"Citizen Kane" scores big

Synopsis

For the American conductor and composer Bernard Herrmann, 1940 was quite a year. On the East Coast, he had been appointed chief conductor of the CBS Symphony Orchestra, and on the West Coast, he was busy in Hollywood, composing music for an Orson Welles film titled "Citizen Kane."

Herrmann was 30 years old at the time, and recalled the experience as follows: "I was given twelve weeks to do my job. I worked on the film reel by reel, as it was being shot and cut. In this way I had a sense of the picture being built and of my own music being a part of that building. Many of the sequences were actually tailored to match the music."

The finished product was released to the public on today's date in 1941, and was an instant success, with The New York Times review the following day noting (quote), "the stunning manner in which the music of Bernard Herrmann has been used."

"Citizen Kane" was up for nine Academy Awards in 1941, but, although nominated for both "Best Picture" and "Best Musical Score," didn't win the Oscar in either category. No matter—for many filmmakers, film critics, and film fans, "Citizen Kane" rates No. 1 among the greatest films ever made.

And what does THE COMPOSERS DATEBOOK have to say on the subject? Just one word, of course: "Rosebud!"

Music Played in Today's Program

Bernard Herrmann (1911 - 1975) Citizen Kane film score (opening) National Philharmonic; Charles Gerhardt, cond. RCA CD 707

On This Day

Births

• 1582 - Early Italian opera composer Marco da Gagliano, in Gagliano;

• 1602 - Baptism of English madrigal composer William Lawes, in Salisbury ; He was the younger brother of the more famous English composer Henry Lawes (1696-1662);

• 1872 - Swedish violinist and composer Hugo Alfvén in Stockholm;

• 1895 - American organist and composer Leo Sowerby, in Grand Rapids, Mich.;

• 1899 - Icelandic composer Jón Leifs, in Sólheimar;

Deaths

• 1904 - Czech composer Antonin Dvorák, age 62, in Prague;

• 1978 - Soviet composer Aram Khachaturian, age 74, in Moscow;

Premieres

• 1786 - Mozart: "The Marriage of Figaro" in Vienna at the Old Burgtheater;

• 1886 - Franck: "Symphonic Variations" for piano and orchestra, in Paris;

• 1909 - Rachmaninoff: "The Isle of the Dead," in Moscow, conducted by the composer (Julian date: April 18);

• 1925 - Piston: Three Pieces for flute, clarinet, and bassoon (his first published work), at the École Normale in Paris, by the Blanquart-Coste-Dherin trio;

• 1939 - Barber: "The Virgin Martyrs," with students from the Curtis Institute of Music on a CBS Radio broadcast, with the composer conducting;

• 1971 - Dave Brubeck: oratorio "Truth Has Fallen," at the opening of the Center for the Arts in Midland, Mich.;

• 1987 - Harrison Birtwistle: "Endless Parade" for trumpet, vibraphone and strings, in Zurich (Switzerland) by the Collegium Musicum conducted by Paul Sacher, with trumpeter Hakan Hardenberger;

• 2002 - Jennifer Higdon: "Blue Cathedral," by the Curtis Institute Symphony conducted by Robert Spano, commissioned to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the Curtis Institute of Music;

• 2003 - Lukas Foss: Concertino ("Passacaglia, Bachanalia, Passacaglia") for vocal soloists, chorus and orchestra, by the New York Choral Artists and the New York Philharmonic, Kurt Masur conducting;

Others

• 1761 - Franz Joseph Haydn begins his 30-year tenure as Second-Kapellmeister at Prince Esterhazy's estate in Eisenstadt; In 1766, Haydn succeeded the much older composer Gregor Joseph Werner as First-Kapellmeister;

• 1825 - first documented American performance of Haydn's Symphony No. 100 ("Military") at Boylston Hall in Boston, at a benefit concert for Haydn's former pupil, Johann Christian Gottlieb Graupner (1767-1836);

• 1837 - American premiere of Rossini's opera "Semiramide" in New Orleans;

• 1938 - The German Reichsmusikkammer (Imperial Ministry of Music) forbids Aryan music instructors to teach pupils of Jewish extraction.