Brought to you this hour by

Advertising and Web Hosting on Woodwind.Org!

Doublereed Archive - Posting 000088.txt from 2003/11

From: Lee Lowry <leel@-----.net>
Subj: [DR-L] Re: Film score and cartoon music
Date: Mon, 17 Nov 2003 15:07:03 -0500

A number of years ago I heard a program on public radio that discussed
the excellent work done on film scores in the era between 1928 and the
1950's. The fine music was no accident, as the program stated many of
the writers, conductors, etc of those scores were all highly trained
musicians from some of Europe's finest conservatories--in Austria,
Germany, Hungary, and so on. The reason they were here and not in
Europe--they were mostly Jews who had fled Germany and eastern Europe
to escape the Nazi persecution. They went to Hollywood and created the
wonderful scores that have added so much to the enjoyment of movie
watching. The program said that this group was also responsible for the
lush, late 19th century style of writing that characterized many movie
scores, because that style of writing was still popular in some
conservatories in the 1920's when these artists would have been getting
their training.

I never realized it at the time, but when I was a child growing up in
the 1950's one of the reasons I took to classical music and movie music
was that each reminded me of the other, and both had an unmistakable
richness and--"gravity" about them that I noticed was conspicuously
absent from nearly all "popular" music played of the 50's era. The
richness and depth apparent in those scores grabbed my attention as a
little kid less than 10 in a way that "pop" simply never could, and
never would. It was the same for some television programming in the
early 50's--some of the music was so great it would your breath away.
Remember CBS' Omnibus, with the Copland Appalachian Spring
theme music, or Howard Barlow and the Firestone Hour?

As for cartoon scores--it is true about the great oboe work at least--I
remember one amazing incident regarding a cartoon and its score, and
honestly folks, this is a true story. Unfortunately, I don't remember
the name of the cartoon, the characters in it, or the studio who
produced it, but memory says they were not characters that would be
familiar today and weren't even familiar to me then, though I knew the
Disney, MGM, and WB characters of the 50's, being a relentless comic
book reader. I don't remember the cartoon's plot. But during the
cartoon, the oboe played a stunningly lovely and expressive solo that
was also fairly long. When the musician finished, the action ceased and
one of the cartoon characters said, "Wow! That was beautiful! Would you
play it again?" Whereupon, the musician did just that. And it was just
as lovely the second time. The reason I remember this is that it
happened sometime during my first two years of playing, so between 1957
and 1959--and the wonderfully lyrical and expressive oboe playing left
a profound impression on me. The cartoon had good animation, but was
clearly an old one--I would date it now as early to mid-thirties. But I
was just a little kid when I saw it, and was so delighted that the
cartoon character was as entranced with the incredible oboe playing as
I was. I didn't recognize the solo at the time, so today I don't know
if it was an original score composed for the cartoon, or something
borrowed from the great works I did not know yet, but it sure was
beautiful.
Lee

Raybro wrote:
Compositionally, the writing in Hollywood between the start of 'talkies'
and the '60's was mostly exemplary. If you really want to be pleased,
get yourself copies of Warner Bros. cartoons from the period. The
bassoon and oboe work are amazing!

raybro