Vernon Duke ( 16 January 1969) was a Russian-born American composer and songwriter who also wrote under his birth name, Vladimir Dukelsky. He is best known for "Taking a Chance on Love," with lyrics by Ted Fetter and John Latouche (1940); "I Can't Get Started," with lyrics by Ira Gershwin (1936); "April in Paris," with lyrics by E. Y. ("Yip") Harburg (1932), and "What Is There To Say," for the Ziegfeld Follies of 1934, also with Harburg.
Duke wrote the words and music for "Autumn in New York" (1934) for the revue Thumbs Up! In his book American Popular Song, The Great Innovators 1900-1950, composer Alec Wilder praises this song, writing, “The verse may be the most ambitious I’ve ever seen."
Duke also collaborated with lyricists Johnny Mercer, Ogden Nash, and Sammy Cahn.
Early life
Vladimir Aleksandrovich Dukelsky (Russian: Владимир Александрович Дукельский) was born in 1903 into a Belarusian noble family in the village of Parfyanovka, Pskov Governorate, Russian Empire. According to another source, his birthplace was a small railroad station in Minsk Governorate. At the time, his mother "happened to be traveling by train". His family was of the small gentry class; the 1954 Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians referred to his paternal grandmother, née Princess Tumanishvili, as having been "directly descended from the kings of Georgia". According to Duke, his mother also had some Austrian and Spanish ancestry. The Jewish Standard lists him among Jewish musicians, for reasons unknown; composer Jack Gottlieb denies this claim.
The Dukelskys resided in Kiev, and Vladimir's only visit to Saint Petersburg and Moscow occurred in the summer of 1915. The impressions of that summer were later echoed in Dukelsky's oratorio The End of St. Petersburg (1931–37). The title is a reference to the film The End of St. Petersburg, directed by Vsevolod Pudovkin.
He underwent his immigration inspection at Ellis Island. On the passenger list, the purser of the King Alexander recorded his name as Vladimir Doukelsky, in the French fashion. In 1922 in New York, George Gershwin befriended the young immigrant. Gershwin (born Jacob Gershwine) suggested that Dukelsky truncate and Americanize his surname, taking Vernon as his given name. Dukelsky's first songs published under his pen name were conceived that year, but he continued to write classical music and Russian poetry under his birth name until 1955. Dukelsky's first theatrical production, Zephyr and Flora, was staged in the 1925 season of Ballets Russes, with choreography by Léonide Massine and scenography by Georges Braque, to great critical acclaim. In a review of musical novelties of the season, Sergei Prokofiev described it as full of "superior melodies, very well designed, harmonically beautiful and not too 'modernist'." Prokofiev was as impressed with the young talent as Diaghilev was, and soon the composers became close friends. They frequently saw each other until Prokofiev returned to the Soviet Union in 1938; they continued to correspond until 1946. Dukelsky's First Symphony was premiered by Serge Koussevitzky and his orchestra in 1928 in Paris on the same bill as excerpts from Prokofiev's The Fiery Angel. Some of Dukelsky's and Prokofiev's compositions of the 1930s bear evidence of their musical dialogue.
In the late 1920s, Dukelsky divided his time between Paris, where his more classical works were performed, and London, where he composed numbers for musical comedies under his pen name Vernon Duke. His harmonies, however, were highly original. As a songwriter and author of theatrical and film music, his work was close to that of George Gershwin and Harold Arlen, but he developed an idiosyncratic voice of his own. He also published Listen Here! a Critical Essay on Music Depreciation in 1963.
Death
Duke died in Santa Monica, California on 16 January 1969 during surgery for lung cancer. His numerous papers—musical and literary manuscripts and correspondence in English, French, and Russian—are stored in the Musical Division of the Library of Congress.