{"id":1237,"date":"2018-11-06T18:15:46","date_gmt":"2018-11-06T18:15:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hedgehogsandfoxes.org\/?page_id=1237"},"modified":"2022-11-09T21:19:00","modified_gmt":"2022-11-10T02:19:00","slug":"composers-lyricists-and-musicians","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/hedgehogsandfoxes.org\/index.php\/composers-lyricists-and-musicians\/","title":{"rendered":"Composers, Lyricists, and Musicians"},"content":{"rendered":"

Arthur Schwartz<\/a> (Columbia Law School, 1920, admitted NY Bar 1924) teamed with Howard Dietz to write many hit songs, including “I’ve Made a Habit of You” and the score to Louisiana Hayride, later made into a film starring Bob Hope (Columbia Pictures, 1944).<\/p>\n

Hoagy Carmichael<\/a> received a law degree from Indiana University, but turned to songwriting after his composition “Stardust” became popular.<\/p>\n

Oscar Hammerstein II<\/a> (1895-1960) studied at Columbia University Law School in 1917 or 1918 (the sources differ), but the lure of the theater was too strong; he left the study of law for the artistic life. He wrote the lyrics for such musical plays as The Sound of Music and Show Boat.<\/p>\n

Frederic Edward Weatherly<\/a> (1848-1929) wrote the words to “Roses of Picardy”, a tune familiar to World War I veterans, and redrafted the “Londonderry Air”; it is now better known as “Danny Boy.”<\/a><\/p>\n

The composer Johann David Heinichen<\/a> (1683-1729), a lesser known contemporary of Johann Sebastian Bach and Georg Philipp Telemann, wrote much opera, choral, and orchestral music. Other composers who studied law include Igor Stravinsky<\/a> and Francis Hopkinson<\/a>, who also signed the Declaration of Independence.<\/p>\n

Ed Richard<\/a> belongs not only in the “composers and musicians” section but also under the “clergy” section. He holds a JD from Louisiana State University Law Center.<\/p>\n

Clive Davis <\/a>received his law degree with honors from Harvard Law School and served as General Counsel of Columbia Records before he became a record producer himself. He has nurtured the careers of any number of great musicians, including the late Whitney Houston, Aretha Franklin, and Carly Simon.<\/p>\n

The multitalented Rub\u00e9n Blades<\/a> is a lawyer\/actor\/musician.<\/p>\n

Paul Simon<\/a> (of Simon and Garfunkel) studied law but abandoned it for music.<\/p>\n

Charles Gates Dawes<\/a> (1865-1951), composed the tune that gave rise to “It’s All in the Game.” He was also a Vice President of the United States (1925-1929) and \u00a0won the 1925 Nobel Peace Prize.<\/p>\n

The acclaimed soprano Hildegard Behrens<\/a> took a law degree from the University of Freiburg before beginning her vocal studies.<\/p>\n

The great Bulgarian bass Boris Christoff<\/a> trained as a lawyer and began a career as a magistrate before abandoning the law for singing.<\/p>\n

Singer and activist Paul Robeson<\/a> graduated from Columbia Law School in 1923 and worked for a few years as an attorney but turned to acting and singing, appearing in such films as The Emperor Jones. (For more about Paul Robeson see Amiri Baraka’s Paul Robeson and the Theater<\/a>\u00a0(excerpt)).<\/p>\n

John Perrault<\/a>, a New Hampshire lawyer, is also known for his ballads and poems.<\/p>\n

Carlo Goldoni<\/a> (1707-1793) turned from law to drama, including eighty opera libretti. (There’s a lot of law in opera, by the way. Check out the Brooklyn, NY-based Regina Opera Company’s Opera <\/a>\u00a0for more on the topic.)<\/p>\n

Peter Garrett<\/a>, lead singer for the group Midnight Oil, is also a lawyer and environmental activist.<\/p>\n

Four centuries earlier the Elizabethan composer Thomas Campion<\/a> apparently originally intended to study law and studied for several years before being admitted to Gray’s Inn.<\/a><\/p>\n

The lesser known Tom Rapp<\/a> had a rock band when he was young, and he even beat out a kid named Bobby Zimmerman in a talent contest in grade school. Zimmerman<\/a>, of course, is better known as Bob Dylan. By the way, there’s a lot of law in Dylan’s lyrics; check here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Rapp (of Pearls Before Swine) later earned a law degree from the University of Pennsylvania Law School. He died in 2018.\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

Barry Melton<\/a> (of Country Joe and the Fish) was Public Defender of Yolo County, California.<\/p>\n

Punk rock guitarist Robert Quine<\/a> (1942-2004) received a degree from Washington University Law School but never practiced law. He went on to play with the Velvet Underground, Lou Reed and other musicians including Brian Eno.<\/p>\n

The Italian jazz musician Paolo Conte<\/a> practiced law for several years before turning exclusively to music.<\/p>\n

Francis Scott Key<\/a>, an attorney, is better known for his contribution, “The Star-Spangled Banner.”<\/p>\n

The late Susan Beschta<\/a> (died May 2019) performed as a punk rocker with the band The Erasers under the name Susan Springfield before earning a law degree from the City University of New York School of Law. She worked in the areas of women’s rights, LGBTQ rights, and immigration law. She eventually served on the New York City Immigration Court.<\/p>\n

The gifted Paul Wee<\/a> is a commercial lawyer and a concert pianist. His 3VB bio<\/a> notes that he performs and records “in his spare time” but his discography list an impressive number of recordings including a recording of legendarily difficult works by Charles-Valentin Alkan.<\/p>\n

Andrea Bocelli earned a law degree at the University of Pisa and worked as a lawyer but always wanted to pursue a singing career, and finally did.\u00a0 <\/a>He is one of the most acclaimed opera singers in the world today.\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

Mezzo Jennifer Johnston (the “scouse diva”)<\/a> earned a law degree at Cambridge and practiced law before attending the Royal College of Music to study opera.\u00a0 She won the Royal Philharmonic’s Singer of the Year Award, and in 2022 she and the Bayerische Staatsoper won the Gramophone Award for Opera and Recording of the Year.<\/a><\/p>\n\n

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Arthur Schwartz (Columbia Law School, 1920, admitted NY Bar 1924) teamed with Howard Dietz to write many hit songs, including “I’ve Made a Habit of You” and the score to Louisiana Hayride, later made...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-1237","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/PasVL2-jX","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hedgehogsandfoxes.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1237","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hedgehogsandfoxes.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hedgehogsandfoxes.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hedgehogsandfoxes.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hedgehogsandfoxes.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1237"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/hedgehogsandfoxes.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1237\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5747,"href":"https:\/\/hedgehogsandfoxes.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1237\/revisions\/5747"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hedgehogsandfoxes.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1237"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}