Classic Ross Amico

Tag: Peanuts

A Cookie Platter of Christmas Television Specials on “Picture Perfect”

This week on “Picture Perfect,” slip into your jammies for an hour of music from classic Christmas television specials.

“The Snowman” (1982), based on the picture book by Raymond Briggs, is about a boy whose snowman comes to life and whisks him away on a journey to the North Pole. The show became enormously popular in the UK and through occasional showings on U.S. television. It was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Animated Short. Like the book, the film is wordless, using animation and music to tell its story, with the exception of an enchanting interlude, known as “Walking in the Air,” which employs a boy treble. “Walking in the Air” is easily the best-known music by Howard Blake.

The television film “The Homecoming” (1971) stars Patricia Neal and Richard Thomas in a heart-warming story about a rural family Christmas in 1933. Written by Earl Hamner, the film’s success spawned the television series “The Waltons.” Jerry Goldsmith wrote the music. He would return to work on “The Waltons” – though as of “The Homecoming,” he had yet to write the show’s indelible theme.

An adaptation of Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol” (1954) was the subject of a special episode of the anthology series “Shower of Stars.” Fredric March plays Ebenezer Scrooge, and Basil Rathbone is Jacob Marley’s ghost. But it is Ray Middleton, who appears as both Scrooge’s nephew and the Spirit of Christmas Present, who is given arguably the show’s most memorable tune, “A Very Merry Christmas.” The teleplay and lyrics are by Maxwell Anderson, and the music is by Bernard Herrmann!

Finally, Christmas time is here, happiness and cheer, with “A Charlie Brown Christmas” (1965). We’ll hear the Vince Guaraldi Trio perform selections from this most beloved of Christmas classics.

For once, the snow will have nothing to do with your reception. We’ll think inside the box on “Picture Perfect,” music from classic Christmas television specials, 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

December 19, 2025
Ellen Zwilich at 85 A Musical Trailblazer

Ellen Taaffe Zwilich was born on this date in 1939. Today is her 85th birthday.

Zwilich made history when she became the first female recipient of the Pulitzer Prize for Music, in 1983, for her Symphony No. 1.

Seven years later, she made history for a second time for being perhaps the only living classical music composer – and to my knowledge the only woman composer – to be referenced in Charles Schulz’s beloved comic strip “Peanuts.”

In the first of three panels, Peppermint Patty and Marcie are shown attending a concert. Marcie, holding a program, says to Patty, half-asleep, that the next piece will be a Concerto for Flute and Orchestra. In the second panel, she notes, “It was composed by Ellen Zwilich who, incidentally, just happens to be a woman!” Patty springs awake, and in the last panel, she’s standing on her chair. As Marcie slumps into her seat in evident embarrassment, Patty cries, “GOOD GOING, ELLEN!” (The original strip is posted in the comments section below.)

Turnabout is fair play, and in 1996, Zwilich composed a concertino of sorts, for piano and orchestra, titled “Peanuts Gallery.” The work includes movements inspired by Schroeder, Linus, Snoopy, Charlie Brown, Lucy, and Peppermint Patty and Marcie. It was given its premiere on a Carnegie Hall children’s concert, by the pianist Albert Kim and the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra.

The piece was recorded for the Naxos label, with pianist Jeffrey Biegel and the Florida State University Symphony Orchestra. The movements are posted individually on YouTube. I have it cued up so that you can let them all play through, continuously, here:

As an alternative, here’s the entire work, performed without break, with actors and dancers, in a reduction for two pianos:

“Peanuts Gallery” became the subject of a prize-winning PBS documentary. A second Zwilich documentary was produced to trace the development of her “Gardens” Symphony:

https://www.pbs.org/video/the-gardens-birth-of-a-symphony-xfgoh6/?fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTAAAR1PIQ2uldOCQe3tzTRrFXVXRQNPLdRIcakR-YIN9orK2ZUuCxPR8UvmUcQ_aem_ARDIAOPDG6wZNz9bA8o_1b1jOUcK6PdB4IWFCnYTfaUCPR2PzA8ttiqL27nmr2_-zmiBpgPg0rIbA4x4dtxIGksG

Birthdays are a time for celebration. Go ahead and go (Pea)nuts for Ellen Taaffe Zwilich.

“Celebration”

The Pulitzer-winning Symphony No. 1 (in three movements)

Peppermint Patty’s revelation: the Concerto for Flute and Orchestra

April 30, 2024
Schulz’s Surprising Mendelssohn Peanuts Strip

Well, what do you know? Here’s a SECOND Peanuts strip devoted to Mendelssohn, for the composer’s birthday! I hadn’t realized Schulz had even touched on Mendelssohn. I recall one moment of weakness when Schroeder was about to play Brahms, but otherwise, to my knowledge, it’s been pretty much straight Beethoven.

Other composers have been referenced in the strip – Handel and Ellen Taaffe Zwilich spring to mind – but can anyone remember if anyone else ever made it into Schroeder’s piano bench (figuratively speaking, since he sits on the floor)?

February 3, 2022
Schroeder’s Beethoven Bargain

Schroeder reaps the benefit of all that marked-down “Beethoven 250” merchandise.

December 26, 2021
Ellen Zwilich Peanuts Pulitzer Winner!

Ellen Taaffe Zwilich was born on this date in 1939. Zwilich made history when she became the first female recipient of the Pulitzer Prize for Music, in 1983, for her Symphony No. 1.

Seven years later, she made history for a second time for being perhaps the only living classical music composer – and to my knowledge the only woman – to be referenced in Charles Schulz’s beloved comic strip “Peanuts.”

In the first of three panels, Peppermint Patty and Marcie are shown attending a concert. Marcie, holding a program, says to Patty, half-asleep, that the next piece will be a Concerto for Flute and Orchestra. In the second panel, she notes, “It was composed by Ellen Zwilich who, incidentally, just happens to be a woman!” Patty springs awake, and in the last panel, she’s standing on her chair. As Marcie slumps into her seat in evident embarrassment, Patty cries, “GOOD GOING, ELLEN!” (The original strip is posted in the comments section below.)

Turnabout is fair play, and in 1996, Zwilich composed a concertino of sorts, for piano and orchestra, titled “Peanuts Gallery.” The work includes movements inspired by Schroeder, Linus, Snoopy, Charlie Brown, Lucy, and Peppermint Patty and Marcie. It was given its premiere on a Carnegie Hall children’s concert, by the pianist Albert Kim and the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra.

The piece was recorded for the Naxos label, with pianist Jeffrey Biegel and the Florida State University Symphony Orchestra. The movements are posted individually on YouTube. I have it cued up so that you can let them all play through, continuously, here:

As an alternative, here’s the entire work, performed without break, with actors and dancers, in a reduction for two pianos:

“Peanuts Gallery” became the subject of a prize-winning PBS documentary. A second Zwilich documentary was produced to trace the development of her “Gardens” Symphony:

https://www.pbs.org/video/the-gardens-birth-of-a-symphony-xfgoh6/

Birthdays are a time for celebration. Go ahead and go (Pea)nuts for Ellen Taaffe Zwilich.

“Celebration”

The Pulitzer-winning Symphony No. 1 (in three movements)

Peppermint Patty’s revelation: the Concerto for Flute and Orchestra

April 30, 2021

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