Vivian Grey
Vivian Grey est le pseudonyme d'une nièce du président américain William McKinley, Mabel McKinley (Somerset, -Somerset, ), soprano, célèbre pour avoir écrit la chanson populaire Anona en 1903.
(Mabel McKinley)
Biographie
Fille unique d'Abner McKinley et d'Anna Endsley, elle commence Ă apprendre la musique Ă quinze ans et a pour enseignant Isidore Luckstone (1861-1941), professeur de chant et de piano new-yorkais.
Elle se fait connaître en chantant à la Maison-Blanche durant le mandat de son oncle, William McKinley. Célèbre, elle compose alors des chansons. Anona sera son plus gros succès. Elle se produit alors à l'Aeolian Hall et au Metropolitan Opera.
Elle épouse le docteur Hermanus Ludwig Baer en . À la mort de son mari le , elle revient dans sa ville natale de Somerset en Pennsylvanie où elle devient directrice de chœurs à la St. Paul's Reformed Church et donne des leçons de chants.
Paroles d'Anona
- In the western state of Arizona,
- Lived an Indian maid;
- She was called the beautiful Anona so 'tis said.
- Graceful as a fawn was she,
- Just as sweet as she could be,
- Eyes so bright, dark as night,
- Had this pretty little Arizona Indian maiden.
- All the chiefs who knew her,
- Came to woo her,
- For her pined
- To marry she declined,
- At last she changed her mind,
- But 'twas not a chief so grand, who won her heart and hand,
- But a warrior bold, who wooed her with a song:
Chorus:
- My sweet Anona, in Arizona,
- There is no other maid I'd serenade;
- By camp-fires gleaming, of you I'm dreaming,
- Anona, my sweet Indian maid.
- When her father heard that his Anona,
- Loved the youthful brave;
- Straight-a-way he said he would disown her, things looked grave.
- She must marry "heap big chief,"
- Sweet Anona hid her grief,
- Ran away, so they say,
- And got married to the man she loved without delaying.
- Then her father sought he,
- Never caught her,
- Till one day,
- When two years passed away,
- They both came back ot stay,
- Then the chief declared a truce, when they named their young papoose,
- After him and to his grand-child he would sing:
(Chorus)
Autres Ĺ“uvres de Vivian Grey
- Ma Li'l Sweet Sunbeam, 1903
- Take Me Back to the Garden of Love, non daté
- Karama, 1904
Bibliographie
- The New York Times, (nécrologie)
- Maxwell F. Marcuse, Tin Pan Alley in Gaslight: A Saga of the Songs that Made the Gray Nineties "gay", 1959, p. 308
- Michael A. Amundson, Talking Machine West: A History and Catalogue of Tin Pan Alley's Western, 2017, p. 54-56
Liens externes
- Ressources relatives Ă la musique :
- Notice dans un dictionnaire ou une encyclopédie généraliste :
- Enregistrement
- Écouter Anona (1909) sur Youtube
- Mabel McKinley Baer, sur Find a Grave (avec photographies)