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Alfred Newman
File:Alfred Newman.png
BornMarch 17, 1900
New Haven, Connecticut, U.S.
DiedFebruary 17, 1970 (aged 69)
Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Resting placeForest Lawn Memorial Park, Glendale
Occupation(s)composer, conductor, arranger
Years active1930–1970
SpouseMartha Louise Montgomery (1947–1970; his death) (1920–2005)
ChildrenDavid Newman (b. 1954)
Thomas Newman (b. 1955)
Maria Newman (b. 1962)
Tim Newman
RelativesEmil Newman (brother)
Lionel Newman (brother)
Randy Newman (nephew)
Joey Newman (grandnephew)
Musical career
GenresFilm score

Alfred Newman (March 17, 1900 – February 17, 1970) was an American composer, arranger, and conductor of film music.

In a career spanning more than four decades, Newman composed the scores for over 200 motion pictures. His most famous scores include Wuthering Heights, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, The Mark of Zorro, How Green Was My Valley, The Song of Bernadette, Captain from Castile, All About Eve, Love is a Many Splendored Thing, Anastasia, The Diary of Anne Frank, How The West Was Won, The Greatest Story Ever Told, and his final score, Airport, all of which were nominated for or won Academy Awards.

Newman was also highly regarded as a conductor, and arranged and conducted many scores by other composers. In addition, he conducted the music for many film adaptations of Broadway musicals (having worked on Broadway for ten years before coming to Hollywood), as well as many original Hollywood musicals.

Along with such composers as Max Steiner, Erich Wolfgang Korngold, and Franz Waxman, Newman was among the first composers to write original music for motion pictures, although unlike most of his colleagues, Newman did not write any music other than for film. He was one of the most respected film score composers of his time, and is today regarded as one of the greatest musicians ever to work in film.

His nine Academy Award wins remains the record for a composer, while his total of forty-three nominations makes him the third-most nominated individual after Walt Disney and John Williams.[1]

Early life

Newman was the eldest of ten children, born in New Haven, Connecticut to Jewish parents who immigrated from Russia.[2]: 68  He began studying piano at the age of five with the help of respected musicians, such as Edward A. Parsons and later, Sigismund Stojowski. In order to practice, he had to walk a ten-mile round trip every day.[3]

By the age of eight, he had become a locally well known piano prodigy.[4] He had played for virtuoso Ignacy Jan Paderewski, who arranged a recital for young Newman in New York.[4] However, his parents' meager income was not enough to support his large family and he found it necessary to begin earning an income from his music to help support his family.[4] He then began playing in theaters and restaurants.

He traveled the vaudeville circuit with performer Grace LaRue, billed as "The Marvelous Boy Pianist".[2]: 69 

By the age of twenty he was in New York City, beginning a ten-year career on Broadway as the conductor of musicals by composers such as George Gershwin, Richard Rodgers, and Jerome Kern.[2]: 69  Then, in 1930, he accompanied Irving Berlin to Hollywood.[5] In Los Angeles, he had private lessons from Arnold Schoenberg.

Film scoring career

1930s

Newman arrived in Hollywood in 1930 as a conductor. After completing his work on Berlin's project, a film called Reaching for the Moon, Newman found work with Samuel Goldwyn and United Artists, writing his first full film score for Goldwyn's 1931 production, Street Scene.[2]: 69  The score attempted to mirror the sounds of everyday life in New York's Lower East Side in the 1930s, creating a bluesy, yet frantic excitement of the city, along with its weariness.[6]

The title song he wrote for this film became a theme to which he returned on several occasions, including the opening of the 1953 film How to Marry a Millionaire, in which Newman is seen conducting the studio orchestra.[7] The theme is also used in films Gentleman's Agreement, I Wake Up Screaming,The Dark Corner, Cry of the City, Kiss of Death, and Where The Sidewalk Ends.

In 1931 Charlie Chaplin hired him to orchestrate his film, City Lights, and used Newman again for Modern Times in 1936.[8][9] Hollywood reporter Sidney Skolsky watched them working together as Newman conducted the 65-piece orchestra for the scoring of Modern Times.[9]

Newman soon became Goldwyn's favorite composer, while his style evolved with each new film he scored.[2]: 74  He scored numerous adventure stories and romances, historical pageants and swashbuckling epics, as did his contemporary, Erich Wolfgang Korngold.[2]: 75 

He received his first Academy Award for Alexander's Ragtime Band in 1938. In 1939, he wrote the music for Goldwyn's Wuthering Heights, starring Laurence Olivier and Merle Oberon.[10] His score became unique in the way it had different musical themes to help clarify the story within a story and all the flashbacks, and did so partly by creating different motifs for the key actors, which helped frame the action. The theme for Cathy, for instance, consisted of a glowing pastoral with strings, introduced by the sound of the wind and blowing leaves, all of which gave the music an ethereal quality that augmented Bernadette's visions.[6] Heathcliff's theme, in contrast, produced a darker, more serious image.[6]

For RKO, he composed the music for Gunga Din, and for Paramount Pictures, Beau Geste, both in 1939.[11]

Among Newman's specialties were films with a religious theme, although he himself was not known to be religious.[2]: 80  Among the films were The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1939), starring Charles Laughton,[12], and in subsequent years, The Song of Bernadette (1943), The Robe (1953), and The Greatest Story Ever Told (1965).

1940s

In 1940, Newman began a 20-year career as music director for 20th Century-Fox Studios. During that period he composed over 200 film scores, eight of which won Academy Awards.

He developed what came to be known as the Newman System, a means of synchronizing the performance and recording of a musical score with the film, a system which is still in use today.[13] Newman's scores were developed around the overall mood of each film. He also tailored specific themes to accompany different characters as they appeared on screen, thereby enhancing each actor's role. The effects of this style of music created a forceful but less jarring score which connected the entire story, thereby keeping the film's theme more easily understood by viewers.[13]

He composed the familiar fanfare which accompanies the studio logo at the beginning of Fox's productions, and still introduces Fox pictures today.[14] In 1953, Newman wrote the "CinemaScope extension" for his fanfare. This fanfare was re-recorded in 1997 by his son David, also a composer, and it is this rendition that is used today.

The Song of Bernadette (1943) is said to be one of Newman's loveliest scores, using three different motifs which color different issues during the film. Among them was a brass chorale to represent Mother Church,[2]: 80 [15] while the theme representing Bernadette used strings to support her character's warmth and tenderness.[2]: 81 

Newman's score for Wilson (1944), a biopic about president Woodrow Wilson, required he devote an unusual amount of time to research. The film was intended to be a tribute to Wilson by producer Darryl F. Zanuck. Newman spent time learning personal details about Wilson and his family, such as the songs they sang and played on their piano at home, the music they liked to dance and listen to, the songs they played during political rallies or political functions during his career. As a result, the film contained some forty realistic American-themed numbers intertwined throughout the film which gave it a strong sense of timeliness.[2]: 89 [16]

His skill at studying period music and assimilating them into his scores was widely known. For films such as How Green Was My Valley (1941), for example, he incorporated Welsh hymns. For How The West Was Won (1950), he took folk tunes and transformed them into orchestral/choral works of tremendous power. And for The Grapes of Wrath (1940), he brought in the folk tune favorite "Red River Valley" throughout the score.[6] His skill at incorporating familiar traditional music into modern scores was not limited to Western themes, however. During portions of the score for Love is a Many Splendored Thing, for example, he created numbers with a distinctly Chinese sensibility, both with instruments and melodies.[17] Generally, however, he would create his own original melody and turn it into something haunting and memorable, as he did for The Robe (1953).[4]

In 1947 he composed the music for Captain from Castile, which included the famous "Conquest march", an impassioned score for the Spanish conquistadors.[2]: 75 [18] The dramatic score for The Snake Pit, a 1948 film set in a lunatic asylum, was accentuated by Newman's careful use of effects to intensify the discomfort and fear portrayed by the actors, primarily its star Olivia de Havilland.[2]: 79 [19]

1950s

The Robe (1953), a New Testament epic, was another of Newman's scores with a religious theme. Although the film was considered an epic blockbuster when it was released, Newman's music relied on creating a feelings of spaciousness, grandeur and simplicity. It was also the first picture to use stereo sound, which allowed Newman to experiment in developing the various moods.[2]: 85 [20] The score was one of fellow composer Franz Waxman's favorites, and he re-worked part of it for the film's sequel.[2]: 85 

In 1959 Newman composed the score for The Diary of Anne Frank. Although based on the true-life tragic story of a young girl during World War II, Newman's score focuses on her optimistic personality, which as her diary attests, she continued to believe that people were good at heart.[2]: 87 [21] Music historian Christopher Palmer says that the score is one of Newman's finest, which because of it's style, elegance and integrity, the emotions portrayed by the actors can be physically "felt" by the audience.[2]: 88  It was nominated for an Oscar.

1960s

Newman's final musical score under his Fox contract was The Best of Everything (1959), and after leaving Fox in 1960, Newman freelanced for the remainder of his career, writing the scores for such films as MGM's How the West Was Won (1962), which some consider his most familiar and best score.[4] It is listed on AFI's 100 Years of Film Scores. That film and The Greatest Story Ever Told (1965), were nominated for an Oscar.

Newman remained active until the end of his life, scoring Universal Pictures' Airport (1970) shortly before his death.[22]

Last work and death

Newman's final score was for the 1970 film Airport, produced by Universal Pictures. Newman conducted the recording sessions for the music heard in the film, but was unable to conduct the commercial release of the score due to failing health, and the commercial release was conducted by Stanley Wilson. Newman retired from film scoring immediately after completing the score.

Newman died on February 17, 1970, one month before his 70th birthday, at his home in Hollywood, from complications of emphysema.

Legacy

Arriving in Hollywood just as talking were getting more technically sophisticated, he contributed to creating the musical sound of the era and was at the heart of the studio system at its peak...The passing of Newman was symbolic of the end of a golden age.

Thomas Hischak
The Encyclopedia of Film Composers[6]

During his career, Newman was regarded as the most important, most influential and most respected figure in the history of film music.[4] He received 44 Oscar nominations and 8 Academy Awards, more than any other musical director or composer.[23] He was considered the "most powerful music director in the history of Hollywood."[24] According to some music historians, his word about music was considered "the law" in Hollywood for nearly 30 years.[4]

He composed the familiar fanfare which accompanies the studio logo at the beginning of Fox's productions, and still introduces Fox pictures today.[14] A segment of Newman's score for David O. Selznick's The Prisoner of Zenda (1937) became the standard music which accompanied the Selznick International Logo when introducing his films.[25][26][27]

While a composer, music director and conductor, he often contributed to the scores of others without credit.[23] When he wasn't working on a particular movie, he was often approached by studio production heads needing advice, which he freely gave.[4] Other musicians were constantly exploring new ideas or perfecting older techniques, which required sharing their knowledge with each other.[28] Newman, during his years as a music director, sometimes went further: if one of his composers was stumped for a suitable melody, for instance, Newman would sometimes write a few bars on paper and hand it to the composer, suggesting he try it out.[28]

As a music director, it was Newman's job to find and select suitable composers for various films. When he saw a composer's potential, he also had the power to sign them to long term staff contracts. Music historian Robert R. Faulkner is of the opinion that had Newman not been music director at Twentieth Century Fox, composers such as Bernard Herrmann, Alex North, and David Raksin, all of whose music was somewhat radical, might never have had such major careers in Hollywood.[28]

"The legacy of Alfred Newman and his influence on the language of music for the cinema is practically unmatched by anyone in Hollywood history. As an executive, he was hard but fair. As a mentor to his staff he was revered. The orchestras under his baton delighted in his abilities as a conductor. The music he himself composed, often under extreme emotional duress, is among the most gorgeous ever written. […] Not big in physical stature, he was a giant in character, a titan in of the world he loved and dominated. He was a true musical force, and one that cannot in any sense be replaced.” "

— Nick Redman[29]

In 1999, the United States Postal Service issued a stamp in his honor.[30]

Partial filmography

Between 1930 and 1970, Alfred Newman wrote music for over 200 films of every imaginable type, including a score for the newsreel made from the World War II footage of the Battle of Midway. In addition to his own film scores, Newman acted as musical director on numerous other films. Among his major film scores (and adaptations of other composers' scores) are: Template:Multicol

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Awards

Newman won nine Academy Awards, the third highest number of Oscars ever won by an individual (Walt Disney won twenty-six, Cedric Gibbons won eleven) and was nominated for forty-five, making him the most nominated composer in Oscar history until 2006, when John Williams matched the record upon receiving his 44th and 45th nominations, and later surpassed it in 2012 with his 47th and 48th nominations. Between 1938 and 1957, Newman was nominated for at least one Oscar each year. Forty-three of Newman's nominations were for Best Original Score (making him the second most nominated in that category after John Williams) and two were for Original Song.

In 1940, Newman was nominated for his work on four different films, but lost to Herbert Stothart's score to The Wizard of Oz. This year is also notable for Max Steiner losing the award for his work on Gone with the Wind, a score widely considered to be one of the best ever written. Victor Young is the only other composer to achieve the feat of receiving four nominations in one year, and the only to do so on two occasions.

Newman's scores for The Hurricane and The Prisoner of Zenda were nominated at a time when composers were not eligible to be nominated in the score category.

He also received posthumous Golden Globe Award and Grammy Award nominations (both for his score to Airport), but did not win either award.

The American Film Institute ranked his score for How the West Was Won as No. 25 on their list of the 25 greatest film scores. Ten of Newman's other scores were also nominated:

Newman has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1700 Vine Street.

Newman family

He married Martha Louise Montgomery (born December 5, 1920, Clarksdale, Mississippi - died May 9, 2005, Pacific Palisades, California), a former actress and Goldwyn Girl; they had five children.

He was the head of a family of major Hollywood film composers:

References

  1. ^ "Nominee Facts - Most Nominations and Awards", Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences; retrieved November 30, 2015.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Palmer, Christopher. The Composer in Hollywood, Marion Boyars Publishing (1990)
  3. ^ "Alfred Newman (1901-1970) - head of a musical dynasty", mfiles U.K.
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h Bogdanov, Vladimir; Woodstra, Chris. editors, All Music Guide: The Definitive Guide to Popular Music, Hal Leonard Corp. (2001) p. 1000
  5. ^ Biography of Alfred Newman, Virginia Tech Multimedia Music Dictionary
  6. ^ a b c d e Hischak, Thomas. The Encyclopedia of Film Composers, Rowman & Littlefield (2015) pp. 485-486
  7. ^ Alfred Newman conducting opening scene in How to Marry a Millionaire
  8. ^ Charlie Chaplin congratulating Alfred Newman while conducting Modern Times
  9. ^ a b "Discovering Chaplin", November 29, 2015
  10. ^ Alfred Newman's composition of Wuthering Heights
  11. ^ Alfred Newman score for Beau Geste
  12. ^ Alfred Newman's composition of The Hunchback of Notre Dame
  13. ^ a b Henderson, Lol; Stacey, Lee. Encyclopedia of Music in the 20th Century, (2014) p. 446
  14. ^ a b "20th Century Fox fanfare", composed by Alfred Newman
  15. ^ Alfred Newman's score of The Song Of Bernadette
  16. ^ Alfred Newman's score to Wilson
  17. ^ Alfred Newman's themes for Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing
  18. ^ Alfred Newman's "Conquest March" in Captain from Castile
  19. ^ Alfred Newman's score of The Snake Pit
  20. ^ Alfred Newman's score for The Robe
  21. ^ Alfred Newman's score of The Diary of Anne Frank
  22. ^ Alfred Newman's score for Airport
  23. ^ a b McCarty, Clifford. Film Composers in America: A Filmography, 1911-1970, Oxford Univ. Press (2000) p. 6
  24. ^ Henderson, Sanya. Alex North, Film Composer: A Biography, McFarland (2003) pp. 43-44
  25. ^ Neumeyer, David. Franz Waxman's Rebecca: A Film Score Guide, Scarecrow Press (2012) p. 96
  26. ^ Selznick International Pictures logo theme
  27. ^ Alfred Newman score to The Prisoner of Zenda
  28. ^ a b c Faulkner, Robert R. Music on Demand, Transaction Publishers (1983, 2005) p. 4
  29. ^ Nick Redman in “The Robe” 50th anniversary edition CD booklet, Varèse Sarabande 2003
  30. ^ Alfred Newman postage stamp, issued Sept. 16, 1999

External links

source: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Alfred_Newman&oldid=739273616

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