Reviewer: You may not know the name of composer Harry Warren, but you no doubt know his songs

By Daniel Buckwalter

Harry Warren, proflific composer of familiar

We come today in praise of the unknown artist — studious, creatively bountiful and forgotten — whose volume of widely praised music abounds and astounds. We’ve been tapping our feet to the beat and humming along to his melodies for generations.

This praise is for Harry Warren, a prolific composer whose film scores in the 1930s and ’40s set an eloquent standard unequalled in its time, and a sample of that work was on display in a matinee performance on Aug. 9 at the Oregon Festival of American Music — affectionately known OFAM — at The Shedd Institute.

(Editor’s Note: There will be another chance to hear this performance, when it reprises at 7:30 p.m. on Friday, Aug. 15, at The Shedd.)

Chuck Redd and his band — with vocals provided by Shirley Andress and Michael Stone — took the Saturday afternoon audience through 17 of Warren’s well-known pieces in the program, titled And Life Is Like A Song, though Redd was quick to note that the extent of Warren’s work is such he may schedule a future OFAM program in full appreciation of the composer and his work.

Warren lived a life of professional obscurity, by choice and by chance, in the Hollywood factory of the time. He was not as well-known as George Gershwin or Irving Berlin, but he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Song 11 times and won three Oscars for composing Lullaby of Broadway, You’ll Never Know and On the Atchison, Topeka and the Santa Fe. He firmly made his mark by writing the music for the first blockbuster film musical, 42nd Street, in 1932.

For Saturday’s concert — which repeats at 7:30 p.m. on Friday, Aug. 15 — Redd chose an array of arrangements from Warren’s work that included 42nd Street, Boulevard of Broken Dreams, September in the Rain, Jeepers Creepers, At Last (with Andress and guitarist Randy Napoleon), and the heartbreaking There is No Music (lyrics by Ira Gershwin and sung by Andress, accompanied by pianist Ted Rosenthal).

And that’s just the top layer of Warren’s work. It is imperative for fans and students of the American Songbook to get to know Warren better.

Friday night’s concert on Aug. 15 would be a good place to start.