The Unsung Songwriters: America's Masters of Melody (review)

Abstract

Warren W. Vaché, longtime editor of Jersey Jazz and author of several books on jazz, turns his attention in this volume to American songwriters of the twentieth century, the composers and lyricists who contributed to what the author has termed the "Golden Age" of songwriting. In the preface, Vaché establishes this "Golden Age" as the period roughly between the end of World War I and 1950, with a "peak of perfection" in the 1930s. He includes songwriters whose work was written and published during this period as well as those whose material "complies with the format and traditions established at that time" (p. xxvii). Vaché's purpose is to recognize the contributions of good songwriters whose names are not well known, but whose lives and works are worthy of note even if their output was meager. The result is an alphabetical biographical dictionary of almost five hundred lesser-known composers and lyricists from the world of jazz, Tin Pan Alley, Broadway, and Hollywood.