Leroy Anderson was an American composer who lived from 1908 to 1975. He wrote short, clever pieces for orchestra, most of them about three minutes long. Many have a joke in them: a typewriter as a solo instrument, a clock that ticks out of step, a cat that meows. Children like his music at once. The best first piece is “The Typewriter.”
Quick facts
- Born: 1908, in Cambridge, Massachusetts
- Died: 1975, in Woodbury, Connecticut
- Era: Modern
- Played: piano, organ, double bass, and trombone
- Known for: “Sleigh Ride,” “The Typewriter,” “The Syncopated Clock,” and “Blue Tango”
The life in short
Anderson’s parents had come to America from Sweden. His mother was a church organist and gave him his first piano lessons.
He studied music at Harvard University and led the Harvard band. He also had a gift for languages. He studied the languages of Scandinavia and spoke several of them.
In 1936, he arranged a set of Harvard songs for the Boston Pops Orchestra. The conductor, Arthur Fiedler, liked the work and asked for original pieces. The first was “Jazz Pizzicato,” where the string players pluck every note.
During the Second World War, the army made use of his languages. He served in Iceland as a translator and then worked in Washington.
After the war came the pieces that made his name. He wrote “Sleigh Ride” during a heat wave in the summer of 1946 and finished it in 1948. “Blue Tango” came out in 1951 and became a best-selling record across the country, a rare feat for a piece with no words.
He lived in Connecticut for the rest of his life and kept writing short pieces for orchestra.
What the music sounds like
An Anderson piece is short, tuneful, and neat. He picked one idea for each and stuck to it.
Often the idea is a sound from everyday life. A typewriter clacks. Sandpaper scrapes. A whip cracks. He wrote these sounds into the score as if they were instruments, and a percussion player performs them.
The joke works because the music around it is so well made. The tunes are strong enough to stand without the trick.
Pieces to play first
“The Typewriter.” A real typewriter plays the solo part. Listen for the clack of the keys, the bell at the end of each line, and the zip of the carriage sliding back.
“The Syncopated Clock.” A wood block ticks a steady beat. Every so often, the clock skips, and the tick lands in the wrong place.
“Sleigh Ride.” Sleigh bells jingle, wood blocks clop, and a whip cracks. In the last bars, a trumpet whinnies in the voice of a horse.
“The Waltzing Cat.” The violins slide between notes to say “meow.” A dog barks at the end, and the cat runs off.
“Bugler’s Holiday.” Three trumpets race each other at top speed.
Things to do together
Find the odd instrument. Before each piece, tell your child only the title. Ask them to listen for the sound that does not belong in an orchestra.
Type along. Play “The Typewriter” and tap the table with all ten fingers. Ding a glass with a spoon for the bell.
Catch the skip. In “The Syncopated Clock,” tap the steady tick on your knee. Clap each time the clock skips.
Plink, plank, plunk. Anderson wrote a piece with that title for plucked strings. Pluck a rubber band stretched over a box, and play along.
Make your own. Pick a sound from your kitchen: a whisk, a pot lid, a timer. Hum a tune and add the sound at the end of each line.
Why “Sleigh Ride” is not a Christmas song
“Sleigh Ride” is played every December, and it never mentions Christmas. It began as a piece for orchestra with no words at all. The words came later and tell of a ride in the snow. See Christmas classical music for kids and winter classical music for kids.
Print and play
For more music with a tick and a clack, read classical music about clocks and time and classical music about trains and machines. Fill in a composer study notebook page for Leroy Anderson. Read about more composers in American composers for kids. For the instruments that play his sound effects, read percussion instruments for kids.
For more composers by era, see classical composers for kids.
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This article is part of Classical composers for kids: a guide by era, from Vivaldi to Britten.
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Use it with your kids
Print a listening page, a practice chart, or a composer fact sheet. Or try a tool, such as the composer timeline or the piece picker.