The young composers of today don't even come CLOSE to the towering talent of this man, and it's a crying shame. I rejoice in Alex North's life of brilliance and beauty. RIP.
Yes, wrote many superb scores. He stated in an interview that he tended to prefer composing music for smaller, intimate settings. One need only listen to his efforts on such films as The Long Hot Summer, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf and Carny to recognize North's varied musical skills.
@@floppabingussled Bravo, my friend. You're right on. Today's composers are all essentially "one trick ponies," capable of only one style of music. But guys like Max Steiner, Jerry Goldsmith, and John Williams not only compose music for EVERYTHING, but their scores last forever.
+jslasher I have to respectfully disagree on this one. I LOVED "Best Years," it was one of my Top 10 best films of all time. And the soundtrack was particularly memorable, especially the segment of Dana Andrews visiting the Graveyard of Bombers. But it is difficult, if not impossible, to rate scores of films that are so entirely different, and nothing could be further apart than a Sword & Sandal epic and a post-World War Two movie. It's not a fair or reasonable expectation.
A unique voice. A true American composer that blended jazz with Eastern European music. A Streetcar Named Desire and Spartacus are just two examples displaying his enormous talent.
North's score for Cleopatra has to be one of the most amazing of all time. Very complicated layer work before anyone else ever did that. Huge score. Remember, it was originally finished as a two-film 6-hour long epic. Then the idiots at Fox forced it to be cut to one film of 4 hours 12 min. That is a lot film, lot of character and music lost. Bravo ! to Alex North.
My own personal opinion of course, but I thought Quincy Jones threw away the introduction to Alex North. He spoke too fast, did not pause after North's name for applause, among obvious weaknesses. Then North also was an anticlimax. Instead of saying something original or personal about film scoring, he came up with cliches and ended with a banal appeal against violence in movies, whatever the hell that had to do with film scoring. My disappointment is that it is not often that a film composer gets the attention of a wide Oscar audience and both speeches could have had far more substance, whereas both seemed almost off the cuff: the way Jones quickly jumped from silents to 1951 when North started scoring and started with a cliche (films were not ever silent: great insight!). I can't say what North MIGHT have said, but surely something of more substance and of more respect to the medium of film scoring. He might have given examples; such as the way Prokofiev made the battle on ice come alive in Alexander Nevsky; the way Herrmann made the shower scene come alive; the way Max Steiner, with a single sforzando chord, added power after Vic Laszo speaks the words, "Welcome back to the fight, Rick: this time I know our side will win" and a single powerful chord scores the shot of the plane propeller rotating in preparation for take-off; brief homages to other composers before referring to his own short cues. Instead he refers to violence in movies! Still I'm an Alex North fan, though I prefer Bernard Herrmann, Georges Deleure, Ennio Morricone among others. North was a fantastic melodist; probably the greatest film melodist after Victor Young. He also had a wide range and introduced jazz in movies with his score for Streetcar (though Bernstein's Man with the Golden Arm probably had more impact a few years later).
Can someone explain to me why you'd waste Robin Williams as a "host" by giving him only a brief appearances but waste the audience's time with unfunny stiffs like Alda and Fonda? Williams would have KILLED as a solo host.
Alex was such a gentleman. It was a distinct honour to work with him. A true genius if ever there was one.
The young composers of today don't even come CLOSE to the towering talent of this man, and it's a crying shame. I rejoice in Alex North's life of brilliance and beauty. RIP.
Yes, wrote many superb scores. He stated in an interview that he tended to prefer composing music for smaller, intimate settings. One need only listen to his efforts on such films as The Long Hot Summer, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf and Carny to recognize North's varied musical skills.
@@floppabingussled
Bravo, my friend. You're right on. Today's composers are all essentially "one trick ponies," capable of only one style of music. But guys like Max Steiner, Jerry Goldsmith, and John Williams not only compose music for EVERYTHING, but their scores last forever.
Long live the classic film score composer.
North, fantastic composer ever...
Brilliant composer and a lovely soul.
Robin was a mad genius. May he rest in peace, making other guests in Heaven laugh again and again.
Grande compositor
Dragonslayer is the best soundtrack I've ever listened to, followed closely by his unused 2001: A Space Odyssey score
IMO Alex's best score was "Cleopatra". His work on the film was incredible.
+darthstarkiller1912
Did you see "Spartacus," with Kirk Douglas?? It's his crowning achievement, in my opinion:-)
"Spartacus", in my humble opinion, is the second greatest film score of all time, after Hugo Friedhofer's "The Best Years of Our Lives."
+jslasher
I have to respectfully disagree on this one. I LOVED "Best Years," it was one of my Top 10 best films of all time. And the soundtrack was particularly memorable, especially the segment of Dana Andrews visiting the Graveyard of Bombers. But it is difficult, if not impossible, to rate scores of films that are so entirely different, and nothing could be further apart than a Sword & Sandal epic and a post-World War Two movie. It's not a fair or reasonable expectation.
Bad that this genius Music Composer never won a single Oscar out of a total 15 nominations.
+dr strangelove
It isn't just "bad," its a fucking CRIME.
Hollywood politics, pure and simple.
And the brilliant score for "Spartacus".
A tip: you can watch movies at KaldroStream. Been using them for watching all kinds of movies lately.
@Max Mack yea, been using kaldroStream for months myself =)
A unique voice. A true American composer that blended jazz with Eastern European music. A Streetcar Named Desire and Spartacus are just two examples
displaying his enormous talent.
North's score for Cleopatra has to be one of the most amazing of all time. Very complicated layer work before anyone else ever did that. Huge score. Remember, it was originally finished as a two-film 6-hour long epic. Then the idiots at Fox forced it to be cut to one film of 4 hours 12 min. That is a lot film, lot of character and music lost.
Bravo ! to Alex North.
RİP GREAT COMPOSER.
In my view, Spartacus is among the greatest film scores ever created.
Love you Pop!
I know how much you loved and respected your father, Dylan. He was a true genius.
A streetcar named desire
My favorite composer, right up there with Steiner, Newman, Herrmann, Tiomkin, Rosza, Waxman, Jarre, Williams… 🎉🎉🎉
My own personal opinion of course, but I thought Quincy Jones threw away the introduction to Alex North. He spoke too fast, did not pause after North's name for applause, among obvious weaknesses.
Then North also was an anticlimax. Instead of saying something original or personal about film scoring, he came up with cliches and ended with a banal appeal against violence in movies, whatever the hell that had to do with film scoring.
My disappointment is that it is not often that a film composer gets the attention of a wide Oscar audience and both speeches could have had far more substance, whereas both seemed almost off the cuff: the way Jones quickly jumped from silents to 1951 when North started scoring and started with a cliche (films were not ever silent: great insight!).
I can't say what North MIGHT have said, but surely something of more substance and of more respect to the medium of film scoring. He might have given examples; such as the way Prokofiev made the battle on ice come alive in Alexander Nevsky; the way Herrmann made the shower scene come alive; the way Max Steiner, with a single sforzando chord, added power after Vic Laszo speaks the words, "Welcome back to the fight, Rick: this time I know our side will win" and a single powerful chord scores the shot of the plane propeller rotating in preparation for take-off; brief homages to other composers before referring to his own short cues.
Instead he refers to violence in movies!
Still I'm an Alex North fan, though I prefer Bernard Herrmann, Georges Deleure, Ennio Morricone among others. North was a fantastic melodist; probably the greatest film melodist after Victor Young. He also had a wide range and introduced jazz in movies with his score for Streetcar (though Bernstein's Man with the Golden Arm probably had more impact a few years later).
Is this the only known video of Alex North?
Yeah, it's surprising I can't find any more footage
it has introduced new trends based on jazz and dissonance.
Stallone didn't like this...
He was there when movies started to get so violent, yet so unapologetic and senseless.
2:27 QJ
Can someone explain to me why you'd waste Robin Williams as a "host" by giving him only a brief appearances but waste the audience's time with unfunny stiffs like Alda and Fonda? Williams would have KILLED as a solo host.
Isadore Soifer
3:16 AN