Frank La Forge

Frank La Forge (October 22, 1879 – May 5, 1953) was an American pianist, vocal coach, teacher, composer and arranger of art songs.

Biography He was born on October 22, 1879, in Rockford, Illinois.

La Forge was a boy soprano. He first studied piano with his older sister, and went to Vienna in 1900 to study with Theodor Leschetizky. He recorded prolifically for the Victor Talking Machine Company, as both a soloist and accompanist starting in 1906. As a soloist, he recorded works by Chopin, Liszt and MacDowell. In performance he usually accompanied entirely from memory, considered an unusual feat for an accompanist. In his biography Pathways of Song, La Forge claimed that he had 'a repertoire of over five thousand memorized accompaniments embracing all schools'. He toured Europe, Russia, and the United States as an accompanist to Marcella Sembrich. La Forge moved to New York City in 1920, where he became a music teacher, coach, and accompanist. He taught a number of important American singers, including Marian Anderson, Lawrence Tibbett, Marie Powers, Emma Otero and Richard Crooks. He served as accompanist for many vocal stars and instrumentalists of the day including Johanna Gadski, Ernestine Schumann-Heink and Margaret Matzenauer. His longstanding musical relationship with Metropolitan Opera soprano Lily Pons from 1937 until his death, saw the production of recital tours with flutist Frank Versaci, down the eastern seaboard and in British Columbia.

La Forge died at the piano, performing at a Musicians Club of New York dinner in Manhattan on May 5, 1953, for which he had been president since 1935.

Musical works La Forge composed around 40 songs for voice and piano in the years between 1906 and 1940, as well as a few piano solos, choral works, and at least one solo for violin and piano. Some of the songs are sacred, and most were published individually by G. Schirmer, while a few have been reissued in various song anthologies and collections of American art songs from the same publisher. Many of his early songs were composed to German texts and modeled on the German Lied. Later songs were composed in the more accessible 'concert ballad' style, which was quite popular at the time.

He was also a highly successful arranger of folksongs; Villamil mentions 'an excellent set of Mexican folk songs'. Gavotte and Musette Improvisation Romance, 1911 Souvenir de Vienne Valse de Concert, 1912

Published instrumental solos Romance, violin and piano

Arrangements and editing Echo Song by Henry Bishop, transcribed for voice, flute and piano by La Forge, Schirmer, 1940 Fledermaus Fantasy, excerpts from Die Fledermaus by Johann Strauss II, transcribed for voice, flute and piano by La Forge, Schirmer, 1943 Little swallow (O légère hirondelle), waltz song from Mireille by Charles Gounod, transcribed for voice, flute and piano by La Forge, Schirmer, 1942 Love-Tide of Spring (La primavera d'or) by Alexander Glazunov, transcription for voice and piano, Schirmer, 1913 Menuet Varié (Minuet with variations), anonymous 18th-century French work, transcribed for voice, flute and piano by La Forge, Schirmer, 1940 Mexican Songs for voice and piano, arranged and translated by La Forge, G. Ricordi publisher: 1. Pregúntales á las Estrellas (O ask of the stars, beloved), Mexican folk-song, 1922 2. Crepuscúlo (Twilight), Mexican folk-song, 1922 3. El Céfiro (The Zephyr), Mexican folk-song, 1922 4. La Paloma (The Dove) by Sebastián Yradier, 1922 5. La Golondrina (The Swallow), Mexican folk-song, 1922 6. En Cuba (Cuban Song) by Eduardo Sánchez de Fuentes, 1923 7. Estrellita (Little Star) by Manuel Ponce, 1923 8. Yo paso la Vida (In Sorrow and Sighing) by Jose Islas, 1926 On the beautiful blue Danube by Johann Strauss II, transcribed for voice and piano by La Forge, G. Ricordi, 1928 Pathways of Song, compiled, arranged, translated and edited by Frank LaForge and Will Earhart, M. Witmark publisher, 1938 Tales from the Vienna Forest by Johann Strauss II, piano solo transcribed for voice and piano by La Forge, Schirmer, 1912

Footnotes