Editing Billy Mayerl

{{Short description|English pianist and composer (1902–1959)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
{{More footnotes needed|date=May 2020}}
{{Infobox musical artist
| honorific_prefix =
| name             = Billy Mayerl
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| birth_date       = {{Birth date|1902|05|31|df=y}}
| birth_place      = [[Tottenham Court Road]], [[London]], [[United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland|United Kingdom]]
| origin           =
| death_date       = {{Death date and age|1959|03|25|1902|05|31|df=y}}
| death_place      =
| genre            = [[Light music]]
| occupation       = [[Composer]]
| instrument       = Piano
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'''William Joseph Mayerl'''<ref name="Perf">{{cite web|url=http://www.perfessorbill.com/comps/wmayerl.shtml|title=William Joseph "Billy" Mayerl (May 31, 1902 to March 25, 1959)|website=Perfessorbill.com|accessdate=2020-05-16}}</ref> (31 May 1902 – 25 March 1959) was an [[England|English]] [[pianist]] and [[composer]] who built a career in [[music hall]] and [[musical theatre]] and became an acknowledged master of [[light music]]. Best known for his syncopated [[novelty piano]] solos, he wrote over 300 piano pieces, many of which were named after flowers and trees, including his best-known composition, ''Marigold'' (1927). He also ran the successful School of Syncopation for whose members he published hundreds of his own arrangements of popular songs.

He also composed works for piano and orchestra, often in suites with evocative names such as the 'Aquarium Suite' (1937), comprising "Willow Moss", "Moorish Idol", "Fantail", and "Whirligig".

==Early life and education==
Mayerl was born in 1902 on [[London]]'s [[Tottenham Court Road]], near the West End theatre district. His father, a violin player, attempted to introduce him to the violin age of four, but failed. After noticing his affinity to the piano, he started him with piano lessons. By age seven he was studying at the [[Trinity College of Music]], paid for with a series of scholarships. His first major concert was at age nine, playing [[Edvard Grieg]]'s [[Piano Concerto (Grieg)|Piano Concerto]]. In his teens, he supplemented these lessons by accompanying silent movies and playing at dances.<ref>Harth, Mike. ''Lightning Fingers: Billy Mayerl The Man and His Music''. Paradise Press, 1995, {{ISBN|978-0952596400}}</ref>

While studying at Trinity College, Mayerl began visiting a local music arcade known as 'Gayland', where he first encountered North American ragtime music. After trying his hand at composing it, he was threatened with expulsion from Trinity College if he continued, and it was a decade before his first composition was re-issued as 'The Jazz Master'.<ref>Archer, John. ''Billy Mayerl The Man and His Music''. The Billy Mayerl Society, p. 4</ref>

Attracted to North American popular music, Mayerl joined a [[Southampton]] hotel band in 1921. He recorded about 37 piano rolls of popular tunes of the early '20s for the Echo label in London. He subsequently joined the [[Savoy Havana Band]] in London and became a celebrity. In the late 20s he recorded in London a single title, "Eskimo Shivers", on the Duo-Art player piano system for the Aeolian Company.

==Career==
{{Listen image
| main_image         ="Georgie Porgie" (1924), by Billy Mayerl and Gerald "Gee" Paul.pdf
| main_image_caption =Cover art of "The Sensational European Novelty Georgie Porgie: Fox-Trot Song" (1924)
| main_image_alt     =
| filename           ="Georgie Porgie" (1924), by Billy Mayerl and Gerald "Gee" Paul.mp3
| title              ="The Sensational European Novelty Georgie Porgie: Fox-Trot Song" (1924)
| description        =Mayerl and Gerald "Gee" Paul's adaptation of "[[Georgie Porgie]]", published in 1924 by Harms, Inc. 
}}
In 1926, Mayerl left the Savoy and opened his 'School of [[Syncopation]]' which specialised in teaching modern music techniques such as [[ragtime]] and [[stride piano]]. It led to the long-running correspondence course, 'How to play like Billy Mayerl'. During this period, he wrote his most famous solo, 'Marigold'. By the late 1930s his correspondence school was believed to have had over 100 staff members and 30,000 students. It closed in 1957.

On 28 October 1925, Mayerl was the soloist in the London premiere of [[George Gershwin]]'s ''[[Rhapsody in Blue]]''. In December 1926, he appeared with [[Gwen Farrar]] (1899–1944) in a [[short film]]—made in the [[Lee de Forest]] [[Phonofilm]] [[sound-on-film]] process—in which they sang Mayerl's song "I've Got a Sweetie on the Radio". His song "Miss Up-to-Date" was sung and played by [[Cyril Ritchard]] in [[Alfred Hitchcock]]'s sound film ''[[Blackmail (1929 film)|Blackmail]]'' (1929).

In November 1927, his piano styles accompanied the Hamilton Sisters and Fordyce, American Vaudeville vocal harmonizers who first recorded in England.

On 1 October 1929, Billy Mayerl's orchestra performed at the opening of the [[Locarno Dance Hall]] in [[Streatham]].

In the 1930s Mayerl composed several works for the musical theatre, including three connected with horse racing: ''[[Sporting Love]]'', opening at the [[Gaiety Theatre, London]] in 1934; ''[[Twenty to One]]'' (Coliseum 1935); and ''[[Over She Goes]]'' (Saville 1936). In 1938, jazz pianist [[Marian McPartland]] joined his group "Mayerl's Claviers" under the name Marian Page.

Mayerl stepped in as bandleader for the [[Grosvenor House Hotel]] in May 1941, when [[Sydney Lipton]] was called up to serve with the  [[Royal Corps of Signals]].<ref>[https://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/page/2cb3b0e6647c41e580334e637072c2e3 ''Radio Times'' Issue 923, 8th June 1941, p. 28]</ref> Lipton returned after the war.

==Death==

Mayerl died in 1959 from a [[myocardial infarction|heart attack]] at his home in Beaconsfield, Marigold Lodge, after a long illness.

He was cremated at [[Golders Green Crematorium]] in north [[London]] on 31 March 1959 and his ashes were placed in the Cedar Lawn Rose Bed. His name is listed in the Book of Remembrance.

==Personal life==
In 1923 Mayerl married pianist Ermenegilda (Jill) Bernini,  a childhood sweetheart. She later helped him write duet arrangements.<ref name="Perf"/>

==See also==
{{Portal|Biography}}
*[[List of ragtime composers]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Bibliography==
*''Marigold: The Music of Billy Mayerl'' by Prof. Peter Dickinson ([[Oxford University Press]], 1999), {{ISBN|978-0198162131}}

==External links==
*[http://www.billymayerlsociety.co.uk/ Billy Mayerl Society]
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20060805111858/http://www.rfsoc.org.uk/bmayerl.shtml Billy Mayerl] at [[Robert Farnon|The Robert Farnon Society]] website
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20130828132732/http://www.folkways.si.edu/searchresults.aspx?sPhrase=Billy%20Mayerl&sType=%27phrase%27%2F Mayerl's Discography] on [[Folkways Records]]
*{{IMDb name|0562557}}
*[http://www.perfessorbill.com/comps/wmayerl.shtml Bill Edward's biography of Mayerl, with a comprehensive list of compositions]
*[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aaq0bS_lxYo video of Billy Mayerl playing Marigold on Youtube]

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mayerl, Billy}}
[[Category:1902 births]]
[[Category:1959 deaths]]
[[Category:20th-century English pianists]]
[[Category:20th-century English classical musicians]]
[[Category:20th-century English composers]]
[[Category:20th-century English male musicians]]
[[Category:Alumni of Trinity College of Music]]
[[Category:Composers from London]]
[[Category:English light music composers]]
[[Category:English male pianists]]
[[Category:English male composers]]
[[Category:Musicians from London]]
[[Category:Ragtime composers]]
[[Category:Ragtime pianists]]