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Ted Royal
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Ted Royal
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Ted Royal [Dewar] (6 September 1904, Skedee, Oklahoma - 27 March (?) 1981) was an American orchestrator, conductor and composer for Broadway theatre. He was most active in the 1940s and 1950s, being associated with the very successful original productions of Lerner and Loewe's Brigadoon and Paint Your Wagon. Together with George Bassman he orchestrated Frank Loesser's Guys and Dolls.[1] The dean of musical orchestrators, Robert Russell Bennett, remembered Royal as "one of Broadway's very special arrangers."[2]

Big band days

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Royal may have also been known in New York under the name of Ted Klinefelter. He majored in music at the University of Kansas and completed further studies in Houston and New York, including a correspondence course in the mathematical musical progressions advanced by the influential theorist Joseph Schillinger, who had also taught George Gershwin.

After floating around as a sideman in various minstrel shows, Royal settled down as alto sax in the Ted Weems orchestra. He began writing big-band charts for Weems as well as Tommy Dorsey, Paul Whiteman and Harry James. By 1935 Royal was hosting his own radio show in New York and fronted an orchestra which often played on Long Island. However, he may have run into unemployment and financial troubles in the economic downturn of 1937.[3]

Broadway career

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In 1938 he started arranging music for theater in Fort Worth, Texas. Returning to New York to work on Billy Rose's Aquacade for the World's Fair, he came to the attention of Max Dreyfus who ran the in-demand theater orchestration department at Chappell Music. In just two weeks his hard-working team could orchestrate the average musicomedy for the price of $6,000.[4] Dreyfus signed Royal as a house orchestrator and in 1939 he moved into the same building with Robert Russell Bennett, Don Walker and Hans Spialek.

His legitimate Broadway start was assisting Spialek and Walker with the orchestration duties for the George White Scandals of 1939, featuring Ella Logan, Ann Miller and The Three Stooges. Quickly followed high-profile collaborations with Russell Bennett on Buddy DeSylva's DuBarry Was a Lady and Mike Todd's Mexican Hayride. He was also a valued "hot jazz" and swing exponent for the team of orchestrators who worked on Annie Get Your Gun and Leonard Bernstein's breakthrough On the Town. Steven Suskin has confirmed that Royal was responsible for arranging the show-stopping Ethel Merman anthem "There's No Business Like Show Business".[5]

By 1947 Royal went out on his own and struck it big with his sole credit for the atmospheric orchestrations heard in Brigadoon. Other principal orchestration credits were for Loesser's first show Where's Charley?, Harold Arlen's House of Flowers, the cult classic Flahooley and Mr. Wonderful, headlining Sammy Davis Jr. With Charles L. Cooke he came up with the right 1920s sounds for Sandy Wilson's The Boy Friend.[6]

In 1952, he arranged the music for New Faces of 1952 on Broadway, starring Eartha Kitt. His arrangements can be heard on the original cast recording album. He also did the orchestrations for the 1957 musical, Rumple.

Final credits

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Personal problems, including the death of his only daughter on her honeymoon, started to impinge upon his career and there were fewer assignments in the 1960s.[7] He accepted minor arranging chores from Irwin Kostal for forgettable television programs and did the scores for a pair of silent film compilations.[8]

During the late 1940s, Royal had taught composition and arranging at the Juilliard School and in his retirement wrote a couple of unfinished textbooks on orchestration, which are in his papers at the Music & Performing Arts Section of the New York Public Library.[9]

References

[edit]
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Ted Royal

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Ted Royal (September 6, 1904 – March 27, 1981) was an American composer, arranger, and orchestrator known for his contributions to Broadway musicals and dance band arrangements during the mid-20th century. He began his career in the 1930s arranging and conducting for dance bands and orchestras, including Ted Weems, Tommy Dorsey, Paul Whiteman, and Harry James. He transitioned to Broadway starting in the late 1930s and through the 1950s, where he provided orchestrations for several successful shows, including Cole Porter's Can-Can and Silk Stockings, as well as Li'l Abner and Destry Rides Again. His work on these productions was noted for its rich, layered instrumentation that enhanced the dramatic and musical impact of the scores. Royal's career spanned several decades, with additional credits in film and television orchestration, solidifying his reputation as a figure in American music theater and popular music arrangement. He died on March 27, 1981, leaving a legacy of influential work that bridged popular music and theatrical traditions.

Early life and education

Ted Royal was born on September 6, 1904, in Skedee, Oklahoma. Before moving to New York City in the fall of 1935, Royal worked for several years as a pianist, conductor, and arranger at various venues in the central and southern United States. He served as an accompanist for silent movies at the Queen Theatre in Houston and as a pianist on the vaudeville circuit. He also worked as an arranger for bandleaders Wayne King and Ted Weems, as well as for NBC in Chicago. He attended the University of Kansas and continued his musical studies in Houston and New York. From 1939 to 1943, Royal studied the Schillinger system of mathematical musical progressions via correspondence course with Joseph Schillinger.

Early career

Big band and radio work

Ted Royal began his professional music career in the central and southern United States, working as a pianist, conductor, and arranger at various venues. He served as a pianist accompanying silent films at the Queen Theatre in Houston and performed as a pianist on the vaudeville circuit. He contributed arrangements in the Ted Weems orchestra and provided charts for bandleaders including Wayne King and Ted Weems, in addition to work for NBC in Chicago. Following his move to New York City in the fall of 1935, Royal arranged for Isham Jones, Al Katz, and Billy Rose. He hosted his own radio program, The Pompeiian Hour, featuring singers Jerry Cooper and Donald Novis. Royal's arranging credits during this period extended to prominent bandleaders such as Jimmy Dorsey, Paul Whiteman, and Harry James. From 1943 to 1949, he worked as an arranger and conductor at Radio City Music Hall. His big band and radio activities in the late 1930s overlapped with his early studies under Joseph Schillinger.

Broadway career

Broadway orchestrations

Ted Royal established himself as a leading Broadway orchestrator with his first credit providing additional arrangements for Cole Porter's DuBarry Was a Lady in 1939. This engagement launched a series of collaborations with Porter, for whom Royal orchestrated Let's Face It (1941), Something for the Boys (1943), Mexican Hayride (1944), and Seven Lively Arts (1944). His work during this period extended to other leading composers, including orchestrations for Leonard Bernstein's On the Town (1944) and Irving Berlin's Annie Get Your Gun (1946). In the late 1940s and early 1950s, Royal orchestrated several landmark musicals that showcased his ability to support narrative and atmosphere through detailed instrumentation. For Frederick Loewe's Brigadoon (1947, with book and lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner), he provided a complete set of orchestral parts arranged in show order, encompassing the Prologue through Act I Finale along with dances, transitions, reprises, and incidental cues. He also orchestrated Frank Loesser's Where's Charley? (1948) and Guys and Dolls (1950), contributing to the rhythmic vitality of those scores. Royal's orchestration for Lerner and Loewe's Paint Your Wagon (1951) is particularly well-documented, with a full set of parts in show order supplemented by materials for several cut songs, including "He Loves Me," "Muchee Good World," "Sh!," and "They Never Go Home," offering insight into the evolution of the production's musical structure. He later orchestrated Harold Arlen's House of Flowers (1954). These preserved materials at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts highlight the thoroughness and scope of his contributions to mid-century Broadway scores. His credits also encompass additional productions such as Flahooley, Mr. Wonderful, The Boy Friend (in collaboration with Charles L. Cooke), New Faces of 1952, and Rumple (1957), reflecting his sustained activity in the field. Across these works, Royal's orchestrations drew on his big band experience to infuse select scores with swing and jazz-informed textures suited to Broadway's dynamic demands.

Film and other media

Film and other media work

Ted Royal's work in film and other media was limited compared to his prominent Broadway career, consisting mainly of orchestration and composition for a handful of projects, often uncredited. He served as an uncredited orchestrator for the 1954 musical revue film New Faces, which adapted material from the Broadway production New Faces of 1952. Royal composed and orchestrated the musical score for the 1960 documentary When Comedy Was King, a compilation of silent film comedy clips produced by Robert Youngson. He held similar positions as uncredited composer and orchestrator for the 1961 sequel documentary Days of Thrills and Laughter, another Youngson compilation featuring silent-era footage. Additionally, Royal composed the score for the 1957 film So Lovely... So Deadly. Early in his career, Royal gained experience creating cue sheets for silent films and providing live accompaniment for screenings, which informed his later compilation work. In his later years, he contributed minor arranging to television programs in collaboration with orchestrator Irwin Kostal.

Teaching and theoretical contributions

Teaching and theoretical contributions

Ted Royal taught Commercial Arranging at the Juilliard School from 1945 to 1947. He had earlier completed a correspondence course with Joseph Schillinger from 1939 to 1943. Royal's theoretical contributions are preserved in extensive unpublished manuscripts and textbook drafts focused on music theory, harmony, counterpoint, orchestration, melody, rhythm, and composition. Notable among these are Arranging Techniques (1961), a detailed draft spanning twenty chapters on topics including textures, registers, melodic structures, harmonic structures, chord progressions, voice leading, principles of harmonization, tone colors, and integration; A Treatise on Melody (1966); Chords, Their Progressions and Voice-Leading (1966); Chromatic Harmony (1966); Composition (1967); and A Handbook of Instrumental Tone-Colors with Their Construction, Production and Combinations (1967). Additional shorter manuscripts address subjects such as rules of counterpoint, scale structures, relationships of melody and harmony, rhythm structures, melodization of harmony, and automatic chromatic continuity. His papers also include materials from the Joseph Schillinger correspondence course lessons dated 1942, which cover advanced topics in general theory of harmony, orchestration, instrumental techniques, counterpoint, continuous imitation, fugue, modulation, and the theory of composition. In retirement, Royal worked on unfinished textbooks on orchestration. Among his unpublished late compositions are Whirlwinds for Woodwinds, The Martyrs suite (1975), March Debonair, and Desert Oddities.

Personal life and death

Ted Royal died in 1981 in Ventura, California. In 1993, the Ted Royal Estate donated his collection of scores, correspondence, and related materials to the Music & Performing Arts Section of the New York Public Library.
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