Archive
Wilfred Josephs, 1927-1997
Composer Wilfred Josephs died at his home in London on November 17, 1997, at the age of 70.
One of the most prolific and versatile British composers of his generation, Josephs moved effortlessly between concert music, film and television, writing 12 symphonies and more than 20 concertos alongside scores for The Great War, Cider with Rosie, Swallows and Amazons, I, Claudius and All Creatures Great and Small.
Wilfred Josephs was born in Gosforth, Newcastle upon Tyne, England, on July 24, 1927, the youngest of four sons in a Jewish family. He showed considerable musical ability from childhood, studying locally with Arthur Milner, but his parents encouraged him towards a more secure profession. Josephs therefore trained as a dentist, qualifying from the University of Durham in 1951 and subsequently serving as an orthodontist during his National Service.
Music nevertheless remained his real ambition. Josephs studied at London’s Guildhall School of Music with Alfred Nieman and later received a Leverhulme Scholarship that allowed him to study in Paris with Max Deutsch, one of Arnold Schoenberg’s distinguished pupils. For several years he continued practising dentistry while composing whenever possible.
His breakthrough came with the Requiem, Op. 39, inspired by newsreel images of Auschwitz shown during the trial of Adolf Eichmann. Based on the Hebrew Kaddish and written in memory of the victims of the Holocaust, the work won first prize in the 1963 International Composition Competition organized by the City of Milan and La Scala. Its success finally allowed Josephs to abandon dentistry and become a full-time composer. Read more…
Saul Chaplin, 1912-1997
Composer, arranger, musical director and producer Saul Chaplin died in Los Angeles on November 15, 1997, at the age of 85, from injuries sustained in a fall.
One of the great behind-the-scenes craftsmen of Hollywood’s golden-age musical, Chaplin worked on some 60 films and won three Academy Awards, for An American in Paris, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers and West Side Story.
Chaplin was born Saul Kaplan in Brooklyn, New York, on February 19, 1912. He studied accounting at New York University but spent his spare time playing piano and writing songs. After graduation he teamed with lyricist Sammy Cahn, beginning a highly successful Tin Pan Alley partnership whose songs included “Please Be Kind,” “Until the Real Thing Comes Along” and the English-language version of “Bei Mir Bist Du Schoen,” which became an enormous hit for the Andrews Sisters.
Chaplin entered Hollywood during the 1940s, working at Columbia before moving to MGM in 1949. His expertise lay less in conventional dramatic scoring than in adapting, arranging and reshaping existing songs for the screen. He provided vocal arrangements for Al Jolson in The Jolson Story (1946), worked on Gene Kelly and Frank Sinatra’s On the Town (1949), and arranged Judy Garland’s celebrated performance of “Get Happy” in Summer Stock (1950).
His first Academy Award came for Vincente Minnelli’s An American in Paris (1951), for which he and Johnny Green adapted and supervised George Gershwin’s music, culminating in the film’s famous extended ballet. The picture won six Oscars, including Best Picture and Best Scoring of a Musical Picture. Read more…
Shop at the Movie Music UK Store
Member of the
MOVIE MUSIC UK 