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Any older recordings of music by composer Leo Arnaud? (1 Viewer)

Dennis Nicholls

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I'm interested in finding out some more about music composed by Leo Arnaud. There's only one catalog CD presently: an acceptable recording of his Symphony Francaise and Latin American Scenario performed by the Polish Radio Symphony Orchestra on the Cambria Master label. Naturally there are many recordings of his most famous work, a fanfare for orchestral brass.

Arnaud was born in France but worked most of his life in Hollywood, first as an orchestrator then as a film score composer. His early orchestration credits include such films as Gone With The Wind and The Wizard of Oz.

But I'm interested in his non-film related works. It's odd that there's only one CD at present. I'm curious if there exist any oddball or out-of-print recordings of some of his other works.

I feel that Arnaud was terribly taken advantage of by the TV networks, who licensed his most famous brass fanfare yet never give him any credit for it. I'm sure you recognize it but only one person in 10 thousand probably know the composer's name or the actual name of the work. It's been broadcast thousands of times in the last 60 years.

 

Ockeghem

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Dennis,

I can do a composer search for you tomorrow on OCLC/WorldCat. It will not be limited solely to recordings on CD. This bibliographic utility contains over a billion cataloged items (in multiple formats) included in the collections of thousands of libraries and related agencies from around the world. I use it most every day, and over the years I have frequently found many oddball and/or out-of-print recordings. I'll let you know what recordings of Arnaud are contained in this database.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OCLC
 

Ockeghem

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Dennis,After an initial search, I retrieved 455 items pertaining to Leo Arnaud. (This means that his name was included in the item in some fashion, not that he was the person chiefly responsible for the creation of the work.) These included books, textual series, visual materials, mixed materials, sound recordings, and music scores. Instances where his name occurs solely with sound recordings numbered 209 items. I have 100 items dated between 1900-1983, eighty-one items dated between 1984-2012, and eighteen items that apparently contain no date on the item. (A default date of 1900 is often given to an item by the cataloging agency if it is an approximation.)

I have provided a list for the eighteen items that apparently have no date assigned to them at present. Perhaps some of these will look interesting to you. The 'uuuuuuuu' are characters which are set by the system in place of two four-digit dates (e.g., p1984, c1977) which are lacking in an item. The three-letter codes are for the principal language of the item. This may include the text of the descriptive notes, libretto, program notes, or the musical work itself, etc. (For example, eng = English, fre = French, ger = German, and dan = Danish.)

I hope the list is not too cumbersome to view, but I cannot look at every one of these individually for lack of time. If you see titles that interest you, let me know which ones and I can sent along more complete bibliographic information for them. I would be happy to send along truncated lists for the remaining two sound recordings groups (numbering eighty-one and 100 items, respectively) if you wish. I can do this here or in a PM. Just let me know. :)

407. Bugler's dream / Leo Arnaud, comp. ; Boston Pops Orchestra ; John Will uuuuuuuu fre 408. Bugler's dream [Enregistrement sonore] / Leo Arnaud, comp. ; Boston Po uuuuuuuu fre 409. New moon [sound recording] : Rose Marie. Columbia Special Products, uuuuuuuu eng 410. Stars & stripes [lydoptagelse] : fanfares, marches & wind band Telarc. dan 411. Stars & stripes [lydoptagelse] : fanfares, marches & wind band Telarc uuuuuuuu dan 412. Summon the heroes [lydoptagelse] / Boston Pops-Orkestret ; dirigent: J Sony Classical. dan 413. Summon the heroes [lydoptagelse] / Boston Pops-Orkestret ; dirigent: J Sony Classical uuuuuuuu dan 414. Tiger rag. uuuuuuuu fre 415. USA; Featuring the Olympic fanfare. [sound recording]. Angel. uuuuuuuu 416. Arnaud, Leo, 1904-1991. Selections [sound recording]. uuuu 417. Arnaud, Leo, 1904-1991. Stars & Stripes [sound recording]. uuuuuuuu eng 418. Arnaud, Leo, 1904-1991. Three fanfares. (Arnaud) [sound recording]. uuuuuuuu 419. Eddy, Nelson Greatest hits [lydoptagelse] / Nelson Eddy med orkester CBS uuuuuuuu dan 420. Friml, Rudolf, 1879-1972. Rose Marie (abridged) [sound recording] / Harbach, Hammerstein II, Fri Columbia Special Products uuuuuuuu eng 421. Grainger, Percy. Lincolnshire posy [Tonträger] : Shephard's hey / Percy Grainger. uuuuuuuu ger 422. Romberg, Sigmund, 1887-1951. New moon (abridged) [sound recording] / Oscar Hammerstein II, Sigmund Columbia Special Products uuuuuuuu eng 423. Vaughan Williams, Ralph. Folk song suite [Tonträger] / R. Vaughan Williams. uuuuuuuu ger 424. Vaughan Williams, Ralph. Toccata marziale [Tonträger] / R. Vaughan Williams. uuuuuuuu ger
 

Dennis Nicholls

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Scott, I appreciate the help, but didn't mean to send you off on a research project.

Almost certainly almost ALL of those recordings are of a single work, "Bugler's Dream".

Back in the 1950s, Felix Slatkin commissioned Arnaud to write music for Slatkin's proposed LP called "Charge!" . Arnaud responded with the "Charge Suite" of which "Bugler's Dream" is one movement. Please click on the Utube in my original post and I'm sure you will recognize it.

Slatkin's LP became a CD but without giving Arnaud credit. See http://www.amazon.com/Charge-Military-Band-Felix-Slatkin/dp/B000008KSY It's wildly overpriced for an OOP CD IMHO.
 

Ockeghem

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Dennis,

No problem. It isn't very difficult to do a search on OCLC / WorldCat. I can provide the other titles (181 of them) if you wish. Just let me know. Tomorrow from work I will do a spot check of a number of the titles above to see if works other than Bugler's Dream are evident.
 

Ockeghem

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Dennis,

Here is what I found looking at a few of the eighteen 'no-date' titles. Several of the recordings are of the work you cited above. Many of the recordings also feature him as conductor of that work and other works. Others pertain to his works that were used in various films and television shows, which you cited above, as well as orchestrations (e.g., For Me and My Gal, among others). I haven't checked the remaining 181 titles at this point.

One of the sources I often use is the All Music Guide. It is a good starting point. You've probably already looked at that source. It lists the following works of Arnaud:

Compositions

Charge!, suite for orchestra (includes Bugler's Dream/Olympic Fanfare)
In Memoriam
Latin American Scenario, for orchestra (listed as an opera)
Midinette
Olympiad, for orchestra
Olympic Fanfare (Bugler's Dream), for orchestra/band (from "Charge!")
Symphonie Frantaise: Noumea
Well Tempered Oboist (this is listed as a prelude and fugue)

The links will take you to recordings of the works to purchase (if available). Some of these appear to be non-film related works, which you listed as being interested in above. If you would like me to look for additional recordings of any of these works, I can do individual searches on them by title. This is one of the strengths of OCLC and WorldCat. I have found numerous out-of-print (and very rare) recordings over the years while doing research on a variety of topics.

Lastly, I checked S. Sadie, ed., The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, vol. 2 (New York: Grove, 2001). This sources is among the best of its kind in English. Besides biographical information, entries often include a works list (frequently providing dates of works if known). Unfortunately, Leo Arnaud is not listed in that source.
 

Dennis Nicholls

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Well I'll be. It appears that the one CD I found has essentially ALL his non-film related works on it.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00003L2SC/ I bought a used copy for about $5.

Includes:
Symphonie Francaise: Noumea
Latin American Scenario
Midinette
In Memoriam
The Well-Tempered Oboist
Bugler's Dream

This is so odd. I am surprised that he wrote so few non-film related works. No wonder I had such a difficult time researching his works: there aren't that many.

Wikipedia says this about Leo:
The composer studied composition at conservatories in Lyon and Paris with Maurice Ravel and Vincent d'Indy.[2] After playing as a jazz trombonist in France using the name Leo Vauchant and arranging for the Jack Hylton band in England from 1928 to 1930, he immigrated to the United States in 1931. He worked in Hollywood as an arranger for Fred Waring before joining Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer as an arranger, composer, and orchestrator from 1936 to 1966.
The works on the CD I bought sound like a Jazz-influenced Ravel - not really surprising.

I guess this was a wild goose chase. His career was so long that I just presumed he'd written numerous "unknown" serious works that were ripe for discovery. I guess I was wrong.
 

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