| Raymond Scott |
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| CATEGORIES ABOUT RAYMOND SCOTT | |
| american electronic musicians | |
| american composers | |
| 1908 births | |
| 1994 deaths | |
| electronic music pioneers | |
| juilliard school of music alumni | |
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Raymond Scott (born '''Harry Warnow''', . The only music Scott actually composed to accompany animation were three 20-second electronic commercial jingles for County Fair Bread in 1962. EARLY CAREER AND THE CARTOON CONNECTION A 1931 graduate of the Juilliard School Of Music , where he studied piano, theory and composition, Scott began his professional career as a pianist for the CBS Radio house band. In 1936, while at CBS, he recruited a band from among his colleagues, calling it the "Raymond Scott Quintette." It was a six-piece group, but the puckish Scott thought ''Quintette'' (his spelling) sounded "crisper" and told a reporter he feared that "calling it a 'sextet' might get your mind off music". The Quintette was an attempt to revitalize Swing music through tight, busy arrangements and reduced reliance on Improvisation . Scott called his musical style "descriptive jazz," and gave his idiosyncratic pieces unusual titles like "New Year's Eve in a Haunted House," "Dinner Music for a Pack of Hungry Cannibals," (in 1993 recorded by the Kronos Quartet ), and "Reckless Night on Board an Ocean Liner." While popular with the public, Jazz critics disdained it as novelty music. Scott believed strongly in composing and playing by ear (quote: "You give a better performance if you skip the eyes"). He composed not on paper, but "on his band" — by humming phrases to his sidemen, or by demonstrating riffs and rhythms on the keyboard and expecting players to interpret his cues. It was all done by ear, and no scores were written down (a process known as "head arrangements"). Scott, who was also a savvy sound engineer, recorded all rehearsals, took the acetates home, and reworked, resequenced, deleted, or inserted unrelated passages to arrive at a preferred final composition. During the process of developing a work, his players were allowed to improvise, but once complete, the piece became relatively fixed and little further improvisation was permitted — a practice that alienated many jazz purists and critics. Scott also had a penchant for appropriating classical motifs in his compositions, which earned him the wrath of some serious music authorities who dismissed such practices as "trivializing the classics." The public, who bought his records by the millions, seemed undeterred by any controversy. The Quintette existed from 1937 to 1939, and racked up numerous big-selling discs, including "Twilight in Turkey," "In An Eighteenth Century Drawing Room," "Powerhouse," and "The Penguin." In 1939 Scott, seeking greater challenges during the Swing Era , folded his Quintette into a Big Band , including bass player Chubby Jackson . They were both a recording and touring success. When Scott was appointed music director of CBS radio in 1942, he made history by breaking the color barrier, organizing the first racially integrated radio band. He hired some of the hottest black jazz heavyweights of the day, such as saxophonist Ben Webster , trumpeter Charlie Shavers , and drummer Cozy Cole . Though commonly believed to be a cartoon music composer, in fact Scott never wrote a note for a feature cartoon in his life. According to his wife, not only did he not compose for cartoons, he didn't even watch them. His historical and inadvertent renown as "the man who made cartoons swing" began in 1943 when Scott sold his music publishing to '', '' Ren And Stimpy '', '' Animaniacs '', '' The Oblongs '', '' Batfink '', and '' Duckman '' cartoons. "Powerhouse" was quoted ten times in the 2003 full-length WB feature ''Looney Tunes: Back in Action''. Aside from his familiar cartoon melodies, one of Scott's best-known compositions is "The Toy Trumpet," a cheerful pop-music confection that is instantly recognizable to many people who cannot name the title or composer. In the 1938 film ''Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm'', Shirley Temple sings a version of the song with lyrics. Another Scott mainstay, "In An Eighteenth-Century Drawing Room," is a pop adaptation of the opening theme from Mozart's Piano Sonata In C, K. 545 . Opening bars of melody line of "The Toy Trumpet" ELECTRONIC PERIOD Scott, who attended a technical high school in Brooklyn, was an early Electronic Music pioneer and adventurous sound engineer. During the 1930s and 1940s, many of his band's recording sessions found the bandleader in the control room, monitoring and adjusting the acoustics, often by revolutionary means. In 1946, Scott established Manhattan Research, Inc., which he announced would "design and manufacture electronic music devices and systems." Bob Moog , developer of the Moog Synthesizer , met Scott in the 1950s, designed circuits for him in the 1960s, and acknowledged him as an important influence. As well as designing novel instruments such as the Clavivox and Electronium , Scott recorded records of entirely electronic music, such as 1963's groundbreaking '' Soothing Sounds For Baby '', a series of albums designed to lull infants to sleep, and which today sounds uncannily like the ambient work of Tangerine Dream or Brian Eno from the mid 1970s. In those days, his electronic music did not find much favor with the record-buying public, but his electronics lab, "Manhattan Research, Inc." had considerable success in providing striking, ear-catching sonic textures for broadcast commercials. In the late 1940s, contemporaneous with guitarist-engineer Les Paul 's studio work with Mary Ford , Scott began recording pop songs using the layered multi-tracked vocals of his later-second wife, singer Dorothy Collins . A number of these were commercially released, but the technique failed to earn Scott the chart success of Les and Mary. In 1948, Scott formed a new six-man "quintet," which served for several months as house band for the CBS Radio program, '' Herb Shriner Time''. The ensemble also made studio recordings, some of which were released on Scott's own short-lived Master Records label. When his brother Mark Warnow died in 1949, Scott succeeded him as orchestra leader on the popular radio show Your Hit Parade . The following year, the show moved to television, and Scott continued to lead the orchestra until 1957. (Collins was a featured singer on YHP.) Although the high-profile position paid well, Scott considered it strictly a "rent gig," and used his lavish salary to finance his electronic music research and development, albeit largely out of the public limelight. Scott developed some of the first devices capable of producing a series of electronic tones automatically in sequence. He later credited himself as being the inventor of the polyphonic Sequencer . (It should be noted that his electromechanical devices, some with motors moving photocells past lights, bore little resemblance to the all-electronic sequencers of the late sixties.) He began working on a machine which would compose using artificial intelligence. He later dubbed it "The Electronium ." Scott and Dorothy Collins divorced in 1964; in 1967 he married Mitzi Curtis. During the second half of the 1960s, as his work progressed, Scott became increasingly isolated and secretive about his inventions and concepts; he gave few interviews, made no public presentations, and released no records. From time to time he welcomed curious visitors to his lab, among them the eccentric outsider Bruce Haack , who also built electronic instruments and (with no involvement from Scott) recorded numerous LPs of somewhat subversive children's music. During his jazz/big band period, Scott had often endured tense relationships with musicians; however, when his career became immersed in electronic gadgetry, he made friends with and seemed to prefer the company of technicians, including Bob Moog, Thomas Rhea, Alan Entenmann and future Muppetmaster Jim Henson (for whose early experimental films Scott composed and recorded electronic soundtracks). In 1969, Motown impresario Berry Gordy , tipped off about a mad musical scientist engaged in mysterious works, visited Scott at his Long Island labs to witness the Electronium in action. Impressed by the infinite possibilities, Gordy hired Scott in 1971 to serve as director of Motown 's electronic music and research department in Los Angeles, a position Scott held until 1977. No Motown recordings using Scott's electronic inventions have yet been publicly identified. Guy Costa, Head of Operations and Chief Engineer at Motown from 1969 to 1987, said about Scott's hiring: :"He started originally working the Electronium out of Berry’s house. They set up a room over the garages, and he worked there putting stuff together so Berry could get involved and see the progress. At one point Scott worked out of a studio. The unit never really got finalized—Ray had a real problem letting go. It was always being developed. That was a problem for Berry. He wanted instant gratification. Eventually his interest started to wane after a period of probably two or three years. Finally Ray took the thing down to his house and kept working on it. Berry kind of lost interest. He was off doing Diana Ross movies." Scott was, thereafter, largely unemployed, though hardly inactive. He continued to modify his inventions, eventually adapting computers and primitive MIDI devices to his systems. He suffered a series of heart attacks, ran low on cash, and eventually became a mere "Where Are They Now?" subject. OBSCURITY AND REDISCOVERY Having been largely forgotten by the public by the 1980s, Scott suffered a major stroke in 1987 which left him unable to work or engage in conversation. His recordings were largely out of print, his electronic instruments were cobweb-collecting relics, and his once-abundant royalty stream had slowed to a barely-enough-to-pay-the-bills trickle. His legacy underwent a revival in the early 1990s with the release of ''Reckless Nights and Turkish Twilights'' (Columbia, 1992, produced by for the Laurel And Hardy movies) released two albums of Scott's music. Various members of the Beau Hunks (reconfigured as a "Saxtet," then a "Soctette") later performed and recorded various Scott works, sometimes in collaboration with the Metropole Orchestra. " Powerhouse " has been used as a promotional bumper for the Cartoon Network , as well has having been interpreted by the Rock Band Rush in their 1978 song " La Villa Strangiato " on their '' Hemispheres '' album. The same tune was reinterpreted as the song "Bus to Beelzebub" by the New York band Soul Coughing , who have used Scott samples in other compositions, such as Scott's "The Penguin" in their song "Disseminated". They Might Be Giants have also incorporated " Powerhouse " into their music, briefly including it in their song "Rhythm Section Want Ad" from their Self-titled 1986 Debut Album . In 1993, Warner Bros. music director Richard Stone scored an entire installment of '' Steven Spielberg Presents Animaniacs '' around "Powerhouse" (the episode, entitled "Toy Shop Terror," notably had no dialogue except in the closing seconds, thus allowing Stone's Stalling-meets- Spike Jones arrangement to dominate the soundtrack). In late 2006, "Powerhouse" began airing regularly as the soundtrack for a Visa check card TV commercial. It has also often been used as a bumper on " Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me! ", NPR's weekly quiz show. It also received a memorable appearance in '' The Simpsons '', played over the ludicrous and allegedly true method by which bowling alleys assemble new pins. Clarinetist Don Byron has recorded and performed Scott's music, as have the Kronos Quartet , Steroid Maximus ( J. G. Thirlwell ), Jon Rauhouse, The Tiptons (with Amy Denio ), Jeremy Cohen Violinjazz 4tet, Skip Heller, Phillip Johnston, and others. '' Manhattan Research Inc. '' (Basta, 2000, co-produced by Gert-Jan Blom and Jeff Winner) showcases Scott's pioneering electronic works from the 1950s and '60s on two CDs (the package includes a 144-page hardcover book). ''Microphone Music'' (Basta, 2002, produced by Irwin Chusid with Blom and Winner as project advisors) is a more thorough exploration of the original RS quintet's work, covering most of the band's better-known titles as well as previously unreleased material. The New York-based septet The Raymond Scott Orchestrette has recorded an album and does occasional performances of radically modernistic interpretations of Scott compositions. Mark Mothersbaugh , of Devo and '' Rugrats '' fame, purchased Scott's (non-functioning) Electronium in 1996, with the intention of restoring it to working order {Link without Title} , but with no progress in that direction so far. The year 2008 will mark the centennial of Scott's birth. QUOTATIONS
SAMPLINGS, REMIXES, AND CONTEMPORARY COVERS
WORKS IN FILMS The following films include recordings and/or compositions by Scott: ''Nothing Sacred'' (1937, various adapted standards); ''Ali Baba Goes to Town'' (1938, "Twilight in Turkey" and "Arabania"); ''Happy Landing'' (1938, "War Dance for Wooden Indians"); '''' (2005, "Dinner Music for Pack of Hungry Cannibals") WORK ON BROADWAY
EXTERNAL LINKS/REFERENCE
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