Classic Ross Amico

Category: Daily Dispatch

  • Ennio Morricone at 87 A Film Music Legend

    Ennio Morricone at 87 A Film Music Legend

    He’s written music for over 500 movies and television shows, making him the most prolific film composer of all time. He’s composed for movies of all quality, from schlock to Oscar fare. His music is constantly sampled and recycled in other films, especially those of Quentin Tarantino. The upcoming western, “The Hateful Eight,” scheduled for release in January, marks the first genuine collaboration between the two, with Morricone providing his first western score in forty years.

    Of course, he virtually invented the spaghetti western sound, with its whistles, harmonicas, jew’s harps, whip cracks and indecipherable chanting choruses. His score for “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly” is among the most famous of all time. But he’s shown himself to be equally adept at a winning lyricism, as evidenced by his music for “The Mission” (another favorite of figure skaters) and “Cinema Paradiso.”

    Morricone is one of those rare composers in the industry who does all of his own orchestrations. Somewhere along the way, he manages to write concert music, too.

    Happy birthday, Ennio Morricone, 87 years old today.

    “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly”

    “The Mission”

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L41oGXgVmZg

    Morricone conducts “Cinema Paradiso”

  • Hedy Lamarr Google Doodle Honors Trenton’s Antheil

    Hedy Lamarr Google Doodle Honors Trenton’s Antheil

    If Google is your search engine of choice, keep an eye out today for Trenton’s own George Antheil. Antheil makes an appearance in Google’s tribute to actress Hedy Lamarr on what would have been her 101st birthday.

    Not only was Lamarr marketed as the stunner she was, but she possessed a scientific curiosity decidedly at odds with her big screen persona. During WWII, she and Antheil devised a frequency-hopping system that would have prevented the Nazis from jamming radio-controlled Allied torpedoes.

    What this article doesn’t tell us is that Lamarr had initially approached Antheil, a neighbor, to discuss endocrinological matters (a noted polymath himself, Antheil had written books on the subject), in reference to increasing the size of certain of her “assets,” or that neither Lamarr or Antheil ever saw a cent for their patent, which went on to form the basis for modern wireless technology.

    Antheil, of course, was the self-proclaimed “Bad Boy of Music” (actually the title of his autobiography), who set Paris on its ear with his “Ballet Mécanique.” The work, conceived for 16 player pianos, 3 airplane propellers, 7 electric bells, and siren, instigated one of classical music’s most notorious riots. Later, the composer settled into a more conservative language to become one of America’s most performed composers.

    There was never anything romantic between Lamarr and Antheil. They were just two quirky, misunderstood, lonely, intelligent Americans looking to do their patriotic duty. Happy birthday, Hedy Lamarr, and thank you, Google, for acknowledging George Antheil.

    If you’re not a Google user, read more about it and see the animation here:

    http://www.cnn.com/2015/11/09/entertainment/hedy-lamarr-google-doodle-feat/

  • Ormandy’s Lost American Legacy

    Ormandy’s Lost American Legacy

    Eugene Ormandy, of course, was born in Hungary. His birth name was Jenő Blau. But he became a naturalized American citizen in 1927 and directed the Philadelphia Orchestra for 44 years.

    In that capacity, he championed much contemporary music and works by his adopted countrymen –facts frequently forgotten next to his legacy as a superb interpreter of the 19th century classics.

    In fact, much of his American legacy has dropped out of print. In the late 1990s, Albany Records briefly attempted to rectify the situation by reissuing some of Ormandy’s recordings of lesser-heard American music. In the event, the series only reached three discs, but each of them is a treasure.

    This Sunday night on “The Lost Chord,” we’ll hear two works by Pulitzer Prize-winners, both of whose music has sadly fallen out of fashion. The first is William Schuman, the very first recipient of the Pulitzer Prize for Music in 1943, for his “Cantata No. 2, ‘A Free Song.’” At the height of his fame, Schuman was also President of Lincoln Center.

    We’ll hear music he composed in 1955, called “Credendum – Article of Faith,” which was written in response to the first ever commission by the U.S. government for a symphonic work.

    Norman Dello Joio was the recipient of the Pulitzer in 1957 for his “Meditations on Ecclesiastes.” The concert suite from “Air Power” was adapted from 22 individual scores he composed for the CBS television series, about the history of aviation, which aired from November 1956 through spring of 1957. Its individual sections underscore the early days of flight, with its barnstormers and daredevils, followed by those of air battles and war scenes.

    I hope you’ll join me for these rarely heard recordings of American music, conducted by Eugene Ormandy. That’s “All-American Ormandy,” tonight at 10 ET, with a repeat Wednesday evening at 6; or listen to it later as a webcast at wwfm.org.

  • Alwyn Michelle Kwan’s Olympic Composer

    Alwyn Michelle Kwan’s Olympic Composer

    What composer helped spur Michelle Kwan to Olympic excellence? Kwan skated to William Alwyn’s harp concerto, “Lyra Angelica,” during her legendary free skate at the 1998 Winter Olympics.

    Polyglot, poet, artist and especially musician, Alwyn played flute for a time with the London Symphony Orchestra. He taught composition at the Royal Academy of Music from 1926 to 1955. He was a composer of symphonies, operas, concertos, string quartets and film scores.

    My personal favorite of the symphonies is No. 4. Dig that cascading scherzo of a second movement! Then feel your heart tug at the third.



    His Symphony No. 3 may be the most structurally amazing, with the first movement generated from an 8-note theme, the second from a 4-note fragment, and the last a combination of the two. By golly, that’s all twelve notes of the chromatic scale – twelve-tone music! Then why is it so damned beautiful?



    Of course, there is much to be said for the simple pleasures of his music for “The Crimson Pirate.”

    Another fun fact: Alwyn was a cousin of Gary Cooper!

    Happy birthday, William Alwyn (1905-1985)!

  • Remembering Maureen O’Hara Irish Film Legend

    Remembering Maureen O’Hara Irish Film Legend

    Maureen O’Hara received an honorary Academy Award in November of 2014. She was only the second actress, after Myrna Loy, to receive an Academy Award for acting without having previously being nominated for a competitive Oscar.

    This week on “Picture Perfect,” we remember the Irish-American actress, who died on October 24, at the age of 95. A striking redhead, she photographed particularly well, especially during the Technicolor era. Her fiery heroines stood toe-to-toe with Errol Flynn, Douglas Fairbanks Jr., John Garfield, Brian Keith, Tyrone Power, and especially John Wayne. We’ll honor her with selections from four of her classic films.

    We’ll hear some of Alfred Newman’s music from “The Hunchback of Notre Dame” (1939). Charles Laughton played the hunchback Quasimodo and O’Hara played the Gypsy, Esmeralda. Laughton and O’Hara had previously teamed on the film “Jamaica Inn.” It was Laughton who had recognized O’Hara’s talent early on, and indeed gave her her screen name. Previously, she was known by her birth name, Maureen FitzSimons.

    Newman also wrote the score to “How Green Was Our Valley” (1941), based on Richard Llewellyn’s novel about a family of Welsh miners. The cast also featured Walter Pidgeon, Donald Crisp, and a very young Roddy McDowall. The film was nominated for ten Academy Awards. It won five of those, including Best Picture and Best Director, for John Ford. The Best Picture win remains controversial, in that one of the other contenders for the honor was “Citizen Kane,” often held to be the greatest film of all time!

    “The Quiet Man” was a dream project for Ford. The film is chock full of Irish character actors and Ford regulars, including Barry Fitzgerald, Victor McLaglen, Mildred Natwick, and Ward Bond. However, to get the film made at Republic Pictures, Ford first had to agree to make a profitable western. He had already directed two films about the United States Cavalry, “Fort Apache,” in 1948, and “She Wore a Yellow Ribbon,” in 1949. He opted to round off what became something of a trilogy with “Rio Grande” (1950).

    No one involved really wanted to make the film, but everyone went along with it, and even seemed to actually have a lot of fun. “Rio Grande” is now regarded as one of Ford’s masterpieces. O’Hara and John Wayne play an estranged husband and wife in the first of their five screen pairings. The music is by Victor Young.

    It was Republic Pictures studio head Herbert Yates who demanded “Rio Grande” up front, to help pay for Ford’s “folly” about an Irish-American who returns home to the village of his youth. In the event, “The Quiet Man” (1952) went on to become the studio’s highest ever grossing movie – and it remains a St. Patrick’s Day favorite.

    O’Hara’s role as the fiery Mary Kate Danaher became one of her most defining. Again the music was by Victor Young. According to her family, O’Hara listened to music from “The Quiet Man” during her final hours.

    I hope you’ll join me, as we salute Maureen O’Hara, this evening at 6 ET, with a repeat Saturday morning at 6; or that you’ll enjoy it later as a webcast at wwfm.org.

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