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1912 - 2004
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"David Raksin was a truly distinguished
composer whose work spanned more
than seven decades. He was held
in the highest esteem not only as
a creator of film and television
music, but as a composer equally
respected in the symphonic world
and as a teacher and mentor to many
younger musicians who were fortunate
to have been his students.
"It's impossible to imagine 'Laura'
or 'The Bad and the Beautiful' without
David's remarkable contribution
to the drama of those films. The
music stands on its own in a concert
hall, but when coupled with the
images for which he wrote, his brilliance
as a dramatist is stunning. His
work is a primer for all film composers.
"His service to ASCAP as a member
of the Board of Directors was distinguished
by his dedication to the rights
of all the writers he so proudly
represented. As a colleague and
as an artist he will be greatly
missed by all of us who were lucky
enough to have crossed his path."
- Marilyn Bergman,
President and Chairman of ASCAP |
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David Raksin served on the ASCAP Board of
Directors from 1995 - 2002, and in 1992, was
presented with the ASCAP Golden Soundtrack Award
in recognition of his lifetime achievement in
film and television music.
David Raksin began his long and distinguished
career in films when he came to Hollywood to
work with Charlie Chaplin on the classic score
of Modern Times. He taught himself orchestration
while still in high school and put himself through
the University of Pennsylvania by playing in
society orchestras and jazz bands. Upon graduation
he went to New York where he became arranger
for a notable radio orchestra whose pianist,
Oscar Levant, alerted George Gershwin to a broadcast
of David's remarkable arrangement of "I've Got
Rhythm." Gershwin recommended the young man
to the Harms/Chappell arranging team, where
he orchestrated Broadway musicals.
In 1935, at the age of 23, he went to Hollywood
to join Chaplin. The following year he served
as assistant to Leopold Stokowski, who premiered
Raksin's brief Montage with the Philadelphia
Orchestra, probably the first film piece to
be performed by a major orchestra. Since then,
David had a widely diversified career in various
fields. His film scores include Laura, Forever
Amber, Carrie, Force of Evil, The Bad and the
Beautiful and The Redeemer. He
also scored over 300 television shows. Stage
works include musicals, several ballets and
incidental music. At the request of the composer,
Raksin made the original band instrumentation
of Igor Stravinsky's Circus Polka, choreographed
(for elephants) by George Balanchine. (At the
rehearsal in Madison Square Garden the elephants
stampeded!) Raksin was the first film composer
to have received a Coolidge Commission from
the Library of Congress. He conducted his composition,
Oedipus Memneitai, at the Library in
1986.
His concert works have been performed by the
New York Philharmonic, the Chicago, London,
San Francisco, BBC, CBC and the Boston Pops,
among others. There are more than 400 recorded
versions of Laura, including his own
CD of that piece, together with suites from
Forever Amber and The Bad and the
Beautiful. He was the first film composer
invited to establish a collection of his manuscripts
in the Music Division of the Library of Congress.
He was the subject of Oral Histories by Yale
and Southern Methodist Universities, and was
featured in numerous studies and reference works,
as well as in the television documentary The
Hollywood Sound. Raksin was appointed by
the Librarian of Congress to the National Film
Preservation Board; he also served for eight
terms as President of the Composers and Lyricists
Guild. He taught Composition for Films since
1956 at USC, where he was an Adjunct Professor.
In the summer of 2000, he attended the premiere,
at the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, of his
new piece for Clarinet and String Quartet, "Swing
Low, Sweet Clarinet," composed for the virtuoso
Eddie Daniels.
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