Under appreciated composers
Posted: Fri May 29, 2009 2:53 am
Look-- I'm a strange person. I orchestrate a lot. I'm a Beatle fan and play the guitar and bass. I like AC/DC and ZZ Top. I like Dave Matthews. I like Soundgarten and Pearl Jam. I like Kings X. I like Lifehouse and Greenday. I like Oscar Peterson and Keith Jarrett. I like Earth-Wind & Fire, I like Tower/Power. I like Sly and the Family Stone. I like Eminem. I like Janet. I like Beatles. I like Stones. I like Phil Glass. I can't stomach Celine.
The list goes on.
But here's the deal-- I also love the work of Carl Stalling, the composer for so many Warner Brothers animated shorts. No less a genius is Milt Franklyn. If that name means nothing, then check this out:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jhq0N4ORYjM
You "older cusses" will get a kick out of this.
Milt was Carl's apprentice and assistant for many years, and he took over for Carl when Carl retired.
Okay.
But then there was Scott Bradley who did quite a bit of composing for animated cartoons. If this comes across as substandard or compromising, check out this quote:
I want to also submit the name Winston Sharples to this echelon. We're taking about the originals of Little Audrey, Casper, Popeye and so many other fully orchestrated animated shorts that way too many people take for granted.
I say this because I've done 11 orchestrations in the past three weeks, and no one's life has changed because of it. I've done probably 200 orchestrations in the past 18 months, and I have no proof that anyone was uplifted by all that effort.
These guys churned out way more music than I can ever imagine, and I'm finding it all to be masterful work (only in my old age) -- every note of it. In a nutshell, I suck by comparison --- and it's no photo finish by any stretch.
If you listen to these soundtracks, they are all masterpieces in their own rights.
I'm just saying that Winston, Carl, Milt, and Scott are four of THE most listened-to but most taken-for-granted and least appreciated composers who ever lived. The writing alone is as mind-boggling as the amount of it they did. Scott alone has over 800 screen credits.
Okay, so what goes on in orchestra world is not important to everyone. That's okay. I'll be back in guitar world in a few days.
But I'm just sayin'....
We've overlooked some important people....
The list goes on.
But here's the deal-- I also love the work of Carl Stalling, the composer for so many Warner Brothers animated shorts. No less a genius is Milt Franklyn. If that name means nothing, then check this out:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jhq0N4ORYjM
You "older cusses" will get a kick out of this.
Milt was Carl's apprentice and assistant for many years, and he took over for Carl when Carl retired.
Okay.
But then there was Scott Bradley who did quite a bit of composing for animated cartoons. If this comes across as substandard or compromising, check out this quote:
Okay. so Scott was cool.His early style incorporated fragments of popular and traditional melodies, as was common practice in scores for animation. However, by the late 1940s, Bradley's compositions and orchestrations had become more original and complex, occasionally utilizing the twelve-tone technique devised by Arnold Schoenberg who, along with Bela Bartok, Igor Stravinsky, and Paul Hindemith, influenced Bradley's approach. "Scott writes the most blank-blank-blank difficult fiddle music in Hollywood," concertmaster Lou Raderman was quoted (complaining good-naturedly) in Sight & Sound magazine. "He is going to break my fingers."
I want to also submit the name Winston Sharples to this echelon. We're taking about the originals of Little Audrey, Casper, Popeye and so many other fully orchestrated animated shorts that way too many people take for granted.
I say this because I've done 11 orchestrations in the past three weeks, and no one's life has changed because of it. I've done probably 200 orchestrations in the past 18 months, and I have no proof that anyone was uplifted by all that effort.
These guys churned out way more music than I can ever imagine, and I'm finding it all to be masterful work (only in my old age) -- every note of it. In a nutshell, I suck by comparison --- and it's no photo finish by any stretch.
If you listen to these soundtracks, they are all masterpieces in their own rights.
I'm just saying that Winston, Carl, Milt, and Scott are four of THE most listened-to but most taken-for-granted and least appreciated composers who ever lived. The writing alone is as mind-boggling as the amount of it they did. Scott alone has over 800 screen credits.
Okay, so what goes on in orchestra world is not important to everyone. That's okay. I'll be back in guitar world in a few days.
But I'm just sayin'....
We've overlooked some important people....