{"id":1859,"date":"2019-03-25T09:37:52","date_gmt":"2019-03-25T16:37:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pnwfolklore.org\/wp-nwhoot\/?p=1859"},"modified":"2019-07-26T20:37:23","modified_gmt":"2019-07-27T03:37:23","slug":"tom-lehrer-mathematician-and-musical-satirist-by-stewart-hendrickson","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/pnwfolklore.org\/wp-nwhoot\/index.php\/2019\/03\/25\/tom-lehrer-mathematician-and-musical-satirist-by-stewart-hendrickson\/","title":{"rendered":"TOM LEHRER &#8211; Mathematician and Musical Satirist, by Stewart Hendrickson"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/I9C2v1oLXQo\" width=\"600\" height=\"337\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Sometime in the late 1970s there was a student\/faculty talent show at St. Olaf College where I taught chemistry. My colleague Dewayne Wee, a piano professor in the music department, and I decided to perform a song. We wanted to look very professional and appear musically cultured, so we dressed in formal tuxedos. Dwayne sat down at the grand piano, and I stood beside it and began to sing a beautiful love song:<!--more--><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>I hold your hand in mine dear<\/strong><br \/>\n<strong>I press it to my lips<\/strong><br \/>\n<em>[a lovely beginning\u2026]<br \/>\n<\/em><strong>I take a healthy bite from your dainty fingertip<\/strong>s<br \/>\n<em>[a bit weird, but\u2026]<br \/>\n<\/em><strong>my joy would be complete dear<\/strong><br \/>\n<strong>if you were only here<\/strong><br \/>\n<em>[why would she not be here if I\u2019m holding her hand?\u2026]<br \/>\n<\/em><strong>but still I keep your hand as a precious souvenir<\/strong><br \/>\n<em>[what? a few chuckles from the audience\u2026]<br \/>\n<\/em><strong>the night you died I cut it off<\/strong><br \/>\n<strong>I really don&#8217;t know why<\/strong><br \/>\n<em>[what happened to this lovely love song? ]<br \/>\n<\/em><em>[more laughter\u2026]<br \/>\n<\/em><strong>for now each time I kiss it<\/strong><br \/>\n<strong>I get blood stains on my tie.<\/strong><br \/>\n<em>[uproarious laughter from the audience\u2026]<br \/>\n<\/em><strong>I&#8217;m sorry now I killed you<\/strong><br \/>\n<strong>For our love was something fine!<\/strong><br \/>\n<strong>Until they come to get me<\/strong><br \/>\n<strong>I shall hold your hand in mine!<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Few students in the 1970s were aware of Tom Lehrer, and this came as a complete\u00a0 surprise.<\/p>\n<p>Tom Lehrer, born in 1928, grew up in New York City&#8217;s Upper East Side. He will turn 91 in April of this year. He began classical piano lessons at age seven, but was more interested in popular music and began writing show tunes. He obtained a MA in mathematics at Harvard University and continued there as a PhD graduate student. During those years he began to write and perform comical songs to entertain his fellow students.<\/p>\n<p>In 1959 Lehrer performed at Harvard what he called a \u201ccompletely pointless\u201d song. <em>The Elements<\/em> sets the names of all the elements known at that time to the tune of the <em>Major-General\u2019s Song<\/em> from the comic opera <em>The Pirates of Penzance<\/em> by Gilbert and Sullivan. In rapid fire he precisely enunciated each of the 102 elements with perfect end rhymes. The song ends with the lines, \u201c<em>These are the only ones of which the news has come to Harvard \/ And there may be many others but they haven\u2019t been discarvard<\/em>.\u201d His completely flawless performance can\u2019t be repeated by many others.<br \/>\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/AcS3NOQnsQM\" width=\"300\" height=\"168\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><br \/>\n<span style=\"display: inline-block; width: 0px; overflow: hidden; line-height: 0;\" data-mce-type=\"bookmark\" class=\"mce_SELRES_start\">\ufeff<\/span><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>In 1953 Lehrer released his first album, <em>Songs by Tom Lehrer<\/em>, recorded in a single one-hour session at the TransRadio studio in Boston. It included such songs as <em>The Old Dope Peddler<\/em>, <em>Be Prepared<\/em> (the Boy Scouts\u2019 Marching Song), <em>Lobachevsky<\/em> (a nineteenth century Russian mathematician), <em>When You Are Old And Gray<\/em>, <em>I Hold Your Hand In Mine<\/em>, and <em>The Wiener Schnitzel Waltz<\/em>. The New York Times review said, \u201cMr. Lehrer\u2019s muse [is] not fettered by such inhibiting factors as taste.\u201d His wit and irreverent social satire hit a note with many in the United States. Songs such as <em>Poisoning Pigeons in the Park<\/em> and <em>The Old Dope Peddler<\/em>\u00a0 illustrate his ability to satirize the cultural norms of society. <em>Poisoning Pigeons in the Park<\/em>:<br \/>\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/yhuMLpdnOjY\" width=\"300\" height=\"168\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><span style=\"display: inline-block; width: 0px; overflow: hidden; line-height: 0;\" data-mce-type=\"bookmark\" class=\"mce_SELRES_start\">\ufeff<\/span><span style=\"display: inline-block; width: 0px; overflow: hidden; line-height: 0;\" data-mce-type=\"bookmark\" class=\"mce_SELRES_start\">\ufeff<\/span><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>During the cold war in the 1950s and \u201860s Lehrer turned his satire and cynical outlook to political songs such as <em>So Long Mom, I\u2019m Off to Drop The Bomb<\/em>, and <em>We Will All Go Together When We Go<\/em>.\u00a0<em>We Will All Go Together When We Go<\/em>:<br \/>\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/frAEmhqdLFs\" width=\"300\" height=\"168\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><span style=\"display: inline-block; width: 0px; overflow: hidden; line-height: 0;\" data-mce-type=\"bookmark\" class=\"mce_SELRES_start\">\ufeff<\/span><span style=\"display: inline-block; width: 0px; overflow: hidden; line-height: 0;\" data-mce-type=\"bookmark\" class=\"mce_SELRES_start\">\ufeff<\/span><span style=\"display: inline-block; width: 0px; overflow: hidden; line-height: 0;\" data-mce-type=\"bookmark\" class=\"mce_SELRES_start\">\ufeff<\/span><span style=\"display: inline-block; width: 0px; overflow: hidden; line-height: 0;\" data-mce-type=\"bookmark\" class=\"mce_SELRES_start\">\ufeff<\/span><\/iframe><br \/>\nIn the rousing song <em>Wernher von Braun<\/em> \u2013 the former Nazi who designed the V-2 rocket in World War II and later became a key engineer in the US Apollo program and a grotesque US hero \u2013 Lehrer wrote: \u201cOnce the rockets go up, who cares where they come down?\/ \u2018That\u2019s not my department,\u2019 says Wernher von Braun.\u201d Lehrer was a guy who crunched numbers for the National Security Agency as a draftee in the mid 1950s. <em>Wernher von Braun<\/em>:<br \/>\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/kTKn1aSOyOs\" width=\"300\" height=\"168\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><span style=\"display: inline-block; width: 0px; overflow: hidden; line-height: 0;\" data-mce-type=\"bookmark\" class=\"mce_SELRES_start\">\ufeff<\/span><span style=\"display: inline-block; width: 0px; overflow: hidden; line-height: 0;\" data-mce-type=\"bookmark\" class=\"mce_SELRES_start\">\ufeff<\/span><span style=\"display: inline-block; width: 0px; overflow: hidden; line-height: 0;\" data-mce-type=\"bookmark\" class=\"mce_SELRES_start\">\ufeff<\/span><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>There was a connection between his mathematical studies, which began as a prodigy math student at Harvard at the young age of fourteen, and his earlier musical studies, which progressed from classical to popular music. He summed this up in an interview in 2000: \u201cThe logical mind, the precision, is the same that\u2019s involved in math as in lyrics\u2026 It\u2019s like a puzzle, to write a song.\u201d As the mathematician Stanislaw Ulam, one of the builders of the atomic bomb, said, rhyming \u201cforces novel associations\u2026 and becomes a sort of automatic mechanism of originality.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>As his fame as a performer spread by word of mouth \u2013 radio stations refused to play his \u2018controversial\u2019 material \u2013 he began to consider abandoning academia and beginning a career in music. After returning to Harvard from touring in 1960 he resumed his thesis work, but concluded he had nothing original to contribute to academic mathematics. As he wrote in his song <a href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/search?client=firefox-b-1-d&amp;q=Lobachevesky+tom+lehrer+lyrics\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><em>Lobachevesky<\/em><\/a>, named after a nineteenth century Russian mathematician: \u201cPlagiarize! \/ Let no one else&#8217;s work evade your eyes! \/\u2026 So don\u2019t shade your eyes, \/ But plagiarize, plagiarize, plagiarize- \/ Only be sure always to call it please &#8216;research&#8217;.\u201d He dropped his graduate studies and taught mathematics at Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1961, and at the University of California, Santa Cruz from 1972 &#8211; also teaching classes in musical theater &#8211; until he retired in 2001. <em>Lobachevsky<\/em>:<br \/>\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/wNel8RwSLyE\" width=\"300\" height=\"168\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><span style=\"display: inline-block; width: 0px; overflow: hidden; line-height: 0;\" data-mce-type=\"bookmark\" class=\"mce_SELRES_start\">\ufeff<\/span><span style=\"display: inline-block; width: 0px; overflow: hidden; line-height: 0;\" data-mce-type=\"bookmark\" class=\"mce_SELRES_start\">\ufeff<\/span><span style=\"display: inline-block; width: 0px; overflow: hidden; line-height: 0;\" data-mce-type=\"bookmark\" class=\"mce_SELRES_start\">\ufeff<\/span><span style=\"display: inline-block; width: 0px; overflow: hidden; line-height: 0;\" data-mce-type=\"bookmark\" class=\"mce_SELRES_start\">\ufeff<\/span><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Lehrer largely gave up song writing and public performances in the early 1970s. Following the award of a Nobel Peace Prize to Henry Kissinger in 1973, he said \u201cPolitical satire became obsolete.\u201d Later he remarked: \u201cThings I once thought were funny are scary now. I often feel like a resident of Pompeii who has been asked for some humorous comments on lava.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Will there ever again be a musical satirist like Lehrer? I don\u2019t know, I can\u2019t think of anyone in current times.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Sometime in the late 1970s there was a student\/faculty talent show at St. Olaf College where I taught chemistry. My colleague Dewayne Wee, a piano professor in the music department, and I decided to perform a song. We wanted to look very professional and appear musically cultured, so we dressed in formal tuxedos. Dwayne sat &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/pnwfolklore.org\/wp-nwhoot\/index.php\/2019\/03\/25\/tom-lehrer-mathematician-and-musical-satirist-by-stewart-hendrickson\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;TOM LEHRER &#8211; Mathematician and Musical Satirist, by Stewart Hendrickson&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[7,3],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/pnwfolklore.org\/wp-nwhoot\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1859"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/pnwfolklore.org\/wp-nwhoot\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/pnwfolklore.org\/wp-nwhoot\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/pnwfolklore.org\/wp-nwhoot\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/pnwfolklore.org\/wp-nwhoot\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1859"}],"version-history":[{"count":18,"href":"http:\/\/pnwfolklore.org\/wp-nwhoot\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1859\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1971,"href":"http:\/\/pnwfolklore.org\/wp-nwhoot\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1859\/revisions\/1971"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/pnwfolklore.org\/wp-nwhoot\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1859"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/pnwfolklore.org\/wp-nwhoot\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1859"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/pnwfolklore.org\/wp-nwhoot\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1859"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}