Remembering Howard Ashman, 1950-1991
Lyricist, playwright, director and producer Howard Ashman died in New York City ten years ago today, on March 14, 1991, at the age of 40, from complications related to AIDS.
Although his career was tragically brief, Ashman played a crucial role in revitalizing both the American musical theatre and Disney animation. With composer Alan Menken he wrote the songs for Little Shop of Horrors, The Little Mermaid and Beauty and the Beast, while his final work on Aladdin was completed shortly before his death. He won two Academy Awards for Best Original Song, the second posthumously.
Howard Elliott Ashman was born in Baltimore, Maryland, on May 17, 1950, and developed an early interest in theatre. He studied at Boston University and Goddard College before earning a master’s degree from Indiana University. Moving to New York in 1974, he worked briefly in publishing while writing plays and became involved with the small WPA Theatre, eventually serving as its artistic director.
Ashman’s first collaboration with Alan Menken was the 1979 musical God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater, adapted from Kurt Vonnegut’s novel. Their breakthrough came three years later with Little Shop of Horrors, based on Roger Corman’s low-budget 1960 comedy about a man-eating plant. Ashman wrote the book and lyrics and directed the original production, while Menken composed the music. Its mixture of 1960s pop, Motown, comedy and horror became an enormous Off-Broadway success. Read more…
Piero Umiliani, 1926-2001
Composer, pianist and conductor Piero Umiliani died in Rome on February 14, 2001, at the age of 74.
One of the most distinctive figures in post-war Italian film music, Umiliani wrote more than 150 scores during a career encompassing comedy, thrillers, westerns, gialli, documentaries and exploitation cinema. A gifted jazz musician and enthusiastic electronic experimenter, he is also remembered internationally for the irresistible “Mah Nà Mah Nà,” one of the most unlikely soundtrack themes ever to become a worldwide popular standard.
Umiliani was born in Florence on July 17, 1926. Fascinated by jazz at a time when the music was discouraged by Italy’s Fascist regime, he listened avidly to Duke Ellington and other American musicians on foreign radio during World War II. He subsequently became an accomplished jazz pianist, performed and recorded with leading Italian musicians, and studied counterpoint and fugue at Florence’s Luigi Cherubini Conservatory. After moving to Rome he worked as an arranger for Armando Trovajoli before establishing himself in cinema.
His breakthrough came with Mario Monicelli’s classic comedy I Soliti Ignoti (Big Deal on Madonna Street, 1958). Monicelli specifically wanted a jazz score, and Umiliani responded with music that brought a strikingly contemporary sound to Italian cinema, including the memorable “Blues for Gassman.” The score was among the earliest Italian films to use jazz so extensively as dramatic accompaniment and immediately established Umiliani as a composer with a musical personality very different from the traditional symphonic school. Read more…
Academy Award Nominations 2000
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) have announced the nominations for the 73rd Academy Awards, honoring the best in film in 2000.
In the Best Original Score category, the nominees are:
- TAN DUN for Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon
- ENNIO MORRICONE for Malèna
- RACHEL PORTMAN for Chocolat
- JOHN WILLAMS for The Patriot
- HANS ZIMMER for Gladiator
This is the first Oscar nomination for Tan, the 5th nomination for Morricone, the 3rd nomination for Portman, the 34th nomination for Williams, and the 6th nomination for Zimmer. Portman previously won for Emma in 1996. Williams previously won for Fiddler on the Roof in 1971, Jaws in 1975, Star Wars in 1977, E.T. the Extra Terrestrial in 1982, and Schindler’s List in 1993. Zimmer previously won for The Lion King in 1994.
In the Best Original Song category, the nominees are:
- TAN DUN, JORGE CALANDRELLI, and JAMES SCHAMUS for “A Love Before Time” from Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon
- BOB DYLAN for “Things Have Changed” from Wonder Boys
- BJÖRK GUÐMUNDSDÓTTIR, LARS VON TRIER, and SJÓN SIGURÐSSON for “I’ve Seen It All” from Dancer in the Dark
- RANDY NEWMAN for “A Fool In Love” from Meet the Parents
- GORDON SUMNER (STING) and DAVID HARTLEY for “My Funny Friend and Me” from The Emperor’s New Groove
The winners of the 73rd Academy Awards will be announced on March 25, 2001.
AFRICA – Alex North
MOVIE MUSIC UK CLASSICS
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
I so much want to like Alex North’s music. Every bone in my body tells me that, technically, he was one of the most gifted and creative composers every to work in Hollywood. Modern luminaries laud his work as being some of the most groundbreaking ever written for the Silver Screen. Jerry Goldsmith was a close friend and ardent admirer. As a 14 time Oscar nominee, the esteem in which he is held speaks for itself. But, with a few notable exceptions, I never have been able to actually sit and “enjoy” an Alex North score. He didn’t write that kind of music. Read more…
BAFTA Nominations 2000
The British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) has announced the nominations for the 54th British Academy Film Awards, honoring the best in film in 2000.
In the Best Original Music category, which is named in memory of the film director Anthony Asquith, the nominees are:
- T-BONE BURNETT and CARTER BURWELL for O Brother, Where Art Thou?
- TAN DUN for Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon
- STEPHEN WARBECK for Billy Elliot
- NANCY WILSON for Almost Famous
- HANS ZIMMER and LISA GERRARD for Gladiator
These are the first nominations for Burnett, Burwell, Dun, Gerrard and Wilson. It is the second nomination for Warbeck, and the third nomination for Zimmer.
The winners of the 54th BAFTA Awards will be announced on February 25, 2001.
ROBOCOP: PRIME DIRECTIVES – Norman Orenstein
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
Preconceptions are funny things, especially in film music. When Robocop: Prime Directives dropped through my door, with the name Norman Orenstein adorning the package, my first instinct was to dismiss it as cheesy TV music. Without wanting to sound unkind, Canadian composer Norman Orenstein’s career to date has hardly been stellar. A series of cut-price straight-to-video classics such as Ski School II, Mask of Death and The First 91/2 Weeks have been the highlights of his film music career so far – until Robocop Prime Directives came along. Working with a comparatively small budget, and out of his personal studio in Toronto, Orenstein emerged with a surprisingly vibrant, large-scale, enjoyable series of cues which mix electronics with sampled acoustics and a smattering of live instruments. It’s a world away from the classic march Basil Poledouris wrote for the film series, but as TV music goes this is as solid a score as you would expect. Read more…
THE CLAIM – Michael Nyman
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
I’m not really given to making lofty proclamations here, but this is one guaranteed to ruffle a few feathers: The Claim is Michael Nyman’s best score to date. I’m not talking best as in the complexity of the music, or the craftsmanship: rather, The Claim is Nyman’s first film score in the sense that it overflows with emotion. It’s lush, it sweeps, and it features one of the most attractive central themes the enigmatic Englishman has ever written. Michael Nyman writing for a big-screen adaptation of Thomas Hardy’s The Mayor of Casterbridge; that I can believe. Michael Nyman writing for an epic Western set at the height of the gold rush; well, that’s another proposition entirely. Read more…
ALL THE PRETTY HORSES – Marty Stuart, Kristin Wilkinson, Larry Paxton
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
I’ve spoken about preconceptions many times before on Movie Music UK; pre-judging a score based on what you know about the movie, and the composer, before you hear the music. Once again, I have been found guilty of negatively pre-judging a particular score, only to hear the thing and be totally blown away. The score in question this time is All the Pretty Horses, written by Marty Stuart, with additional music by Larry Paxton, Kristin Wilkinson and Daniel Lanois. All the Pretty Horses is director Billy Bob Thornton’s sophomore effort, following his critically acclaimed, Oscar-winning debut Sling Blade. It’s a rites-of-passage Western, adapted from the popular novel by Cormac McCarthy and starring Matt Damon as John Grady Cole, a young man in rural 1940s Texas who, after being made homeless following his grandmother’s death, heads off to Mexico with his best buddy Lacey Rawlins (Henry Thomas) to seek his fortune. Unfortunately, fortune is not what Cole and Rawlins find south of the Rio Grande, instead becoming involved in the affairs of a teenage gunslinger Blevins (Lucas Black), a Mexican rancher’s daughter (Penelope Cruz), with whom Cole falls in love, and the local police, who take exception to the blossoming romance between the handsome American and the beautiful señorita. Read more…
THE GIFT – Christopher Young
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
It may be my imagination, or my personal tastes, but during the last year or so Christopher Young finally seems have found himself a series of good movies to score. From The Hurricane last year, though Wonder Boys and The Big Kahuna this year, the quality and profile of each consecutive assignment seems to have been greater than the previous, almost to the stage where Young can genuinely class himself as an A-list composer. This latest effort is The Gift, a dark thriller starring Cate Blanchett and Keanu Reeves, and directed by directed by Sam Raimi, in what was his big Oscar push for the year 2000. Read more…
MALÉNA – Ennio Morricone
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
Ennio Morricone’s fifth and final score of 2000 is for the Italian romantic-comedy-drama Maléna, directed by Giuseppe Tornatore, for whom Morricone has written several classic scores, not least the incredible Cinema Paradiso. What’s interesting about Maléna is the fact that, unlike 99% of Morricone’s output of late, it has been the recipient of quite a bit of publicity, mainly through its association with the Miramax marketing machine. A second Golden Globe Best Score nomination in a row has been secured for the Italian maestro – following his success with The Legend of 1900 last year – and is backed up by a high profile soundtrack release. The only difference between this and 1900, though, is that Maléna is worthy of the praise. Read more…
Golden Globe Nominations 2000
The Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA) has announced the nominations for the 58th Golden Globe Awards, honoring the best in film and American television of 2000.
In the Best Original Score category, the nominees are:
- TAN DUN for Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon
- MAURICE JARRE for Sunshine
- ENNIO MORRICONE for Malèna
- RACHEL PORTMAN for Chocolat
- MARTY STUART, LARRY PAXTON, and KRISTIN WILKINSON for All the Pretty Horses
- HANS ZIMMER and LISA GERRARD for Gladiator
These are first nominations for Dun, Stuart, Paxton, Portman, and Wilkinson. It is the second nomination for Gerrard, the third nomination for Zimmer, the seventh nomination for Morricone, and the tenth nomination for Jarre. Zimmer previously won for The Lion King in 1994. Morricone previously won for The Mission in 1986 and The Legend of 1900 in 1999. Jarre previously won for Doctor Zhivago in 1965, A Passage to India in 1984, Gorillas in the Mist in 1988, and A Walk in the Clouds in 1995.
In the Best Original Song category, the nominees are:
- GARTH BROOKS and JENNY YATES for “When You Come Back to Me Again” from Frequency
- BOB DYLAN for “Things Have Changed” from Wonder Boys
- BJÖRK GUÐMUNDSDÓTTIR, LARS VON TRIER, and SIGURJÓN SIGURÐSSON for “I’ve Seen It All” from Dancer in the Dark
- STAFFAN OLSSON (BOSSON) for “One in a Million” from Miss Congeniality
- GORDON SUMNER (STING) and DAVID HARTLEY for “My Funny Friend and Me” from The Emperor’s New Groove
The winners of the 58th Golden Globe Awards will be announced on January 21, 2001.
CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON – Tan Dun
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
After spending much of its history consigned to art-houses, lauded by critics but unseen by the masses, Chinese cinema is suddenly big business. The emigration west of some of its biggest names, notably action stars such as Jackie Chan and Chow Yun Fat, has undoubtedly paved the way for Chinese-language movies to reach a wider audience, and now the first true crossover hit seems to have come: Ang Lee’s Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon. Director Lee has, of course, been making critically popular films in English for a number of years, from the Oscar winning costume drama Sense & Sensibility to the drama The Ice Storm and the civil war epic Ride With The Devil. Throughout his career, though, Lee has harbored a desire to make a wuxia pian, a Chinese costume drama combining traditional drama with martial arts. Lee has described Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon as “Jane Austen meets Bruce Lee”. Read more…
PROOF OF LIFE – Danny Elfman
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
Proof of Life: The Movie has been overtaken in the world’s press by Proof of Life: The On-Set Romance to such an extent that director Taylor Hackford’s espionage thriller has almost become an unimportant by-product of the Meg and Russell Show. Meg divorced Dennis Quaid to be with Crowe, who then left Meg to be with his cattle in Australia… it’s certainly one of Tinseltown’s more unusual love triangles. But Movie Music UK is not concerned with tabloid tittle-tattle, instead preferring to judge things on their artistic merits. Unfortunately, as far as the music is concerned at least, Proof of Life doesn’t have many. The film Russell Crowe stars as Terry Thorne, a private investigator and hostage negotiation specialist who is hired by Alice Bowman (Meg Ryan) to find her engineer husband Peter (David Morse), who has been kidnapped by guerrillas in South America. Terry and Alice head deeper into danger, locking horns with Ecuadorian freedom fighters and corrupt government officials as they try to obtain some kind of reassurance that Peter is alive, and worth searching for. However, as the two of them endure life-threatening situation after life-threatening situation, a tentative romantic relationship develops, jeopardizing both the mission and Terry’s professional integrity. Read more…
VERTICAL LIMIT – James Newton Howard
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
By popular consensus, James Newton Howard has finished the year 2000 as one of the strongest and most consistent composers in Hollywood. The 49-year old Californian wrote three stellar scores in 2000 – Dinosaur (my personal favorite of the entire year), Unbreakable, and Vertical Limit, the latter being an epic mountaineering score for the film directed by Martin Campbell. The undoubted high quality of his work, the critical acclaim it has received amongst score fans, and the old-fashioned enjoyment derived from his work of late has thrust him into the limelight; Vertical Limit is just the latest in a long line of excellent works from the man with three names. Read more…
Remembering Aaron Copland, 1900-1990
Composer, conductor and teacher Aaron Copland died ten years ago today in North Tarrytown, New York, on December 2, 1990, at the age of 90, following years of declining health.
Widely regarded as one of the defining voices of American concert music, Copland also enjoyed a brief but highly influential career in Hollywood, bringing to films the spacious harmonies, direct melodies and unmistakably American character that had already distinguished works such as Billy the Kid, Rodeo and Appalachian Spring.
Copland was born in Brooklyn on November 14, 1900, the youngest of five children in a Russian-Jewish immigrant family. After studying in New York he travelled to Paris, where he became one of the first American pupils of the influential teacher Nadia Boulanger. Returning home in the 1920s, Copland gradually developed a musical language that combined European modernism with jazz, folk material and an increasingly accessible style intended to speak directly to American audiences.
His first film assignment was Ralph Steiner and Willard Van Dyke’s documentary The City (1939), produced for the New York World’s Fair. That same year Copland entered Hollywood with Lewis Milestone’s adaptation of John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men. Rather than imitate the lush late-Romantic style then dominant in studio scoring, Copland used clear textures, folk-like melodies and restrained orchestration, allowing the rural setting and loneliness of the characters to emerge without excessive sentimentality. The score received Academy Award nominations for both original score and scoring. Read more…
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