Scott Bradley (composer)

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Scott Bradley (born November 26, 1891 in Russellville , Arkansas , † April 27, 1977 in Chatsworth , California ) was an American composer , pianist and conductor . It was through his music for the famous MGM - Cartoons , by the early Tom and Jerry cartoons (1940-1958), as well as cartoons Droopy , Barney Bear and many one-shot cartoons .

Life

Bradley had lessons in organ and harmony with Horton Corbett, choirmaster at Houston's Christ Church Cathedral , and was otherwise self-taught in composing and orchestrating. Bradley gained his first professional experience as an organist and conductor at (film) theaters in Houston , Texas . In 1926 Bradley moved to Los Angeles , where he initially conducted shows on KHJ-Radio, which led to his early involvement in the new era of animation . He gained his first experience with cartoon music as a pianist at the Walt Disney studios, which were still in their infancy . In a later interview he described his memory of Walt Disney, who was involved as a noise maker with the drummers in the orchestra. “At that time there were no cuts in the sound track. Everything had to be recorded in one ' take '; Music, effects and language. "

Bradley worked as a pianist at Disney in 1929 and at Ub Iwerks studios from 1930 to 1934 . In 1934 he became Music Director at Harman-Ising , who were commissioned to produce cartoons for MGM . When MGM opened their own cartoon department in 1937, Bradley was hired as music director, where he stayed until his retirement in 1957. He died on April 27, 1977 in Chatsworth , California , where he was buried in Chatsworth's Oakwood Memorial Park Cemetery .

job

Since MGM did not have the same resources as its competitor Disney Studios, which mostly recorded their cartoons with 60-man orchestras, Bradley had to be content with a 20-man orchestra. He almost never worked with tempo deviations ( Rubati / Ritardandi ), but always achieved the same effect in tempo with musical variations. At the beginning of the cartoon era, it was customary to use familiar melodies and then quickly arrange them into the film, as his colleague Carl Stalling at Disney did. Bradley's compositions became more and more advanced over the years - to the extent that he even used fragments by Arnold Schönberg in his works. He was also highly valued by the studio musicians.

"Scott composes [...] the most difficult violin passages in Hollywood - he'll break my fingers"

- Concertmaster Lou Raderman : "Sight & Sound Magazine"

In later years he was a student of Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco for some time .

Works (selection)

  • 1944: Puttin 'on the Dog
  • 1952: Johann Mouse
  • 1955: Design On Jerry

His music was originally published with the signature "red cape songs".

Honourings and prices

Academy Awards for the best short film

Awards

Nominations

Annie Award

Nominations

  • 1946: Springtime for Thomas
  • 1955: That's My Mommy
  • 1956: Muscle Beach Tom

swell

  • Daniel Goldmark: "Cartoon Concerto". Liner Notes for Tom and Jerry & Tex Avery Too! Volume 1: The 1950s . Film Score Monthly CD Vol. 9 No. 17. 2006.
  • Daniel Goldmark: "Tunes for 'Toons :. Music and Hollywood Cartoons "University of California Press 2005.
  • Daniel Goldmark and Yuval Taylor (Eds.): The Cartoon Music Book . A Cappella Books 2002.
  • Leonard Maltin: Of Mice and Magic. A History of American Animated Cartoons . Harmondsworth: Penguin Books 1987.
  • Clifford McCarty: Film Composers in America: A Filmography, 1911-1970 . Oxford University Press 2000.
  • Peter Morris: Playing Cat and Mouse in: BBC Music Magazine, March 2007. pp. 44-48.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ BBC Music Magazine , Volume 15, Issues 7-13, BBC Magazines, 2007, p. 48 ( limited preview in Google Book Search).
  2. ↑ Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco , accessed on September 26, 2017.
personal data
SURNAME Bradley, Scott
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American composer, pianist and conductor
DATE OF BIRTH November 26, 1891
PLACE OF BIRTH Russellville , Arkansas
DATE OF DEATH April 27, 1977
Place of death Chatsworth , California