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Browse piano sheets by Joseph Kosma, Johnny Mercer, Jacques Prevert on Zen Virtual Piano. Autumn Leaves began as ballet music that Joseph Kosma wrote for Roland Petit's Le Rendez-vous, performed in Paris at the end of the Second World War. In Budapest he took lessons from Leo Weiner at the Academy of Music; at the Liszt Academy, Béla Bartók was another of his teachers, and he left with diplomas in both composition and conducting. He moved to Paris with his wife in 1933 and eventually met Jacques Prévert, who introduced him to Jean Renoir. A composer trained in Budapest who found his collaborators in Paris suggests a career spread across more than one musical world. In the 1930s Kosma and Prévert set a number of Prévert's poems to music and had popular singers record them, and several became hits. Composing was forbidden to Kosma in the Occupation years of the Second World War, and he lived under house arrest in the Alpes-Maritimes; Prévert still found him film work, with other composers putting their names to his music. Prévert grew up in Paris, having been born in Neuilly-sur-Seine; after his primary school certificate he left school for a job at the department store Le Bon Marché, and in 1918 he was called up for military service. A ban on composing answered by a friend who found work for him in secret hints at how personal this partnership was. Johnny Mercer's family fortunes fell with the collapse of the Florida real estate boom in 1927, when his father put his company into receivership to cover a loss of $1 million. In 1942 Mercer, with Buddy De Sylva and the businessman Glen Wallichs, founded Capitol Records and served as its president and chief talent scout. A family setback followed by a founding role at a record company suggests a career that turned in several directions. Moon River, written in 1961 for Breakfast at Tiffany's to music by Henry Mancini, brought Mercer his third Academy Award; the title song of Days of Wine and Roses, the next year, brought a fourth. A lyricist who started by watching a family business fail and went on to help launch a record label suggests a man comfortable with both art and trade. Mercer wrote the English lyrics in 1950 and gave the song the title Autumn Leaves. They are much shorter than the French version, only two verses, and they do not translate it closely but carry a different meaning. A translation that shortens the French and departs from it suggests a lyricist writing a new song rather than carrying one over. Mercer is buried in Savannah's Bonaventure Cemetery, in the family plot; he died on June 25, 1976, after a brain cancer diagnosis and surgery from which he never fully recovered. English words that go their own way from the French original hint at a song that kept changing as it crossed languages.
Browse piano sheets by Joseph Kosma, Johnny Mercer, Jacques Prevert on Zen Virtual Piano.
Autumn Leaves began as ballet music that Joseph Kosma wrote for Roland Petit's Le Rendez-vous, performed in Paris at the end of the Second World War. In Budapest he took lessons from Leo Weiner at the Academy of Music; at the Liszt Academy, Béla Bartók was another of his teachers, and he left with diplomas in both composition and conducting. He moved to Paris with his wife in 1933 and eventually met Jacques Prévert, who introduced him to Jean Renoir. A composer trained in Budapest who found his collaborators in Paris suggests a career spread across more than one musical world.
In the 1930s Kosma and Prévert set a number of Prévert's poems to music and had popular singers record them, and several became hits. Composing was forbidden to Kosma in the Occupation years of the Second World War, and he lived under house arrest in the Alpes-Maritimes; Prévert still found him film work, with other composers putting their names to his music. Prévert grew up in Paris, having been born in Neuilly-sur-Seine; after his primary school certificate he left school for a job at the department store Le Bon Marché, and in 1918 he was called up for military service. A ban on composing answered by a friend who found work for him in secret hints at how personal this partnership was.
Johnny Mercer's family fortunes fell with the collapse of the Florida real estate boom in 1927, when his father put his company into receivership to cover a loss of $1 million. In 1942 Mercer, with Buddy De Sylva and the businessman Glen Wallichs, founded Capitol Records and served as its president and chief talent scout. A family setback followed by a founding role at a record company suggests a career that turned in several directions. Moon River, written in 1961 for Breakfast at Tiffany's to music by Henry Mancini, brought Mercer his third Academy Award; the title song of Days of Wine and Roses, the next year, brought a fourth. A lyricist who started by watching a family business fail and went on to help launch a record label suggests a man comfortable with both art and trade.
Mercer wrote the English lyrics in 1950 and gave the song the title Autumn Leaves. They are much shorter than the French version, only two verses, and they do not translate it closely but carry a different meaning. A translation that shortens the French and departs from it suggests a lyricist writing a new song rather than carrying one over. Mercer is buried in Savannah's Bonaventure Cemetery, in the family plot; he died on June 25, 1976, after a brain cancer diagnosis and surgery from which he never fully recovered. English words that go their own way from the French original hint at a song that kept changing as it crossed languages.
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Joseph Kosma, Johnny Mercer, Jacques Prevert
Joseph Kosma, Johnny Mercer, Jacques Prevert
Joseph Kosma, Johnny Mercer, Jacques Prevert
Joseph Kosma, Johnny Mercer, Jacques Prevert
Common questions
Joseph Kosma wrote the music, Jacques Prévert wrote the French words, and Johnny Mercer wrote the English lyrics in 1950.
It began as ballet music by Joseph Kosma for Roland Petit's Le Rendez-vous, performed in Paris at the end of the Second World War.
They are much shorter, with only two verses, and are not a literal translation but carry a different meaning.
In 1942 he founded Capitol Records with Buddy De Sylva and Glen Wallichs.