This week on “The Lost Chord,” we’ll have concert works by composers who achieved notable success writing for television.
Bruce Broughton enjoyed early success in the movies with his score for “Silverado” (for which he received an Academy Award nomination). But already he’d been active in television for over a decade. While he continued to write music for feature films, it was for music for the small screen that he achieved his greatest recognition. He’s won ten Emmy Awards in all (of 20 nominations), for his work on documentaries, miniseries, television movies, and episodic TV, on series such as “Dallas” and “Buck Rogers in the 25th Century.” Broughton has also been active in the worlds of concert and band music, in particular composing a fair amount of music for brass. Today, we’ll take the opportunity to enjoy his Tuba Sonata.
Jack Marshall was a session musician, an arranger, and a producer for Capitol Records. He composed the score for the Robert Mitchum cult classic “Thunder Road,” but it’s really his music for “The Munsters” that everyone knows. We’ll hear Marshall’s “Essay for Guitar,” performed by his cousin, Christopher Parkening.
While Lee Holdridge wrote music for many films over the years, including “Splash,” “Mr. Mom,” and “The Beastmaster,” it was in the field of television, as an 18-time Emmy nominee, that he’s really mopped-up. (He’s won seven: two Primetime, two Daytime, two News and Documentary, and one Sports.) But my favorite piece of his is his Korngoldian Violin Concerto No. 2, which really goes for the heart. We’ll hear a recording with longtime New York Philharmonic concertmaster Glenn Dicterow.
Finally, Lalo Schifrin composed influential scores for films like “Bullitt” and “Dirty Harry,” but his distinctive brand of urban cool, marked by jazz, blues, and wah-pedal guitars, also graced television shows like “Mannix” and “Starsky and Hutch.” Schifrin’s also written his share of concert music, but in the time remaining, it is a fantasy for flutes on the composer’s immortal “Mission: Impossible” theme by Mark Lathan that we’ll hear.
Television composers think outside the box this week, on “TV or Not TV,” on “The Lost Chord,” now in syndication on KWAX, the radio station of the University of Oregon!
Clip and save the start times for all three of my recorded shows:
PICTURE PERFECT, the movie music show – Friday at 8:00 PM EDT/5:00 PM PDT
SWEETNESS AND LIGHT, the light music program – Saturday at 11:00 AM EDT/8:00 AM PDT
THE LOST CHORD, unusual and neglected rep – Saturday at 7:00 PM EDT/4:00 PM PDT
Stream them, wherever you are, at the link!
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