Leroy Anderson - The Typewriter (audio + sheet music)

The Typewriter is a novelty instrumental piece written by Leroy Anderson in 1950, and first performed by the Boston Pops. Its name refers to the fact that its performance requires a typewriter, which is used on stage: keystrokes, the typewriter bell, and the carriage return mechanism provide a major component of the piece, although Anderson demonstrated that a musical gourd could be used instead of a carriage return.The typewriter is modified so that only two keys work; although many listeners have suspected that stenographers are enlisted to "play" the typewriter, Anderson reported that only professional drummers have sufficient wrist flexibility. In this age of computers and the Internet, a piece of music paying tribute to the typewriter, which in 1950 was still an important piece of technology, might seem a bit quaint. But even computers have keyboards and it is the sound of a typewriter's keyboard that is central to this piece of music in its color and humor. Leroy Anderson was known to use a variety of objects in his scores -- like sandpaper and wood in the Sandpaper Ballet -- and thus his use of a typewriter here is hardly unusual. The work opens with a brief introduction, after which the strings present the busy, graceful main theme accompanied by the rapid, rhythmic strokes of the typewriter's keyboard. But the typist is also heard swinging the bail of the machine back to the left extreme, which, to those who remember, resulted in the sounding of a bell, a sound heard quite often throughout this two-minute piece. In the middle section, both the music and typewriter's strokes slow down a bit and turn playful. The main theme returns with the busy typewriter accompaniment to close out this delightful work. It has been called one of "the wittiest and most clever pieces in the orchestral repertoire". The piece was featured in the Jerry Lewis film Who's Minding the Store (1963). The Radio 4 satirical programme The News Quiz has adopted the tune as its theme song. For several decades the tune has also been the opening theme for Israel Radio's weekly news journal, which is broadcast on its "Network B" ("Reshet Bet") every Saturday morning. It was also featured in Adam Elliot's 2009 Australian film Mary and Max. (Wikipedia, AllMusic) Please take note that the audio AND the sheet music ARE NOT mine. Change the quality to a minimum of 480p if the video is blurry. Original audio:    • Video   Original sheet music: http://www.tiqinpu.com/qupu/20111011/...