Gerard Schurmann

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Gerard Schurmann (born January 19, 1924 in Java as Gerbrand Schürmann ; † March 24, 2020 in Hollywood Hills , California ) was a British composer and conductor of Dutch origin. He created several musical works for the concert hall and British cinema of the 1950s and 1960s, including compositions for films such as The Yellow Hell , The Black Museum , Konga , Incident in the Atlantic or Storm on the Iron Coast .

life and work

Schurmann was born in 1924 in the Kertosono district in East Java during the Dutch colonial period in what is now Indonesia as Gerbrand Schürmann. His parents were Dutch landowners. Schurmann showed musical talent early on. As a teenager he moved to England and studied music composition with the well-known composer Alan Rawsthorne , he also took piano lessons from Kathleen Long and conducting from Franco Ferrara . For the sake of simplicity, Schurmann began spelling his name in England without umlaut. He served in the Royal Air Force during World War II and then began a career as a concert pianist, where he took the job of cultural attaché at the Dutch Embassy in London. For a time Schurmann was conductor of the orchestra of Radio Netherlands in Hilversum, but returned to England with determination to devote himself entirely to composition.

In addition to works for the concert hall, Schurmann began writing his first scores for film at the end of the 1940s, first for the Dutch cinema, then from the mid-1950s onwards, Gerard Schurmann increasingly composed music for the British screen. Director Charles Frend hired him in 1956 for his film drama The Long Arm with Jack Hawkins in the leading role. 1957 followed the thriller experimental machine CB 5 by director Charles Crichton again with Jack Hawkins as well as Elizabeth Sellars and Walter Fitzgerald in other leading roles. Val Guest engaged him in 1958 for the action drama The Yellow Hell . In the following years several dramas and horror films were made for directors such as André De Toth and Arthur Crabtree . Among other things, The Spy with the 2 Faces and The Black Museum .

In the 1960s he worked on such films as Zone of Silence , John Lemont's Konga , Laurence Harvey's directorial debut Breakfast on Death Row , James Neilson's adventure film Dr. Syn - The Scarred Face , the war drama incident in the Atlantic with Richard Widmark and Sidney Poitier , beasts lurk in front of Caracas or Storm on the Iron Coast with actor Lloyd Bridges . In the following decades he only took on film orders sporadically.

Schurmann, who had lived in the United States since 1981, died on March 24, 2020 at the age of 96 in Hollywood Hills , California .

Concert works (selection)

  • Concerto for orchestra, violin concerto
  • Six Studies on Francis Bacon, Variations for Small Orchestra
  • Music for violin and piano
  • Chamber music, Vol. 2
  • Chamber music, Vol. 3
  • Chamber and Instrumental Music and Songs, Vol. 4

Filmography (selection)

  • 1948: (Niet tevergeefs)
  • 1948: (But Not in Vain)
  • 1956: The Long Arm
  • 1957: Test machine CB 5 (The Man in the Sky)
  • 1958: The yellow Hell (The Camp on Blood Iceland)
  • 1958: The Two-Headed Spy
  • 1959: The Black Museum (Horrors of the Black Museum)
  • 1960: Zone of Silence (Trouble in the Sky)
  • 1961: Konga
  • 1963: Breakfast on Death Row (The Ceremony)
  • 1963: Dr. Syn - The Scarecrow (Dr. Syn, Alias ​​the Scarecrow)
  • 1965: The Bedford Incident (The Bedford Incident)
  • 1968: Beasts lurk in front of Caracas (The Lost Continent)
  • 1968: storming of the iron coast (Attack on the Iron Coast)
  • 1984: (Claretta)
  • 1997: (The Gambler)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Obituary for Gerard Schurmann in: Variety
personal data
SURNAME Schurmann, Gerard
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Schürmann, Gerbrand (maiden name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British composer and conductor
DATE OF BIRTH January 19, 1924
PLACE OF BIRTH Java
DATE OF DEATH March 24, 2020
Place of death Hollywood Hills , California