Composers Datebook®

The theme to 'Seinfeld'

Composers Datebook - July 5, 2025
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Synopsis

On today’s date in 1989, NBC transmitted the pilot episode of a sitcom that 180 episodes later would be recognized as a TV classic.

In composing, as in comedy, timing is everything, so when comedian Jerry Seinfeld approached composer Jonathan Wolff about writing the intro music for Seinfeld, Wolff knew it was time for something a little different than a generic sitcom theme.

“When he called me, Jerry described to me the problem he was having: the opening and closing credits for this new show were to be Jerry doing stand-up material in front of an audience. He tells jokes, people laugh. And he wanted unique, signature theme music to go with it, [so I said] how about this? … We treat your human voice telling jokes as the melody of the Seinfeld theme! My job will be to accompany you in a way that’s fun and quirky but does not interfere with the audio of your standup routine,” Wolff recalled.

That meant the Seinfeld intro would change each week, with Wolff performing on slap bass themes and variations that danced before, after, and around the cadence of Jerry’s punchlines like, as Wolff put it, “a vaudeville rim shot.”

Music Played in Today's Program

Jonathan Wolff (b. 1958): Theme, from Seinfeld; Water Tower Music digital download

On This Day

Births

  • 1878 - English composer and pianist Josef Holbrooke, in Croydon

  • 1895 - English composer Gordon Jacob, in London

  • 1897 - German-born Israeli composer Paul Ben-Haim (originally Frankenburger), in Munich

  • 1918 - American composer George Rochberg, in Paterson, New Jersey

  • 1926 - American composer and teacher Kenneth Gaburo, in Somerville, New Jersey

Deaths

  • 1992 - Argentinian composer and bandonion virtuoso Astor Piazolla, 71, in Buenos Aires

Premieres

  • 1931 - R. Vaughan Williams: ballet, Job (A Masque for Dancing), in London

  • 1990 - Ellen Taaffe Zwilich: Clarinet Quintet, at a Chamber Music Northwest concert in Portland, Ore. featuring clarinetist David Shifrin

  • 1996 - Stephen Paulus: Partita Appassionata, for violin and piano, by William Preucil and Arthur Rowe, at the Seattle Chamber Music Festival

  • 2000 - Leslie Bassett: Concerto for Alto Saxophone and Orchestra, during a World Saxophone Congress at Pierre Mercure Hall, Montreal, with soloist Clifford Leaman, and the Orchestre Symphonique de Laval, Louis Lavigueur, conducting

Others

  • 1877 - Polish harpsichordist Wanda Landowska is born in Warsaw

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About Composers Datebook®

Host John Birge presents a daily snapshot of composers past and present, with timely information, intriguing musical events and appropriate, accessible music related to each.

He has been hosting, producing and performing classical music for more than 25 years. Since 1997, he has been hosting on Minnesota Public Radio's Classical Music Service. He played French horn for the Cincinnati Symphony and Pops Orchestra and performed with them on their centennial tour of Europe in 1995. He was trained at the Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, Eastman School of Music and Interlochen Arts Academy.

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