A Conversation with Richard Sherman
From: National Endowment for the Arts
Series: Art Works Podcast
Length: 29:58
Richard Sherman is half of the tireless songwriting team, the Sherman Brothers, and he's a walking, talking American songbook. With his brother, Robert, he's turned out hundreds of memorable songs, for stage, screen, and even theme parks. "A Spoonful of Sugar," "It's a Small World After All," and the one you just heard, "Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious," are just three examples of why the Sherman Brothers were presented with a National Medal of Arts in 2008. The Sherman Brothers have won two Academy Awards, both of them for Mary Poppins, one for Best Song, "Chim Chim Mer-ee," and the other for Best Musical Score.
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Related Pieces
Piece Description
Richard Sherman is half of the tireless songwriting team, the Sherman Brothers, and he's a walking, talking American songbook. With his brother, Robert, he's turned out hundreds of memorable songs, for stage, screen, and even theme parks. "A Spoonful of Sugar," "It's a Small World After All," and the one you just heard, "Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious," are just three examples of why the Sherman Brothers were presented with a National Medal of Arts in 2008. The Sherman Brothers have won two Academy Awards, both of them for Mary Poppins, one for Best Song, "Chim Chim Mer-ee," and the other for Best Musical Score.
Transcript
Transcript of an audio interview with Richard Sherman
ARTWORKS INTRO
[Take Five theme woven in and out of a montage of voices talking about the arts]
Kay Ryan: I demand a lot of sound from a poem.
Joe Haj: The arts are filled with people who are nontraditional thinkers.
Jo Reed: The arts are a wonderful window onto the soul of America.
Stan Lee: I started ending my columns by saying Excelsior!
[Brubeck fades to piano piece by Todd Barton]
Azar Nafisi: Reading awakens your senses.
Kay Ryan: If you write well, you are utterly exposed.
Olivia de Havilland: A voice said, "This is George Cukor."
Brenda Wineapple: Its value will never be diminished.
Marilynne Robison: The oldest art we have is narrative literature.
Lee Childs: The arts are what makes us human.
Tim O'Brien: There is a reason that fiction exists.
[Piano fades to Rain by the Birmingham Sunlights]
David Newell: Theatre can rea...
Read the full transcript
Musical Works
| Title | Artist | Album | Label | Year | Length |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Take Five | Dave Brubeck Quartet (composed by Paul Desmond | Take Five. | Derry Music Company | 1959 | 00:00 |
| Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious" and "A Spoonful of Sugar" | Richard and Robert Sherman (performed by Julie Andrews) | Mary Poppins Soundtrack . | Disney Music Group Soundtracks / Walt Disney Records | 2004 | 00:00 |
| It's a Small World | Richard and Robert Sherman | It's a Small World and Other Disney Favorites. | Disney Music Group Soundtracks / Walt Disney Records | 00:00 |
Additional Credits
Interviews conducted and produced by Jo Reed.
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