"Sort of In-Between"

Leroy Anderson doesn't have time to play his trombone--or his tuba, double bass, organ or cello, for that matter--any more. But no one scems to mind. People who have heard "Wintergreen," "Fiddle-Faddle," or "Sleigh-Ride," are quite willing to settle for Anderson as a composer.

Born and brought up within walking distance of the Yard, and graduated from Cambridge High and Latin School, Anderson never had any doubt about which college he would attend. He entered Harvard in 1925. Since he had always been interested in music and had written his first composition at the age of 12, he majored in that subject.

He played string bass in the orchestra, becoming president of the Picrian Sodality in his senior year, and trombone in the Band, of which he was made conductor. These extra-curricular activities did not keep Anderson from being elected to Phi Beta Kappa and graduating magna cum laude in 1929.

"Composing is all right," Anderson states, "but it has one drawback. It's hard to get started, and the composer has to eat in the meantime." This was one reason why, after completing one year of graduate work in music, and getting an A.M., he decided to switch to Scandinavian Languages, intending to become a teacher. During the next four years he tutored music at Radcliffe, played tuba and string bass in Boston-area orchestras, returned to the Band as director and arranger, and, of course, studied. "I even learned Icelandic," he says. It was in this period, in 1932, that Anderson made his Wintergreen arrangement for the Band's Army game show.

By 1934 his musical career was well started, so Anderson decided that he would not have to teach after all, and quit Harvard. Before he could leave for New York, however, Arthur Fiedler, director of the Boston Pops, asked him to start writing for the orchestra. Beginning with "Harvard Fantasy" in 1937, and continuing with "Jazz Pizzicato" and "Jazz Legato," Anderson's compositions have become perennial favorites of Pops audiences.

Fiedler is still Anderson's chief adviser, and the orchestra's concerts are the main testing ground for his new works. "I watch the audience when I'm trying out something new. A composer can't assume that he knows more than anyone else."

At the war's start Anderson joined the Army. His study of languages finally had a practical result when the Army made him assistant chief of its Scandinavian desk at Washington. Among other things, he had to monitor broadcasts in Reykjavik, Iceland.

On his return from service, Anderson went back to work for Fiedler, composing what is perhaps his most widely-heard number, "Fiddle-Faddle," in 1947. The newly-reorganized Harvard Band asked his help and he wrote medleys of most of the Ivy League songs; these became standard with the Band and have since been copied by many other eastern college bands because of their popularity.

Besides his arranging duties, Anderson is now working on a piano concerto for next spring. "I don't know how it will turn out, but when I get an idea, I try to follow it through. I'm still feeling my way along as far as composing is concerned," he explains.

(Silhouette is a column which presents biographical sketches of people who are not members of the Harvard facuity.)