John Addison
1920 - 1998
British
Summary
He composed the theme music for the television series Murder, She Wrote, for which he won an Emmy. Addison will also be remembered as the composer Alfred Hitchcock turned to when the director ended his long relationship with Bernard Herrmann over the score to his 1966 film Torn Curtain.
He had a personal connection to Reach for the Sky (1956) which he scored, since Douglas Bader (the subject of the movie) was his brother-in-law.
For the theatre, Addison wrote the music for John Osborne's plays The Entertainer (1957) and Luther (1961). He collaborated with John Cranko on a revue, "Cranks" in 1956.
Although he wrote numerous classical compositions, Addison explained that "If you find you're good at something, as I was as a film composer, it's stupid to do anything else." His classical works included a trumpet concerto, described by The Times as "buoyant" and "Gershwinesque"; a trio for oboe, clarinet and bassoon; Carte Blanche, a ballet for Sadler's Wells from which an orchestral suite of "sophisticated high spirits" was performed at the Proms; a septet for wind and harp, a piano concerto, a concertante for oboe, clarinet, horn and orchestra; and a partita for strings, which was warmly praised.
Marlene Dietrich recorded If He Swing By the String and Such Trying Times from the music in Tom Jones.
Addison's collection of correspondence, scores, and studio recordings were donated to the Film Music Archives at Brigham Young University in 1994. He was survived by his wife Pamela; two sons Jonathan and Daniel; daughter Lucinda; stepson Rex Birchenough, and stepdaughter Sandra Stapleton. His daughter Jane pre-deceased him.
-Wikipedia
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