Death of the American at 97
Tom Lehrer, mathematician and satirical musician, is dead
This American pianist, prodigy of mathematics, had conquered America with his avant-garde satirical compositions.
Tom Lehrer, a American mathematician and pianist, died Sunday at the age of 97.
Keystone
Tom Lehrer, a mathematician, but also a humorist and pianist, whose satirical songs made him one of the favorite musicians of the Americans, died Sunday at the age of 97, the American media reported.
The singer-songwriter died on Saturday at his home in Cambridge, near Boston in Massachusetts (northeast), said his friend David Herder, according to “New York Times”.
The sarcastic songs of Tom Lehrer, accompanied by a dazzling mastery of the piano which reflected his love for the catchy tunes of the Broadway musicals, enchanted the public in the 1950s and 60s.
As a child prodigy, he had graduated at Harvard at 19 and then taught mathematics at the prestigious Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
Satirical musician
Ahead of his time on questions such as nuclear pollution and proliferation, Tom Lehrer became known by his caustic humor and wacky rhymes.
He was also malicious humor on subjects such as murder, marital discord, chemistry and his aversion to pigeons.
“In poisoning pigeons in the park” (“Poisoning Pigeons in the Park”), one of the emblematic songs of Tom Lehrer, evokes a couple taking advantage of a spring pastime consisting in slaughtering pigeons with Strychnine: “It only takes a pinch!”
But he has never stopped campaigning with songs such as “Who’s Next” (“who is next”), on nuclear weapons, and “pollution”, which warned: “You can use the latest fashionable toothpaste, then rinse your mouth with industrial waste.”
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His work aroused the admiration of Daniel Radcliffe, the actor who embodies Harry Potter. “In my opinion, Tom Lehrer is the most intelligent and funniest man in the XXe century, and it was sort of my hero, “he said.
Born April 9, 1928 in a secular Jewish family, Tom Lehrer grew up in the Upper East Side in Manhattan, in New York. He entered Harvard at 15, where he obtained a diploma in mathematics three years later with very well mention.
Tom Lehrer then taught mathematics at MIT and Harvard, Wellesley College and the University of California in Santa Cruz.
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