Vernon Duke

Vernon Duke, born Vladimir Aleksandrovich Dukelsky on October 10, 1903, in Parfyanovka, in the Russian Empire, was a composer and songwriter who worked under both his birth name and his adopted American pseudonym. He was born into a Belarusian noble family of the small gentry class, and his paternal grandmother was a descendant of the kings of Georgia. His mother carried some Austrian and Spanish ancestry as well. The family resided in Kiev, and in the summer of 1915 Duke made his only visit to Saint Petersburg and Moscow, impressions that later informed his oratorio The End of St. Petersburg.

At eleven, Duke was admitted to the Kiev Conservatory, where he studied composition under Reinhold Glière and musical theory under Boleslav Yavorsky. In 1919, his family fled the Russian Civil War and spent roughly a year and a half among refugees in Constantinople before obtaining American visas and sailing steerage class aboard the SS King Alexander to New York, where Duke underwent immigration inspection at Ellis Island. In 1922, George Gershwin befriended the young immigrant and suggested he truncate and Americanize his surname, taking Vernon as his given name. Duke published his first songs under that pen name that same year, though he continued composing classical music and writing Russian poetry under the name Dukelsky until 1955.

In 1924, Duke returned to Europe, where Serge Diaghilev commissioned him to compose a ballet. The resulting work, Zephyr and Flora, was staged in the 1925 season of the Ballets Russes with choreography by Léonide Massine and scenography by Georges Braque. Sergei Prokofiev, reviewing the season, praised the score for its superior melodies and harmonic beauty, and the two composers became close friends, corresponding until 1946. Duke's First Symphony was premiered by Serge Koussevitzky and his orchestra in Paris in 1928 on the same program as excerpts from Prokofiev's The Fiery Angel. In the late 1920s, Duke divided his time between Paris, where his classical works were performed, and London, where he composed for musical comedies under his pen name. He returned permanently to the United States in 1929.

Throughout the 1930s, Duke established himself as a Broadway songwriter with a series of notable songs. "April in Paris," with lyrics by E. Y. Harburg, appeared in 1932. In 1934, he wrote both words and music for "Autumn in New York," introduced in the revue Thumbs Up!, a song that composer Alec Wilder, in his book American Popular Song: The Great Innovators 1900–1950, described as having perhaps the most ambitious verse he had ever encountered. That same year, "I Like the Likes of You" and "Water Under the Bridge" also became hits, and "What Is There to Say," again with Harburg, appeared in the Ziegfeld Follies of 1934. "I Can't Get Started," with lyrics by Ira Gershwin, followed in 1936. In 1937, Duke was asked to complete Gershwin's final score for the film The Goldwyn Follies, contributing two parody ballets choreographed by George Balanchine and the song "Spring Again." Duke became an American citizen in 1939 and legally adopted Vernon Duke as his name.

His greatest Broadway success came in 1940 with the musical Cabin in the Sky, choreographed by George Balanchine and performed by an all-Black cast at the Martin Beck Theater in New York. That production introduced "Taking a Chance on Love," with lyrics by Ted Fetter and John Latouche, which became one of his most celebrated songs. His other Broadway credits include the musical Banjo Eyes, It Happens on Ice, The Lady Comes Across, and Jackpot. Duke also collaborated with lyricists Johnny Mercer, Ogden Nash, and Sammy Cahn across various projects.

Between 1942 and 1944, Duke served in the United States Coast Guard. During that period he discovered Sid Caesar, then a saxophone player in the Coast Guard Band, and wrote a touring show for the service called Tars and Spars. He also composed a Cello Concerto, commissioned by Gregor Piatigorsky, and a Violin Concerto during his time in service. His concerto for piano, orchestra, and soprano obbligato, titled Dédicaces, had been premiered earlier, in January 1939, by Koussevitzky and the Boston Symphony Orchestra in New York. His oratorio The End of St. Petersburg was premiered a year before that by Schola Cantorum and the New York Philharmonic under Hugh Ross.

In 1946, Duke left the United States for France, where he continued composing in both the classical and popular traditions, setting texts by French lyricists. By 1948 he had returned to America, eventually relocating from New York to California, where he spent his final decades writing songs, film and theater scores, chamber music, Russian-language poetry, and English-language memoirs and polemical articles. On October 30, 1957, he married singer Kay McCracken. His final Broadway appearance came less than two weeks later with two songs and incidental music he contributed to the Helen Hayes production of Jean Anouilh's Time Remembered, which ran for 247 performances. He published his memoir, Passport to Paris, in 1955, and his critical essay Listen Here! A Critical Essay on Music Depreciation in 1963.

Duke died on January 16, 1969, in Santa Monica, California, during surgery for lung cancer.