Leroy Anderson Sleigh Ride

Leroy Anderson Sleigh Ride Program Notes

Leroy  Anderson’s well known and iconic piece of Christmas music, Sleigh Ride, was rather ironically written  in  July,  at  the  Anderson  summer  home  in  Woodbridge,  CT,  during  a  heat  wave.  Mr, Anderson is was  close  to  home  when  he  went  to  Harvard  as  a  student  in  the twenties  –  he  was  born  in  Cambridge  to  Swedish  immigrant  parents.  Serving  during  the  Second  World  War,  his  linguistic  skills  led  to  his  heading  the  Scandinavian  Military  Intelligence  desk  at  the  Pentagon.    However,  it  is  for  his  lifelong  association  with  the  Boston  Pops  that  we  know  him.    For  the  Boston  Pops  and  Arthur  Fiedler,  its  conductor,  Anderson’s  pieces  included  Bugler’s  Holiday,  Fiddle-Faddle,  Syncopated  Clock,  and  The  Typewriter.    (Often,  Anderson  conduct  the  orchestra  in  his  works,  and  for  The  Typewriter,  he  would  pretend  to  type  while  the  orchestra  played  along  with  a  percussionist  at  the  eponymous  typewriter!)

Born: June 29, 1908, Cambridge, MA Died: May 18, 1975, Woodbury, CT