Named William after his grandfather, Bill Conti was born on April 13, 1942 in Providence, Rhode Island. He joined an Italian-American family whose interests included sculpture, music and painting, but it was the second of those arts which played a major role in the young man’s development: there was a radio on the table at home...
Category: Biographical Essay
Ron Goodwin
Ron Goodwin was, and still is one of England’s most well known composers of film music. He was also a respected conductor of music that can be categorised as easy listening or light music. During the late 1960s and throughout the 1970s, his compilation albums on the EMI studio 2 recording label were popular and sought after. Within the content of...
Barry Gray: Music with Strings
Twizzle first introduced Barry Gray to Gerry Anderson, and it was a history-making meeting. Twizzle was a character created by author Roberta Leigh, who was trying to interest producer Anderson in making a series or a film with Twizzle. Barry Gray was the composer who eventually brought Twizzle, and countless other characters, to life through his...
Dimitri Tiomkin’s Golden Decade
Today Dimitri Tiomkin is remembered primarily for his later scores such as THE ALAMO and THE GUNS OF NAVARONE. As enjoyable as these scores are, there is so much more to enjoy in his earlier work. In fact, Tiomkin composed some of the most enthralling music ever to come out of Hollywood. During the 1950s he was the highest paid Hollywood film composer.
Laurie Johnson
Born in London in 1927, Laurie Johnson received his musical education and training at the Royal College of Music. At the age of 18 he had a number of orchestral works published, which also had been broadcast on the radio. At the same time he was composing and arranging for the Ted Heath Band. Later he went on to work on compositions...
James Bernard
Muir Matheson once said something along the lines of “Films need music, but music does not need films”. Which I suppose is true to a certain degree, but one could argue that if it were not for films, then some of the most popular and finest music ever written would probably not have seen the light of day. As film music enthusiasts we are probably...
Leigh Harline
Composer Leigh Harline was born on the 26th March 1907, in Salt Lake City, Utah. Harline studied at the University of Utah and was a member of the Utah Radio Orchestra. He did a five-year stint in radio in San Francisco and Los Angeles, assuming the role of head arranger from 1929 through 1930, for CALIFORNIA MELODIES...
George Duning
George Duning was born in Richmond, Indiana, in 1908. He began his musical career in 1921, when he was thirteen years old. His mother who taught organ and piano wanted the young Duning to study piano seriously, but he opted for the trumpet and had lessons from Herman Wogelmuth, who was first trumpet with the Cincinnati Symphony at that time.
Bernard Herrmann: The Early Years
“I feel that music on the screen can seek out and intensify the inner thoughts of the characters… It can propel narrative forward or slow it down. It often lifts mere dialogue into the realm of poetry” So wrote Bernard Herrmann for a 1972 London recording, Music From Great Film Classics.