View source for Stan Harper

{{Infobox musical artist
| name             = Stan Harper
| image            =
| image_size       =
| landscape        = <!-- yes, if wide image, otherwise leave blank -->
| alt              =
| caption          =
| native_name      =
| native_name_lang =
| birth_name       = Stanley Theodore Wisser
| alias            =
| birth_date       = September 2, 1921
| birth_place      = [[Brooklyn, New York]], U.S.
| origin           =
| death_date       = {{death date and age|2016|06|29| 1921|09|02}}
| death_place      = [[New Jersey]], U.S.
| genre            = Classical, pop, jazz
| occupation       = Musical artist
| instrument       = Harmonica
| years_active     = 1935–2016
| label            = [[Coral Records|Coral]]<br />[[Decca Records|Decca]]<br />{{smallcaps|EuClEd}}<br />{{smallcaps|apollo}}
| associated_acts  =
| website          = <!-- {{URL|www.examplewebsite.com}} {{URL|www.examplewebsite.com|ExampleWebsite.com}} or if URL on Wikidata: {{Official website}} -->
}}
'''Stanley Harper''' ''(né'' '''Stanley Theodore Wisser'''; 2 September 1921 – 29 June 2016) was an American virtuoso classical harmonica artist, arranger, and composer.<ref name="Rodack 2006" /><ref name="Field 1993" /> He died June 29, 2016, in a home for the elderly in [[New Jersey]].  He raised the popularity of classical harmonica by influencing composers to write for the instrument and by transcribing serious classical works, himself.  Through his virtuosity, he widened the recognition of classical harmonica in solo, chamber, and major orchestral settings.
{{TOC limit|2}}

== Career history ==
Harper began his professional harmonica career in 1935, at age 14.<ref name="NYPost 1937 Aug 26" /><ref name="AsburyParkPress 1984 Oct 14" />  In 1941, he went professionally for a short while by the name Ted Stanley.  He went on to perform and record nationally on radio, television, record, theaters, and film until 2015. In the mid to late 1930s, Harper performed with The Harmonica Scamps and Three Harpers, both based in New York City. He apparently only began using the name Stan Harper after World War II. Over the years, he performed with other renown harmonica players and a range of entertainers and artists, including [[Eddie Shu]] (Shulman), [[Carl Reiner]], [[Howard Morris]], [[Hal David]], [[Werner Klemperer]], [[Sam Wanamaker]], and [[Leon Kirchner]].<ref name="NYPost 1945 Dec 19" />

Up until the death of [[Charley Leighton]], Harper was a regular member of a harmonica jam session held every Tuesday at 3 PM at [[Charles Leighton|Charley Leighton's]] apartment in New York City.  In addition to [[Charley Leighton|Leighton]], regulars included Charles Spranklin (Charles Edward Spranklin; born 1932), [[William Galison]], Randy Weinstein, Stanley Silverstone, [[Gregoire Maret]], Phil Caltabelotta, and [[Rob Paparozzi]].

== Selected discography ==
===LPs and CDs===
{{refbegin|30em}}
{{ordered list|start=1
|<!-- 1 -->''The Artistry of Stanley Harper'' (released after 1966)

Side A:
{{ordered list|list_style_type=lower-alpha
|"Serenata"
|"[[I Can't Give You Anything but Love, Baby]]"
|Medley
{{ordered list|list_style_type=lower-roman
|"[[Tenderly]]"
|"[[Misty (song)|Misty]]"
}}
|"Southern Medley"
|"[[Charade (1963 song)|Charade]]"
|"That Haunting Theme"
|"[[I Don't Want to Walk Without You]]"
: Harper plays all the parts
|Medley from ''[[Fiddler on the Roof]]''
{{ordered list|list_style_type=lower-roman
|"Fiddler on the Roof"
|"[[If I Were a Rich Man (song)|If I Were a Rich Man]]"
|"[[Sunrise, Sunset]]"
|"[[To Life (song)|L'Chaim]]"
}}
}}
Side B:
{{ordered list|list_style_type=lower-alpha
|Duke Ellington Medley
{{ordered list|list_style_type=lower-roman
|"[[Sophisticated Lady]]"
|"[[Caravan (1936 song)|Caravan]]"
|"[[Mood Indigo]]"
|"[[Satin Doll]]"
}}
|"[[Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring]]"
|"[[Brahm's Lullaby]]"
: Harper plays a duet with a tiny music box
|"[[Tiger Rag]]"
|"Tosselli's Serenade"
: [[Enrico Toselli]]
: (solo on a 1 inch harmonica)
|"[[Peg O' My Heart]]"
|"Poet and Peasant Overture," [[Franz von Suppé|Von Suppé]]
}}
|<!-- 2 -->''Stan Harper Plays Bach and Vivaldi''
: [[Musical Heritage Society]] MHS 4947T (1984)
: {{OCLC|17229517|11583632}}; {{LCCN|84743123}}
: Recorded at [[JAC Studios]], New York City
{{ordered list|list_style_type=lower-alpha
|"[[Orchestral suites (Bach)#Suite No. 2 in B minor, BWV 1067|Suite no. 2 in B minor for flute, strings, and basso continuo]]"
: S. 1067," [[Johann Sebastian Bach|Bach]]
: Transcribed for flute and piano by [[Lambros D. Callimahos]]
|"[[Violin Concerto in A minor (Bach)|Violin concerto in A minor]]"
: S. 1041, [[Johann Sebastian Bach|Bach]]
: Arrangement and fingering by Eduard Herrmann (1850–1937)
|"[[Six Flute Concertos, Op. 10 (Vivaldi)#Flute Concerto No. 3 in D major, RV 428 "Il gardellino"|Flute concerto in D major, op. 10, No. 3: Il cardellino]]"
: [[Antonio Vivaldi|Vivaldi]]
: Edited by Waldersee and Zanke
}}
|<!-- 3 -->''Stan Harper Plays [[Mozart]] and [[Robert Farnon|Farnon]]''
{{ordered list|list_style_type=lower-alpha
|''[[Clarinet Concerto (Mozart)|Clarinet Concerto in A]]''
: K622, [[Mozart]] (with symphony orchestra)
|"Prelude and Dance for Harmonica"
: [[Robert Farnon]]
}}
|<!-- 4 -->''Stan Harper Plays [[Fritz Kreisler]]''
: {{smallcaps|EuClEd}}, European Classic Editions {{nowrap|EC 06}} (2009)
: Don Smith, piano

|<!-- 6 -->''Stan Harper Plays the Great Novelettes''
: {{smallcaps|EuClEd}}, European Classic Editions {{nowrap|EC 07}} (2009)
: Don Smith, piano
}}
{{refend}}


=== Audiocassettes ===

"Stan Harper Plays Mozart and Farnon" (privately published)

Side A: Concerto for Clarinet K622 • W.A. Mozart • First and Second Movements • The Aeolian Orchestra - Dr. Anton Delbec, Conductor • Charles Leighton: Recording Engineer

Side B: 1) Concerto for Clarinet • W.A. Mozart - Third Movement with Orchestra; 2) Prelude and Dance for Harmonica • Robert Farnon • Stan Harper, Harmonica; Don Smith, Piano

=== Singles===
{{refbegin|30em}}
{{ordered list|start=6
|<!-- 6 -->[[Coral Records|Coral]] 62388 ([[Single (music)|45 rpm]]) (1963)
: Harmonica solo with chorus and orchestra
: Directed by [[Henry Jerome]]
: Featuring Stan Harper
: Side 1 ([[Matrix number|matrix]] – 114130): "[[Charade (1963 song)|Charade]]"
:: [[Henry Mancini]] (music)
:: [[Johnny Mercer]] (words)
: Side 2 ([[Matrix number|matrix]] – 114131): "[[I Don't Want to Walk Without You]]"
:: [[Jule Styne]] (music)
:: [[Frank Loesser]] (words)

|<!-- 7 -->[[Decca Records|Decca]] 31597 ([[Single (music)|45 rpm]]) (1963)
: Harmonica solo with chorus and orchestra
: [[Henry Jerome|Henry Jerome & His Chorus & Orchestra]]
: Featuring Stan Harper
: Side A ([[Matrix number|matrix]] – 113858): "That Haunting Theme"
:: Mark Cooper ''(aka'' [[Milton Grant]]) (w&m)
:: Lee Reyab ''(aka'' Eleanor Jerome) (w&m)
}}
{{refend}}

== Publications ==
''Stan Harper's Harmonica Repair Manual (For Chromatic and Diatonic)'' (undated)

== Notable broadcast and live performances ==
* Television – ''[[Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts]]'', solo appearance, May 7, 1951
* Television – ''[[Today (U.S. TV program)|Today]]'', hosted by [[Hugh Downs]], solo appearance, November 24, 1963
* Convention for World Records, [[New York City]], 1977 – Following a performance by Morris Samskin (1924–2000) performing on a 2-inch violin, the world's smallest, Harper performed on a 1-inch harmonica, also the world's smallest. The two performances were chronicled as world records by ''[[Ripley's Believe It or Not]]''<ref name="Ripley's-TyroneDailyHerald 1989 jan 13" />
* [[Carnegie Recital Hall]], harmonica & piano, Helen Wheaton Benham (born 1941) (piano),<ref name="Helen Benham note" group=lower-alpha /><ref name="Intl-WW 1990" /><ref name="WW-Am-Classical-Music_Bowker 1983" /> Saturday, November 6, 1980, 2:30<ref name="NYMag 1984 Oct 22" />
* Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., solo appearance, 1991, demonstrating his skills using 5 to 6 different sized harmonicas

== Filmography ==
* [[...One Third of a Nation...]], 1939, harmonica player (uncredited) (A clip is shown in "If You're Not in the Obit, Eat Breakfast". See below.)
* [Uncredited performances in bands appearing in movies from 1940s until the 1960s. He appeared in five or six movie shorts, one including “Pinky” Perelmuth (later known as the celebrated singer Jan Peerce (1904–1984)), who was a violinist then.]
* "Pocket Full of Soul: The Harmonica Documentary" 2013, Omni-Harmonic, LLC (http://pocketfullofsoulmovie.com)
* "If You're Not in the Obit, Eat Breakfast" (An HBO documentary film where 95-year-old comedy legend Carl Reiner tracks celebrated people in their '90s. Started airing on June 5, 2017. http://www.hbo.com/documentaries/if-youre-not-in-the-obit-eat-breakfast)

== Harper's surname as a hamonica namesake ==
Hering Harmonicas, hand maker of diatonic and chromatic harmonicas, located in [[Blumenau]], [[Santa Catarina, Brazil]], started producing in 2009 a popular model bearing Harper's name:  ''The Stan Harper Chromatic 56,'' a three-octave, 14-hole instrument with 56 brass reeds sealed by a pearwood body bolted to a hardwood comb with chrome-plated cover plates, mouthpiece and slide assembly. The Hering Harmonica Company worked with Stan to produce a 3.5 octave chromatic harmonica (14 holes). It is unique in that once can play classical music on it easily, since it starts with a “G” note; that unique element was Stan Harper’s idea.

== Selected published music ==
* "Baby Sitter Polka," music by Stan Harper, [[Władysław Daniłowski|Dana Music Co.]],<ref name="Billboard 2000 Mar 25" /> 115 W 45 St., New York, New York, © May 2, 1952
* "Mosquito Polka," music by Stan Harper, [[Władysław Daniłowski|Dana Music Co.]] © April 28, 1952
* Composed the musical score for "And Now Miguel" (1966).<ref name="HarperArtistryAlbum" />

== Popular culture ==
* ''The Guinness Book of World Records'', 1978 edition (p.&nbsp;222), 1979 edition (p.&nbsp;223), and the 1982 edition (p.&nbsp;232)-and possibly also the years in between, show a photograph of Stan Harper playing the largest harmonic, the Hohner 48 Chord Harmonica, which, when separated, measures 4 feet long. it has 384 separate holes and can play in a total of 48 major, minor and diminished chords.

== Family ==
Stanley Theodore Wisser grew up in a [[Jews|Jewish]] home and was the youngest of six born to a Ukrainian-born American father, Abraham Wisser ''(né'' Konvisser) (1879-1955), and Moldovan-born American mother, Rose ''(née'' Kramer; 1885-1950) — his father was born in a village near [[Nizhyn]], [[Ukraine]], and his mother in [[Briceni]], [[Moldova]]. His mother came from a family of cantors.

Harper had been a [[widower]] of Era Maria Tognoli (1919–2011),<ref name="MarquisWW" /><ref name="MarquisWomensWW" /><ref name="MarquiWW-East" /> a 1940s opera soprano who, in 1959, founded the Metro Lyric Opera Company in [[Allenhurst, New Jersey]], and for 52 years (until her death), directed it.  Harper and Tongoli were married March 17, 1964, in [[Asbury Park, New Jersey]].<ref name="RedBankReg 1964 Mar 18" />

== References ==
===Notes===
{{reflist|group=lower-alpha|refs=

<ref name="Helen Benham note" group=lower-alpha>Helen Wheaton Benham, who earned her PhD from [[Rutgers]] in 2001, is a concert pianist and music educator; she is the daughter of Charles Mead Benham (1890–1959), who in the 1930s, was [[head master]] of the [[Saint Thomas Choir School]] in New York City</ref>

}}

===General references===
{{refbegin}}
* Publicity poster: ''Hohner National Harmonica Contest,'' [[University of Mississippi]] Library, Digital Collections, Blues Photograph Collection (undated; 1987?); {{OCLC|786152876}}
{{refend}}

===Inline citations===
{{Reflist|30em|refs=

<ref name="Billboard 2000 Mar 25">[http://www.americanradiohistory.com/Archive-Billboard/00s/2000/BB-2000-03-25.pdf "Polka Label Head Walter Dana Dies,"] ''[[Billboard (magazine)|Billboard]],'' March 25, 2000, pps. 10 & 85</ref>

<ref name="Rodack 2006">''Be of Good Cheer: Memories of Harmonica Legend Pete Pedersen'', by Jaine Rodack (born 1944), [[AuthorHouse]] (2006); {{oclc|136773114}}; {{ISBN|9781425960063}}; {{ISBN|1425960065}}</ref>

<ref name="NYPost 1937 Aug 26">[http://fultonhistory.com/Newspaper%2011/New%20York%20Evening%20Post/New%20York%20NY%20Evening%20Post%201937%20Grayscale/New%20York%20NY%20Evening%20Post%201937%20Grayscale%20-%205341.pdf "Blow Me Down, It's Father! The Best Harmonica Player,"] ''[[New York Post]]'', August 26, 1937, pg. 8</ref>

<ref name="NYPost 1945 Dec 19">[http://fultonhistory.com/Newspaper%205/Brooklyn%20NY%20Daily%20Eagle/Brooklyn%20NY%20Daily%20Eagle%201945%20Grayscale/Brooklyn%20NY%20Daily%20Eagle%201945%20Grayscale%20-%207685.pdf "Rex Weber Discovers Ex-GI Harmonicist,"] ''[[Brooklyn Eagle]]'', December 19, 1945, pg. 11</ref>

<ref name="MarquisWW">''Who's Who in America'' ("Tognoli, Era M." is in Vol. 2), [[Marquis Who's Who]]; {{issn|	0083-9396}}
:53rd ed., 1999 (1998); {{oclc|40048997}}
:54th ed., 2000 (1999); {{oclc|42920692}}
:55th ed., 2001 (2000); {{oclc|45204099}}
:56th ed., 2002 (2001); {{oclc|48556900}}
:58th ed., 2004 (2003); {{oclc|53934007}}
:59th ed., 2005 (2004); {{oclc|56976043}}
:60th ed., 2006 (2005); {{oclc|62401678}}</ref>

<ref name="MarquisWomensWW">''Who's Who of American Women'' ("Tognoli, Era M."), [[Marquis Who's Who]]; {{issn|0083-9841}}
:26th ed., 2007 (2006); {{oclc|429406965}}</ref>

<ref name="MarquiWW-East">''Who's Who in the East'' ("Tognoli, Era M."), [[Marquis Who's Who]]; {{oclc|0083-9760}}
:26th ed., 1997–1998 (1996); {{oclc|36144490}}
:27th ed., 1999–2000 (1998); {{oclc|40493812}}
:28th ed., 2000–2001 (2000); {{oclc|47808981}}
:29th ed., 2002 (2001); {{oclc|48860498}}</ref>

<ref name="RedBankReg 1964 Mar 18">[http://209.212.22.88/data/rbr/1960-1969/1964/1964.03.18.pdf "Era Tognoli Married to Harmonica Artist,"] ''Red Bank Register'' ([[New Jersey]]), March 18, 1964, pg. 23 (retrieved July 19, 2016; newspaper digitization jointly by the Middletown Township and Red Bank Public Libraries ({{url|http://rbr.mtpl.org/rbr/}}); webpage hosted by the [[New Jersey State Library]])</ref>

<ref name="Intl-WW 1990">''International Who's Who in Music and Musicians' Directory: In The Classical and Light Classical Fields'' (12th ed.), 1990–1991 ("Helen Wheaton Benham"), David Michael Cummings & Dennis Keith McIntire (born 1944) (eds.), [[International Who's Who in Music]], [[Cambridge, England]] (1990); {{oclc|28065697}}</ref>

<ref name="WW-Am-Classical-Music_Bowker 1983">''Who's Who in American Music: Classical'' ("Helen Wheaton Benham"), [[Jaques Cattell Press]] (ed.), [[R.R. Bowker]] (1983); {{oclc|10206087}}</ref>

<ref name="NYMag 1984 Oct 22">"Music & Dance: Stan Harper," ''[[New York Magazine]],'' October 22, 1984, pg. 189</ref>

<ref name="HarperArtistryAlbum">''[[Verso]]'' from the [[LP record|LP]], ''The Artistry of Stanley Harper'' (recorded after 1966)</ref>

<ref name="Field 1993">''[https://books.google.com/books?id=4JD9fio-iLkC&pg=PA297 Harmonicas, Harps, and Heavy Breathers: The Evolution of the People's Instrument],'' by Kim Field, [[Rowman & Littlefield|First Cooper Square Press]] (1993), pps. 9, 15, 61, 55, 93, 245, 286, 297–300 (bio), 342; {{OCLC|28292843}}</ref>

<ref name="AsburyParkPress 1984 Oct 14">"Stan Harper: Believes the Harmonica is Much Misunderstood," by Cheryl A. Kosturko (born 1960; later known as Cheryl Holbert), ''[[Asbury Park Press]]'', October 14, 1984, Sec. G, pps. 1–2 (retrieved July 19, 2016, via {{url|www.newspapers.com}})</ref>

<ref name="Ripley's-TyroneDailyHerald 1989 jan 13">"Music Men," ''[[Ripley's Believe It or Not]]'', [[King Features Syndicate]] (distributor), ''Tyrone Daily Herald'' ([[Tyrone, Pennsylvania]]), January 13, 1989, pg. 14</ref>

}}

{{Use mdy dates|date=May 2015}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Harper, Stan}}
[[Category:1921 births]]
[[Category:2016 deaths]]
[[Category:American harmonica players]]
[[Category:Jersey Shore musicians]]
[[Category:Musicians from Brooklyn]]