Oley Speaks
Oley Speaks was born in Canal Winchester, Ohio, on June 28, 1874. He received his musical training, principally in voice, from various teachers including Armour Galloway and Emma Thursby. He then filled the post of baritone soloist at churches in Cleveland, Ohio, and New York City, including the St. Thomas Church in New York from 1901 to 1906. He also filled numerous engagements in song recitals and performances of oratorios. He died in New York City on August 27, 1948.
Speaks was the composer of more than 250 published art songs which have placed him in a front rank among American song composers. Three have become outstandingly popular; there is hardly a male singer anywhere who has not sung such all-time favorites as “Morning,” “On the Road to Mandalay” and “Sylvia,” each of which is among the most widely circulated and most frequently heard art songs by an American. “Morning,” words by Frank L. Stanton, was published in 1910. Where “Morning” is lyrical, “On the Road to Mandalay” (published in 1907) is dramatic, a setting of the famous poem by Rudyard Kipling. The persistent rhythmic background suggesting drum beats, and the effective key change from verse to chorus, have an inescapable effect on listeners. “Sylvia,” poem by Clinton Scollard, published in 1914, is in a sentimental mood, and like “Morning” reveals the composer’s marked gift for sensitive lyricism.