Oley Speaks

Oley Speaks (June 28, 1874 – August 7, 1948) was an American composer and songwriter. His compositions include many religious songs, as well as his best-known success, "On the Road to Mandalay", which takes its lyrics from the poem "Mandalay" by Rudyard Kipling. The Canal Winchester Area Historical Society Museum has exhibits about the life of Oley Speaks, including original sheet music written by him.

Biography

Speaks was born in Canal Winchester, Ohio, the son of a grain merchant and contractor. He was ten when his father Charles W. died, and his mother Sarah and family moved to Columbus soon afterwards. until he decided to pursue his musical passions. He was developing a reputation as a fine baritone singer in churches in Columbus before he moved to New York City in 1898 and started taking lessons. One of his voice teachers was the American soprano Emma Thursby. Speaks had a successful career as a singer, touring the United States giving recitals and also appearing in oratorios.

Speaks began to write songs, many with religious themes. He studied composition with Will Macfarlane and Max Spicker. and the American singer Nelson Eddy were among the singers who recorded "Sylvia". The Irish tenor John McCormack's recordings of all three famous titles are available on CD. More recently, American baritone Thomas Hampson has also recorded "On the Road to Mandalay".

Speaks was a prominent member of ASCAP, where he was elected director in 1924 and served until 1943.

In the movies Speaks can be described as a "one-hit wonder", but his most famous work was included in the soundtrack of several films:

Paul Tremaine and His Aristocrats (1929) (sung by Paul Tremaine) Metro Movietone Revue (1929/II) (sung by George Dewey Washington) Mandalay (1934) (played during opening credits) (not to be confused with The Road to Mandalay, a 1926 film) China Seas (1935) (variation played as part of the score during the opening credits and at the end) Metropolitan (1935) (sung by Lawrence Tibbett with piano accompaniment by Luis Alberni (who both appeared) in the score during the end credits) They Met in Bombay (1941) (played several times as part of the score) S.O.B. (1981) Robert Preston sings a few seconds of Mandalay: "And the dawn comes up like thunder..." at 1:46

Musical works Over 250 songs, originally published by G. Schirmer or The John Church Company, including:

Sacred Anthems, including: Gently, Lord, Oh, Gently Lead Us (Thomas Hastings, arr. Lucien Chaffin) (Schirmer, 1914) Now the Day is Over (Schirmer)

Choral Partsongs, including: In Maytime (Frank L. Stanton) (John Church)

Footnotes