NBC with a weekly hour long variety show featuring additional musical and production numbers, comedy sketches and guest stars called The Perry Como Show, premiering Saturday, September 17, 1955.^[44] This version of his show was also so popular that in the 1956 – 1957 television season, it reached ninth in the Nielsen ratings, the only show on NBC that season to land in the top ten.^[27]

Como's "Dream Along With Me" ^[165][166] became the show's opening theme song,^[4] "Mr. C." received the first of many "stacks and stacks of letters" requesting him to sing a specific song.^{[50][165][167]} It was also here where he began wearing his trademark cardigan sweaters.^{[4][168][169]} The "Sing to me, Mr. C." segment of the Como shows with Perry seated on a stool singing viewer requested songs had its roots in the first television broadcasts of Chesterfield Supper Club. When cameras entered the "Supper Club" radio studio, they found Como and his guests sitting on stools behind music stands.^[134][157] The show's closing theme was, "You Are Never Far Away From Me".^[4][165]

Perry's announcer on the broadcasts, Frank Gallop, became a foil for Como's jokes. When the television show began, there was not enough room for Gallop to appear on stage; he was an invisible "voice from the clouds" until the show's 1958 – 1959 season.^[170][171] There was as much fun at rehearsals as on the show itself.^[172] Como's relaxed and fun-loving manner at rehearsals put many nervous guests at ease.^[173] It was common for Como to leave the Saturday afternoon rehearsal for about a half-hour to go to confession. He managed to save some time by asking his music publisher, Mickey Glass, to wait in line for him at the confessional. Glass, who was Jewish, was most agreeable to this, but wondered what to do if his turn came before Como arrived.^{[174][175][176]}

Perry thoroughly enjoyed what he was doing, saying in a 1989 interview, "I got a kick out of live television. The spontaneity was the fun of it." ^[27] Spontaneity and the ability to be himself came in handy for swimmer/actress Esther Williams' guest appearance of March 16, 1957.^[177] A wardrobe malfunction meant that viewers were seeing more of Esther than 1950s television considered to be in good taste; more live show mishaps followed. At the show's end, Williams was swimming in a pool specially constructed on the set for her appearance. Como simply said, "Goodnight, folks," and leaped, fully clothed, into the swimming pool.^[178]

On December 17, 1955, viewers were able to see first-hand what Perry did for a living before he was a professional singer. Actor Kirk Douglas was one of Como's television guests; Douglas had grown a beard for his Vincent Van Gogh role in Lust For Life, which finished filming that week. Como shaved Douglas' movie beard live on national television.^[8][27][179] On September 15, 1956, the season premiere of The Perry Como Show was broadcast from NBC's new color television studios at the New York Ziegfeld Theatre, making it one of the first weekly color TV shows.^[180] In addition to this season premiere as a color television show, there was also a royal visit from Prince Rainier of Monaco and his bride of six months, Grace Kelly.^[177]

Como competed with Jackie Gleason in what was billed as the "Battle of the Giants" and won.^[8] This is now rarely mentioned, in part because Como commonly downplayed his own achievements, and also because the two men were friends.^[7] The weekly ratings winner would phone the loser for some mock gloating.^[181][182] At the height of this television competition, Como asked Gleason a favor: to visit his home when his mother-in-law, a big Gleason fan, was there. Though Mrs. Belline spoke no English and Gleason no Italian, Roselle's mother was thrilled. Como's words to Gleason after the visit, "Anything you want, you got it. In fact, I'll even do one of your shows so the ratings will be better." ^[178] Como was among those who filled in for Gleason on The Jackie Gleason Show in 1954 when the entertainer suffered a broken ankle and leg in an on-air fall.^[183][184]

An example of Como's popularity came in 1956, when Life conducted a poll of young women, asking them which man in public life most fit the concept of their ideal husband: it was Perry Como.^[185] A 1958 nationwide poll of U.S. teenagers found Perry Como to be the most popular male singer, beating Elvis Presley, who was the winner of the previous year's poll.^[186][187] At one point, his television show was broadcast in at least 12 other countries.^[5][44][50]

Another way to judge the value of the Como show to the network can be found in the following: during sound checks at rehearsals, it was often difficult to hear Como's soft voice without having a large microphone ruin a camera shot. NBC had RCA design a microphone for the show, which was known as the "Como mike"; the microphone was able to pick up Como's voice properly and was small enough not to interfere with camera shots.^[188]

Kraft Music Hall: 1959 – 1967[link]

In 1959, Como moved to Wednesday nights, hosting Perry Como's Kraft Music Hall weekly for the next eight years; the last four seasons from 1963 to 1967 were done as monthly specials alternating with Kraft Suspense Theatre, The Andy Williams Show, and finally The Road West.^[2][3][4] Como became the highest-paid performer in the history of television to that date, earning mention in the Guinness Book of World Records. Como himself took part in none of this; his production company, Roncom, named for son Ronnie Como, handled the transaction along with all other Como business matters.^[189] Como also had control of the show which would replace his during the summer television hiatus. While "Mr. C." was having a holiday, viewers would see Perry Presents, beginning in 1959.^[190][191]

In late 1962, after the Cuban Missile Crisis had settled well enough to permit the evacuated servicemen's families to return to Guantanamo Bay Naval Base in Cuba, Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara was eager to do more for morale there. He asked Perry Como to bring his television show to the Naval base.^[192] Perry and his cast and crew were at Guantanamo when the loved ones began their return.^[193] The first entertainers to visit the base since the crisis, the Como show filmed there for eight days. Some highlights of the program, which was seen in the US on December 12, 1962, included Como's shaving a serviceman with a Castro-like beard and the enthusiastic participation when Perry asked for volunteers to come on stage to do the Twist with the lovely ladies who were part of the visiting dance troupe.^[194][195]

Filming for the Kraft Music Hall Christmas show that was aired on December 17, 1964 began at the Vatican November 7.^[196] By special permission of Pope Paul VI, Como and his crew were able to shoot segments in the Vatican gardens and other areas where cameras had never been permitted previously.^{[27][197][198]} The show featured the first television appearance of the Sistine Chapel Choir, and also the first time a non-choir member (Como) sang with them.^[198][199] The choir performed a Christmas hymn in Latin written by their director, Domenico Bartolucci, called "Christ Is Born", as part of their presentation. Como asked his associate, Ray Charles, to write English lyrics for the song, using it many times on both television shows and his Christmas albums.^[198][200] The Carpenters also recorded the song on their first Christmas album, Christmas Portrait.^[198]

Specials[link]

Between 1963 and 1986, Como's television appearances began tapering off, gradually becoming limited to seasonal and holiday specials with the emphasis being on Christmas.^[155][201] Como had numerous Christmas television specials, beginning on Christmas Eve 1948, and continuing to 1994, when his final Christmas special was recorded in Ireland. They were recorded in many countries, including the Holy Land, Mexico, and Canada, as well as many locations throughout the United States. The 1987 Christmas special was cancelled at the behest of Como; American Broadcasting Company (ABC) was willing to offer him only a Saturday 10 PM time slot for it 3 weeks before the holiday.^[202] Perry filled the yearly gap for his fans with live Christmas concerts in various locations.^{[78][132][203][204]}

A farewell concert from Ireland[link]

Como's final Christmas special was filmed in January 1994 in Dublin's Point Theatre before an audience of 4,500 people, including Irish President Mary Robinson. Perry Como's Irish Christmas was a Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) production. Como appeared to be in less than the best of health; though the show as broadcast was less than ninety minutes long, its recording took over four hours.^[201][205] The performance is heartbreaking as it was evident he was unwell, but at the same time, heart-warming, because despite all that, Como persevered and sang those songs for his fans this one last time. At the show's conclusion, Como apologized to his Dublin audience for a performance he felt was not up to his usual standards.^[27]

During his visit to Dublin, Como visited a barber shop called "The Como" on Thomas Street. The owners, lifelong fans who named their business in his honor, had sent photographs of the shop and letters to Como inviting him to visit. Photos of Como with the barbers were framed in the shop. "The Como" closed in 2002 but it remains a household name in The Liberties.^[27]

Hometown honors[link]

Canonsburg has always been very proud to be the birthplace of Perry Como; the local newspaper of the time, Canonsburg Daily Notes, seems to have been the first to write an article about him. Their edition of July 19, 1934, featured a photo and the following: "A young Canonsburg boy threatens to snatch the crown from Bing Crosby's head. Perry Como, son of Mr. and Mrs. Pietro Como of 530 Franklin street is said to have one of the grandest baritone voices in the country." ^[45][206] The borough honored him three times over the course of his life.^[207] The first of these events took place September 14, 1946, when Third Street, where Perry worked in the barber shop of Steve Fragapane, was renamed "Perry Como Avenue". Perry, Roselle, and Como's mother, Lucy, attended the ceremonies and banquet held at the State Armory.^{[27][45][208]}

A second ceremony marking Perry Como Day took place August 24, 1977, but the most ambitious project began in 1997 – a statue of the singer.^{[35][45][209]} The planned statue had the blessing of Como's wife, Roselle, who died the year before it was unveiled on May 15, 1999.^[52] As part of the festivities, Como's stool and music stand from The Perry Como Show and the equipment he used at Steve Fragapane's barber shop were donated to the borough.^[206] Como was not present at the unveiling because of poor health. The inscription on the base, "To This Place God Has Brought Me", was a favorite saying of Como's; the musical feature was added in 2002.^[35][210]

The Como celebration crossed the Atlantic in August 2002. Palena, Italy, the birthplace of Como's parents, had a long-standing week-long festival in honor of the singer.^[211] A smaller version of the statue was taken to Palena by the mayor of Canonsburg, Anthony Colaizzo.^[212] Perry's son, David, and his wife were also in attendance when the town of Palena renamed a street for Como.^[210] There is a marble plaque on a Palena town wall stating that Pietro and Lucia Como, parents of Perry Como, emigrated from this village to the United States which dates from these ceremonies.^[213][214]

In 2007, the local McDonald's was totally rebuilt. The new building decor features memorabilia of Como along with that of fellow singer and Canonsburg native, Bobby Vinton.^[215] A children's playground in Canonsburg on Giffin Avenue is also named for Como.^[216] In downtown Canonsburg, all of the tree grates are marked with information about the records that sold a million copies and the town clock hourly plays one of the hits of Como (141), Vinton (44), or the Four Coins (7), also from Canonsburg.^{[217][218][219]}

Perry Como never forgot Canonsburg either.^[220][221] One of the things he did to give a helping hand to his home town was to convince RCA to open a record-pressing plant there.^[48][222] Those who needed to raise funds for local projects like Boys' and Girls' Clubs found him always ready to do whatever was needed.^{[35][70][223]}

Death[link]

Como died in his sleep on May 12, 2001, at his home in Jupiter Inlet Colony, Florida, six days before his eighty-ninth birthday. He was reported to have suffered from symptoms of Alzheimer's disease during the final two years of his life.^[224] His funeral Mass took place at St. Edward's Catholic Church in Palm Beach, Florida.^[225] Perry and Roselle are buried at Riverside Memorial Park, Tequesta (Palm Beach County), Florida. ^[226][227]

See also[link]

• Perry Como discography
• Perry Como television and radio shows
• List of songs recorded by Perry Como
• Perry Como albums
• Best selling music artists
• List of popular music performers
• Seventh son of a seventh son

References[link]