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 Print this article FMS REVIEW...  April 4, 2011 New Books Capture Film Music History Killing Me Softly: My Life In Music by Charles Fox Film and Television Music: A Guide to Books, Articles and Composer Interviews by Warren Sherk by Jon Burlingame Two new books have recently hit the shelves that deal, in very different ways, with music for film and television. One is a delightful memoir of one composer's adventures in popular music; the other is an invaluable resource for information about movie and TV music.  But this is not "And Then I Wrote..." Rather, Fox frames his career with the story of his youthful studies with famed French composition teacher Nadia Boulanger, who also taught Aaron Copland, Philip Glass, Quincy Jones and Michel Legrand. The central section of the book is a series of letters that he wrote home during his stay in Paris (1959-61) that talk about his experiences there, his enthusiasm for her teaching methods and what he gained during "Fox's earnest, thoughtfully observed commentary on his own career...is fascinating, sometimes funny and even Fox's earnest, thoughtfully observed commentary on his own career – which followed the Boulanger studies – is fascinating, sometimes funny and even eye-opening. He's quite candid about the sometimes shady business practices he encountered (having to write ABC's Wide World of Sports theme for $500 and no future royalties, for example). Some of his most entertaining anecdotes deal with the process of creating TV themes. Fox – together with frequent lyricist partners Norman Gimbel and Paul Williams – penned songs for some of TV's most enduring series, including Love American Style, Angie and Wonder Woman. As he writes: "It helps to have a musical identification that the audience recognizes and looks forward to each week... The theme should feel like a good friend, an old friend who comes back each week to entertain you." Fox, without access to a piano or cassette player, had to serenade producer Aaron Spelling with his own a capella rendition of his theme for The Love Boat; luckily Spelling liked it, even without accompaniment, and it became not only a long-running hit that everyone knows, but also a signature song for vocalist Jack Jones that he still sings in concert. There are a number of surprises in the book, notably Fox's unhappy experiences on the movie version of Grease, which led to him leaving the project during production; the fun he had working with a pre-Governator Arnold Schwarzenegger on his only film as director, the TV remake of Christmas in Connecticut; and his friendships with such notable colleagues as Jerry Goldsmith.  He spent nearly 30 years compiling vast lists of practically everything of substance ever published on the subject of music for film and television, and the result is this remarkably vast treasure trove of information. It's a mind-boggling 586 pages of data (and another 80 pages of index!). There has been one other attempt to do something similar: Steven D. Wescott's 1985 Comprehensive Bibliography of Music for Film and Television, but that was available in only a limited edition, is hard to find and now long out of date. Sherk's book not only lists tens of thousands of articles and books – in many cases the author provides a succinct synopsis of the content of each. "Sherk's book not only lists tens of thousands of articles and books – in many cases the author provides a succinct synopsis of the content of each." A section on film-music articles within music periodicals is equally helpful, including everything from Down Beat to Gramophone. Movie- and TV-music articles in places like Time, Newsweek, The New Yorker and other general-interest magazines are also noted. (Newspaper articles, oral histories and soundtrack reviews are among the few arenas not chronicled in Sherk's otherwise all-encompassing tome.) Film and Television Music is nothing less than a landmark reference work – an indispensable book for anyone who researches or writes about this field. Both authors will be signing their books, and Fox will be performing, on April 9 from 3–5 pm at the Barnes & Noble bookshop in Westside Pavilion, 10850 West Pico Blvd. in West Los Angeles, (310) 475-3138. For more information, read about the event or contact the event sponsor – The Film Music Society – at (310) 820-1909 or info@filmmusicsociety.org. ©2011 Jon Burlingame  |
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