“WRITING TWO KINDS OF MUSIC”: THE TWO MUSICAL VOICES OF VLADIMIR DUKELSKY ALIAS VERNON DUKE

Abstract

Vladimir Dukelsky (1903–1969) grew up in Kiev until his family emigrated to the United States in 1921. Trained at the Kiev conservatory with the idea of becoming a classical pianist and composer, his talent for popular music soon unfolded. He followed the advice of his mentor George Gershwin and adopted the name “Vernon Duke,” from 1926 on signing his classical compositions as Dukelsky and his popular music as Duke. In his autobiography from 1955, written as Duke, his official name since 1939, he explains his “dual musical existence”: the “serious” Dukelsky, trying to find his way in the world of twentieth-century concert music, and the “unserious” Vernon Duke, nurturing his aptitude for popular tunes and show music, yet ultimately becoming the wage earner of the two. The exploration of the composer’s career in the twenties and thirties provides insight into the emergence of what could be called, in analogy to his bilingual command of Russian and English, bi-musicality, and into the growth of his two musical voices. While his classical music was influenced by his affiliation to the style of composers such as Prokofiev, his popular music, from early jazzy interpolations for London-produced operettas around 1926, over music for shows and movies up until to iconic songs such as April in Paris and Autumn in New York, displays a growing autonomy. The occasional fusion of the two musical idioms made listeners doubt Duke’s pronounced self- conception: “Dukelsky in no way resembles Duke.”