Tag: Kipling

This week on “Picture Perfect,” poised as we are between the birthdays of Henry Mancini (April 16) and Miklós Rózsa (April 18), we’ll hear music by both composers as part of a cinematic carnival of the animals.

Take a walk on the wild side with music from “The Jungle Book” (1942), the classic Korda Brothers’ adaptation of Rudyard Kipling’s tale of tails. The film stars the charismatic Sabu as Mowgli. (For the record, Kipling pronounced the name such that the first syllable rhymes with “cow.”) Miklós Rózsa wrote the enchanting score.

We’ll also hear selections from John Barry’s music for “Born Free” (1966), based on Joy Adamson’s memoir about the raising of Elsa, an orphaned lion cub who grows to adulthood and is eventually released into the Kenyan wilderness. The music turned out to be a double Academy Award winner for Barry, who was recognized for Best Original Score and Best Original Song.

Jerome Moross is probably best known for his music to “The Big Country.” His “great outdoors” style lends verve to the National Geographic special, “Grizzly!” (1967), a documentary about a pair of ecologists studying North American bears. The energetic Americana score is both memorable and motivating.

And we can’t allow the hour to pass without listening to Henry Mancini’s “Baby Elephant Walk,” from “Hatari!” (So many exclamation points in these wilderness titles!) The film was directed by Howard Hawks and stars John Wayne. In case you’re wondering, “Hatari!” is Swahili for “Danger!”

No danger in treating yourself to a musical menagerie of classic film scores, on “Picture Perfect,” music for the movies, now in syndication on KWAX Classical Oregon!

——–

Clip and save the start times for all three of my recorded shows:

PICTURE PERFECT, the movie music show – Friday at 8:00 PM EDT/5:00 PM PDT

SWEETNESS AND LIGHT, the light music program – Saturday at 11:00 AM EDT/8:00 AM PDT

THE LOST CHORD, unusual and neglected rep – Saturday at 7:00 PM EDT/4:00 PM PDT

Stream them, wherever you are, at the link!

https://kwax.uoregon.edu