Autumn Leaves, by Joseph Kosma, Jazz Standard Easy Piano Solo, sheet music, Noten, partitura, partition

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Autumn Leaves, by Joseph Kosma

“Autumn Leaves,” composed by Joseph Kosma and featuring lyrics by the French poet, Jacques Prévert, debuted as “Les Feuilles Mortes.” Yves Montand performed the song in the 1946 poetic realism film, Les Portes de la Nuit, a dark drama set in post-World War II Paris.

Joseph Kosma (22 October 1905 – 7 August 1969) was a Hungarian composer who immigrated to France. Kosma was born József Kozma in Budapest, where his parents taught stenography and typing. He had a brother, Ákos. A maternal relative was the photographer László Moholy-Nagy, and another was the conductor Georg Solti. He started to play the piano at age five, and later took piano lessons. At the age of 11, he wrote his first opera, Christmas in the Trenches.

After completing his education at the Secondary Grammar School Franz-Josef, he attended the Academy of Music in Budapest, where he studied with Leo Weiner. He also studied with Béla Bartók at the Liszt Academy, receiving diplomas in composition and conducting. He won a grant to study in Berlin in 1928, where he met Lilli Apel, another musician, whom he later married. Kosma also met and studied with Hanns Eisler in Berlin. He became acquainted with Bertolt Brecht and Helene Weigel.

Kosma and his wife emigrated to Paris in 1933.

“Autumn Leaves,” composed by Joseph Kosma and featuring lyrics by the French poet, Jacques Prévert, debuted as “Les Feuilles Mortes.” Yves Montand performed the song in the 1946 poetic realism film, Les Portes de la Nuit, a dark drama set in post-World War II Paris.

Kosma was a native of Hungary who was introduced to Prévert in Paris, and they collaborated on the song “Les Feuilles mortes”. The song was legally deposited in 1945, and published in 1947.

The song has its origin in the ballet music written by Kosma for Le Rendez-vous by Roland Petit, performed in Paris at the end of the Second World War. Large parts of the melodies are exactly the same as the ballet music, which was itself partially similar to “Poème d’octobre No. 4” by Jules Massenet. This portion of the tune has also been noted to be near-identical to a passage in Tchaikovsky’s 1888 composition Hamlet Overture-Fantasia, Op. 67.

Marcel Carné used “Les Feuilles mortes” for the 1946 film Les Portes de la nuit (Gates of the Night), where it was sung/hummed in parts by Irène Joachim and Yves Montand.

The most successful commercial recording of “Les Feuilles mortes” was by Yves Montand (Columbia) in 1949, which sold a million copies within 5 years. Cora Vaucaire recorded it (1947 or 1948), as did Juliette Gréco who first recorded a version in 1949.

In 1950, Johnny Mercer wrote the English lyric and gave it the title “Autumn Leaves”. The English lyrics are significantly shorter than the French version, consisting of only two verses. In the French original, the crucial line “C’est une chanson” starts at the 13th bar, while in English the line “the autumn leaves” starts at bar 1. Mercer was a founder and partner in Capitol Records at the time, and he selected Capitol recording artist Jo Stafford to make the first English-language recording in July 1950.

Johnny Mercer penned English lyrics for the tune in 1949, re-releasing it under the name “Autumn Leaves.” Jo Stafford was the first to record the English version, but the song did not gain popularity until 1955, when pianist Roger Williams recorded a version of the song. The Williams rendition became a number-one hit, selling over one million copies.

The lyrics of “Autumn Leaves” pair with the gloomy feel of Les Portes de la Nuit, depicting the loss of a loved one and fading memories as time passes. The narrator laments, “Since you went away the days grow long/ And soon I’ll hear old winter’s song/ But I miss you most of all my darling/ When autumn leaves start to fall.”

Following Williams’ recording, artists including Steve Allen, Mitch Miller, the Ray Charles Singers, Jackie Gleason, and Victor Young recorded renditions of “Autumn Leaves,” helping establish the song as a jazz standard.

“Autumn Leaves” remains a popular choice for novice jazz players, as the chord progression remains within the circle of fifths. Voice leading is relatively standard, though just before the end, chromatically descending chords may pose some challenges to performers.