Oliver Wallace

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Oliver George Wallace (born August 6, 1887 in London , † September 15, 1963 in Los Angeles , California ) was a British - American composer and conductor . He is best known for his film scores , which he created for cartoons , documentaries and feature films for the Walt Disney Studios .

life and work

Oliver Wallace was born in London on August 6, 1887. After completing his musical training, he went to the United States, where he initially worked primarily on the west coast as a conductor of theater orchestras and accompanied silent films in cinemas as an organist . At the same time he made a name for himself as a songwriter, for example with the popular " Hindustan ". With the advent of the talkie in the early 1930s, he also increasingly worked for film studios in Hollywood .

However, his real career as a film composer didn't begin until 1936 when he joined the Disney studio. He soon developed into one of the studio's most important composers for its short cartoons, of which Wallace provided more than 100 with music. His best-known work in this area is the song “ Der Fuehrer's Face ” from the Donald Duck propaganda cartoon of the same name from 1942. The parody of the Horst Wessel song was mainly due to the interpretation of “ Spike Jones and His City Slickers “One of the greatest hits during WWII . Wallace later created other very original film scores for the shorter animated films Ben and Me ( Ben and Me , 1953) about Benjamin Franklin and the Oscar- winning Die Musikstunde ( Toot, Whistle, Plunk and Boom , 1953) - the first cartoon of the new one CinemaScope method.

But Walt Disney also entrusted him with compositions for the studio's full-length films. Wallace's first major success was Dumbo ( Dumbo , 1941), for which he and Frank Churchill won his first and only Oscar in 1942. Later well-known films were Cinderella , Alice in Wonderland , Peter Pan and Lady and the Tramp . A characteristic of all these productions was that they were created as musicals in the joint work of several composers. Wallace knew how to integrate the individual songs into the instrumental part of the film scores like a leitmotif. But he also managed to achieve unique pieces like “The March of the Cards” from Alice in Wonderland , all in all one of his best achievements.

When the Disney studios began to produce more pure feature films from the 1950s, Wallace also wrote scores for them. As gelungenstes example, can fantasy film Darby O'Gill and the Little People ( Darby O'Gill and the Little People , 1959) apply to the Wallace not only the music, but to the texts of Lawrence Edward Watkin , the two popular songs " Pretty Irish Girl "And" The Wishing Song "wrote. In My Friend Stubbs ( Toby Tyler, or Ten Weeks With the Circus , 1959), for which he had not written the music, he also appeared as an actor - he played the conductor of the circus band.

Starting with The Seal Island (1948), Wallace also developed into a specialist in the background music for Disney's documentaries, including almost all films in the “People and Places” series and some of the “True Life Adventures” ( "Adventure in the realm of nature"). The scores weren't always particularly subtle, but they were very lively. The music of White Wilderness ( White Wilderness , 1958) was even nominated for an Oscar in 1959, which was an unusual honor for a documentary film.

In total, Oliver Wallace was involved in nearly 150 Walt Disney productions in various musical functions. He remained active for the studio until shortly before his death at the age of 76 on September 15, 1963 in Los Angeles.

Awards

In addition, Wallace received four other Oscar nominations for the music to movies Victory Through Air Power (1943), Cinderella ( Cinderella , 1950), Alice in Wonderland ( Alice in Wonderland , 1951) and White Wilderness ( White Wilderness , 1957).

Filmography (selection)

Most of the film scores listed were created in collaboration with other composers:

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Wallace, Oliver
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Wallace, Oliver George (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British-American composer and conductor
DATE OF BIRTH August 6, 1887
PLACE OF BIRTH London
DATE OF DEATH September 15, 1963
Place of death Los Angeles , California, USA