Walter Piston was the grandson of Antonio Pistone, an Italian seaman from Liguria who had left Italy to settle in Rockland, Maine where he married a Yankee, and dropped the "e" from the family name. Nevertheless, the Italian tradition of music as a part of everyday life survived. Walter Piston Jr. was born in Rockland, Maine in 1894. The family eventually settled in Boston in 1904, and Walter was educated there at the Mechanic Arts High School. He worked as a draftsman for the Boston Elevated Railway, eventually entering the Massachusetts Normal School of Art where he completed a four year program as an art draftsman; meanwhile he had learned enough piano and violin to play pickup engagements. By his teen years, Walter, Jr., without formal instruction, had learned to play several musical instruments. In 1916 Piston learned to play the saxophone so that he could join a U. S. Navy band that was stationed at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He enlisted and spent three years in the Navy.

In 1920, at age 26, he entered Harvard as a full-time music student, and was graduated summa cum laude in 1924. As the winner of the John Knowles Paine Fellowship, Piston traveled to Paris for a few lessons with Paul Dukas and, primarily, two years of study with the legendary Nadia Boulanger. There he became enamored of French neo-classicism and the later works of Faure and Roussel. A musical climate celebrating a revival of J.S. Bach and the discovery of jazz infiltrated his work

Piston returned to America in 1926 and was appointed to the faculty of Harvard, where he remained until 1960, composing, teaching, and writing. He wrote three significant music textbooks: Harmony (1941), Counterpoint (1947), and Orchestration (1955).

He was an excellent teacher; his students included such American luminaries as Elliott Carter, Irving Fine, Arthur Berger, Harold Shapiro, and Leonard Bernstein, Frederic Rzewski (the last three are from Massachusetts). Among his numerous honors, awards, and commissions were a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1934, two Pulitzer prizes for his third Symphony (1948) and his seventh (1960 ). In 1951 he became the first recipient of the Walter W. Naumberg Chair of Music. He attained full professorship in 1944, and was named professor emeritus in 1960.

Piston enjoyed a close working relationship with Serge Koussevitzky and the Boston Symphony which commissioned several works from the composer. He was recognized in his lifetime as the ultimate musical craftsman, producing a body of orchestral and chamber work distinguished by its quintessential neo-classic qualities of clarity and proportion.

Piston developed a sophisticated and witty compositional style, capturing with precise accuracy the many cultural and philosophic trappings of his native New England. His ballet suite The Incredible Flutist and Three New England Sketches brought popular success and renown for a musical style that struck a perfect balance between form and expression.

A relative of Piston said that he was never convinced of Piston's humanity until he heard the Fourth Symphony. It is probably Piston's most often performed Symphony. In the opening of the work you feel invited in and are made to feel comfortable. The vigorous second movement with its suggestion of country fiddling is brilliant. The relaxing third is a long orchestral song, the finale an exciting rondo.

In addition to two Pulitzers, Piston's many other awards and honors were three New York Music Critic's Circle Awards for his Symphony n. 2, Viola Concerto, and String Quartet n. 5, and eight honorary doctorates. He was elected to the American Institute and Academy of Arts and Letters and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

 Chances are that neither of these two names may ring a bell with the majority of the reading public or with the popular music lover, yet most if not all have heard, hummed, or danced to his many song hits. In fact these melodies have become as much a part of Americana as Frank Capra’s films have.
     Salvatore Guaragna or Harry Warren, as he was known in the music world, published some 300-400 songs between 1922 and 1960, many of which were used in Broadway or Hollywood musicals.
     But the question is "How did he become Harry Warren?" The name Warren was a legally assumed name of an immigrant family who wanted to be accepted in the new land, something that more Italians than we know about did regularly in the early years of mass migration.
     Harry was born Salvatore Guaragna, the last of eleven children, to Antonio and Rachele Guaragna on Christmas Eve, 1893 in Brooklyn, New York. Antonio was an expert boot maker from Cassano Ionio (Cosenza) in Calabria who had first emigrated to Argentina before moving to the United States. As a boy Harry was called with the typical Sicilian nickname for Salvatore, "Turi". But by the time he attended school his family had officially changed its name to Warren and Turi became Harry.
     Salvatore’s formal music instruction was limited to singing in the church choir, where he was introduced to Palestrina and Bach. He was an opera lover, but to make a living, through self-training, he learned to play a number of musical instruments, and at age 16 he joined his godfather, Pasquale Pucci’s carnival band.
     Before joining the U. S. Navy in 1918, he won the hand of his life-long wife, Josephine Wensler, by singing for his prospective father-in-law, arias from German operas. In 1920, he took a position that required him to sell songs to singers and entertainers. Since he had begun to write songs, this position offered him the opportunity to continue his habits of self-teaching. As a result, by 1923, he published a collection of songs which established him as a composer. Eventually, he moved to Hollywood where he composed most of his music. He died on September 22, 1981 in Los Angeles.
     Throughout his life he couldn’t believe that he was getting paid for what he did. This unassuming stance is also the reason why his name is not known. He fired his publicist for simply doing his job, letting people know who Harry Warren was.
     His love for classical music and opera never left him; he revered the music of Puccini. As his final musical contribution, he composed a mass in honor of Saint Anthony. Fortunately, this work has been preserved with a recording by the Loyola Marymount Consort Singers.

One of his greatest achievements was connected with the popular radio program YOUR HIT PARADE. Between 1935 and 1950, Warren placed 42 songs in the coveted top ten of that program. The songwriter who was second and not that close) was Irving Berlin with 33. He worked primarily with lyricist Al Dubin, but also wrote some songs with Ira Gershwin and Johnny Mercer, and Mack Gordon. Three of his songs received Academy Awards: Lullaby of Broadway (1935), You'll Never Know (1943), and On the Atchison, Topeka and the Santa Fe (1945).
     In 1932 he composed the music to the musical "42nd Street" for Warner Brothers, With songs like Shuffle Off to Buffalo and 42nd Street he created what was to be essentially the first Hollywood Musical success.
     Just a list of his more famous top-ten songs would be too long, but here are some you know and then you’ll also know who was really the man behind the music. One of his earliest successes was I Love My Baby and My Baby Loves Me (1922) after which many others followed:
     The more I see you, the more I want you; You're getting to be a habit with me; Chattanooga Choo-Choo; You Must Have Been a Beautiful Baby; Jeepers, Creepers; There will never be another you; Would You Like To Take a Walk?; I Found a Million Dollar Baby in a Five-and-Ten Cent Store; I Only Have Eyes for You; Boulevard of Broken Dreams; Wonder Bar; September in the Rain; I've Got a Gal in Kalamazoo; You Wonderful You; A Love Affair to Remember; That's Amore. He composed music for such films as "Down Argentine Way", "Sun Valley Serenade", "Marty", "An Affair to Remember", "The Caddy", and "Cinderella". He even wrote the music to The Legend of Wyatt Earp for the TV series of the same name.
     For all this Harry Warren is in the Songwriters' Hall of Fame.
 For information on his music visit the following URLs:  
www.harrywarrenmusic.com
http://www.harrywarren.org/
http://www.harrywarren.com/html/bio.html. http://home.istar.ca/~townsend/_private/composer/Warren_H.htm