LEONARD ROSENMAN DIES

Veteran film and television and concert composer Leonard Rosenman has died at the age of 83. He was an innovator, often using the twelve-tone method in his scores (and studied with the great man himself, Arnold Schoenberg); starting with The Cobweb (1955). Serial music is not popular in film scores as, by its very nature, it is of a certain colour. Its lack of popularity in scoring applications has much to do, also, with the fact that most film producers are musically illiterate and don't understand how such music could be considered as musical accompaniment. Most film producers are "fill-in-the-blank" illiterate... I don't see how music scoring would be exempt.

Rosenman could write very melodic music. An example of this, and to use a 'geek' one at that, is his music for Star Trek IV - The Voyage Home (1986). It is was one of the standout scores written for that generally sorry film franchise. At times, Rosenman's approach is quite beautiful. And his own Star Trek theme was a refreshing change from James Horner's truly awful one from the previous two Trekkie movies. (Horner's scores overall were good but the signature theme was abysmal.) Rosenman's score fit The Yoyage Home like a glove, going for a glorious upbeat tempo -- in respect to the story's subject matter. I remember reading an interview with the composer at the time he was working on this score; he said trying to come up with a new Trek fanfare is akin to shovelling sand against the waves. Alexander Courage's original is so perfect and iconic.

Here is a good article on Leonard Rosenman, written four years ago by film/tv music historian Jon Burlingame...

http://www.filmmusicsociety.org/news_events/features/2004/090704.html