Brian Easdale
Brian Easdale (born August 10, 1909 in Manchester , † October 30, 1995 in London ) was a British composer and conductor . He created some musical works for British cinema in the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s. Including compositions for films such as The Black Narcissus , The Red Shoes , Panzerschiff Graf Spee or Eyes of Fear .
life and career
Brian Easdale was born in Manchester in 1909. Already at the age of 17 Easdale composed the first of his three operas with the title Rapunzel . After attending Westminster Abbey Choir School, he studied at the Royal College of Music under the guidance of his teachers Gordon Jacob and C. Armstrong Gibbs. Under the direction of his mentor Sir Malcolm Sargent , his composition Dead March was performed in the concert hall of the London Symphony Orchestra in 1929 , which was a great success. In the mid-1930s he began writing the music for short documentaries and short films, and during World War II at the Royal Artillery , Easdale worked as a composer for various government film programs. After the war, he replaced Allan Gray as film composer for the directors Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger and composed his first score for a feature film in 1947 for the drama The Black Narcissus . In 1949, he was the first British composer to win the Oscar and the Golden Globe for best film music for the musical Die Roten Schuhe . Under the direction of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, further scores were created in the following years, including the music for the films Experts from the Back Room , The Black Vixen , The Dark Red Seal and Battleship Graf Spee . For the director Michael Powell he composed the score for the films Eyes of Fear and The Queen's Guards .
Brian Easdale died in London on October 30, 1995 at the age of 86.
Awards
- 1949: Oscar in the Best Music category , Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture at the 1949 award ceremony for The Red Shoes
- 1949: Golden Globe in the Best Film Music category at the award ceremony in 1949 for The Red Shoes
- 1950: Venice Film Festival Award in the International Award Best Score category for The Black Vixen
Filmography (selection)
movie theater
- 1947: The Black Narcissus
- 1948: The Red Shoes (The Red Shoes)
- 1949: Experts from the Back Room (The Small Back Room)
- 1950: The Black Vixen (Gone to Earth)
- 1950: The Elusive Pimpernel
- 1951: The Outcast of the Islands ( Outcast of the Islands )
- 1952: The Wild Heart
- 1954: His Greatest Trial (The Green Scarf)
- 1956: Panzerschiff Graf Spee (The Battle of the River Plate)
- 1957: A Bride on Every Street (Miracle in Soho)
- 1960: Eyes of Fear (Peeping Tom)
- 1961: The Queen's Guards
- 1968: Happy Deathday
Short films or documentaries
- 1936: Big Money (short documentary)
- 1937: Big Money (short documentary)
- 1937: A Job in a Million (short documentary)
- 1938: The HPO (short film)
- 1939: Men in Danger (short documentary)
- 1941: Ferry Pilot (short documentary)
- 1956: Adventure On (documentary)
- 1978: Return to the Edge of the World (short documentary)
literature
- Brian Easdale. In: Helen Southworth: Leonard and Virginia Woolf, The Hogarth Press and the Networks of Modernism. , Oxford University Press, 2010.
Web links
- Brian Easdale in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Brian Easdale at Discogs (English)
- Portrait of Brian Easdale in: The New York Times
- Films by Brian Easdale with German distribution titles
Individual evidence
- ↑ Brian Easdale. In: Laurence E. MacDonald: The Invisible Art of Film Music: A Comprehensive History. Scarecrow Press, 2013, p. 110.
- ^ Obituary for Brian Easdale
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Easdale, Brian |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | English composer |
| DATE OF BIRTH | August 10, 1909 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Manchester , England, UK |
| DATE OF DEATH | October 30, 1995 |
| Place of death | London , England, UK |