[Dixielandjazz] "Avalon"

Joe Carbery joe.carbery at gmail.com
Tue Jun 28 23:11:17 PDT 2011


Dear Bill,

The introductory phrase by the clarinet is, to these ears at least,
definitely very like the opening phrase of Avalon. I think the court was
right.

Regards,

Joe Carbery.

On Wed, Jun 29, 2011 at 5:53 PM, Bill Haesler <bhaesler at bigpond.net.au>wrote:

> Dear all,
> For those who are are still following this recent thread, I did some
> research from the operatic side of the subject and came up with some more
> interesting things.
> It has been claimed that the tune's opening phrase resembles that of
> Giacomo Puccini's aria "E lucevan le stele", from the opera Tosca, but in
> the major key. The remaining 30 bars do not. Puccini's publishers sued the
> song's composers in 1921 for use of the melody, and "were awarded $25,000
> and all subsequent royalties of the song by the court". [It appears to have
> been later settled out of court. Refer below.]
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avalon_(Al_Jolson_song)
> Here is the original "E lucevan le stelle", sung by Leo Slezak in 1913 for
> Edison Records:
>   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tosca
> I must be listening in the wrong place, as I can't hear "Avalon'.
> The court obviously did:
>
> http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F30814FF395810738DDDA00A94D9405B818EF1D3
>
> http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=F30814FF395810738DDDA00A94D9405B818EF1D3
> The following sites provide additional interesting information:
>    http://lyricsplayground.com/alpha/songs/a/avalon.shtml
> All-About-Jazz blog
>   http://forums.allaboutjazz.com/showthread.php?p=563434
> and
>   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vincent_Rose
> And here is Chris Tyle's article:
>   http://www.jazzstandards.com/compositions-1/avalon.htm
> Happy reading.
> Kind regards,
> Bill.
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> To unsubscribe or change your e-mail preferences for the Dixieland Jazz
> Mailing list, or to find the online archives, please visit:
>
> http://ml.islandnet.com/mailman/listinfo/dixielandjazz
>
>
>
> Dixielandjazz mailing list
> Dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com
>


More information about the Dixielandjazz mailing list