Alexander Courage Pt 2 of 4

Part 2 examines the long professional relationship between Alexander Courage and John Williams from early collaborations like Funny Face to the great John Williams scores of later years. Courage provided orchestrations for Williams in such popular movies as Fiddler on the Roof, Empite of the Sun, Jurrasic Park, Star Wars; Return of the Jedi, Home Alone, Indiana Jones 2 and 3 and The Poseidon Adventure. Later he provided Williams with arrangements for the Boston Pops - including a Fantasia for violinist Joshua Bell of the Gershwin opera Porgy and Bess.

Best known as the composer of the Theme from Star Trek, Alexander Courage worked for over 5 decades in Hollywood as a composer, orchestrator, arranger and conductor for classic films from Some Like it Hot through The Mummy. He helped create the classic sound of the MGM Musical and contributed to the very best of the genre. The Malibu Celebration of Film awarded him their first annual award, named in his honor in 2005. John Williams hosts this tribute documentary which I had the great pleasure to put together... I hope you like it.

Category:

Film & Animation

Tags:

• Alexander
• Courage
• Williams
• Musicals
• Astaire
• Movies
• Superman
• Star
• Wars
• Audrey
• Hepburn
• Jurassic
• Boston
• Pops
• Gershwin

[GentleGim]

Is it just me or does the Fred Astaire number at the end sound like music Sandy eventually wrote for various Star Trek episodes?

[CaliforniaCaledonian]

In his younger days Williams was himself an orchestrator (and orchestrated Dmitri Tiomkin's score for The Guns of Navaronne among others). In fact, Williams' sketches are actually quite detailed as far as counterpoint, instrumentation, etc. He uses orchestrators mainly as a labor-saving device, due to the time pressures to which film composers are routinely subjected (five weeks to write a score is not atypical).

[CaliforniaCaledonian]

So does John Williams, when there is time (his concert works are all orchestrated by him alone).

However when scoring a film, a composer often has a mere five weeks to compose 60-80 minutes of orchestral music -- which is painstakingly synchronized to motion picture images, and very often subject to re-writes at the request of the director.

Because of these working conditions, even composers like Aaron Copland and John Corigliano also used orchestrators when working in Hollywood.

[RogueRotting360]

@Tuxster3 Utter bollocks. Listen to IMAGES, MEMOIRS OF A GEISHA, MINORITY, EMPIRE STRIKES BACK, SUGARLAND EXPRESS, THE RIVER, THE FURY, JFK, NIXON, SLEEPERS, MUNICH, AMISTAD, THE LOST WORLD, and then come back to me.

[ThePiano1991]

john williams does that sometimes too... id like to see you take on a big task like he does, compose the music in a limited time, orchestrate it, often produce the album and conduct the music to film... if you could do that, you would be where john williams is now

[kentrel2]

Keep telling yourself that. Your profile says you're 23, yet you're "old school". Composers have hired orchestrators since before your grandparents were born.

Most composers, as you should know start out, arranging their mentors compositions. But I suspect the closest you've been to an orchestra is the pirate copy of East West you downloaded.

[riverrattH20]

From watching part 1 and now part 2, it would seem that Courage enjoyed simple tunes. Tunes you could whistle to. John Williams collaberated for a larger effect appearently.

[Tuxster3]

Gee, why aren't YOU generous? Not! ;-P

You say I'm 22?

Well, says you and whatever I put down as my age on my YouTube home page.

Surely, you know you shouldn't believe everything you read online, right?

[CaliforniaCaledonian]

I'll cut you some slack because you're only 22, but you really have a lot to learn about the music business, and what it means to be a working composer in the real world.

[Tuxster3]

Wow! You poor thing. You really think you're telling me something I don't already know.

Again, I'm from the old school.

If I write it, I orchestrate it.

Besides, most of the film music that's come out of Hollywood the past many, many years could have been written and orchestrated by ANY hack.

LOL!

[Tuxster3]

I'm from the old school. If I write it, I orchestrate it.

[Tuxster3]

*yawn*

Again,Williams music is nothing special.  It's okay.

It all just sounds the same.