After the war he returned to New York where he wrote music for the theater and concert pieces like Revue for Clarinet and Orchestra (1946), which Benny Goodman and Leonard Bernstein premiered with the City Symphony of New York, and Rhapsody for Piano and Orchestra (1941). North also developed musical psychodramas with the innovative psychiatrist Karl Menninger at this time. And so he ended up writing music for over 25 Office of War Information documentaries like A Million Children (1944), and Library of Congress (1945). The US Army drafted him in 1942 and noticed his flair for film scoring. One of North's first film scores-he started in 1936-was for Elia Kazan's documentary short People of the Cumberland (1937). While there he also studied with the highly original Mexican composer Silvestre Revueltas, who wrote a number of striking film scores. North became her music director and accompanied Soklolow and her troupe on a tour of Mexico in 1939. North wrote scores in New York for the Federal Theater project, worked as Martha Graham's rehearsal pianist-he wrote the 1937 dance American Lyric for her company-and did ballets for Hanya Holm, and most importantly, for Anna Sokolow, who left Graham to form her own company. And so he returned to New York in 1936, where he continued his studies with Aaron Copland (1936-39), and Ernst Toch (1938-39)-who would soon move to Hollywood to score films. But North was homesick in Moscow-he missed American music, especially jazz, and broke into tears when he heard a recording of Ellington's Mood Indigo. While he was in Russia North served as music director of the Latvian State Theater, and he would later teach at Bennington, Briarcliffe and Finch colleges in the US. And so North applied, was accepted, and went to Russia where he studied composition on scholarship at the Moscow Conservatory-he was its first American pupil-with Anton Weprik and Victor Biely, from 1932 to 1935. But his fascination with new Russian music, especially that of Prokofiev, made him interested in going to Russia. While there he worked nights as a telegrapher, which ruined his health. Though times were lean, the household was filled with music, and North's extraordinary musical talent earned him scholarships to Philadelphia's Curtis Institute, where he studied piano with George Boyle, and New York's Juilliard School, where he took courses in composition with Bernard Wagenaar from 1929 to 1932. His mother took in boarders to make ends meet after his blacksmith father died and saved enough money to send two of his brothers to college. His early years in his hometown of Chester, Pennsylvania, were not easy. North's daring and emotional integrity can be felt in his music, and are reflected in his life choices. And North's scores continue to be re-released as CDs year after year. His hit single, Unchained Melody, has been recorded over 500 times by artists ranging from the Righteous Brothers to Elvis Presley, Lee Ann Rimes, Sarah McLachlan, John Lennon, and James Galway. The world famous Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra and that of Hollywood Bowl have played North's music in concert many times over the past several years.
On the fifteenth anniversary of his death, North's work in ballet, theater, symphony orchestra, television, and motion pictures continues to stand up to the toughest metric-time. And he is the first and thus far only composer to have received this honor for his music.
But he nevertheless accumulated 15 Oscar nominations and a Lifetime Achievement Oscar for his work in the film industry. Renowned composer Alex North shunned publicity and Hollywood careerism.
0 kommentar(er)
