Classic Ross Amico

Tag: Medieval

Dual O’Tooles: Peter Gets Medieval as Henry II on “Picture Perfect”

March is Early Music Month. While the concept may seem somewhat remote from the world of film music, this week on “Picture Perfect,” we’ll set the Wayback Machine and enjoy four scores that employ melodies and modes of the Middle Ages.

We’ll hear selections from “Becket” (1964), by Laurence Rosenthal. In the film, based on a play by Jean Anouilh, Richard Burton plays the Archbishop of Canterbury, and Peter O’Toole, King Henry II. The music is reliant on chant, with a quotation from the familiar Gregorian melody “Dies Irae” (“Day of Wrath”), occurring fairly early in the action.

Then we’ll hear music from “The Hunchback of Notre Dame” (1939), by Alfred Newman. This time based on a novel – “Notre Dame de Paris,” by Victor Hugo – the film features Maureen O’Hara as Esmeralda and Charles Laughton as Quasimodo, with Cedric Hardwicke, Thomas Mitchell, Edmond O’Brien, and Harry Davenport in the supporting cast. The project was one of nine scored by Newman that year, which many historians regard as Hollywood’s finest. Again, the composer evokes the era through sacred choral passages and secular dances.

“The Warlord” (1965) starring Charlton Heston, Richard Boone, and Rosemary Forsyth, is the tale a knight who falls in love with a peasant woman, and in order to keep her, claims his right of “droit du seigneur” – his prerogative to spend the first night with any bride among his serfs. Unfortunately, she falls in love with him, and all hell breaks loose.

It was an unusual project for the composer, Jerome Moross, who is best-known for the kind of breezy Americana sound employed in his best-known music, that for “The Big Country.” Here, he evokes the 11th century with an underscore that, again, finds inspiration in authentic music of the era.

Finally, we’ll turn to “The Lion in Winter” (1965), adapted from a play by James Goldman, an historical drama set at the Christmas court of Henry II – again, as in “Becket,” played by Peter O’Toole. Henry spars with his estranged wife, the temporarily paroled Eleanor of Aquitaine (played by Katherine Hepburn), in a familial power struggle, which also involves their three sons, played by Anthony Hopkins, John Castle, and Nigel Terry. Timothy Dalton appears as Philip II of France.

The film was the winner of three Academy Awards, including one for Best Original Score. The composer was John Barry. Yet again the music is steeped in that of the Middle Ages, yet given a distinctly modern twist.

Plentiful intrigue and funny haircuts are guaranteed. However, there’s nothing Middling about the music. Film composers make history, on “Picture Perfect,” music for the movies, now in syndication on KWAX Classical Oregon!

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

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

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

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

Stream them, wherever you are, at the link!

https://kwax.uoregon.edu

March 6, 2026
Early Music Month on WPRB: Medieval Sounds Today

It’s never too late to be Early.

This week on WPRB, we’ll celebrate Early Music Month with a morning full of “contemporary” works – works composed over the course of the past century – that were influenced in some way or another by music of the Middle Ages and Renaissance.

We’ll hear works like Sir Peter Maxwell Davies’ “Renaissance Scottish Dances,” George Frederick McKay’s “Suite on Sixteenth Century Hymn Tunes,” Joaquin Rodrigo’s “Concierto Madrigal,” Vittorio Rieti’s “Variations on Two Cantigas de Santa Maria,” William Alwyn’s “Elizabethan Dances,” Igor Stravinsky’s “Momentum pro Gesualdo di Venosa ad CD annum,” Ottorino Respighi’s “Concerto Gregoriano,” William Kraft’s “Vintage Renaissance,” Carl Orff’s “Kleines Konzert,” Lukas Foss’ “Renaissance Concerto,” and Kile Smith’s “Vespers” (in a recording featuring Philadelphia-based Piffaro, The Renaissance Band) – or as many of those as we can get to.

Lyn Ransom, founder and artistic director of VOICES Chorale, will visit in the 9:00 hour to talk a little bit about the ensemble’s upcoming performance on Sunday, at Trenton’s Trinity Cathedral, of Maurice Duruflé’s Requiem, in a reconstruction of a performance given there under the direction of the composer in 1971. The Requiem’s otherworldly melodies are steeped in the language of medieval chant.

Even if you’re running late, it’s nice to know that the music will be running Early, from 6 to 11 ET on WPRB 103.3 FM and at wprb.com. We’re usually living in the past, on Classic Ross Amico.

#EarlyMusicMonth

#EarlyMusicAmerica

March 2, 2016

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