Post by erik on May 1, 2021 17:49:18 GMT -5
One of the many victims of the 1950's anti-Commie Hollywood blacklist, film composer Jerry Fielding one of his field's most underrated (at least by the public) figures during the late 1960's and 1970's. The first example of this is his score to a very controversial 1969 Western epic that is in this week's Classical Works Spotlight.
Jerry Fielding: THE WILD BUNCH
Born as Joshua Itzhak Feldman in Pittsburgh in 1922, Jerry Fielding became one of the most prominent composers of Hollywood film music that most of the public never necessarily knew. First involved in the big band jazz ensembles of Kay Keyser during World War II, Fielding also found work during the early years of television, including the game show You Bet Your Life, hosted by the legendary Groucho Marx. But Fielding soon got in trouble with the feds and with Hollywood because of his desire to integrate his orchestras with African-American musicians and his own outspoken, extremely progressive beliefs. The House Un-American Activities Committee wanted him to name Groucho Marx as a Communist, but Fielding flatly refused. For most of the next ten years, from 1952 to 1962, Fielding was effectively put on Hollywood’s blacklist, and could only find work in Las Vegas. Then in 1962, he was finally given a shot once more in Hollywood, when director Otto Preminger got him to do the score for the political drama Advise And Consent. Four years later, in 1966, he did the Americana-influenced score for a made-for-TV adaptation of Katherine Anne Porter’s novella Noon Wine, which was directed by Sam Peckinpah, himself a victim of a different blacklist (not because of politics, but because of personality). This began a close working relationship with the often-cantankerous director, and the fruits of this combustible partnership paid off when Fielding, over the initial objections of producer Phil Feldman, composed and conducted the score for Peckinpah’s magisterial 1969 Western epic The Wild Bunch. Set along the U.S./Mexico border in 1913, during the Mexican Revolution, the film focused on an increasingly anachronistic group of outlaws trying to make one last score, all the while being (reluctantly) hunted by a former member. Peckinpah’s only stipulation on Fielding was that his score reflect the native music of Mexico, particularly Mariachis and rancheras. Fielding did indeed integrate those elements into his score, and was invited by the director down to the locations in Mexico where he and his cast and crew were filming to get ideas, and to use an authentic Mexican guitarist by the name of Julio Corona. The end result was a highly innovative mix of Mexicana and Americana that earned Fielding the first of three Academy Award nominations (though no wins), even as The Wild Bunch was considered a very volatile film because of its (at the time) extreme violence. Following that success, Fielding became something of an extreme workaholic; and due to this, a function of having been blacklisted in Hollywood, he suffered a heart attack in February 1980, passing away at the all-too-early age of 57.
Warner Brothers Studio Orchestra/JERRY FIELDING (Warner Brothers)
Jerry Fielding: THE WILD BUNCH
Born as Joshua Itzhak Feldman in Pittsburgh in 1922, Jerry Fielding became one of the most prominent composers of Hollywood film music that most of the public never necessarily knew. First involved in the big band jazz ensembles of Kay Keyser during World War II, Fielding also found work during the early years of television, including the game show You Bet Your Life, hosted by the legendary Groucho Marx. But Fielding soon got in trouble with the feds and with Hollywood because of his desire to integrate his orchestras with African-American musicians and his own outspoken, extremely progressive beliefs. The House Un-American Activities Committee wanted him to name Groucho Marx as a Communist, but Fielding flatly refused. For most of the next ten years, from 1952 to 1962, Fielding was effectively put on Hollywood’s blacklist, and could only find work in Las Vegas. Then in 1962, he was finally given a shot once more in Hollywood, when director Otto Preminger got him to do the score for the political drama Advise And Consent. Four years later, in 1966, he did the Americana-influenced score for a made-for-TV adaptation of Katherine Anne Porter’s novella Noon Wine, which was directed by Sam Peckinpah, himself a victim of a different blacklist (not because of politics, but because of personality). This began a close working relationship with the often-cantankerous director, and the fruits of this combustible partnership paid off when Fielding, over the initial objections of producer Phil Feldman, composed and conducted the score for Peckinpah’s magisterial 1969 Western epic The Wild Bunch. Set along the U.S./Mexico border in 1913, during the Mexican Revolution, the film focused on an increasingly anachronistic group of outlaws trying to make one last score, all the while being (reluctantly) hunted by a former member. Peckinpah’s only stipulation on Fielding was that his score reflect the native music of Mexico, particularly Mariachis and rancheras. Fielding did indeed integrate those elements into his score, and was invited by the director down to the locations in Mexico where he and his cast and crew were filming to get ideas, and to use an authentic Mexican guitarist by the name of Julio Corona. The end result was a highly innovative mix of Mexicana and Americana that earned Fielding the first of three Academy Award nominations (though no wins), even as The Wild Bunch was considered a very volatile film because of its (at the time) extreme violence. Following that success, Fielding became something of an extreme workaholic; and due to this, a function of having been blacklisted in Hollywood, he suffered a heart attack in February 1980, passing away at the all-too-early age of 57.
Warner Brothers Studio Orchestra/JERRY FIELDING (Warner Brothers)