Oley Speaks On the Road to Mandalay first sheet 1907

On the Road to Mandalay is a song by Oley Speaks (1874–1948) with text by

Rudyard Kipling Joseph Rudyard Kipling ( ; 30 December 1865 – 18 January 1936)''The Times'', (London) 18 January 1936, p. 12. was an English novelist, short-story writer, poet, and journalist. He was born in British India, which inspired much of his work. ...

(1865–1936).

Text

Oley Speaks set to music a portion of Kipling's poem, '' Mandalay'', 1890, from '' Barrack-Room Ballads, and Other Verses'', published in 1892 and 1896. The song comprises three verses of Kipling's poem: the first, second and sixth. The text of the song is a first person description by a British soldier in 19th-century

Burma Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John Wells explai ...

, who has returned to Britain. He describes his romance with a "Burma girl" and speaks of the emotional pull he experiences to return to Mandalay.

Music

On the Road to Mandalay was published as a piano/vocal song in 1907 by the

John Church Company The John Church Company Building is a historic commercial building in downtown Cincinnati, Ohio, United States. Designed by one of Cincinnati's most prominent architects, it was home to one of the country's leading vendors of sheet music and musi ...

and dedicated to Frank Croxton. The tempo is marked '' alla marcia'' and the music set in

common time The time signature (also known as meter signature, metre signature, or measure signature) is a notational convention used in Western musical notation to specify how many beats (pulses) are contained in each measure (bar), and which note val ...

. The song changes

tonality Tonality is the arrangement of pitches and/or chords of a musical work in a hierarchy of perceived relations, stabilities, attractions and directionality. In this hierarchy, the single pitch or triadic chord with the greatest stability is ca ...

as each of the three verses reaches the chorus, shifting dramatically from minor to major. Originally published in the

key of C C major (or the key of C) is a major scale based on C, consisting of the pitches C, D, E, F, G, A, and B. C major is one of the most common keys used in music. Its key signature has no flats or sharps. Its relative minor is A minor and i ...

and marked Low Voice, the style is described as Romantic. Composition features marked use of fermate and wide

dynamic range Dynamic range (abbreviated DR, DNR, or DYR) is the ratio between the largest and smallest values that a certain quantity can assume. It is often used in the context of Signal (electrical engineering), signals, like sound and light. It is measured ...

, from pianissimo to fortissimo. Occasionally the second verse is cut, but the complete song averages four minutes in duration. Published originally for voice and piano, orchestral arrangements exist.

Recording history

"On the Road to Mandalay" was well poised historically to become a frequently recorded song. In 1907, the sheet music experienced great popularity and sold more than a million copies. An early recording was made by Frank Croxton, to whom the song was dedicated, in 1913. Famous baritone singers have recorded the song, from operatic artists, such as

Lawrence Tibbett Lawrence Mervil Tibbett (November 16, 1896 – July 15, 1960) was an American opera singer and recording artist who also performed as a film actor and radio personality. A baritone, he sang leading roles with the Metropolitan Opera in New York ...

Leonard Warren Leonard Warren (April 21, 1911 – March 4, 1960) was an American opera singer. A baritone, he was a leading artist for many years with the Metropolitan Opera in New York City. Especially noted for his portrayals of the leading baritone roles in ...

and

Thomas Hampson Thomas Walter Hampson (born June 28, 1955) is an American lyric baritone, a classical singer who has appeared world-wide in major opera houses and concert halls and made over 170 musical recordings. Hampson's operatic repertoire spans a range ...

, and concert artists, such as Peter Dawson, to more popular singers such as

Nelson Eddy Nelson Ackerman Eddy (June 29, 1901 – March 6, 1967) was an American actor and baritone singer who appeared in 19 musical films during the 1930s and 1940s, as well as in opera and on the concert stage, radio, television, and in nightclub ...

and Frankie Laine, and even Frank Sinatra, who sang a jazzy, controversial arrangement in which elements of the Kipling text were changed (notably ''Temple-bells'' becoming ''crazy bells''), included in his album '' Come Fly with Me''. Bing Crosby included the song in a medley on his album ''

Join Bing and Sing Along ''Join Bing and Sing Along'' is a long-playing vinyl album issued first by RCA Victor (LPM/LSP-2276) and immediately thereafter by Warner Bros. Records (W/WS-1363) in 1960. The album consists of twelve medleys of 33 old songs in a singalong form ...

'' (1960). Rudyard Kipling's daughter,

Elsie Bambridge Elsie Bambridge (; 2 February 1896 – 24 May 1976) was the second daughter of British writer Rudyard Kipling. She was the only one of the Kipling's three children to survive beyond early adulthood. On 22 October 1924, Elsie Kipling married Geor ...

, so disliked Sinatra's lyrical improvisations and jazzy arrangement of the song that she exercised her authority as executrix of Kipling's estate to have the song banned for some years in the U.K.

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:On the Road to Mandalay American songs Songs about roads 1907 songs Songs with music by Oley Speaks Adaptations of works by Rudyard Kipling