"The Typewriter" is a short composition of light music by American composer

Leroy Anderson Leroy Anderson ( ; June 29, 1908 – May 18, 1975) was an American composer of short, Light music, light concert pieces, many of which were introduced by the Boston Pops Orchestra under the direction of Arthur Fiedler. John Williams descri ...

, which features an actual

typewriter A typewriter is a Machine, mechanical or electromechanical machine for typing characters. Typically, a typewriter has an array of Button (control), keys, and each one causes a different single character to be produced on paper by striking an i ...

as a

percussion A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a percussion mallet, beater including attached or enclosed beaters or Rattle (percussion beater), rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or ...

instrument.

Composition

Anderson completed "The Typewriter" on October 9, 1950 in

Woodbury, Connecticut Woodbury is a New England town, town in Litchfield County, Connecticut, Litchfield County, Connecticut, United States. The town is part of the Naugatuck Valley Planning Region, Connecticut, Naugatuck Valley Planning Region. The population was 9,72 ...

. "The Typewriter" received its first performance on September 8, 1953 during a recording Anderson and the

Boston Pops Orchestra The Boston Pops is an American orchestra based in Boston, Massachusetts, specializing in light classical and popular music. The orchestra's current music director is Keith Lockhart. Founded in 1885 as an offshoot of the Boston Symphony Orc ...

made in

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

for

Decca Records Decca Records is a British record label established in 1929 by Edward Lewis (Decca), Edward Lewis after his acquisition of a gramophone manufacturer, The Decca Gramophone Company. It set up an American subsidiary under the Decca name, which bec ...

. Anderson composed the melody for

symphony A symphony is an extended musical composition in Western classical music, most often for orchestra. Although the term has had many meanings from its origins in the ancient Greek era, by the late 18th century the word had taken on the meaning c ...

and pops orchestras; William Zinn and Floyd Werle arranged it for

string orchestra A string orchestra is an orchestra consisting solely of a string section made up of the bowed strings used in Western Classical music. The instruments of such an orchestra are most often the following: the violin, which is divided into first a ...

s and

wind band A concert band, also called a wind band, wind ensemble, wind symphony, wind orchestra, symphonic band, the symphonic winds, or symphonic wind ensemble, is a performing ensemble consisting of members of the woodwind, brass, and percussion famil ...

s respectively. Rezeptionsglocke

Its name refers to the fact that its performance requires a typewriter, while using three basic typewriter sounds: the sound of typing, the "ring" of the carriage return indicating an approaching end-of-line (a standard desk bell is used for it), and the sound of the typewriter’s carriage returning. In some cases the sound of the typewriter’s carriage returning is made by a musical gourd,Evening at Pops with Leroy Anderson
transcript of episode of Evening at Pops broadcast in May 1972, at

PBS The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcaster and non-commercial, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly funded nonprofit organization and the most prominent provider of educat ...

, retrieved June 23, 2012 flute, string or other instrument. The typewriter was modified so that only two keys work to prevent the keys from jamming. According to the composer himself, as well as other musicians, the typewriter part is difficult because of how fast the typing speed is: even professional stenographers cannot do it, and only professional

drummer A drummer is a percussionist who creates music using drums. Most contemporary western music ensemble, bands that play Rock music, rock, Pop music, pop, jazz, or Contemporary R&B, R&B music include a drummer for purposes including timekeepi ...

s have the necessary

wrist In human anatomy, the wrist is variously defined as (1) the carpus or carpal bones, the complex of eight bones forming the proximal skeletal segment of the hand; "The wrist contains eight bones, roughly aligned in two rows, known as the carpal ...

flexibility.Leroy Anderson: Master of the Miniature
at

National Public Radio National Public Radio (NPR) is an American public broadcasting organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It serves as a national Radio syndication, syndicator to a network of more ...

, by Pat Dowell, published June 27, 2008, retrieved June 23, 2012 It has been called one of "the wittiest and most clever pieces in the orchestral repertoire". Author Steve Metcalf has written that "Despite the almost total disappearance of typewriters in everyday life, the statistics show that "The Typewriter" is still a favorite Anderson item." The typewriter is considered a

percussion instrument A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a percussion mallet, beater including attached or enclosed beaters or Rattle (percussion beater), rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or ...

, and the typewriter part is usually performed by a percussionist or drummer, or rarely by the conductor.New Year with

Vladimir Spivakov Vladimir Teodorovich Spivakov (; born 12 September 1944) is a Soviet Union, Soviet and Russian conductor and violinist best known for his work with the Moscow Virtuosi chamber orchestra. Spivakov was born in Ufa. He was taught by Yuri Yankelevic ...

// Russia-K, December 31, 2012

In popular culture

The piece was featured in the

Jerry Lewis Jerry Lewis (born Joseph Levitch; March 16, 1926 – August 20, 2017) was an American comedian, actor, singer, filmmaker and humanitarian, with a career spanning seven decades in film, stage, television and radio. Famously nicknamed as "Th ...

film '' Who's Minding the Store'' (1963) and in the musical montage that opens Lewis' 1980 film '' Hardly Working'', although his first recorded performance was on a January 1954 episode of

The Colgate Comedy Hour ''The Colgate Comedy Hour'' is an American comedy-musical variety series that aired live on the NBC network from 1950 to 1955. The show featured many notable comedians and entertainers of the era as guest stars. Many of the scripts of the serie ...

. The Radio 4 satirical programme '' The News Quiz'' adopted it as its theme tune (though in an arrangement not featuring a typewriter). It also plays during Max's first typewriter scene in the Adam Elliot film '' Mary and Max''. The piece was featured in the

Warner Bros. Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (WBEI), commonly known as Warner Bros. (WB), is an American filmed entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California and the main namesake subsidiary of Warner Bro ...

cartoon show ''

Animaniacs ''Animaniacs'' is an American Animated series, animated Comedy television, comedy Musical film, musical television series created by Tom Ruegger and produced by Warner Bros. Television Animation. It originally aired on Fox Broadcasting Company ...

'', in the segment "Temporary Insanity" in the sixth episode of season one originally airing on September 20th, 1993. Yakko Warner, in the role of an office temp, mimes using an invisible typewriter to type up a drafted letter while an abbreviated version of The Typewriter plays; at the end of the song, he pulls the typed letter from thin air.

References

External links

The Typewriter
played by Spanish percussionist Alfredo Anaya and Hamburg Symphony Orchestra directed by Miguel Roa. {{DEFAULTSORT:Typewriter, The Music and humour Compositions by Leroy Anderson 1950 compositions 1953 in music Typewriters