The REAL Michael Hennagin Story
By Jeff Bond
From FSM Vol. 7, No. 8...
Way back in FSM Issue, Vol. 6, No. 3, I was in the middle of
a rundown on various composers' contributions to the Irwin Allen television
shows Lost in Space, Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, The Time Tunnel
and Land of the Giants, when I came across an entry in the Internet
movie Database listing one "Michael Hennagin" as a pseudonym for Jerry
Goldsmith, specifically in entries for two television series, an episode
of Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, called "The Human Computer,"
and a 1959 TV series called Black Saddle. Several sources identified
Hennagin as Mr. Goldsmith's brother-in-law, and the implication was that
Goldsmith had used the pseudonym in order to ghostwrite some music for
the two television shows during particularly busy times in his career.
Due to the extreme unreliability of the IMDB and my own well-exercised
tendency to be completely wrong on occasion, our little sidebar, "The Michael
Hennagin Story," turned out to be a work of fiction. However, it took over
a year for the facts to catch up with us, in the form of Mr. Hennagin's
former wife of 21 years, Marijo Hennagin-Mazur, who was more than happy
to set the record straight.
It turns out that Mr. Hennagin did indeed write the score for the first
season Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea "The Human Computer" episode,
meaning that Jerry Goldsmith's first work on the series was, as is usually
noted, on the first episode of season two, "Jonah and the Whale." Hennagin,
in fact, went on to become a well-known concert composer, after cutting
his teeth composing, copying, orchestrating and occasionally ghostwriting
in Hollywood.
Michael Hennagin was born in Oregon in 1936, but his family relocated
to Los Angeles when he was eight years old. When he was 13, Hennagin's
sister, Sharon, married Jerry Goldsmith. According to Marijo Hennagin-Mazur,
Goldsmith quickly recognized Michael's gift for music, and gave him a number
of opportunities to learn the crafts of music copying and orchestration,
as well as the chance to sit in on the composer's recording sessions. During
his later student years, Hennagin supported himself by frequently copying
and orchestrating for Goldsmith and, according to Hennagin-Mazur, by ghostwriting
portions of some film scores for Goldsmith and the famed choral conductor
Roger Wagner. Hennagin also composed three cues for Otto Preminger's In
Harm's Way. According to Hennagin-Mazur, one of these, written for
harmonica solo, caused the normally intimidating and hard-to-please Preminger
to rush out of the booth and embrace Jerry Goldsmith -- unaware that the
composer, who was conducting, had not written the cue in question.
Michael Hennagin was always vocal about crediting Goldsmith for giving
him important opportunities to gain experience in the Hollywood music industry,
and for setting a stellar example of high musical standards for Hennagin
to follow.
Hennagin left Hollywood in 1961, to attend the Aspen Summer Music Festival
as a student of French composer Darius Milhaud, and afterwards, to pursue
a degree at the renowned Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, where
he was the only composer in the previous four years to be granted admission
on full scholarship. After graduating from the Curtis Institute in 1963,
Hennagin became a student of Aaron Copland (at the famed composer's invitation)
at the Berkshire Summer Music Festival at Tanglewood. He returned to Los
Angeles in the fall of 1963, and between September of that year and June
of 1965 composed music for several television series, including Voyage
to the Bottom of the Sea. Having had difficulty making ends meet, Hennagin
and his family left Hollywood in June of 1965, when he received a Ford
Foundation grant as composer-in-residence for the Detroit Public Schools.
Ironically, just after his departure from Hollywood, he received offers
(relayed by Jerry Goldsmith) to score the entire first season of the TV
series The Man From U.N.C.L.E. and the film Lilies of the Field,
but Hennagin felt compelled to turn these offers down.
The following year, Hennagin embarked on a long and successful career
as a university professor and composer of concert music. His oeuvre comprises
works for instrumental and vocal solo, chamber ensembles, symphonic band
and orchestra, and, by the time of his death in 1993, Hennagin was recognized
as one of this country's leading composers of choral music. He received
numerous commissions, as well as many awards, including (among others)
the Music Teachers National Association's National Composer of the Year
Award in 1975, a National Endowment for the Arts grant in 1976 for a major
work for the U.S. Bicentennial (So the World Went Small, for Men's Chorus
and instruments), a MacDowell Colony Fellowship, the University of Oklahoma
Regents Award for Superior Creative Activity in 1988, and the ASCAP Standard
Award for Performances of serious music for 24 consecutive years. Hennagin
made frequent appearances as guest artist and composer, as lecturer and
conductor at concerts and workshops across the country, and organized and
directed many concerts and music festivals. He retired in the fall of 1991
from the University of Oklahoma as Professor Emeritus of Music, in order
to devote full time to composing.
Michael Hennagin died suddenly on June 11, 1993, at the age of 56. He
had only just completed a major work, Proud Music, for chorus and orchestra,
based on the poetry of Walt Whitman and commissioned by the Oklahoma Summer
Arts Institute, which performed the work in his memory several days after
his death. Hennagin was further honored by the University of Oklahoma,
with a three-day retrospective music festival, Michael Hennagin: A Celebration,
in November of 1993.
We welcome the opportunity to set the record straight on this composer
for our readers, and regret any misconceptions created by the original
sidebar on Jerry Goldsmith and Michael Hennagin.
MailBag@filmscoremonthly.com
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