{"id":10375,"date":"2022-04-04T13:57:13","date_gmt":"2022-04-04T13:57:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/?p=10375"},"modified":"2022-04-08T15:49:39","modified_gmt":"2022-04-08T15:49:39","slug":"why-elmer-bernstein-smiled-about-richard-strauss","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/?p=10375","title":{"rendered":"Why Elmer Bernstein smiled about Richard Strauss"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/?attachment_id=10376\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-10376\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-10376\" src=\"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/Great-Escape.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"976\" height=\"700\" srcset=\"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/Great-Escape.jpg 976w, https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/Great-Escape-300x215.jpg 300w, https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/Great-Escape-768x551.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 976px) 100vw, 976px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>By Ray Bennett<\/p>\n<p>LONDON \u2013 American composer Elmer Bernstein, who would have turned 100 today, wrote wonderful film music and he was terrific company with a fine wit.<\/p>\n<p>He was an early favourite of mine with scores for pictures such as \u2018The Magnificent Seven\u2019, \u2018To Kill a Mockingbird\u2019 and \u2018Love With the Proper Stranger\u2019.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><!--more--><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/?attachment_id=10377\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-10377\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-10377\" src=\"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/Elmer-Bernstein.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"267\" height=\"400\" srcset=\"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/Elmer-Bernstein.jpg 267w, https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/Elmer-Bernstein-200x300.jpg 200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 267px) 100vw, 267px\" \/><\/a>I bought an EP of his jazz themes for a TV crime show titled \u2018Johnny Staccato\u2019 starring John Cassavetes and his \u2018The Great Escape\u2019 was the first score soundtrack album I owned.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Bernstein was always happy to speak about film music when I edited The Hollywood Reporter\u2019s Film &amp; TV Music specials in Los Angeles. Soon after I returned to England in 1998 to become the trade\u2019s European Bureau Chief, we found ourselves for reasons that now escape me at a reception in the home of the Swiss consul in London.<\/p>\n<p>I had recently become a huge fan of classical music composer Richard Strauss and listening to an album of his tone poem in E-major, \u2018Don Juan, Op. 20\u2019, I kept flashing on images of Steve McQueen on his motorbike, James Coburn on his bicycle and Charles Bronson in a rowboat.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Over a glass of champagne, I asked Bernstein if perhaps his cues for \u2018The Great Escape\u2019 were in any way an homage to the German composer. He made a mischievous smile and said, \u2018Ray, I am simply honoured to hear my name mentioned in the same sentence as Richard Strauss.\u2019<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Ray Bennett LONDON \u2013 American composer Elmer Bernstein, who would have turned 100 today, wrote wonderful film music and he was terrific company with a fine wit. He was an early favourite of mine with scores for pictures such &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/?p=10375\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,1263,8,2257,15],"tags":[5201,5199,552,5200],"class_list":["post-10375","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-film","category-memory-lane","category-music","category-recalling","category-television","tag-johnny-staccato","tag-the-great-escape","tag-elmer-bernstein","tag-richard-strauss"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10375","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10375"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10375\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10387,"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10375\/revisions\/10387"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10375"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10375"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10375"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}