Despite the rain, I’m happy to report there was a very nice turn-out last night for the Princeton Garden Theatre’s screening of “Planet of the Apes.” I spoke beforehand about Jerry Goldsmith’s bold and imaginative music. Also, there was the enticement of trivia and prizes! (The Garden has the most knowledgeable and passionate audiences.)
The film was shown as part of the theatre’s “Keeping the Score” series, lovingly curated to illuminate the powerful contributions of music, in all its varieties, to the collaborative art form that is cinema. Next up: Franz Waxman’s score for Alfred Hitchcock’s “Rebecca” on June 4. The schedule for the next few months is posted on the Garden’s website. Thank you, Princeton Garden Theatre. It was heartening to find that people clearly still love their “Apes!”
Since I am primed for primates, the focus of my movie music show, “Picture Perfect,” this week will be a survey of all five of the “Apes” scores from this era, including music by Goldsmith, Leonard Rosenman, and Tom Scott. The show will air on KWAX, this Friday at 8:00 p.m. EDT/5:00 p.m. PDT. Stream it wherever you are at the link!
The prolific Danish composer Per Nørgård has died. In all, the creator of some 400 works, he leaves eight symphonies, six operas, ten concertos, assorted choral works, chamber music (including ten string quartets), and works for solo instrument. Nørgård emerged from the dominant musical influences of the region – Carl Nielsen and Jean Sibelius, mainly, but also that of his teacher, Vagn Holmboe – to immerse himself in central European modernism.
In 1959, he discovered the infinity series, a serial method from which he developed unifying structural elements in much of his subsequent work. His Symphony No. 3 was the first to apply the method for the integration of melody (such that it is), harmony, and rhythm. “Voyage into the Golden Screen” is considered a landmark of spectral composition. Among his music written for film is that for the international success “Babette’s Feast.”
By some, he was regarded as the foremost living Nordic composer. All the same, his is probably not the music you’ll want to take with you for your morning commute. It can be an interesting listen in quieter, more introspective moments. That said, I had an extra CD of his Symphonies Nos. 2 & 4 and, like Robert Louis Stevenson’s bottle imp, I couldn’t give it away. You have to give the guy credit for steadfastly following his own muse.
He is not to be confused with the Finnish composer Pehr Nordgren, who died in 2008. Nørgård was 92 years-old.
R.I.P.
“Gennen Torne” (“Through Thorns”) for harp, flute, clarinet, and string quartet – the same combo used for Ravel’s “Introduction and Allegro” (2003)
Symphony No. 1 – right out of the gate, subtitled “Austera” (“Austere”), undeniably Scandinavian (1953-55)
“Voyage into the Golden Screen” (1968)
Symphony No. 3 (1972-75) with chorus
Symphony No. 8 (2010-11)
Live performance of the work, with Nørgård acknowledging the orchestra and applause at the end
Interview with the composer (in Danish), with charming interludes of him performing his juvenilia at the piano, illustrated by cartoons he drew as a kid
I’ll be talking about Jerry Goldsmith’s music for the 1968 classic “Planet of the Apes” as a brief intro to a screening of the ultimate sci-fi switcheroo at Princeton Garden Theatre tomorrow night at 7:00.
My appearance ties in with the Garden’s ongoing series, “Keeping the Score,” lovingly curated to highlight the artistry of the great film composers and their indispensable contributions to enduring audience favorites.
Philadelphia composer Romeo Cascarino wrote “Epitaph for a Soldier” in 1942-43, when he was around 20-years-old and serving in the U.S. Army.
The recipient of two Guggenheim Fellowships, Cascarino taught for many years at the now-defunct Combs College of Music. His opera, “William Penn,” was given its world premiere at Philadelphia’s Academy of Music and most of his orchestral works were recorded by JoAnn Falletta for the Naxos label.
This one, however, fell through the cracks.
According to his widow, soprano Dolores Ferraro, “It’s never been performed, just was among the scores in the basement. Romeo never talked much about the war and I was remiss in [not] asking him more about this piece, though I have my ideas. …[I]t’s stunning; dark with angst, thunder and lightning; yet lyrical and hopeful, too.
“We all know a work of Romeo’s would be beautiful, masterfully written and orchestrated, and it is, but different. Of course, the subject matter calls for this. It’s upsetting, moving and exciting! …What a thrill it gave me to hear what a 20-year-old Romeo composed! How painful to think of what he was feeling during that time….”
The impetus for its composition was the death of a friend, who had been killed on a mission.
I posted about the work’s rediscovery last year, after listening to a computer realization of the piece made by Cascarino’s pupil, Joe Nocella. You’ll find a biographical profile of the composer beneath the audio file at the link.
Cascarino’s “Blades of Grass,” for English horn and string orchestra, seems to have become his most-frequently encountered work, after perhaps the Bassoon Sonata and maybe some of the songs. The piece, which has been recorded twice, has, in addition to its other qualities, brevity on its side (at approximately nine minutes), so it gets the most radio air play. The work was inspired by a well-known poem of Carl Sandburg, “Grass,” a somber reflection on the nature of conflict and the futility of war, which makes it a good fit for any Memorial Day concert or radio show. (I myself included it on yesterday’s broadcast of “The Lost Chord.”)
In 2023, “Blades of Grass” came to the notice of the U.S. Marine Band. Interesting that it was the Marines and not the Army that revived the work!
“Epitaph for a Soldier” is a valuable addition to the composer’s catalogue and another piece wholly suitable for Memorial Day performance. Is there anyone out there in a position to give it its world premiere?
PHOTO: Cascarino (left) with Army buddy Sol Schoenbach, for whom he composed his Bassoon Sonata in 1947. They recorded it in 1962. Schoenbach was principal bassoonist of the Philadelphia Orchestra from 1937 to 1957.
Never mind May the 4th be with you! “Star Wars” opened on May 25, 1977. If you weren’t a kid in the summer of ’77, there’s no way you could possibly understand how good life could be. Long lines, sold-out theaters, enthusiastic audiences, eyepopping special effects, strange worlds, high adventure, and a dynamite soundtrack with the power to change lives. Although I was conscious of movie music well before “Star Wars” (I was a film junkie from the time I could watch TV), it was “Star Wars” that really introduced me to the power of the symphony orchestra. The rest, as they say, is history. Happy Orthodox Star Wars Day!
