Writing & Composition

French Composer Michel Legrand. He composed the score for the 1964 classic French film, " The Umbrellas of Cherbourg." In the film every bit of dialogue is sung to Legrand's music. The film has recently been restored; for years it was unavailable because no decent print existed.

We remember band leader and composer Mercer Ellington, the son of Duke Ellington. He perpetuated the big band tradition his father made famous as head of the Duke Ellington Band. When he was a young man, Mercer Ellington had hoped to break into his father's band on the saxophone. But after years of frustration, he could see that he would never crack the legendary Ellington reed section. He finally was accepted as a trombone player and later played french horn and trumpet. With the death of his father in 1974, Mercer Ellington took over his father's orchestra.

Jazz critic Kevin Whitehead reviews a new box-set of film music by Italian composer Ennio Morricone, "A Fistful of Film Music" (Rhino).

Composer Philip Glass. His latest work is a new score for the 1946 Jean Cocteau film adaptation of "La Belle et la Bête" ("Beauty and the Beast"). Glass's score includes four voices who sing a libretto, based on the screenplay. Glass has toured the live music-film event in Europe and the United States. One reviewer called it "a beautiful, superbly integrated work." (Time, Dec. 19, 1994). (The score is available on Nonesuch Records.)

From The Alloy Orchestra, composer and keyboardist Caleb Sampson. The band has gained a reputation for composing and performing exciting, percussive silent film scores. Their repertoire includes scores for "Metropolis," "Nosferatu," "Lonesome," and their newest, for the Russian classic "Man with a Movie Camera." The film has a "sneak preview" at the Telluride Film Festival in early September, and it premieres at the Pordenone Silent Film Festival in Italy in October. They have two CD's.

Jazz Critic Kevin Whitehead remembers the late Julius Hemphill, who died on Sunday. Hemphill, the saxophonist and composer, helped found the World Saxophone Quartet.

Cale was the violist, keyboardist and bassist of the 1960s avant garde band, The Velvet Underground. Since the breakup of the group in 1968, he has had a career as a solo artist. Most recently, he collaborated with former Velvet Underground member Lou Reed, on "Songs for Drella," the 1990 tribute to artist Andy Warhol. This past month, he released "Seducing Down the Door: A John Cale Collection," which is a compilation of his post-Velvet Underground solo recordings.

We pay tribute to Frank Zappa who died over the weekend with an excerpt of Terry's 1989 interview with him. (Rebroadcast of 1/17/1989)

Composer Anthony Davis's opera "X" based on the life of Malcolm X, and has just come out on CD. It premiered in 1986. Terry talks with David about what Malcolm X meant to him and why he decided to compose an opera on his life. Davis has received international recognition for his compositions as well as his performances as a solo pianist and the leader of the ensemble Episteme.

Cage died yesterday at the age of 79. The New York Times wrote that Cage "started a revolution by proposing that composers could jettison the musical language that had evolved over the last seven centuries, and in doing so he opened the door to Minimalism, performance art and virtually every other branch of the musical avant-garde." His compositions include spoken texts, radios, toys and the sounds of vegetables being chopped. In honor of his passing, we present highlights of his 1982 interview with Terry Gross.

Joel Forrester, composer of Fresh Air's theme music, is back. Today he'll talk to Terry about writing music for different groups and ensembles.

The musician and composer will perform from his repertoire of avant garde polkas. He's played with the Brooklyn Philharmonic, the Kronos Quartet, has headlined the Brooklyn Academy of Music's Next Wave Series, and recorded several albums.

Richard Marriott, the leader of the San Francisco-based band The Club Foot Orchestra. They've written new music to accompany the classic silent films "Nosferatu," and "The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari."

Bernstein has composed the scores for around 80 films, including "The Man With the Golden Arm," "The Magnificent Seven," and "The Ten Commandments. He's done the scores for 2 new films -- "The Field" and "The Grifters." He joins Fresh Air to talk about how he works with directors to write his music.

A live concert with Evan Lurie on piano, Alfredo Pedernera on bandoneon, and Jill Jaffe on violin. Lurie's music draws on the inspirations of the New Tango movement. Lurie is also a member of the the Lounge Lizards.

Eno has released several albums of ambient music, which were inspired by the classical avant-garde. His new album, a collaboration with John Cale called Wrong Way Up, is a more conventional rock record. He has produced albums for many new wave and pop bands, including Devo, Talking Heads and the Penguin Cafe Orchestra.

Greg Ford and Hal Willner produced of a new album of live, orchestral performances of the composer's music, which helped defined the the classic Warner Bros. cartoons.

Badalamenti composed the music for David Lynch's Twin Peaks, Blue Velvet, and Wild at Heart. Before writing film scores, he had a workaday musician's life, arranging and playing piano in bands.

The jazz musician is an in-demand sideman, and is also known for his composed pieces. In discussing his career, Ehrlich says that improvisation and composition are part of the same musical gesture. His new quartet album is called The Traveller's Tale.

Coppola has written the music for several films of his son, Francis Ford Coppola, including the Godfather I and II. He has written a new score for the silent film Napoleon; he'll soon conduct a live performance of that music during a screening at Radio City Music Hall.