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Tag: Film Music

Bernard Herrmann: Greatest Film Composer?

Was Bernard Herrmann the greatest film composer who ever lived? If such a claim could be supported, I’d say it’s quite possibly so. He’s not the first composer I turn to for purely musical enjoyment – I’m more of a Korngold/Rózsa/John Williams kind of guy – but has anyone more consistently found the perfect sound to support an on-screen image?

And Herrmann was never one to go for the low-hanging fruit. Take his score for “The Day the Earth Stood Still” (1951). Herrmann’s concept of extra-terrestrial music incorporates violin, cello, electric bass, two theremins, two Hammond organs, a large studio electric organ, three vibraphones, two glockenspiels, two pianos, two harps, three trumpets, three trombones and four tubas. Overdubbing and tape-reversal techniques were also employed. Now this guy was a composer!

His music for Alfred Hitchcock’s “Pyscho” (1960) was all strings; the brawny score to the mythological “Jason and the Argonauts” (1963) eschewed them. He could be wry (“The Devil and Daniel Webster”), romantic (“The Ghost and Mrs. Muir”), downbeat (“Taxi Driver”), or any combination of the three (“Citizen Kane”).

Unfortunately, my weekly film music show, “Picture Perfect,” will be preempted today since we still haven’t hit our goal of $70,000 for the end of our fiscal year, which will arrive, whether we like it or not, at midnight the morning of July 1. However, I am scheduled to be on the air earlier in the day today, albeit in the capacity of “wingman,” from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. I won’t be the one doing the programming, but you can be sure I will insinuate some Bernard Herrmann into the playlist on his birthday.

JUST IN: I’ll also be around in the 6:00 hour this evening, so you’ll hear a little more Herrmann then.

Please support us. There aren’t very many radio stations on which you’ll hear Bernard Herrmann’s music with regularity. Call now at 1-888-232-1212 or make a contribution online at wwfm.org. I wish I could bring you a full hour of Herrmann, but we need to make this goal! “Picture Perfect” will return next Friday at 6 p.m. In the meantime, thank you for supporting WWFM – The Classical Network.

Herrmann with Orson Welles (left) and Alfred Hitchcock

June 29, 2018
Korngold Errol Flynn and Hollywood’s Golden Age

With the necessary emphasis on fundraising this week, I happened to miss the birthday anniversary of one of my favorite composers. Erich Wolfgang Korngold was born on May 29, 1897. Thanks to a steady diet of Errol Flynn films, his music will forever be a part of the soundtrack of my life.

Korngold went from being one of Europe’s great musical prodigies, his works admired by Mahler, Strauss and Puccini – and championed by Schnabel, Weingartner and Klemperer – to becoming one of Hollywood’s transformative film composers. He is a link from Old World opulence to New World fantasy, his music gracing a number of Warner Brothers’ classic historical adventures.

The best ones starred Flynn, and we’ll hear music from “The Sea Hawk” (1940) and “The Adventures of Robin Hood” (1938), as well as the mostly forgotten “Another Dawn” (1937). Flynn stars alongside Kay Francis and Ian Hunter (who would go on to play Richard the Lionheart in “Robin Hood”) in this love triangle involving pilots in a British desert colony.

The film may be an obscurity to all save classic movie buffs, but Korngold thought enough of his music that he salvaged the main title as the opening theme to his Violin Concerto, premiered by Heifetz in 1947.

It was an invitation from theatrical impresario Max Reinhardt that brought Korngold to Hollywood in the first place, for a cinematic adaptation of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” (1935). The film stars James Cagney, Dick Powell and Olivia de Havilland, in her big screen debut, with Mickey Rooney an irrepressible Puck.

For the project, Korngold adapted the famous incidental music of Felix Mendelssohn, interweaving material from Mendelssohn’s symphonies and orchestrating some of the “Songs without Words.” Even so, the music bears the composer’s unmistakable stamp, as you’ll hear in the opening number, lifted from the “Scottish Symphony,” which is marked by plenty of Korngoldian swagger.

Set sail with Erich Wolfgang Korngold this week, on “Picture Perfect,” music for the movies. Enjoy it this Friday evening at 6:00 EDT, immediately following today’s classical music countdown. Please sustain our programming on WWFM – The Classical Network by calling 1-888-232-1212 or making your contribution at wwfm.org. Thank you for your continued support!

PHOTO: The music was actually on my “personal favorites” playlist – Henry Daniell and Errol Flynn in “The Sea Hawk”

June 1, 2018
Academy Awards Film Music Celebration

Attention, film music fans: “Picture Perfect” is about to go epic.

Join me this Friday afternoon on The Classical Network as I mark the 90th anniversary of the Academy Awards with a SPECIAL THREE-HOUR BROADCAST celebrating the history of music in the movies. Hear selections from all five of this year’s nominees for Best Original Score, alongside music from some of the best-loved and most-honored movies of all time – including “The Godfather,” “Star Wars,” “Titanic,” “The Lord of the Rings,” “Lawrence of Arabia,” “Ben-Hur,” and “Gone with the Wind.”

You provide the popcorn; I’ll provide the music, this Friday from 4 to 7 p.m. EST, on WWFM The Classical Network and wwfm.org.

March 1, 2018
Medieval Movie Music on “Picture Perfect”

Ladies, lords, and gentlepersons all…

Hearken ye to “Picture Perfect” this week for sweet airs from movies set in the Age of Chivalry.

Peradventure ye will encounter sounds and delights from “The Warlord” (Jerome Moross), “El Cid” (Miklós Rózsa), “Lionheart” (Jerry Goldsmith), and “The Adventures of Robin Hood” (Erich Wolfgang Korngold).

Verily, chivalry is not dead, this Friday evening at 6 EDT, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.

June 2, 2017
Shakespeare’s Birthday Music on WWFM

We don’t know when, exactly, Shakespeare was born, but his baptismal date is April 26, 1564. Since it’s human nature to try to keep things neat, his natal day is generally held to be April 23, the very date of his death in 1616.

This week on “Picture Perfect,” we’ll honor the Bard, just a few days early, with an hour of music from movies based upon his comedies. We’ll hear selections from “As You Like It” (William Walton), “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” (Korngold), “The Taming of the Shrew” (Nino Rota), and “Much Ado About Nothing” (Patrick Doyle).

What fools these mortals be! Join me this Friday evening at 6:00 EDT for music for Shakespearean comedies, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.

April 21, 2017

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