Earl Robinson

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For other uses, see Earl Robinson (disambiguation).

Robinson (left) and Paul Robeson at rehearsal for the first "Ballad for Americans" performance in 1939.

Earl Hawley Robinson (July 2, 1910 – July 20, 1991) was a composer, arranger and

Black and White", which expressed his left-leaning political views. He wrote many popular songs and music for Hollywood films, including his collaboration with Lewis Allan on the 1940s hit "The House I Live In" from the Academy Award winning film of the same name. He was a member of the Communist Party
from the 1930s to the 1950s.

The jazz clarinetist Perry Robinson (1938–2018) was his son.

Career in music

Robinson studied violin, viola and piano as a child, and studied composition at the

Elisabeth Irwin High School
, directing the orchestra and chorus.

Musical works

Bing Crosby, Ballad for Americans (Decca Records 1940)

Robinson's musical influences began with both classical music and American folk music and included individuals such as

John Latouche), which became a signature song for Robeson after it was broadcast on CBS in November 1939. It was also recorded by Bing Crosby, Lawrence Tibbett and Odetta. In 1936, Robinson wrote and performed "Joe Hill", also known as "I Dreamed I Saw Joe Hill Last Night", a setting of a poem by Alfred Hayes, a fellow staff member at Camp Unity. The song became a popular labour anthem and was recorded by Robeson, Pete Seeger, and Joan Baez, among others. It was used in the 1971 film Joe Hill, directed by Bo Widerberg.[2]

In 1942, Robinson wrote the music for a cantata (or "ballad opera") on the life and death of

The House I Live In", a hit recorded by Frank Sinatra in 1945 and later by others.[5]

During the blacklist period, Robinson wrote the music for and sang in the short documentary film

Sammy Davis Jr. in 1957 and later by Pete Seeger, the folk-rock group Three Dog Night, the Jamaican reggae band The Maytones, and the UK reggae band Greyhound.[7]

Robinson's late works included a concerto for banjo, as well as a piano concerto entitled The New Human. His cantata "Preamble to Peace", based on the preamble to the United Nations Charter, was first performed in October 1960 by the Greater Trenton Symphony Orchestra and a chorus, with Eleanor Roosevelt in attendance; it was also performed by the Elisabeth Irwin High School Chorus and the Greenwich Village Orchestra.[8]

He was killed at the age of 81 in a car accident in his hometown of Seattle in 1991.

Notes

  1. ^ Buhle, Mari Jo (1990). Encyclopedia of the American Left. New York: Garland. p. 656.
  2. ISBN 0-8108-3433-2
    .
  3. ^ "The Lonesome Train" [1] Archived July 16, 2012, at the Wayback Machine Abraham Lincoln Online
  4. ^ "The Lonesome Train" [2] Building Bridges Radio: National Lincoln Cantata
  5. ^ Robinson, Ballad of an American, pp. 438–440.
  6. ISBN 0-313-31680-5
    .
  7. ^ Robinson, Ballad of an American, p. 441.
  8. ^ Robinson, Ballad of an American, pp. 281–2.

References

External links

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