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Alex North

 
Alex North
(born Dec. 4, 1910, Chester, Pa., U.S. — died Sept. 8, 1991, Pacific Palisades, Calif.) U.S. film composer and conductor. North studied at the Curtis Institute and Juilliard. In the early 1930s he traveled to Moscow and became the sole American member of the Union of Soviet Composers. He composed ballet scores for Martha Graham and others and later studied and conducted in Mexico City. North's score for A Streetcar Named Desire (1951), the first jazz-based film score, brought him to prominence. His dozens of films over 30 years include Spartacus (1960), Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966), and Prizzi's Honor (1985).

For more information on Alex North, visit Britannica.com.

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Music Encyclopedia:

Alex North

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(b Chester, pa, 4 Dec 1910; d Los Angeles, 8 Sept 1991). American composer. He studied at the Juilliard School and in Moscow and was a pupil of Copland and Toch. In the 1950s he became a leading Hollywood composer after the success of A Streetcar Named Desire (1951); he also wrote music for dance.



Artist:

Alex North

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  • Period: Modern (1910-1949)
  • Country: USA
  • Born: December 04, 1910 in Chester, PA
  • Died: September 08, 1991 in Pacific Palisades, CA
  • Genres: Film Music, Orchestral Music, Vocal Music

Biography

American composer Alex North hardly needed films to enhance his reputation. A graduate of Julliard and the pupil of such musical heavyweights as Ernst Toch and Aaron Copland, North was responsible for the incidental music in several major Broadway productions of the 1940s, notably Death of a Salesman. He also composed for the ballet, for symphony orchestra, and even for Benny Goodman. North's earliest film work consisted of the scores for documentary films, an activity he engaged in from 1937 through the early 1950s. His first feature-film score was for 20th Century-Fox's The 13th Letter; he followed this with a steady parade of scores for such memorable pictures as Viva Zapata (1952), The Rose Tattoo (1955), The Bad Seed (1956), Spartacus (1960), Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf (1967), Under the Volcano (1984) and Prizzi's Honor (1985). His most popular composition, "Unchained Melody" (for the 1955 prison picture Unchanged), received a whole new lease on life in 1990 thanks to the runaway hit film Ghost. Yet despite so impressive a resume, Alex North never received an Oscar in any of his 15 nominations. Finally, in 1986, the Academy threw him that guilt-absolving bone, the "Lifetime Achievement Award." Perhaps Alex North's most ambitious film score was the one nobody heard -- he was engaged by Stanley Kubrick to write the music for 2001: A Space Odyssey, only to have Kubrick rudely pull the rug from under him by substituting such classical pieces as "Thus Spake Zarathustra" and "The Blue Danube Waltz." With teeth clenched, Alex North wrote a terse article describing his frustration for Jerome Agel's 1969 compendium The Making of Kubrick's 2001. ~ Hal Erickson, All Music Guide

Discography

Cleopatra [Deluxe Edition]

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South Seas Adventure (Original Sound Track)

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2001: A Space Odyssey [Rhino]

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The Misfits [Original Motion Picture Soundtrack]

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All Fall Down [Original Motion Picture Soundtrack]

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Shoes of the Fisherman [2005 Turner]

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North by North / Journey into Fear [Original Motion Picture Soundtrack]

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A Streetcar Named Desire: The Music of Alex North

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Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? [Original Music from the Motion Picture]

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Actor:

Alex North

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  • Born: Dec 04, 1910 in Chester, Pennsylvania
  • Died: Sep 08, 1991 in Pacific Palisades, California
  • Active: '50s-'80s
  • Major Genres: Drama, Western
  • Career Highlights: GoodFellas, 2001: A Space Odyssey, A Streetcar Named Desire
  • First Major Screen Credit: Young Man With a Horn (1950)

Biography

American composer Alex North hardly needed films to enhance his reputation. A graduate of Juilliard and the pupil of such musical heavyweights as Ernst Toch and Aaron Copland, North was responsible for the incidental music in several major Broadway productions of the 1940s, notably Death of a Salesman. He also composed for the ballet, for symphony orchestra, and even for Benny Goodman. North's earliest film work consisted of the scores for documentary films, an activity he engaged in from 1937 through the early 1950s. His first feature-film score was for 20th Century-Fox's The 13th Letter; he followed this with a steady parade of scores for such memorable pictures as Viva Zapata (1952), The Rose Tattoo (1955), The Bad Seed (1956), Spartacus (1960), Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf (1967), Under the Volcano (1984) and Prizzi's Honor (1985). His most popular composition, "Unchained Melody" (for the 1955 prison picture Unchanged), received a whole new lease on life in 1990 thanks to the runaway hit film Ghost. Yet despite so impressive a resume, Alex North never received an Oscar in any of his 15 nominations. Finally, in 1986, the Academy threw him that guilt-absolving bone, the "Lifetime Achievement Award." Perhaps Alex North's most ambitious film score was the one nobody heard -- he was engaged by Stanley Kubrick to write the music for 2001: A Space Odyssey, only to have Kubrick rudely pull the rug from under him by substituting such classical pieces as "Thus Spake Zarathustra" and "The Blue Danube Waltz." With teeth clenched, Alex North wrote a terse article describing his frustration for Jerome Agel's 1969 compendium The Making of Kubrick's 2001. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Filmography:

Alex North

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The Last Butterfly

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GoodFellas

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The Penitent

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The Dead

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Good Morning, Vietnam

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Death of a Salesman

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The Long, Hot Summer

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Prizzi's Honor

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Wikipedia:

Alex North

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Alex North
Born Isadore Soifer
December 4, 1910(1910-12-04)
Chester, Pennsylvania
Died September 8, 1991 (aged 80)
Los Angeles, California
Spouse(s) Gladlynne Sherle Treihart (1941-1966)
Annemarie Hoellger
Anna Sokoloff

Alex North (December 4, 1910 – September 8, 1991) was an American composer who wrote the first jazz-based film score (A Streetcar Named Desire) and one of the first modernist scores written in Hollywood (Viva Zapata!).

Born Isadore Soifer in Chester, Pennsylvania, North was an original composer probably even by the classical music standards of the day. However, he managed to integrate his modernism into typical film music leitmotif structure, rich with themes. One of these became the famous song, "Unchained Melody". Nominated for 14 Oscars but unsuccessful each time, North and Ennio Morricone are the only film composers to receive the Lifetime Achievement Academy Award. North's frequent collaborator as orchestrator was the avant-garde composer Henry Brant. He won the 1968 Golden Globe award for his music to The Shoes of the Fisherman.

His best-known film scores include The Rainmaker (1956), Spartacus (1960), The Misfits (1961),The Children's Hour (1961) Cleopatra (1963), Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966), and The Devil's Brigade (1968). His commissioned score for Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) was discarded by the director, but has since been released on CD.

Though North is best known for his work in Hollywood, he spent years in New York writing music for the stage; he composed the score, by turns plaintive and jarring, for the original Broadway production of Death of a Salesman. It was in New York that he met Elia Kazan (director of Salesman), who brought him to Hollywood in the '50s. North was one of several composers who brought the influence of contemporary concert music into film, in part marked by an increased use of dissonance and complex rhythms. But there is also a lyrical quality to much of his work which may be connected to the influence of Aaron Copland, with whom he studied.

His classical works include a Rhapsody for Piano, Trumpet obbligato and Orchestra. He was nominated for a Grammy Award for his score for the 1976 television miniseries Rich Man, Poor Man. North is also known for his opening to the CBS television anthology series Playhouse 90.

External links

Composed 1981 soundtrack to film"Dragonslayer".


 
 
Learn More
A Streetcar Named Desire (ballet)
Rich Man, Poor Man (1978 Album by Alex North)
Romeo & Juliet: Music Inspired by Shakespeare (1997 Album by Cliff Eidelman & Royal Scottish National Orchestra)

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Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. © 1994-2009 Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. All rights reserved.  Read more
Music Encyclopedia. The Concise Grove Dictionary of Music. Copyright © 1994 by Oxford University Press, Inc.. All rights reserved.  Read more
Artist. Copyright © 2009 All Media Guide, LLC. Content provided by All Music Guide ®, a trademark of All Media Guide, LLC. All rights reserved.  Read more
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