Legendary Jewish songwriter Tom Lehrer, who died this week at 97 years old, was famous for the dark humour that infused all of his work. A child mathematics prodigy who graduated Harvard at just 19, he was also a dazzling pianist, groundbreaking activist and beloved satirist. As Andrew Robinson observed in our 2022 event celebrating Lehrer’s special talent:
Lehrer’s words, I think, are especially resonant coming from a one-time Harvard University mathematician turned all American musician. In an interview in 2000 he summed up the dual impact on him of both mathematics and music. He said the precision is the same that’s involved in math, as in lyrics. It’s like a puzzle to write a song. He told me a few years later in an email: “If [Nazi rocket scientist] von Braun didn’t happen to rhyme with down – and a few other words – the most quoted couplet in the song would not exist, and in all probability the song itself would not have been written.”
Andrew Robinson joined Norman Lebrecht, Barb Jungr and Harry Freedman in discussing the great contributions to 20th century songwriting of Bob Dylan, Leonard Cohen and Tom Lehrer.