I don’t know if I ever shared this before – from the Classic Ross Amico Cabinet of Curiosities, an inscribed photo of Howard Hanson.

For 40 years, Hanson was director of the Eastman School of Music, in which capacity he nurtured and championed innumerable American composers, giving literally thousands of premieres at the helm of the Eastman-Rochester Orchestra (an ensemble he founded). The lucky ones found their way onto records, issued on the Mercury label.

Hanson, of course, was himself a composer. He was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Music in 1944, for his Symphony No. 4 “Requiem,” written in memory of his father. But his best-known music, unquestionably, is his Symphony No. 2 “Romantic,” composed in 1930.

A cassette tape of the piece must have been circulating in Hollywood, beginning in the late 1970s. It started turning up in the movies, either directly, as in the end credits to “Alien” (1979), or as thinly-veiled homage, as in the bicycle chase and finale of “E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial” (1982). More recently, Hans Zimmer cribbed it for “The Boss Baby” (2017).

I can understand the allure. The quintessential “Hanson sound” is one of heart-on-the-sleeve romanticism, characterized by glowingly nostalgic melodies. But the composer also had his severe side. As the offspring of Swedish immigrants in Wahoo, Nebraska, he was also inclined to a certain Nordic austerity, especially in his later works.

I never met Dr. Hanson myself, but he has all my respect and gratitude. Happy birthday, Howard Hanson!

Romantic Hanson, incongruously, in “Alien”

Hans Zimmer cribs for “The Boss Baby”

John Williams’ most glorious music, for the last 15 minutes of “E.T.,” would not have been the same without his influence

As it’s heard in the original

Romantic Symphony (complete)

Piano Concerto

“Elegy in Memory of Serge Koussevitzky”

Koussevitzky conducts Hanson’s Symphony No. 3 (in commemoration of the 300th anniversary of the first Swedish settlement in Delaware)

“Pastorale” for Oboe, Harp and Strings