Vernon Duke

Vernon [Dukelsky, Vladimir Alexandrovich] Duke
(b Parfianovka, nr Pskov, 10 Oct 1903; d Santa Monica, CA, 16 Jan 1969).

American composer of Russian birth. He studied with Reyngol’d Glier (1916–19) and Marian Dombrovsky (1917–19) at the Kiev Conservatory and then fled the Revolution with his family, settling first in Constantinople (1920–21) and then in New York (1922). There he wrote a piano concerto for Artur Rubinstein. From 1924 he was in Paris and was commissioned by Serge Diaghilev to write Zéphr et Flore, a ballet based on his concerto, which was performed by the Ballets Russes at Monte Carlo and Paris in 1925. In London he wrote music for the stage (c1926–9) before returning to New York, where he studied orchestration with Joseph Schillinger (1934–5). He became an American citizen in 1936. In 1948 he founded the Society for Forgotten Music. His first successful popular song, ‘I’m only human after all’, was included in The Garrick Gaieties of 1930. At George Gershwin’s suggestion he adopted the pseudonym Vernon Duke for his popular songs and light music, continuing to use his Russian name for his other works until 1955. Duke developed two styles, one for his choral works, operas, ballets, and orchestral and chamber compositions, which were championed in the USA and Europe by Koussevitzky, and another for his revues, musicals and film scores, for which he was best known. His most successful work was the musical play Cabin in the Sky (1940), which was performed on Broadway by an all-black cast that included Ethel Waters and was choreographed by Balanchine. In many of his concert works Duke used a contrapuntal style; in his songs the melodic style is expansive, almost rhapsodic, and uses chromaticism and wide arpeggios. In addition to an autobiography, Passport to Paris (Boston, 1955), he wrote Listen Here!: a Critical Essay on Music Depreciation (New York, 1963) and Russian poetry published under his original name (Munich, 1962–8).