Harry S. Miller
Encyclopedia
Lyricist
A lyricist is a songwriter who specializes in lyrics. A singer who writes the lyrics to songs is a singer-lyricist. This differentiates from a singer-composer, who composes the song's melody.-Collaboration:...
, composer
Composer
A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...
, and sometimes playwright
Playwright
A playwright, also called a dramatist, is a person who writes plays.The term is not a variant spelling of "playwrite", but something quite distinct: the word wright is an archaic English term for a craftsman or builder...
who lived in New York
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
and Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
in the 19th and early 20th centuries and is best known for his song "The Cat Came Back: A Comic Negro Absurdity", published in 1893.
Life
Born in Philadelphia in 1867 to Isaac D. Miller and Amelia Straub, Miller was the second of four brothers. He was raised in BellefonteBellefonte, Pennsylvania
Bellefonte is a borough in Centre County, Pennsylvania, United States. It lies about twelve miles northeast of State College and is part of the State College, Pennsylvania Metropolitan Statistical Area...
, Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania
The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is a U.S. state that is located in the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The state borders Delaware and Maryland to the south, West Virginia to the southwest, Ohio to the west, New York and Ontario, Canada, to the north, and New Jersey to...
, and moved to New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
in 1896 to further his career as a lyricist.
Miller's songs were part of Tin Pan Alley
Tin Pan Alley
Tin Pan Alley is the name given to the collection of New York City music publishers and songwriters who dominated the popular music of the United States in the late 19th century and early 20th century...
, and were sold to various TPA entertainers (for example, vaudeville entertainer Tony Pastor
Tony Pastor
Tony Pastor was an American impresario, variety performer and theatre owner who became one of the founding forces behind American vaudeville in the mid-to-late nineteenth century...
popularized The Cat Came Back and Edward M. Favor
Edward M. Favor
Edward M. Favor was an American singer and vaudeville comedian. He was among the first recorded musicians.-References:...
popularized I'll Not Go Out with Reilly Any More). He specialized in quatrain
Quatrain
A quatrain is a stanza, or a complete poem, consisting of four lines of verse. Existing in various forms, the quatrain appears in poems from the poetic traditions of various ancient civilizations including Ancient Greece, Ancient Rome, and China; and, continues into the 21st century, where it is...
s and often wrote using a Georgian Black dialect
Regionalism (literature)
In literature, regionalism or local color refers to fiction or poetry that focuses on specific features – including characters, dialects, customs, history, and topography – of a particular region...
. His contemporaries credited him with the popularization of the terms of endearment
Term of endearment
A term of endearment is a word or phrase used to address and/or describe a person, animal or inanimate object for which the speaker feels love or affection...
"honey" and "baby" in African-American English
African American Vernacular English
African American Vernacular English —also called African American English; less precisely Black English, Black Vernacular, Black English Vernacular , or Black Vernacular English —is an African American variety of American English...
and the spread of coon songs, as well as the phrase, "Got troubles of my own".
In 1898, Miller wrote The Insurance Agent: An Eccentric Character and Comedy Sketch, a two-man play.
Miller married his wife Levina and moved to Tyrone
Tyrone, Pennsylvania
Tyrone is a borough in Blair County, Pennsylvania, northeast of Altoona, on the Little Juniata River. Tyrone was of considerable commercial importance in the twentieth century. It was an outlet for the Clearfield coal fields, and it was noted for the manufacture of paper products. There were...
, Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania
The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is a U.S. state that is located in the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The state borders Delaware and Maryland to the south, West Virginia to the southwest, Ohio to the west, New York and Ontario, Canada, to the north, and New Jersey to...
, where they gave birth to their daughter, Gladys Lucille, in 1905.
Most of his music was published by Edward Taylor Paull (and the E.T. Paull Co.), a New England
New England
New England is a region in the northeastern corner of the United States consisting of the six states of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut...
publisher at the time, who also composed "He's Goin' to Hab a Hot Time Bye an' Bye" for Miller.
Works
Songs
- Barney's Parting (1883)
- The Cat Came Back: A Nigger Absurdity (1893)
- If They'd Only Write and Ask Me to Come Home (1895)
- Down in Hogan's Alley (1896)
- He's Goin' to Hab a Hot Time Bye an' Bye (1898; music by Edward Taylor Paull)
- This Wedding Cannot Be (1898)
- Bring Your Money Home (1899)
- Down Old New England Way (1899; music by Emily Smith)
- I Loves Your Sadie, 'Deed I Do!: An Etheopian Love Song (1899; music by Charles Jerome Wilson)
- I'll Not Go Out with Reilly Any More (1900)
- Oh Joe, Dear Joe (1901)
- The Old Virginia Home (1908; music by Emily Smith)
Many of his songs have been lost, along with their date of publication, including:
- Can't Loose Me, Charlie
- A Cruel Hiss
- For Your Mother's Sake
- He's Got Feather's in His Hat
- I'm 17 To-day
- It's All Right Now
- Keep Your Eye on Duffy
- Let Her Come Home Again
- My Sister's Beau
- Not on Your Life, Says Dolan
- She's Still Your Wife
- The Telephone Girl
- The Waterbury Watch
- When You're Single
Other
- The Insurance Agent: An Eccentric Character and Comedy Sketch (1898)