Valentine's Day, Sunday, February 14, 2010 at 10:20 am

was far more adaptable and willing to change than Herrmann in most cases (freely doingboth tonal and atonal scores, being highly experimental with percussive effects,asymmetrical meters, etc). Herrmann was quite unique in his voicing but he was alsoquite predictable because he tended to "stay the course" (tonal composer 98% of the time;a fondness for minor chords/half-diminished 7ths; fondness of lower register instruments;tendency for slow moving and parallel chords, etc etc). So it's not risky business trying tocapture Herrmann's style if you can get into his music and had studied his written scoresfor years.Herrmann would not have avoided all "underwater" associations in LEAGUESmusically speaking. He certainly didn't with REEF and those nine harps. Harps have longbeen associated with water (I think of Tchaikovsky's SWAN LAKE ballet, for example)and other-dimensional subjects (being underwater is considered "other-dimensional" incertain respects).TGSET is a fine Newman score (though a bit too sedate overall!). I researched theconductor score at USC back in 2004. Written on one of the documents is the annotation:"Truly an honor and privilege to have the opportunity to work with you, Alfred. Thankyou so very much--with much affection. Jack Hayes." Also: "A wonderful birthday! Somuch love...Dolly Kahn...3-17-65." Also: "To Alfred--from those who love you!...Louis& Annette Kaufmann, Sarah Leibole...3/17/65."Leith Stevens is a competent composer indeed but his music rarely moved mepersonally or consistently (whereas Herrmann's and Steiner's music consistently movedme). Leith did various GUNSMOKE episodes for CBS. I studied several of them. Iremember he did "The Do-Badder" in the hour-long 7th season. The unusual lookingAbraham Sofaer starred in it, and Warren Oates. He did a nice half-hour episode titled"Where'd They Go?" starring Jack Elam, and "Big Tom" starring J. Wilke of LEAGUESfame. He did the Cale sequel, "The Search" for the opening 8th hour season. But overall Inever much cared for his style that seemed a bit nondescript to me, although I do likesome of his feature film works. I thought Fred Steiner was a far more interestingcomposer than Leith Stevens. I simply liked his music a lot more. This includes his worksfor Gunsmoke, Have Gun Will Travel, and certainly Star Trek, and so much more. Therewas a Sundance episode he did (Earl Holliman, the star) titled "Black Widow" (orsomething of that nature) that was quite interesting to hear. But I guess I liked Stevensbetter than what Van Cleave did for Gunsmoke and the other CBS shows, or Moraweck.Sorry, no "Wrobelesque" scores in the works! Composing is just a hobby/avocationright now. I'm too busy presently in my I-Have-To-Make-A-Decent-Living job, myresearch activities, my site, etc. Maybe after I retire!_______________________________________________talkingherrmann mailing list***********************1-1-10:185