Good morning!
Light music master Billy Mayerl is fondly remembered as the “Marigold Man” (after his biggest hit), or perhaps “The English Gershwin.” Mayerl gave the London premiere of “Rhapsody in Blue” in 1925.
Here, Paul Jacobs performs one of his many delightful miniatures, “April’s Fool”:
A short film of Mayerl himself, horsing around, including a brisk rendition of “Marigold”:
PHOTO: Mayerl with his best friend, Bogey
Though steeped in the comparatively conservative milieu of the English musical renaissance at the turn of last century, John Foulds possessed a physical, intellectual, spiritual, and creative wanderlust.
Foulds moved to India in 1935. There, he collected native folk tunes. He became director of European music for All-India Radio in Delhi, created an orchestra from scratch, and labored tirelessly to fulfill his vision of a synthesis between Eastern and Western music. He also composed works for traditional Indian instruments. His efforts on behalf of the radio were so successful that he was asked to open a satellite branch in Calcutta. Unfortunately, he contracted cholera and died within a week of his arrival, at the age of 58.
Because of the remote location and the fact that a number of the pieces of his maturity have been lost, or the manuscripts extensively compromised, Foulds’ slight reputation has rested for the most part on his “light music.” (especially “Keltic Lament”). But Foulds was definitely ahead of his time, as the gradual rediscovery of his works has revealed, with the composer’s fascination for quarter-tones and, occasionally, a tendency toward an almost proto-minimalism.
So diverse were Foulds’ output and enthusiasms that it is difficult, if not impossible, to encapsulate the scope of his achievements within a single hour. Nevertheless, this Sunday night on “The Lost Chord,” we will endeavor to do our best, by sharing his light concert overture “April – England,” “Three Mantras” from the abandoned Sanskrit opera, “Avatara,” and selections from “A World Requiem.”
It’s a Foulds paradise! Join me for “April Foulds,” this Sunday night at 10:00 EDT, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.
PHOTO: Foulds (right), sitting in on an Indian jam session
No relation to Leonard Bernstein (or “Bern-STINE”), Elmer pronounced his surname “Bern-STEEN.” In the interest of clarity, the two were sometimes further differentiated as “East Coast Bernstein” and “West Coast Bernstein.” In this photo, we have a rare instance of East meets West.
With Passover only days away, simply remembering Elmer Bernstein leads me back through a wilderness of mediocrity that today passes for film music, to a Promised Land of cinematic milk and honey.
Over the course of an enviable career that spanned some 50 years, Bernstein composed music for dozens of movies, many of them still much-beloved, including “The Ten Commandments” (1956), “The Magnificent Seven” (1960), “To Kill a Mockingbird” (1962), and “The Great Escape” (1963).
In addition, he was one of the first film composers to incorporate jazz elements into his work for dramatic purposes, in movies like “The Man with the Golden Arm” (1955), “Sweet Smell of Success” (1957), and “Walk on the Wild Side” (1962).
Coming out of the Swinging Sixties, when the industry clearly favored a more “popular” sound over purely orchestral scores (until John Williams changed everything), Bernstein kept right on working. Thanks to a generation of younger filmmakers who had grown up on his classics, he never lacked for opportunities. Suddenly he found himself much in demand as a comedy composer, providing the underscores for “Animal House” (1978), “The Blues Brothers” (1980), “Airplane!” (1980), “Stripes” (1981), and “Ghostbusters” (1984).
For Martin Scorsese, he composed music for “The Age of Innocence” (1993), “Bringing Out the Dead” (1999), and “The Gangs of New York” (2002), though his score for the latter was ultimately rejected. He also adapted Bernard Herrmann’s music for Scorsese’s remake of “Cape Fear” (1991).
Oh yeah, along the way, he also composed the iconic National Geographic theme – clearly by the same man who wrote “The Magnificent Seven.”
In all, Bernstein was nominated for 14 Academy Awards, but claimed the Oscar only once, fairly early on, for his work on “Thoroughly Modern Millie” (1967), of all things. His final nomination was for his very last score, for “Far from Heaven” (2002). Elmer Bernstein died on August 18, 2004 at the age of 82.
Here’s a suite from one of his best-loved scores.
Happy birthday, Elmer Bernstein.
Anyone else know of Gustav Schreck (1849-1918)?
Schreck was cantor at the famed Thomaskirche in Leipzig. That’s right, Johann Sebastian Bach’s church. Under Schreck’s direction, works of Bach and other former Thomas cantors featured prominently in services and other musical activities. Artistic quality was high. He programmed Bach cantatas in their entirety, acquired historic instruments, and modified his performances to make them more “authentic” (soprano and alto parts were sung by soloists from the boy choir), decades before it would even be considered “pioneering.”
Schreck was one of the founders of the New Bach Society. He was also professor of composition and theory at the Leipzig Conservatory. He broadened the exposure of his Thomanerchor by leading it out of the church and into the concert hall, introducing the group into programs of the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra.
I stumbled across this amiable Bassoon Sonata yesterday and thought you might enjoy it.
Aaron Copland (93) Beethoven (95) Composer (114) Film Music (137) Film Score (143) Film Scores (255) Halloween (94) John Williams (195) KWAX (229) Leonard Bernstein (103) Marlboro Music Festival (125) Movie Music (152) Mozart (88) Opera (208) Philadelphia Orchestra (89) Picture Perfect (174) Princeton Symphony Orchestra (108) Radio (88) Ross Amico (244) Roy's Tie-Dye Sci-Fi Corner (290) The Classical Network (101) The Lost Chord (268) Vaughan Williams (103) WPRB (396) WWFM (881)