Ernest Charles

Ernest Charles (Minneapolis, Minnesota, November 21, 1895 – Beverly Hills, California, April 16, 1984) was an American composer of art songs.

Life and musical career Charles was born in Minnesota with the surname Grosskopf. He attended The University of Southern California as a college student and studied singing with Charles Modini Wood. He eventually went to New York City, changed his surname to Charles, and began his professional life as a singer, performing in vaudeville and Broadway reviews, including Earl Carroll's Vanities in 1928 and the George White Scandals in 1929. His songs became widely known after 1932, when John Charles Thomas performed his song Clouds in a New York recital. Following that success, he continued to compose songs regularly until about 1950. At that time he lived with his wife, a mezzo-soprano, in New York City, and produced the radio program Great Moments in Music. He returned to California in 1953, settling in Beverly Hills, where he spent the remaining years of his life.

He was selected as a National Patron of Delta Omicron, an international professional music fraternity. He was a member of Phi Mu Alpha, an honorary member of the Apollo Club of Minneapolis, and a fellow of the California-based American Institute of Fine Arts. He joined ASCAP in 1934, and served as an Assistant Executive Secretary of the American Guild of Musical Artists (AGMA) from 1937 until at least 1966.

Musical works Charles composed around 45 songs for voice and piano in the years between 1930 and 1950. Most were published individually by G. Schirmer, and a few have been reissued in various song anthologies and collections of American art songs from the same publisher. The songs are known for their rubato, sweeping vocal lines, sumptuous melodies, and ingenuous charm. Two of his songs are popular encores: the Viennese Waltz Let My Song Fill Your Heart, made famous by Eileen Farrell; and When I Have Sung My Songs, recorded by such singers as Kirsten Flagstad, Rosa Ponselle, and Thomas Hampson, and featured in the closing credits of the 2016 film Florence Foster Jenkins, sung by lead actress Meryl Streep.

Published songs published by G. Schirmer unless otherwise noted Always You, 1936 And So, Goodbye (E. Charles), 1938 Bon Voyage (Velma Hitchcock), 1939 Carmé (Neapolitan Song), arr., 1938 Clouds, 1932 Crescent Moon, 1939 Dawn (E. Charles), Boston Music, 1933 Disenchantment (Mona Bonelli), 1940 L'Envoi (Sarojini Naidu), 1935 The Harp Aline Kilmer, 1936 The House on the Hill (E. Charles), 1933 Hymn to the United States Navy (Foster G. Carling), 1943 If You Only Knew (G. Johnston-Jervis), 1935 Incline Thine Ear (Isaiah 55: 3, 1), 1948 Let My Song Fill Your Heart ("Viennese Waltz"), 1936 Little Green Gate to Heaven (Fred Meadows), Chappell-Harms, 1933 Lord of the Years (Velma Hitchcock), 1938 Love (William Bruno), 1941 Love is of God (John 4:7-8), 1949 Message (Sara Teasdale) My Lady Walks in Loveliness (Mona Modini Wood), 1932 Night (Sydney King Russell), 1944 Oh Little River (Earl Benham), 1946 O Lovely World (Velma Hitchcock), 1947 Over the Land is April (Robert Louis Stevenson), Willis Music, 1937 Over the Wall of My Garden (William Bruno), Chappell & Co., 1929 Parting (William Bruno), Irving Berlin Standard Music Corporation, 1929 Psalm XXIII (Psalm 23), Ecco Music, Beverly Hills, California, 1956 Psalm of Exaltation (Psalm 27), 1951 Remembrance (Dorothy Tete), 1949 Romany Honeymoon (R. Atwater), Boston Music Co., 1933 Save Me, God (Psalm 69), 1947 Someone (E. Charles), 1937 Speak Not in Haste (Velma Hitchcock), 1936 The Spendthrift (Sarojini Naidu), 1935 Stampede, 1937 The Sussex Sailor (Alfred Noyes), 1933 Sweet Song of Long Ago (E. Charles), 1933 Take the Knocks, Lad (William Bruno), 1957 When I Have Sung My Songs, 1934 The White Swan, 1941 A Wish (Anita McLean Willison), 1936 Who Keeps the Years (E. Olmstead), 1940 You Are! (E. Charles), Boston Music, 1935 Youth, 1928

Other compositions published by G. Schirmer unless otherwise noted Christmas Song (Robert Herrick), SATB solos, SATB chorus, organ, 1951 Festival Jubilate, mixed voices, R. L. Huntzinger, 1937 The Greatness of the Lord, SATB chorus, 1957 Waltz Interlude ("in the Viennese Style"), piano solo, 1788

Footnotes