Classic Ross Amico

Tag: KWAX

Gulliver’s Travels Movie Music & More on KWAX

I haven’t had time to post today, because I had some deadlines to meet and then I had to hightail it up to the Bard Music Festival for the opening night of “Martinů and His World” — music of Bohuslav Martinů and friends at Bard College. So I’ll just interject briefly that today is the birthday of film composer Victor Young. Some of my favorite Young scores include those for “Scaramouche,” “The Quiet Man,” and “Around the World in 80 Days.”

This week on “Picture Perfect,” however, we’ll enjoy selections from his score to the Fleischer Brothers’ production of “Gulliver’s Travels” (1939). Based on the novel by Jonathan Swift, the film was given the greenlight thanks to the success of Walt Disney’s “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.” The brothers, responsible for those classic “Popeye,” “Betty Boop,” and “Superman” cartoon shorts, here may have bitten off more than they could chew with this, their only animated feature.

Victor Young’s music will be bookended by that of Bernard Herrmann for “The Three Worlds of Gulliver” (1960), a film also notable for its special effects by legendary stop-motion animator Ray Harryhausen, and John Addison’s riotous score for Tony Richardson’s picaresque romp “Tom Jones” (1963), based on the novel by Henry Fielding.

You don’t have to be Lilliputian to find these big shoes to fill. It’s music from movies inspired by two beloved 18th century British literary classics, on “Picture Perfect,” music for the movies, now in syndication on KWAX, the radio station of the University of 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/

August 8, 2025
Kipling’s Classical Connection

Many composers have been inspired by the writings of Rudyard Kipling, but few more so than Charles Koechlin.

Koechlin is probably better recognized these days as the orchestrator who assisted Fauré and Debussy than for any of his own music. He was fascinated by the movies and wrote works inspired by a number of cinematic celebrities. This yielded, among other things, his “Seven Stars Symphony,” with movements dedicated to Douglas Fairbanks, Charlie Chaplin and others. The figure he most adored is the now largely-forgotten actress Lillian Harvey, whom he admired from afar and honored with a number of compositions.

In addition, Koechlin was an amateur astronomer and an accomplished photographer. He became quite the athlete, in order to keep up his strength after a youthful brush with tuberculosis. As I know I’ve pointed out before, he also had one of the most enviable beards in all of classical music.

Like Percy Grainger, Koechlin harbored a lifelong affection for Kipling’s “The Jungle Book,” and returned to the subject often throughout his career – beginning with some song settings in 1899 and running through the symphonic poem “The Bandar-Log,” completed in 1940.

This week on “The Lost Chord,” we’ll hear his symphonic poem, “The Law of the Jungle.” Then we’ll turn to the ballet, “The Butterfly that Stamped,” by the Czech composer Bohuslav Martinů.

Like Koechlin, Martinů was prolific by anyone’s standards. And like Koechlin there is so much Martinů nobody has ever heard. In addition to six symphonies, which at least get some play, he wrote concertos of every stripe, as well as 15 operas, a large body of orchestral, chamber, vocal and instrumental works, and – believe it or not – 14 ballets.

“The Butterfly that Stamped” was inspired by a tale from Kipling’s “Just So Stories.”

Get ready to go wild! It’s a Kipling double-bill. Join me for “Kipling Coupling,” on “The Lost Chord,” now in syndication on KWAX, the radio station of the University of 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/

A reminder that there will be lots more Martinů at this year’s Bard Music Festival, “Martinů and His World,” to be held at Bard College in Annandale-on-Hudson, NY, August 8-10 and 14-17. Take a gander at the complete schedule here:

Bard Music Festival

Fisher Center at Bard

August 2, 2025
Dog Days of Summer Music Playlist

This week on “Sweetness and Light,” we’ll be lounging around the water bowl with our legs out. It’s music for the dog days of summer.

When I was a kid, I remember hearing about “the dog days” and wondering what that was supposed to mean, exactly. I assumed it must have been when all the dogs were as flat or extended as possible (now known as splooting). Let sleeping dogs lie!

Later, I wondered specifically when that period was supposed to be. Before the internet, I surmised it must have been the hottest period of summer; and I suppose, more or less, I was correct.

It wasn’t until adulthood that I learned the dog days are an actual span that coincides with the heliacal rise of Sirius – the “Dog Star.” Heliacal rise is a fancy way of saying that the star becomes visible above the eastern horizon just before sunrise. In other words, it’s the morning star.

Modern sources are a little fast and loose with the astrological ties. The dates might as well come printed on the calendar, as in the English-speaking world, the dog days are now inflexibly July 3 to August 11.

Be that as it may, unsurprisingly, the dog days got me thinking about… wait for it… DOGS. More specifically, dogs and music. I hope you’ll join me today for a playlist of canine classics by Arthur Pryor, Peter Schickele, Sir Edward Elgar, George Gershwin, Walter Piston, and Daniel Dorff.

It will have you panting for more!

Better have some Milk Bones and a lint roller handy for “Sweetness and Light,” this Saturday morning at 11:00 EDT/8:00 PDT, exclusively on KWAX, the radio station of the University of Oregon!

Stream it wherever you are at the link:

https://kwax.uoregon.edu/

August 2, 2025
Thurber’s Dogs on KWAX Dog Days Summer

Hopefully these storms that will be rolling through New Jersey this afternoon and tonight will cool things down a bit. As it stands, this week on “Sweetness and Light,” I’ll be lying by my water bowl. We’ll be going to the dogs for the dog days of summer. To get you in the mood, someone put together this animation inspired by humorist James Thurber’s dog cartoons and the music of Peter Schickele. Hear Schickele’s “Thurber’s Dogs” again this Saturday morning at 11:00 EDT/8:00 PDT on “Sweetness and Light.” I’ll be panting right along with you on KWAX, the radio station of the University of Oregon. And yes, the program will be available for streaming, wherever you are, at the times indicated, by following the link:

https://kwax.uoregon.edu/

Enjoy the animated “Thurber’s Dogs” here:

July 31, 2025
Night Music Nocturnes on Sweetness and Light

This week on “Sweetness and Light,” we’ll be thinking cool and happy thoughts with an hour of night music – nocturnes, music reflective of the night sky, even sleep!

I hope you’ll join me for selections by Alexander Borodin, Antonín Dvořák, Jacques Offenbach, Claude Debussy, Manuel Ponce, John Field, and light music masters Charles Ancliffe, Archibald Joyce, and Robert Farnon.

Everything’s fine when the sun is asleep! I’ll be a fool for cool on “Sweetness and Light,” this Saturday morning at 11:00 EDT/8:00 PDT, exclusively on KWAX, the radio station of the University of Oregon!

Stream it, wherever you are, at the link:

https://kwax.uoregon.edu/

July 26, 2025

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