When I Lost You

Let us go then, you and I,
When the evening is spread out against the sky

T.S. Eliot -- "Love song of J. Alfred Prufrock"

07-2022
D. Vautier
www.dvautier.com

Israel “Izzy” Baline (later known as Irving Berlin) was born in the Siberian village of Tuman in Russia in 1888. The Baline family, with their eight kids, was forced to flee when their town was burned, so the family headed for New York.

In New York “Izzy” got into music. He was determined to succeed despite his many handicaps; his inability to sing or dance, inherent shyness around people, his stuttering, his lack of technical skill at any musical instrument, and his total absence of knowledge about musical theory and composition. He also had no formal training at the piano and could not read musical scores.  He was a poor student in school and could only play music in one key.  Despite all this “Izzy” developed his own kind of musical notation and wrote his own kind of songs.

In 1911 he wrote the big hit Alexander’s Ragtime Band which spearheaded a huge ragtime revival.  Ragtime had been dead for several years.  The song itself contained an unusual 32-measure chorus and was ruthlessly criticized.  Nonetheless people loved it and Berlin continued to produce popular music well until the middle of the 20th century. We are familiar with much of his work: White Christmas, Always, Blue Skies, God Bless America, Easter Parade just to name a few.  He lived for 101 years, and some people wondered if God would ever let him die. Irving Berlin is considered one of the most recognized songwriters in early American history.

Berlin was a true and gifted romantic; rich, young, famous.  He fell madly in love with the 20 year old Dorothy Goetz. They were married in 1912 and off they went to honeymoon in Cuba.  While there she contracted typhoid and died.  Berlin went into deep depression and stopped writing songs.  Many months later encouraged by his friends, he began to write again.  His first song was “When I lost you” dedicated to Dorothy.