Classic Ross Amico

Category: Daily Dispatch

Laurie Johnson Avengers Composer Remembered on KWAX

This week on “The Lost Chord,” we’ll honor English composer and bandleader Laurie Johnson, who died on Tuesday at the age of 96.

Among other things, Johnson was the composer of super-cool TV music for shows such as “Jason King,” “The Professionals,” and of course “The Avengers,” the elegant and often surreal spy-fi series, at its peak starring Patrick Macnee and Diana Rigg.

He also wrote for film, providing scores for Stanley Kubrick’s “Dr. Strangelove,” “The First Men in the Moon” (with special effects by Ray Harryhausen), and the Hammer cult-classic “Captain Kronos – Vampire Hunter.”

Johnson’s “Symphony (Synthesis)” will be the main attraction on a triple feature of concert works by composers better known for their work in film.

Gramophone Magazine described the symphony, composed in 1971, as a masterpiece. “The work becomes increasingly fascinating with each listening,” writes the critic. “This is perhaps the first truly successful combination of the Jazz and European music traditions.”

The recording, made under the composer’s direction, features a number of prominent jazz artists, including Tubby Hayes, Don Lusher, Joe Harriott, Kenny Wheeler and Stan Tracey.

Also on the program will be music by Jerome Moross, who has been ensured a kind of immortality in the hearts of moviegoers by his Academy Award nominated score for “The Big Country.” He composed music for 16 films in all – comparatively few, actually, on account of a bicoastal career. (He was based in New York City.)

Off-screen, he wrote music for five ballets, a symphony, a flute concerto, various works for orchestra and chamber ensemble, and a one-act opera, “Sorry, Wrong Number.” His best-known musical theatre piece is “The Golden Apple,” which spawned the ever-green “Lazy Afternoon.”

We’ll hear Moross’ delightful “Sonatina for Clarinet Choir” of 1966.

Very little need be said of John Williams. The most successful film composer of all time, Williams has been a household name since the 1970s, thanks to the one-two punch of “Jaws” and “Star Wars.” But by then, he was already two decades into a career that’s now spanned some 70 years. With 54 Academy Award nominations and five wins, he is the second most nominated figure in the history of the Academy, behind only Walt Disney.

For the concert hall, Williams has written music for just about every instrument, including an impressive body of concertos. We’ll hear his “Essay for Strings,” composed in 1965, when he was 33 years-old.

It’s not always about images. Film composers cast themselves against type, on “Typecast IV: The Curse of Typecast” – including a salute to Laurie Johnson – on “The Lost Chord,” now in syndication on KWAX, the radio station of the University of Oregon!

Remember, KWAX is on the West Coast, so there’s a three-hour difference for those of you listening in the East. Here are the respective air-times for all three of my recorded shows (with East Coast conversions in parentheses):

PICTURE PERFECT, the movie music show – Friday on KWAX at 5:00 PM PACIFIC TIME (8:00 PM EST)

SWEETNESS AND LIGHT, the light music program – ALL NEW! – Saturday on KWAX at 8:00 AM PACIFIC TIME (11:00 AM EST)

THE LOST CHORD, unusual and neglected rep – Saturday on KWAX at 4:00 PM PACIFIC TIME (7:00 PM EST)

Stream all three, at the times indicated, by following the link!

https://kwax.uoregon.edu/

January 27, 2024
Happy Birthday Mozart Celebrate on KWAX

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MOZART!

This morning, we’ll honor the master over his preferred breakfast of hot chocolate and white rolls with an ebullient playlist including his “A Musical Joke,” the composer’s catalogue of compositional crimes.

Also on the program will be musical salutes by Victor Borge, Benny Goodman, Red Ingle, Florence Foster Jenkins, Raymond Scott, and others.

I hope you’ll join me for an hour of “Eine kleine Leichtmusik” on a special birthday edition of “Sweetness and Light,” this Saturday morning at 11:00 EST/8:00 PST, exclusively on KWAX, the radio station of the University of Oregon!

Stream it, wherever you are, here:

https://kwax.uoregon.edu/

January 27, 2024
Warren Benson A Centennial Celebration

Bang the drum for Warren Benson. Benson was born in Detroit 100 years ago today.

At 14, he was playing timpani in the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, working with conductors such as Eugene Ormandy, Fritz Reiner, Eugene Goossens, and Leonard Bernstein while an undergraduate at the University of Michigan.

He taught in Greece for two years, establishing a bi-lingual music curriculum and organizing the Anatolia College Chorale, the first scholastic co-educational choir in the country. For 14 years, he taught at Ithaca College, organizing the first touring percussion ensemble in the eastern United States. From there, he joined the faculty at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, NY.

Benson composed over 100 works. He was especially well-regarded for his song cycles and music for percussion and winds. His most celebrated piece has been “The Leaves Are Falling,” written in the aftermath of the assassination of John F. Kennedy. The piece was inspired by the poem “Herbst” (“Autumn”) by Rainer Maria Rilke.

Benson died in 2005. Donald Hunsberger, an associate at Eastman, included “The Leaves Are Falling” on a list of essential works for wind ensemble.

“The Leaves Are Falling”

Benson discusses it:

https://irp-cdn.multiscreensite.com/2302eea8/files/uploaded/discussion_w_benson.pdf

“HERBST” (“AUTUMN”) BY RAINER MARIA RILKE

Die Blätter fallen, fallen wie von weit,
als welkten in den Himmeln ferne Gärten;
sie fallen mit verneinender Gebärde.

Und in den Nächten fällt die schwere Erde
aus allen Sternen in die Einsamkeit.

Wir alle fallen. Diese Hand da fällt.
Und sieh dir andre an: es ist in allen.

Und doch ist Einer, welcher dieses Fallen
unendlich sanft in seinen Händen hält.

ENGLISH TRANSLATION BY DONALD MACE WILLIAMS:

Leaves fall, they fall as from a distant place,
as if far gardens withered in the skies;
they fall with a denying attitude.

And in the nighttimes falls the heavy world
out of all stars into the solitude.

We all are falling. Falling, here, this hand.
And look at others: it is in them all.

Yet there exists One who all of this falling
forever softly holds within his hands.

January 26, 2024
Himalayan Adventures in Classic Film Scores

This week on “Picture Perfect,” we journey through the awe-inspiring landscapes of India and Tibet, even as we feel our way to the inner realms of spirit and psyche, with an hour of Himalayan adventures.

The Himalayas, in film, have frequently been the source of enlightenment; though occasionally their overwhelming influence has also led to madness. Intriguingly, the latter is the case in the Powell-Pressburger classic, “Black Narcissus” (1947). Psychological and emotional tensions abound in this tale of repressed nuns struggling to maintain their composure in a voluptuous Himalayan valley.

The stunning cinematography was by Jack Cardiff, and Brian Easdale (of “The Red Shoes” fame) wrote the music. Incredibly, the entire film was shot in England, mostly at Pinewood Studios. From a purely visual standpoint, “Black Narcissus” must be one of the most beautiful films ever made. It’s also one of the craziest, with unlikely object-of-desire Mr. Dean driving the sisters to the brink.

The Himalayas also form the backdrop to “Seven Years in Tibet” (1997), based on a memoir of Austrian mountaineer Heinrich Harrer. Harrer escapes from a British internment camp in India during the Second World War. He travels across Tibet to its capital, Lhasa, where he eventually becomes the tutor of the 14th Dalai Lama. In the film, Brad Pitt plays Harrer. John Williams wrote the music, and Yo-Yo Ma performs the cello solos.

“The Razor’s Edge” (1946) tells the story of a traumatized World War I veteran, who sets off in search of some kind of transcendent meaning to his existence. He finds it in India, at a Himalayan monastery. The 1946 adaptation of W. Somerset Maugham’s novel (which he claimed was thinly-veiled fact) features Tyrone Power, Gene Tierney, and Ann Baxter. The music is by Alfred Newman, who will conduct a selection from his score.

Finally, we’ll hear a suite from the Frank Capra classic, “Lost Horizon” (1937). Based on the book by James Hilton, the film stars Ronald Colman and an outstanding supporting cast, including Jane Wyatt, Thomas Mitchell, Edward Everett Horton, H.B. Warner, and Sam Jaffe. The novel, and the film, brought the term “Shangri-La” into popular usage, a Utopian paradise hidden in a secluded Himalayan valley, a place of ageless beauty and serenity.

“Lost Horizon” provided composer Dimitri Tiomkin (a pupil of Alexander Glazunov) with his first major project. The result is one of his most colorful scores. The recording is one of the gems of RCA’s Classic Film Scores series, originally issued in the early 1970s. Made in the presence of the composer, it features 157 performers, with the chorus standing on a platform behind the conductor, Charles Gerhardt, and the various percussionists stationed in the encircling balcony.

I can’t guarantee that you’ll find enlightenment, but there will be plenty to awe and inspire in these Himalayan adventures, on “Picture Perfect,” music for the movies, now in syndication on KWAX, the radio station on the University of Oregon!

Remember, KWAX is on the West Coast, so there’s a three-hour difference for those of you listening in the East. Here are the respective air-times for all three of my recorded shows (with East Coast conversions in parentheses):

PICTURE PERFECT, the movie music show – Friday on KWAX at 5:00 PM PACIFIC TIME (8:00 PM EST)

SWEETNESS AND LIGHT, the light music program – ALL NEW! – Saturday on KWAX at 8:00 AM PACIFIC TIME (11:00 AM EST)

THE LOST CHORD, unusual and neglected rep – Saturday on KWAX at 4:00 PM PACIFIC TIME (7:00 PM EST)

Stream all three, at the times indicated, by following the link!

https://kwax.uoregon.edu/

January 26, 2024
Coma 1978 A Tie-Dye Sci-Fi Rant

Last week, Roy and I enjoyed a digression-filled discussion about Michael Crichton’s “Runaway” (1984), which starred Tom Selleck and Gene Simmons and was full of speculative tech we now take for granted. I guess this put Roy on the scent of “Coma” (1978), Crichton’s adaptation of the novel by Robin Cook, as it’s our topic for the next Roy’s Tie-Dye Sci-Fi Corner.

This post-Watergate hospital thriller scores points for reflecting the nation’s growing distrust of institutions and the observation that medical care has become big business. But oh, what a great film it would have been had it been directed by Alfred Hitchcock (with Judith Anderson in Elizabeth Ashley’s role)!

But everyone does a good job with what they’re given: Genevieve Bujold is a resourceful heroine, again reflective of the times – plucky and determined and alternately dismissed as hysterical or uppity by the men, even boyfriend Michael Douglas, who are clearly troubled by this “new woman.” She doesn’t want to be called “honey,” so everyone keeps telling her to relax or sending her to therapy. Of course, you know in the end it’s going to be Douglas who’s going to get credit for blowing the lid off the conspiracy. It’s what he does. (Think “The China Syndrome.”)

Rip Torn is reliably menacing (after all, this is the guy who hit Norman Mailer in the head with a hammer) and Richard Widmark is given a good role for an actor who broke into Hollywood playing sociopaths in the 1940s. Look fast for Lois Chiles, Tom Selleck, and Ed Harris (as Pathology Resident #2).

We’ll be raging against the machine, if we don’t go comatose, on the next “Roy’s Tie-Dye Sci-Fi Corner.” Brace yourselves to be ripped and torn in the comments section, when we livestream on Facebook, YouTube, etc., this Friday evening at 7:00 EST!

https://www.facebook.com/roystiedyescificorner

Here’s a link to last week’s show. Every once in a while, we even talk about the movie!

January 25, 2024

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