Michael Reed Krein and “Harmony: Three Adagios for Winds, Strings, and Harp”

Michael Reed Krein (b. 1956) is an American composer.  He was born in 1956 and has been composing music since the early 1970s. Early on, as a teen living in Las Vegas, he studied clarinet with Jim Sherman and piano with Buddy Hill. He enjoyed leading the clarinet section of various ensembles and was principle clarinet for Dr. Harold Boyce at Valley High School from 1973 to 1975. In May of 1981, Krein received a B.S. in Physics from Harvey Mudd College and worked in the Defense Industry in California for over 20 years, composing music all the while. In the late 1990s he found himself beset with muscular dystrophy. Within a few years this degenerative condition had ended his career and changed his life.  Returning to Las Vegas to live with family and meet new friends, he still composes music, but his output is not what it used to be.

His first 27 compositions were all for solo piano. In the early 1990s, he began writing for orchestra, and a few years later, vocal ensemble as well. Of late he has begun writing for his instrument, the clarinet, and hopes to have music for it available soon. His compositional interests have spanned many styles—from Renaissance counterpoint of centuries ago, to modern tonal works rooted in lyrical expression; from short pieces of under a minute, to longer works of more than an hour; from simple and easy to complex and challenging. His music is lyrical and emotional, often visual, with some minimalist tendencies.  He says that the dark stuff comes easy for him, but he has endeavored in most of his work to retain an expression of hope.

Harmony was the processional for the wedding of his sister, Karla Krein, to Kevin Kirk on the 26th of June, 1994. A week prior to the wedding, Michael’s mother put him in charge of music for the occasion, and it occurred to him that maybe he should write something for the bride and groom.  Harmony, consisting of three adagios, was written for small orchestra, so that it could conceivably be performed live at ambitious weddings, and includes one each of flute, English horn, clarinet, French horn, and bassoon, along with timpani, harp, and strings.  The piece was premiered April 25th, 2000, by the Dubuque Community String Orchestra, Tracey Rush conducting.

My collection includes the following work by Michael Reed Krein:

Harmony: Three Adagios for Winds, Strings, and Harp (1994).

Edmund L. Gruber and “The Caissons Go Rolling Along”

Edmund Louis “Snitz” Gruber (November 11, 1879 – May 30, 1941) was an artillery officer and general in the United States Army who also gained popularity as composer of military music and served as Commandant of the C, on November 11, 1879. His family had a musical background. His ancestor, Franz Gruber, composed the music to the classic Christmas song “Silent Night.”  He attended the United States Military Academy, West Point, New York, from June 19, 1900, to June 15, 1904, and was commissioned a second lieutenant in the Artillery Corps. He first served with Field Artillery units at Fort Riley at Junction City, Kansas; Fort Douglas, Utah; and the first Fort D.A. Russell (later called Fort Francis E. Warren) at Cheyenne, Wyoming, from 1904 to 1906. In February 1906 he sailed for the Philippine Islands where he served until April 1908.

Promoted to first lieutenant on January 25, 1907, Gruber returned to the United States and was stationed at Fort Leavenworth at Leavenworth, Kansas, until the summer of 1908, when he was ordered to Fort Riley, Kansas, as a student officer at the mounted Service School. He was graduated in the summer of 1909, when he again was ordered to the Philippine Islands where he served at Fort William McKinley until April 1910.  Upon his return from the Philippine Islands, he was stationed for several months at the Presidio of San Francisco, California. He was then ordered to Germany as a student officer at the Imperial Military Riding School at Hanover. He served on that assignment until August 1912, when he was graduated. Returning to the United States, he was detailed to duty as an instructor in equitation at the Mounted Service School at Fort Riley, Kansas, until December 1912, when he joined the 5th Field Artillery at Fort Sill at Lawton, Oklahoma, with which regiment he served until July 1914. He again was assigned as an instructor at the Mounted Service School at Fort Riley, Kansas, until January 1915, when he rejoined the 5th Field Artillery at Fort Sill, where he was stationed until June 1915.

Gruber was promoted to captain on July 1, 1916, and to lieutenant colonel (temporary) on August 5, 1917.  His next assignment was to the United States Military Academy, West Point, New York, as an instructor in the Department of Tactics, in which capacity he served until August 1917. He subsequent assignments during World War I included the command of the 332d Field Artillery at Camp Grant, Illinois, from August to December 1917; command of the 116th Field Artillery at Camp Wheeler at Macon, Georgia, from January to March 1918; duty as Assistant to the Chief of Field Artillery in Washington, D.C., from March to May 1918; command of the Field Artillery Brigade Firing Center at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, from May to October 1918, having been promoted to colonel (temporary) on July 30, 1918; duty in the Office of the Chief of Field Artillery, Washington, D.C., in November 1918; and an assignment with the War Plans Division of the War Department General Staff, Washington, D.C., from December 1918 to October 1919.

Resigning from the Regular Army on October 28, 1919, Gruber became president and superintendent of the Kentucky Military Institute at Lyndon, Kentucky. He was re-commissioned in the Regular Army and was reappointed as a major of Field Artillery on July 1, 1920.  From December 1920 to July 1922 he was Assistant Commandant of the Field Artillery School at Fort Bragg at Fayetteville, North Carolina. The newly established school was expected to attract officers from all over the country to Camp Bragg, considered by artillerymen as the Army’s best practice range. MAJ Gruber was Camp Bragg Commander from February 1, 1921, to February 15, 1921.  From August 1922 to July 1923, he was a student officer at the General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. Completing that course as a distinguished graduate, he was assigned to duty as an instructor at the Cavalry School at Fort Riley, Kansas, in which capacity he served until June 1926. He then was ordered to Washington, D.C., as a student officer at the Army War College. He was graduated in June 1927 and was ordered to Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, where he served for five years as instructor at the Command and General Staff School,

Gruber was promoted to lieutenant colonel on January 7, 1929, and from September 1932 to June 1935, he served in the Panama Canal Zone at Forts Davis and Clayton. Returning to the United States in the summer of 1935 he was promoted to colonel on August 1, 1935, and was detailed to duty with the War Department General Staff, serving with them in September 1939. He was then ordered to Fort Ethan Allen at Essex Junction, Vermont, where in October 1939, he was assigned as Chief of the Artillery Section of the 1st Division.  Promoted to brigadier general (temporary) on October 1, 1940, he became Commandant of the Command and General Staff School and Commanding General of the Seventh Corps Area, Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, In October 1940.

Gruber was awarded the Distinguished Service Medal, with the following citation: “He displayed exceptional ability in planning the organization of Field Artillery brigade firing centers; in April, 1918, established such a center at Fort Sill and during the remainder of the war displayed rare judgment and high professional attainments in the administration of this center.”  He was one of the most popular artillerymen of his time and was a noted Army polo team champion, but he would make his enduring mark with music. He was the author and composer of the 5th Artillery Regimental song, titled “The Caissons Go Rolling Along.”  This was transformed into a march by John Philip Sousa in 1917 and renamed “The Field Artillery Song.”  In the late evening hours of May 30, 1941, Gruber died unexpectedly during a game of bridge. He was cremated and his ashes were interred in the Arlington National Cemetery.  His song was adopted in 1956 as the official song of the United States Army and retitled, “The Army Goes Rolling Along.”  It is typically called “The Army Song.”

The following work by Edmund L. Gruber is contained in my collection:

The Caissons Go Rolling Along.

Roger Greenaway and “I’d Like to Teach the World to Sing”

Roger John Reginald Greenaway (born August 23, 1938) is an English songwriter and record producer, best known for his collaborations with Roger Cook, whose compositions have included “You’ve Got Your Troubles” and the transatlantic million selling songs “I’d Like to Teach the World to Sing (in Perfect Harmony)” and “Long Cool Woman in a Black Dress.”  Greenaway was born on August 23, 1938, in Fishponds, Bristol, England.   Both Greenaway and Roger Cook were members of the close harmony group the Kestrels. While on tour they decided to begin writing songs together. Their first was “You’ve Got Your Troubles”, a No. 2 U.K. hit single for the Fortunes (1965), which also made No. 7 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100.  It was the first of several successes they enjoyed during the next few years. Later that year they began recording together as David and Jonathan. Their first single “Laughing Fit To Cry” did not chart, but they scored hits in 1966 with their cover version of the Beatles’ “Michelle” and their own “Lovers of the World Unite.”  Their penultimate single, “Softly Whispering I Love You”, in 1967, was not a success at the time, but became a No. 4 U.K. hit in 1971 for the Congregation. In 1968 Cook and Greenaway announced that they would no longer be recording as a duo but would continue as songwriters.

The hits by Greenaway and Cook as writers for other acts, sometimes with other collaborators, include: “Home Lovin’ Man” (Andy Williams); “Blame it on the Pony Express” (Johnny Johnson and the Bandwagon); “Hallejuah” (Deep Purple); “Doctor’s Orders” (Sunny (U.K.) and Carol Douglas (U.S.)); “It Makes No Difference” (Joe Dolan); “Something Tells Me (Something Is Gonna Happen Tonight)” (Cilla Black); “I’ve Got You On My Mind”, “When You Are a King”, “My Baby Loves Lovin'” (White Plains); “Long Cool Woman in a Black Dress”, “Gasoline Alley Bred”, (The Hollies); “You’ve Got Your Troubles”, “Freedom Come, Freedom Go” (The Fortunes); “Banner Man”, “Melting Pot”, “Good Morning Freedom” (Blue Mink); “Green Grass” (Gary Lewis & the Playboys); “New Orleans” (Harley Quinne); “A Way of Life” (The Family Dogg) and “Something’s Gotten Hold of My Heart” (Gene Pitney).   They also wrote “High and Dry” (Cliff Richard), which was the runner-up for the UK Eurovision Song Contest entry in 1968.

When Blue Mink were formed in 1969, Greenaway was asked to be lead vocalist alongside Madeline Bell; he declined the offer and recommended Cook, who accepted.  The following year Greenaway teamed up for a while with singer Tony Burrows to form the Pipkins, a duo who had a Top 10 novelty hit in 1970 with “Gimme Dat Ding.”  Also in 1970, he was briefly a member of Brotherhood of Man, who scored a U.K. and U.S. top 20 hit with “United We Stand.”  The New Seekers’ “I’d Like to Teach the World to Sing (in Perfect Harmony)” began life as a Cook–Greenaway collaboration called “True Love and Apple Pie,” recorded by Susan Shirley. The song was then rewritten by Cook, Greenaway, Coca-Cola advertising executive Bill Backer, and Billy Davis, and recorded as a Coca-Cola radio commercial, with the lyric “I’d like to buy the world a Coke and keep it company.” First aired on American radio in 1970, it was also used as a TV commercial a year later, sparking public demand for its release as a single. Reworked, again, to remove the references to the brand name, the single climbed to No. 1 in the U.K. and No. 7 in the U.S. in 1972. The song has sold over a million copies in the U.K.

Greenaway and Cook were the first UK songwriting partnership to be granted an Ivor Novello Award as ‘Songwriters of the Year’ in two successive years.   After Cook moved to the U.S. in 1975, Greenaway worked with other partners, notably Geoff Stephens, both being jointly responsible for Dana’s 1975 UK No. 4 song, “It’s Gonna be a Cold Cold Christmas”, and Crystal Gayle’s 1980 U.S. No. 1 country song, “It’s Like We Never Said Goodbye.”   With Barry Mason he penned “Say You’ll Stay Until Tomorrow” for Tom Jones, which spent ten weeks within the Top 40 of the Billboard Hot Country Singles (now Hot Country Songs) chart, and went to No. 1 for one week on February 26, 1977.  Greenaway took an increasing role in business administration, becoming Chairman of the Performing Right Society in 1983 and, in 1995, taking charge of the European ASCAP office.  He also wrote advertising jingles for Allied Carpets, Asda, and British Gas.   In 1998, he was awarded the Order of the British Empire for services to the music industry.  In 2009, Greenaway was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in New York.

My collection includes the following work by Roger Greenaway:

I’d Like to Teach the World to Sing.

When Criticism Hurts the Most

When Criticism Hurts the Most
by Kathryn Frazier, Crosswalk Homeschool (Monday, October 31, 2011)

You are enjoying the fresh air and sunshine in your backyard. Your little boys are catching lizards, discussing the characteristics of reptiles and how cold-blooded animals regulate body temperature. Your preschooler, not impressed with such critters, is picking a bunch of flowers. She notes the colors of the flowers and sorts them by type. You leisurely chat about the beauty of her bouquet, photosynthesis, and the importance of caring for our natural environment. Your teenager is stretched out on a lawn chair, soaking in the rays and reading Little Women. Homeschooling at its best. Right in the middle of this beautiful morning, Cousin Tom drops by to return a borrowed jigsaw. Looking around at all the fun, he laughs, and says that it must be nice to play hooky every day.

Instantly you bristle. But what do you say? Do you launch into a lecture on the philosophy of student-directed learning? Do you say that you are just taking a break, and assure him that your children are at the books all day? Do you ignore him? Make a joke? Do you make a mental note not to allow the children to be outside until the afternoons?

Read more:

http://www.crosswalk.com/family/homeschool/when-criticism-hurts-the-most-11554141.html

Kathryn Frazier homeschools in freedom with her husband and five children in Tampa, Florida. She can be reached at kathryn.writes@hotmail.com.

This article was originally published in the Sep/Oct ’07 issue of Home School Enrichment Magazine. For more details, visit http://HomeSchoolEnrichment.com

German Valley Lutheran School, Dane Co., WI

German Valley Evangelical Lutheran Parochial School

Erbe Rd.(2.5 miles off Highway 18/151)

Dane County, WI

Dane County, WI, was settled by families from Hesse, a region in Germany, beginning in the 1840s.  German Valley Lutheran Church was erected shortly after the land was purchased in 1867 from Justus Heuser.  After the construction of the church building was completed, the congregation built the German Valley Parochial School.  All classes were taught in German.  Religion and Christian values were included.  Because most of the residents were farmer, classes were held only during the winter months.  The school remained active through the early 1900s until it closed due to the anti-German sentiment following World War I.  The building was sold in 1923 and moved to a nearby farm where it was used for storage.  German Valley Lutheran Church changed its name to Immanuel Lutheran Church in 1941 at the onset of World War II.  In 1997 Dale Arneson and Verlyn Edseth purchased the run-down old school and moved it to its current site.  They worked for many months, with the help of several other members from the church, to restore the building’s exterior and interior to their original condition.

http://wisconsinhistoricalmarkers.blogspot.com/2015/10/german-valley.html

http://www.hmdb.org/marker.asp?marker=75828

http://www.mthorebhistory.org/immanuel-lutheran-church.html

C. S. Grafulla and Washington Grays

Claudio S. Grafulla (1812–1880) was a British-born American composer during the 19th Century, most noted for martial music for regimental bands during the early days of the American Civil War.  Grafulla was born in 1812 on Minorca, an island off the coast of Spain that was occupied by the British after the Napoleonic wars. At the age of 28, he emigrated to the United States, where he became a French horn player in Napier Lothian’s New York Brass Band in New York City. This band was attached to the 7th Regiment of the New York National Guard, which was later honored in 1922 by John Philip Sousa’s The Gallant Seventh march. In 1860, Grafulla added woodwinds to a reorganized band and continued to serve as its director until his death.

Grafulla was a quiet, unassuming man who never married; his whole life centered on his music. His remarkable technical and musical skills allowed him to become well known as a composer, often writing music to order, and as an arranger.  His hallmark Port Royal Band Books were composed and arranged for the 3rd New Hampshire Regiment Band, when it was formed for service during the Civil War. As a director of the 7th Regiment Band, his fame spread widely.  Grafulla composed his most famous work, Washington Grays, in 1861 for the 8th Regiment, New York State Militia. This work has been called a march masterpiece, a band classic, and the prototype of the concert march. Showing the stylistic influence of both German and Italian marches, the march has a marvelous balance of technique and melody in a continuous flow of musical ideas. It dared to break the old formulas, however, because it has no introduction, no break strain, and no stinger.  Curiously, long after Grafulla’s death in 1880, during the presidential contest of 1896, while McKinley and Bryan were debating the burning issue of a silver vs. gold monetary standard, Grafulla’s publishers issued a Solid Money March under the palindrome, “C.S.Allufarg.”

The following work by C. S. Grafulla is contained in my collection:

Washington Grays.

Ron Goodwin and 633 Squadron Main Title

Ronald Alfred “Ron” Goodwin (February 17, 1925–January 8, 2003) was an English composer and conductor known for his film music, who scored over 70 films in a career lasting over fifty years with his most famous works including Where Eagles Dare, Battle of Britain, 633 Squadron, and Operation Crossbow.  Goodwin was born on February 17, 1925, in Plymouth, Devon, England, to James Goodwin (died 1952), a policeman with the Metropolitan Police Force and Bessie Violet Goodwin née Godsland (died 1966). The family originally came from London, but had moved to Devon due to James being assigned to security work at the naval dockyard in Devon. Goodwin learned to play the piano by the age of five and returned to London four years later, where he attended Willesden county grammar school. While there, he learned to play the trumpet and performed regularly in the school band. When he was nine, upon the outbreak of World War II, the family moved to Harrow, London, and Goodwin attended Willesden County School and Pinner county grammar school in Middlesex.  It was here that he formed his own band – Ron Goodwin and the Woodchoppers. He later studied the trumpet in London at the Guildhall School of Music.

In 1943 after a brief spell as an insurance clerk, Goodwin joined Campbell, Connelly and Company, a music publisher.  His job was a copyist and arranger and went on to work in that role for the BBC.  He entered the world of movie music through documentary films, which he said was very good training. He worked as a ghostwriter for Phil Green, Stanley Black, Geraldo and Peter Yorke among others. From 1949 Goodwin conducted for the Polygon company, arranging and conducting recordings of Petula Clark and Jimmy Young, including the latter’s 1951 U.K. no. 1 hit “Too Young.”  In the 1950s he joined Parlophone, and worked alongside George Martin. He accompanied Peter Sellers on his Goodness Gracious Me album, and began to broadcast and make records with his Ron Goodwin Concert Orchestra.

In 1953 Goodwin began arranging and conducting more than 300 recordings for over fifty artists, which resulted in more than 100 chart successes. He simultaneously made his own series of recordings and broadcasts as Ron Goodwin and his Concert Orchestra, and in addition began to compose scores for documentary films at Merton Park Studios. In 1958, Goodwin wrote his first feature film score, Man with a Gun, which was quickly followed by The Witness and then Whirlpool with screenplay by Lawrence P. Bachmann a year later.  After Bachmann became executive producer at MGM British Studios in 1959, Goodwin composed and conducted the music for most of its productions, as well as working for other film studios. His singles work included recordings with jazz and calypso singer Frank Holder.

Goodwin is primarily known for his film music and worked on more than 70 scores during his career.  Early minor film success followed with several films until 1961 when he composed scores for the first of four Miss Marple films starring Margaret Rutherford, entitled Murder, She Said (1961). He later went on to compose for the remaining three Miss Marple films Murder at the Gallop (1963), Murder Most Foul (1963) and Murder Ahoy (1964). He scored two horror films, Village of the Damned (1960) and its sequel Children of the Damned (1964). His war films are particularly well remembered. These include 633 Squadron (1964), Operation Crossbow (1965), Where Eagles Dare (1968), Battle of Britain (1969), for which he (mostly) replaced William Walton, and Force Ten from Navarone (1978). After requests from the RAF military band, the opening from Battle of Britain, originally titled Luftwaffe March, was retitled Aces High and is now regularly played by military bands in the U.K.

Goodwin wrote the scores for Of Human Bondage (1964), Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines (1965), Alfred Hitchcock’s Frenzy (1972, replacing Henry Mancini), two movies featuring Morecambe and Wise, and the Norman Wisdom film, The Early Bird (1965).  Goodwin’s score for the 1966 film The Trap is now used by the BBC as the theme to the London Marathon coverage. A 30-second variation of his 1969 composition for the film Monte Carlo or Bust is used as the intro for the BBC Radio Four panel game I’m Sorry I Haven’t a Clue.  In 1972, he recorded Somebody Named Ron Goodwin Plays Somebody Named Burt Bacharach and recorded internationally, winning gold and platinum discs awarded by EMI.   Goodwin wrote several Disney film scores during the 1970s, including the one used for One of Our Dinosaurs Is Missing (1975). He also composed the music and lyrics for a series of animated films. These included The Selfish Giant (1971), The Happy Prince (1974), and The Little Mermaid (also 1974). Goodwin was nominated for the Golden Globe award for best original score for the movie Frenzy (1972).  Goodwin’s last film score was for the Danish-made animation film Valhalla in 1986. He composed the Yorkshire Television start up music used from their launch in July 1968 to the early 1980s before ITV had breakfast television.  Goodwin wrote the television advertising jingles such as Noddy’s chant, “I like Ricicles: they’re twicicle as nicicles”, and the “Mr. Sheen shines umpteen things clean” song, inspired by Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines.

By 1987, Goodwin had begun concentrating on live orchestral performances which included his “Drake 400 Suite” in (1980) and “Armada Suite” in (1988).   His “New Zealand Suite” in (1983) marked a long association with the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, Goodwin appeared as guest conductor with many symphony orchestras at home and abroad including the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, Hallé Orchestra, Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Ulster Orchestra, Detroit Symphony Orchestra, New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, Singapore Symphony Orchestra, Australian Pops Orchestra, Danish Radio Orchestra and the BBC Concert Orchestra. Goodwin was guest conductor at the Royal Academy of Music’s Festival of British and American Film Music in June 1996.

Goodwin was married twice and had a son, Chris. Goodwin was enthusiastic about work with young people and was heavily involved with the Hampshire County Youth Orchestra, Worthing Youth Orchestra, City of Leeds College of Music and the City of Birmingham Schools’ Concert Orchestra.  In December 2002, he completed his 32nd consecutive year of Christmas concerts in packed venues across the South of England. However, he had suffered from asthma for many years and the condition had worsened with age. On January 7, 2003, having completed conducting Christmas concerts with the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, he returned home and died in his sleep at Blacknest Cottage, Brimpton Common, Berkshire, on January 8, 2003, aged 77.  His body is buried at St Paul’s Churchyard, Ashford Hill, Kingsclere, Hampshire, England.

My collection includes the following work by Ron Goodwin:

633 Squadron (1964): Main Title.

Nicolas Gombert and Hors envieux

Nicolas Gombert (c. 1495 – c. 1560) was a Franco-Flemish composer of the Renaissance who was one of the most famous and influential composers between Josquin des Prez and Palestrina, and best represents the fully developed, complex polyphonic style of this period in music history.  Details of his early life are sketchy, but Gombert was likely born around 1495 in southern Flanders, probably between Lille and Saint-Omer, possibly in the town of La Gorgue. German writer and music theorist Hermann Finck wrote that Gombert studied with Josquin; this would have been during the renowned composer’s retirement in Condé-sur-l’Escaut, sometime between 1515 and 1521.

Gombert was employed by the emperor Charles V as a singer in his court chapel in 1526 and possibly as a composer as well. Most likely he was taken on while Charles was passing through Flanders, for the emperor traveled often, bringing his retinue with him, and picking up new members as he went. A document dated 1529 mentions Gombert as magister puerorum (“master of the boys”) for the royal chapel.  He and the singers went with the emperor on his travels throughout his holdings, leaving records of their appearances in various cities of the empire. These visits were musically influential, in part because of Gombert’s stature as a musician; thus the travels of Charles and his chapel, as did those of his predecessor Philip I of Castile with composer Pierre de La Rue, continued the transplantation of the Franco-Flemish polyphonic tradition onto the Iberian Peninsula.

At some point in the 1530s Gombert became a cleric and probably a priest; he received benefices at several cathedrals, including Courtrai, Lens, Metz, and Béthune.  He remained in the Imperial chapel as maître des enfants (“master of the children”) until some time between 1537 and 1540, being succeeded by Thomas Crecquillon and later Cornelius Canis. Even though he held this very position at the Imperial chapel, he never officially received the title of maître de chapelle – music director – which was a title given to both Adrien Thibaut and Thomas Crecquillon. While serving in this position, he likewise unofficially held the position of court composer, arranging numerous works commemorating the key happenings during Charles V’s life.

In 1540 during the height of his career, he vanished from chapel records and was sentenced to hard labor in the galleys for a crime. The exact duration of his service in the galleys is not known, but he was able to continue composing for at least part of the time.  Most likely he was pardoned sometime in or before 1547, the date he sent a letter along with a motet from Tournai to Charles’ gran capitano Ferrante I Gonzaga.  The Magnificat settings preserved uniquely in manuscript in Madrid are often held to have been the “swansongs” that according to Cardan won his pardon; according to this story, Charles was so moved by these Magnificat settings that he let Gombert go early.  It is not known how long Gombert lived after his pardon or what positions, if any, he held; his career faded into relative obscurity after he was freed. He may have retired to Tournai, spending the final years of his life as canon there. Bracketing dates for his probable death are 1556 and 1561; in the former year Finck mentioned that he was still living, and in 1561 Cardan wrote that he was dead, without giving details.

Nicolas Gombert is generally recognized as an exemplars of the late Franco-Flemish school, before the center of Renaissance art-music moved to Italy.  Gombert brought the polyphonic style to its highest state of perfection; if imitation is a common device in Josquin, it is integral in Gombert.  Gombert’s style is characterized by dense, inextricable polyphony.   Harmonically, Gombert’s compositions stressed the traditional modal framework as a baseline, but especially in dense textures of six or more voices, he wrote polymodal sections wherein a subset of voices would sing the lowered pitches of F or Bb while another subset would sing the raised pitches of F# or B: a D major and D minor chord or a G major and a G minor chord might be simultaneously sounded.

Exemplary among Gombert’s formally perfect pieces that employ cross-relations are his six-voice motet on the death of Josquin, Musae Jovis, with its clashing semitones, and occasional root-position triads a tritone apart, and his six-voice chanson Tous les Regretz.  Out of the ten masses that Gombert composed, nine survive complete. The chronology of the masses is not known, but an approximate order can be deduced from stylistic characteristics. Two musical characteristics, sequence and ostinato, that were rare in Gombert’s later works, are present in his earlier masses Quam pulchra es and Tempore paschali.  The motet was Gombert’s preferred form, and his compositions in this genre not only were the most influential part of his output, but they show the greatest diversity of compositional technique.  Gombert’s eight settings of the Magnificat, which may have won him his pardon, are among his most famous works. Each is written in one of the church modes, and consists of a cycle of short motets, with the individual motets based on successive verses of the Magnificat text.

Some of Gombert’s works are for unusually large vocal ensembles, including 8, 10, and 12 voices. These works are not polychoral in the usual sense, or in the manner of the Venetian School in which the voices were spatially separated; rather, the voice sub-groupings change during the pieces. These large ensemble compositions include an eight-voice Credo, the 12-voice Agnus from the Missa Tempore paschali, and 10- and 12- voice settings of the Regina caeli.  His secular compositions – mostly chansons – are less contrapuntally complex than his motets and masses, but nonetheless more so than the majority of contemporary secular pieces, especially the ‘Parisian’ chanson.   He turned to older verse, often of a folkish type, with typical subject matter including unhappy love, farewells, separations, infidelities and the like. Many of these chansons appeared in lute and vihuela arrangements, with their wide geographical distribution showing their immense popularity.   His surviving works include 10 masses, about 140 motets, about 70 chansons, a canción (probably written when he was in Spain), a madrigal, and a handful of instrumental pieces.

Gombert was one of the most renowned composers in Europe after the death of Josquin des Prez, as can be seen by the wide distribution of his music, the use of his music as source material for compositions by others, including Roland de Lassus and Claudio Monteverdi.   While most composers of the next generation did not continue to write vocal music using Gombert’s method of pervasive imitation, they continued to use this contrapuntal texture in instrumental works. Forms such as the canzona and ricercar are directly descended from the vocal style of Gombert; Baroque forms and processes such as the fugue are later descendants. Gombert’s music represents one of the extremes of contrapuntal complexity ever attained in purely vocal music.

The following work by Nicolas Gombert is contained in my collection:

Hors envieux.

Jerry Goldsmith and “Mulan”

Jerrald King “Jerry” Goldsmith (February 10, 1929 – July 21, 2004) was an American composer and conductor most known for his work in film and television scoring, who composed scores for such noteworthy films as The Sand Pebbles, Logan’s Run, Planet of the Apes, Patton, Papillon, Chinatown, The Wind and the Lion, The Omen, The Boys from Brazil, Capricorn One, Alien, Poltergeist, The Secret of NIMH, Gremlins, Hoosiers, Total Recall, Basic Instinct, Rudy, Air Force One, L.A. Confidential, Mulan, The Mummy, three Rambo films, Explorers and five Star Trek films, collaborating with some of film history’s most accomplished directors, including Robert Wise, Howard Hawks, Otto Preminger, Joe Dante, Richard Donner, Roman Polanski, Ridley Scott, Michael Winner, Steven Spielberg, Paul Verhoeven, and Franklin J. Schaffner, and being nominated for six Grammy Awards, five Primetime Emmy Awards, nine Golden Globe Awards, four British Academy Film Awards, and eighteen Academy Awards, though he won only one, in 1976, for The Omen.  Goldsmith, was born February 10, 1929, in Los Angeles, California.   His parents were Morris Goldsmith, a structural engineer, and Tessa (née Rappaport) Goldsmith, a school teacher.

Jerry started playing piano at age six, but only “got serious” by the time he was eleven. At age thirteen, he studied piano privately with legendary concert pianist and educator Jakob Gimpel, whom Goldsmith would later employ to perform piano solos in his score to The Mephisto Waltz, and by the age of sixteen he was studying both theory and counterpoint under Italian composer Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco, who also tutored such noteworthy composers and musicians as Henry Mancini, Nelson Riddle, Herman Stein, André Previn, Marty Paich, and John Williams.  At age sixteen, Goldsmith saw the 1945 film Spellbound in theaters and was inspired by veteran composer Miklós Rózsa’s soundtrack to pursue a career in music.  Goldsmith later enrolled and attended the University of Southern California where he was able to attend courses by Rózsa, but dropped out in favor of a more “practical music program” at the Los Angeles City College. There he was able to coach singers, work as an assistant choral director, play piano accompaniment, and work as an assistant conductor.

In 1950, Goldsmith found work at CBS as a clerk typist in the network’s music department under director Lud Gluskin. There he began writing scores for such radio shows as CBS Radio Workshop, Frontier Gentleman, and Romance.  He later progressed into scoring such live CBS television shows as Climax! and Playhouse 90. He also scored multiple episodes of the television series The Twilight Zone. He remained at CBS until 1960, after which he moved on to Revue Studios and then to MGM Studios for producer Norman Felton, whom he had worked for during live television and would later compose music for such television shows as Dr. Kildare and The Man from U.N.C.L.E.  His feature film debut occurred when he composed the music to the 1957 western Black Patch. He continued with scores to such films as the 1957 western Face of a Fugitive and the 1959 science fiction film City of Fear.

Goldsmith began the 1960s composing for such television shows as Dr. Kildare and Thriller as well as the 1960 drama film The Spiral Road. However, he only began receiving widespread name recognition after his intimate score to the 1962 classic western Lonely Are the Brave.  That same year, Goldsmith composed the mostly atonal and dissonant score to the 1962 pseudo-biopic Freud that focused on a five-year period of the life of psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud. Goldsmith’s score went on to garner him his first Academy Award nomination for Best Original Score, though he lost to fellow first-time nominee Maurice Jarre for his music to Lawrence of Arabia (1962). In 1963, Goldsmith composed a score to The Stripper, his first collaboration with director Franklin J. Schaffner for whom Goldsmith would later score the films Planet of the Apes (1968), Patton (1970), Papillon (1973), and The Boys from Brazil (1978).  Following his success with Lonely Are the Brave and Freud, Goldsmith went on to achieve even more critical recognition with the theme music to The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (1964), and scores to such films as the 1964 western Rio Conchos, the 1964 political thriller Seven Days in May, the 1965 romantic drama A Patch of Blue, the 1965 epic war film In Harm’s Way (in which Goldsmith also made a brief cameo appearance), the 1966 World War I air combat film The Blue Max, the 1966 period naval war epic The Sand Pebbles, the 1967 thriller Warning Shot, the 1967 western Hour of the Gun, and the 1968 controversial mystery The Detective.

It is curious that films with significant sequences that involve flight inspired Goldsmith to write some of his most exhilarating music, such as in Supergirl, Star Trek: The Motion Picture, A Gathering of Eagles, Night Crossing, Air Force One and Tora! Tora! Tora!. Goldsmith’s scores to A Patch of Blue and The Sand Pebbles garnered him his second and third Academy Award nominations, respectively, and were both one of the 250 nominees for the American Film Institute’s top twenty-five American film scores.  His scores for Seven Days in May and The Sand Pebbles also garnered Goldsmith his first two respective Golden Globe Award nominations for Best Original Score in 1965 and 1967. During this time, he also composed for many lighter, comedic films such as the family comedy The Trouble with Angels (1966), the James Bond parodies Our Man Flint (1966) and its sequel In Like Flint (1967), and the comedy The Flim-Flam Man (1967).

In 1968, Goldsmith caught massive critical attention with his landmark, controversial soundtrack to the post-apocalyptic science fiction epic Planet of the Apes, which was one of the first film scores to be written entirely in an Avant garde style. The score went on to garner Goldsmith another Academy Award nomination for Best Original Score and now ranks in No. 18 on the American Film Institute’s top twenty-five American film scores.  Though he did not return to compose for its 1970 sequel Beneath the Planet of the Apes, Goldsmith scored the third installment in the Planet of the Apes franchise, 1971’s Escape from the Planet of the Apes.  Goldsmith concluded the decade with scores to such films as the 1968 western Bandolero!, the 1969 spy thriller The Chairman, the 1969 science fiction film The Illustrated Man, and the 1969 western 100 Rifles. In 1969, he also composed the theme to the comedy-drama television series Room 222.

Goldsmith received more critical praise with his daring music to the 1970 World War II biopic Patton.  The film’s music subsequently earned Goldsmith an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Score and was one of the American Film Institute’s 250 nominees for the top twenty-five American film scores.  Goldsmith’s critical success continued with his emotional score to the 1973 prison escape film Papillon, which also earned him an Academy Award nomination and a nomination as one of the AFI’s top twenty-five American film scores. In 1973, Goldsmith also wrote the theme for the TV series Barnaby Jones.  In 1974, Goldsmith was faced with the daunting task of replacing a score by composer Phillip Lambro to the neo-film noir Chinatown. Goldsmith received an Academy Award nomination for his efforts though he lost to Nino Rota and Carmine Coppola for The Godfather Part II. The score to Chinatown is often regarded as one of the greatest scores of all time and ranks No. 9 on the AFI’s list of top 25 American film scores.  It was also nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Original Score.

Goldsmith earned more critical praise with his score to the 1975 epic period adventure film The Wind and the Lion. The score garnered Goldsmith an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Score, though he lost to fellow composer John Williams for his score to Jaws. The Wind and the Lion was also one of the AFI’s 250 nominees for the top twenty-five American film scores.  In 1976, Goldsmith composed a dark choral score to the horror film The Omen, which was the first film score to feature the use of a choir in an avant-garde style. The score was successful among critics and garnered Goldsmith his first (and ultimately only) Academy Award for Best Original Score and a nomination for Best Original Song for “Ave Satani.”   It was also one of the AFI’s 250 nominees for the top twenty-five American film scores.  His wife, Carol Heather Goldsmith, also wrote lyrics and performed a vocal track titled “The Piper Dreams” released solely on the soundtrack album.  Goldsmith would go on to compose for two more entries in the franchise; Damien: Omen II (1978) and Omen III: The Final Conflict (1981).

Goldsmith continued to have critical success with scores to such films as the 1976 dystopian science fiction Logan’s Run, the 1977 period drama Islands in the Stream (which remained one of his personal favorites),  the 1978 science fiction suspense Coma, the 1978 science fiction thriller Capricorn One, the 1978 disaster film The Swarm, the 1979 period comedy The Great Train Robbery, and his Academy Award-nominated score to the 1978 science fiction thriller The Boys from Brazil, in which he utilized lively waltzes to juxtapose the film’s horrific concept, cloning Adolf Hitler.  In 1979, Goldsmith composed a score to the landmark science fiction film Alien.  Goldsmith’s score for the film earned him a Golden Globe Award nomination for Best Original Score and was one of the AFI’s 250 nominees for the top twenty-five American film scores.  That same year, Goldsmith concluded the decade composing what is widely considered his most recognized and celebrated score for Star Trek: The Motion Picture.

His score for The Motion Picture earned him Academy Award and Golden Globe Award nominations and was one of the AFI’s 250 nominees for the top twenty-five American film scores. Goldsmith would later compose the scores for Star Trek V: The Final Frontier (1989), Star Trek: First Contact (1996), Star Trek: Insurrection (1998), and Star Trek: Nemesis (2002), as well as the theme to the television series Star Trek: Voyager in 1995. In addition, his theme for The Motion Picture, as arranged by Dennis McCarthy, was reused as the theme for Star Trek: The Next Generation in 1987.

Throughout the 1980s, Goldsmith found himself increasingly scoring science fiction and fantasy films in the ongoing wake of the successful 1977 film Star Wars, composing for such films as the The Omen sequels Damien: Omen II (1978) and Omen III: The Final Conflict (1981), 1981 space western Outland, 1982 animated fantasy The Secret of NIMH, and the movie version of Twilight Zone: The Movie, which he composed in four different styles to accompany the film’s four stories.  In 1982, Goldsmith was hired to compose the music to the classic Tobe Hooper-directed, Steven Spielberg-produced horror film Poltergeist.  The film’s score garnered him an Academy Award nomination, though he lost again to fellow composer John Williams for Spielberg’s E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial. Goldsmith later returned in 1986 to compose the more synthetic score to Poltergeist II, the first of two sequels.  He did, however, still manage to compose for such non-fantasy productions as the 1981 period television miniseries Masada (for which he won an Emmy Award), the controversial 1982 war film Inchon, the 1982 action classic First Blood, and his Academy Award and Golden Globe Award nominated score to 1983 political drama Under Fire.

Throughout the decade, many of his compositions became increasingly laced with synthetic elements such as his scores for the 1983 horror sequel Psycho II, the 1984 comedy horror film Gremlins (for which he won a Saturn Award for Best Music), the 1984 fantasy superhero adaptation Supergirl, Ridley Scott fantasy Legend (initially heard only in European prints and then years later in a 2002 director’s cut, 1985 action sequel Rambo: First Blood Part II, 1985 family fantasy Baby: Secret of the Lost Legend, and 1986 horror movie Poltergeist II.   He garnered another Academy Award nomination for his innovative, critically acclaimed score to 1986 sports drama Hoosiers, though he lost to Herbie Hancock for Round Midnight.  During the 80’s, Goldsmith scored the Michael Crichton film, Runaway, the composer’s first all-electronic score. Goldsmith finished out the decade with noteworthy scores to such films as the 1985 science-fiction fantasy family film Explorers, 1987 medieval adventure Lionheart, the 1987 science fiction comedy Innerspace, the 1988 action film Rambo III, the 1989 science fiction horror Leviathan, and Star Trek V: The Final Frontier (1989), his second Star Trek film score.  His critically acclaimed comedy score to The ‘Burbs (1989) is also noteworthy for the use of pipe organ, recorded dog barking sound effects, and for parodying the trumpet “call to war” triplets on an echoplex from his previous score to Patton (1970).

In 1990, Jerry Goldsmith received critical acclaim for his score to the romantic drama The Russia House.  He also composed critically acclaimed music for the 1990 science fiction action film Total Recall. Other noteworthy scores of the era include Gremlins 2: The New Batch (1990) (in which Goldsmith also made a brief cameo appearance), the 1991 psychological thriller Sleeping with the Enemy, the 1991 family comedy Mom and Dad Save the World, the 1992 fantasy romance Forever Young, the 1993 thriller The Vanishing, and the 1993 family comedy Dennis the Menace. In 1992, Goldsmith also composed a critically acclaimed score for the medical drama Medicine Man.  In 1992, Goldsmith composed and conducted a score to the erotic thriller Basic Instinct. The soundtrack, an unsettling hybrid of orchestral and electronic elements, garnered him another Academy Award nomination as well as a Golden Globe Award nomination.  In 1993, Goldsmith also wrote an acclaimed score for the classic sports film Rudy,[48] which has since been used in the trailers for numerous films including Angels in the Outfield (1994), Good Will Hunting (1997), Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron (2002), and Seabiscuit (2003).  Goldsmith composed acclaimed scores for such films as the 1994 superhero adaptation The Shadow, the 1994 thriller The River Wild, the 1994 romantic comedy I.Q., the 1995 action film Congo, the 1995 fantasy adventure First Knight, the 1995 science fiction drama Powder, the 1996 action film Executive Decision, and his third Star Trek film installment Star Trek: First Contact (1996) which he composed with his son Joel Goldsmith.  In 1995, Goldsmith also composed the theme for the UPN series Star Trek: Voyager for which he won a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Main Title Theme Music.

In 1996, Goldsmith composed the critically successful score to the horror action film The Ghost and the Darkness which featured a traditional Irish folk melody interwoven with African rhythms.  In 1997, he was hired to replace a score by Randy Newman for Air Force One.  In 1997, Goldsmith also composed a percussive, jazzy score for the critically acclaimed crime drama L.A. Confidential.  His score garnered him Academy Award and Golden Globe Award nominations, and was also one of the AFI’s 250 nominees for the top twenty-five American film scores.  In 1997, he composed a new theme for the Universal Studios opening logo, first heard in The Lost World: Jurassic Park.  He also continued with scores for such films as the 1997 survival drama The Edge, his fourth Star Trek film installment in 1998, Star Trek: Insurrection, the 1998 science fiction horror Deep Rising, and the 1998 action thriller U.S. Marshals.  In 1998, he also composed a score of combined Eastern, orchestral, and synthetic elements for the Disney-animated film Mulan, which subsequently earned him his final Academy Award and Golden Globe Award nominations along with songwriter Matthew Wilder and lyricist David Zippel.  Goldsmith concluded the decade with critically successful scores to such popular films as the 1998 action film Small Soldiers, his penultimate Star Trek film Star Trek: Insurrection (1998), the 1999 action adventure horror The Mummy, the 1999 horror film The Haunting, and the 1999 action adventure The 13th Warrior.  In 1999, he also composed “Fanfare for Oscar” for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

During the early 2000s, Goldsmith composed scores to the 2000 science fiction thriller Hollow Man, the 2001 mystery film Along Came a Spider, the 2001 drama The Last Castle, the 2002 action/political thriller The Sum of All Fears, and his last Star Trek film Star Trek: Nemesis (2002), which would also be the last film to feature the cast of Star Trek: The Next Generation.  Goldsmith had composed the scores to five of the first ten Star Trek movies up to that point. Goldsmith also composed an original score to the simulator attraction Soarin’ Over California which debuted in 2001 at the Disneyland Resort, and the same attraction Soarin’ which opened in 2005 in Epcot at the Walt Disney World Resort.  Goldsmith’s final cinematic score, composed during declining health, was the critically acclaimed music for the 2003 live action/animated film Looney Tunes: Back in Action, directed by long-time Goldsmith collaborator Joe Dante.  His last work was with another long-time collaborator, Richard Donner (for whom Goldsmith had scored The Omen in 1976), on the 2003 science fiction film Timeline. However, due to a complicated post-production process, Goldsmith’s score was rejected and replaced by a new score by composer Brian Tyler. Goldsmith’s rejected score was later released on CD in2004 through Varèse Sarabande, not long after his death on July 21, 2004.

My collection includes the following works by Jerry Goldsmith:

Air Force One (1997): Main Title.

Mulan (1998): Suite.

Star Trek, the Motion Picture (1979): End Titles.

5 Steps to a Compliant Teen

Dealing with Non-Compliant Teens:
5 Steps to a Compliant Teen

by Deborah Ainsworth, Hartville Life Coach
Posted on October 22, 2011

The teenage years are years of discovery, both for the teenager as well as the parent. As a teen has constant change emotionally, physically and mentally, we also have to change as parents. The techniques that once worked with our pre-teen and children, they may no longer be effective as teenagers. This can be problematic in families if the parents do not grow with their teens, recognizing their changes, adapting to them and finding common ground with their teens. This is not to suggest that teen compliance rests solely with the parents, but as the relationship improves through parenting efforts, so does the compliance….

If you have a teen that is not compliant with the household rules and expectations, there is hope. It is a matter of redefining the terms and conditions with your teen. In addition, it is defining what your teenagers “collateral” is. That means, what is important to them, maybe driving the car, having access to the internet, cell phone and texting etc. You know what is important to your teen, and that will be part of the next steps in getting back on track with your teenager. A great first step is to implement Behavioral Contracting with your teen.

Consider the following 5 Steps to a Compliant Teen:

Read More:

http://www.noomii.com/articles/1326-teen-behavior-5-way-to-get-to-compliant-teen

About the Author
Deborah Ainsworth is a mother of two beautiful boys and Professional Parenting and Life Coach. Focus on and expert in parenting, families and their children. Passionate about making a positive difference.