


Soft-spoken and retiring, Mr. Arlen was less well known than other giants of those great days of popular song, but many of his tunes have become lasting parts of this country's popular culture.



The son of a Buffalo cantor, Mr. Arlen became a pianist before beginning his outpouring of songs, which proved to be highly varied. ''I could never stay with one thing long,'' he once said, ''in melody, at least.''

Mr. Arlen's songs, Mr. Wilson wrote in The Times in 1979, ''cover such a range of style and content - from the soaring openness of 'Over the Rainbow' to the bluesy phrases of 'Blues in the Night,' from the sassy jauntiness of 'Down With Love' to the tender charm of 'Last Night When We Were Young' - that almost any singer can find a number of songs that suit his or her style.'' Music Before the Lyrics

As a musician, Mr. Arlen was highly disciplined and focused. He used to carry note paper in his pockets for transcribing musical thoughts that popped into his head, and he preferred to compose the music for songs before the writing of the lyrics, which he almost always left to others. He collaborated with various lyricists, including E. Y. Harburg, Johnny Mercer and Ira Gershwin.

Much of Mr. Arlen's composing was done for movies, including the classic ''Wizard of Oz'' (1939), ''Rio Rita'' (1942), ''Cabin in the Sky'' (1943), ''A Star is Born'' (1954) and ''The Country Girl'' (1954).

He also wrote music for Broadway shows, including ''Bloomer Girl'' (1944), ''St. Louis Woman,'' (1946), ''House of Flowers'' (1954) and ''Jamaica'' (1957). His composing career got off the ground in the early 1930's with music for ''Nine-Fifteen Revue,'' ''Cotton Club Parade'' and other revues.

Mr. Arlen spent much of his life in Manhattan and Hollywood, and on both coasts he cut a dapper figure, sometimes sporting a cane as well as a flower in his buttonhole. He was known to get ideas for songs in many places - while being driven down Sunset Boulevard, for instance, or while strolling around the Central Park Reservoir with his dog.

He was known for being flexible in working with his collaborators.

''Each lyricist is an individual and I have to work with each in his own way,'' he told Edward Jablonski, author of the 1961 biography ''Harold Arlen: Happy with the Blues.'' Began Singing in Synagogue

He was named Hyman Arluck when he was born on Feb. 15, 1905, in Buffalo to Cantor Arluck and his wife, Celia. By the age of 7, he was singing in the Pine Street synagogue choir, standing on a chair so the congregation could see him.

At the age of 9 he began taking piano lessons, and he went on to study piano further with Arnold Cornelisson, an organist and composer who was also conductor of the Buffalo String Orchestral Society.

As a teen-ager, young Hyman dropped out of school and formed a three-man band, the Snappy Trio, with himself as singer and arranger as well as pianist. From there he progressed to a more stylish local band, the Buffalodians. As his career flowered, he performed under the name Harold Arluck, then Harold Arlen.

By 1929, he recalled years later, he had realized that his original goal - a singing career, with all the auditioning and harsh competition it entailed -''had become something my temperament couldn't take.'' So he switched to full-time song-composing in collaboration with Ted Koehler, the lyricist who wrote the words for ''Get Happy,'' Mr. Arlen's first hit song.

Mr. Arlen and Mr. Koehler went on to write songs to be sung at the Cotton Club in Harlem in the early 1930's - including the jaunty ''I Love a Parade.'' Stopped Show at Cotton Club

Another durable Arlen-Koehler hit song, ''Stormy Weather'' (1931) proved to be a showstopper when Ethel Waters, bathed in blue light, sang it at the Cotton Club. And the song was a best-seller as an RCA Victor recording.

In the mid-1930's, with the Depression pinching Broadway, Mr. Arlen went out to Hollywood, and in 1938, he and Mr. Harburg were chosen to write the songs for the forthcoming M-G-M musical, ''The Wizard of Oz.''

Mr. Arlen and Mr. Harburg were given only two months to write the movie score before the filming was to begin. Years later, Mr. Arlen told Mr. Jablonski that the assignment had left him ''really troubled.''

But Mr. Arlen buckled down to it with his usual professionalism. First he and Mr. Harburg wrote what Mr. Arlen later called ''the lemon-drop songs'' -such light-hearted numbers as ''We're Off to See the Wizard'' and ''Ding-Dong the Witch Is Dead.'' Rainbow Over Sunset Blvd. Then Mr. Arlen set out to write the music for a ballad. He was so worried that one day, when he and his wife decided to go to a movie at Grauman's Chinese Theater, he felt too nervous to drive. And so Mrs. Arlen was steering their car down Sunset Boulevard at the magic moment when the melody of ''Over the Rainbow'' came into Mr. Arlen's head.

As he sat in the car, he scribbled down the notes hastily - and gratefully.

Mr. Harburg soon chose the song's title and wrote its lyrics. The teen-age star of the film, Judy Garland, liked it immediately, and it became her theme song throughout her career.

In 1937, Mr. Arlen married Anya Taranda, whom he had met in 1932 when she was a Powers model and showgirl. The wedding was held the day after Mr. Arlen handed her a note that said: ''Dearest Anya - ''We're getting married tomorrow - 'bout time, don't you think?. All my love, H.'' Mrs. Arlen died about 15 years ago.Mr. Arlen is survived by a brother, Jerry Arlen, and a son, Samuel Arlen, both of Manhattan.

A funeral service will be held at 10 A.M. tomorrow at the Frank E. Campbell Funeral Home, Madison Avenue and 81st Street.