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Apart from his season 1's input on "The Man from UNCLE" (released thru FSM), which subsequent and memorable works do Scharf contribute to?
NP: Walter Scharf's "Old Man Out, Part I".
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Scharf also did a rather good score for the early 70's police/legal thriller PENDULUM with George Peppard and Richard Kiley, including a fairly decent title song. (Sorry, no idea who did the lyrics.)
For me his finest moments remain the Jacques Costeau specials. Anybody out there have the "never-quite-released" Lp's for these? They were actually in the Schwann catalogue for a while but I've never seen them anywhere.
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I have seen only THE LEGEND OF THE LIVING SEA, pressed on the Ocean label.
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Posted: |
May 19, 2004 - 11:03 PM
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By: |
manderley
(Member)
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WALTER SCHARF is a Hollywood music man with 50 years and hundreds of films among his credits.
Starting in the early '30s, he composed music for films primarily at Fox, and usually uncredited (as many of Fox's scores were), for films including ones featuring Shirley Temple, Sonja Henie, and Loretta Young. One of his final films at Fox in this period is "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes".
Moving to Paramount in the early '40s, he scored (again usually uncredited) films in the Henry Aldrich series, as well as films like Alan Ladd's film noir "The Glass Key".
He then moved to Republic as a composer and music director there, supervising and conducting scores for many of their musicals, as well as the composition of scores for John Wayne films like "The Fighting Seabees" and "Dakota" and others.
In the latter part of the 1940s he moved to Universal and scored dozens of films there (again uncredited as were so many Universals), including "Casbah", "The Saxon Charm", the Abbott and Costello "Mexican Hayride" (as well as more A&C films over the years), parts of the "Ma and Pa Kettle" series, and various action, comedy, and adventure films.
As pointed out, Scharf moved to Paramount in the '50s, serving as composer or music supervisor (or both) on such films as "Living It Up", "Three-Ring Circus", "Three Violent People", "The Court Jester", "The Joker Is Wild", "Loving You", "Rock-A-Bye Baby", "The Geisha Boy", "Cinderfella", and "The Nutty Professor", among many, many others.
During the early '50s period he was also the music supervisor/conductor (and probably score composer/arranger) on the prestigious Goldwyn production of "Hans Christian Andersen". At RKO, he worked on "The French Line" and "Bundle of Joy".
In the post-'50s period he contributed scores to "Pocketful of Miracles", "Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory", "If It's Tuesday, This Must Be Belgium", "The Cheyenne Social Club", and was music supervisor/arranger/conductor for Barbra Streisand's debut film, "Funny Girl".
Television credits include episodes of "Man from U.N.C.L.E.", "National Geographic Specials", "Wild, Wild West", "Mission Impossible", "The Undersea World of Jacques Cousteau", and "Hawaii Five-O", among many shows, series, and mini-series.
While Walter Scharf's is not a household name today to the general public, he was certainly a well-known and respected contributor within the filmmusic industry over many, many years.
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Television credits include episodes of "Man from U.N.C.L.E.", "National Geographic Specials", "Wild, Wild West", "Mission Impossible", "The Undersea World of Jacques Cousteau", and "Hawaii Five-O", among many shows, series, and mini-series.
I only know his espionage series credits which I really appreciate: "The Project Strigas Affair" and many UNCLE's season 1, for "Mission: Impossible", I really enjoy his season 1's input ("Old Man Out" and the jazz-oriented "The Ransom") and less his season 2's one ("The Survivors" and "The Bank"). For "The Wild Wild West", he scored a Spanish/Mexican episode titled" The Night of the Assassin" that I found very good.
NP: Scharf's "The Project Strigas Affair".
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In the late 1960's through the mid 1970's Walter Scharf scored 17 National Geographic Specials, all of which were produced by David Wolper Productions in L.A. The shows included "Alaska!," "Man of the Serengeti," "The Great Mojave Desert," "America's Wonderland: The National Parks," "Strange Creatures of the Night." Scharf was a great craftsman, able to work in diverse styles, and quickly, too. From all reports he was easygoing and well respected by the musicians he worked regularly with. He passed away just last year.
I have not been able to locate any info on the LP of National Geographic music - Bill Finn, if you have any details (like the label and/or catalog number) I'd appreciate you emailing me at mtrachtm@ngs.org
I do know there was a plan to release an LP of Scharf's score to "Siberia: The Endless Horizon," written in 1969, and a demo master was compiled, but it was never released.
Mark T.
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Bay Cities released an expanded edition CD of the Tony Thomas-produced LP release of "HAROLD LLOYD'S WONDERFUL WORLD OF COMEDY." These were the documentary compilations of Lloyd's work specially put together by the master comedian late in his life. Lloyd appreciated what music added to silent comedy, and he commissioned outstanding work from Scharf.
Scharf composed atmospheric "absolute" music for (I believe) the National Parks or else National Geographic, music inspired by the great scenery. I believe this was released on cassette in the earkly seventies. Sorry I can't remember more details, but it was lovely stuff, and I wish I'd copied my friend's tape, or at least stolen it.
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Posted: |
May 21, 2004 - 2:16 AM
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By: |
MMM
(Member)
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There's a record album called "The Legend of the Living Sea," released on Ocean Records (OR 7111), which contains Scharf's music for "The Living Sea" exhibit, a Cousteau production that was featured on the "Queen Mary" in Long Beach, California. Lovely music indeed.
There is also a 1975 album called "Wilderness Trail," produced by the National Geographic Society (catalog number is 07708 -- doesn't really tell what what label it's on!). It came with a huge, ugly poster of the Grand Canyon, but the music is very evocative, with narration unfortunately covering some of it.
Walter Scharf was always a sweet and generous man to me, and is sorely missed.
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WALTER SCHARF is a Hollywood music man with 50 years and hundreds of films among his credits.
Starting in the early '30s, he composed music for films primarily at Fox, and usually uncredited (as many of Fox's scores were), for films including ones featuring Shirley Temple, Sonja Henie, and Loretta Young. One of his final films at Fox in this period is "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes".
Moving to Paramount in the early '40s, he scored (again usually uncredited) films in the Henry Aldrich series, as well as films like Alan Ladd's film noir "The Glass Key".
He then moved to Republic as a composer and music director there, supervising and conducting scores for many of their musicals, as well as the composition of scores for John Wayne films like "The Fighting Seabees" and "Dakota" and others.
In the latter part of the 1940s he moved to Universal and scored dozens of films there (again uncredited as were so many Universals), including "Casbah", "The Saxon Charm", the Abbott and Costello "Mexican Hayride" (as well as more A&C films over the years), parts of the "Ma and Pa Kettle" series, and various action, comedy, and adventure films.
As pointed out, Scharf moved to Paramount in the '50s, serving as composer or music supervisor (or both) on such films as "Living It Up", "Three-Ring Circus", "Three Violent People", "The Court Jester", "The Joker Is Wild", "Loving You", "Rock-A-Bye Baby", "The Geisha Boy", "Cinderfella", and "The Nutty Professor", among many, many others.
During the early '50s period he was also the music supervisor/conductor (and probably score composer/arranger) on the prestigious Goldwyn production of "Hans Christian Andersen". At RKO, he worked on "The French Line" and "Bundle of Joy".
In the post-'50s period he contributed scores to "Pocketful of Miracles", "Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory", "If It's Tuesday, This Must Be Belgium", "The Cheyenne Social Club", and was music supervisor/arranger/conductor for Barbra Streisand's debut film, "Funny Girl".
Television credits include episodes of "Man from U.N.C.L.E.", "National Geographic Specials", "Wild, Wild West", "Mission Impossible", "The Undersea World of Jacques Cousteau", and "Hawaii Five-O", among many shows, series, and mini-series.
While Walter Scharf's is not a household name today to the general public, he was certainly a well-known and respected contributor within the filmmusic industry over many, many years.
I adore Walter Scharf and issued his Harold Lloyd scores on Bay Cities. A terrific composer. However, unless he did it uncredited, I don't think he worked on The Court Jester - that was Vic Schoen.
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Those were the Harold Lloyd scores I mentioned above, of course, one of the million reasons why we're all beholden to Bay Cities.
For some reason I can't lay my hands on my copy of Scharf's book, "Composed and Conducted by Walter Scharf," even though I read it just a few months ago and it's got to be somewhere right in this room. I seem to remember, however, that Scharf was brought in to re-do a lot of THE COURT JESTER and didn't want to have screen credit for it.
(Similarly, Manderley, I'm pretty sure he didn't get screen credit for working on HOLMES, which I watched only a week or so ago, but of course it was typical of Fox in those days not to give a lot of credit to their composing teams.)
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Posted: |
Nov 8, 2009 - 1:16 AM
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By: |
MMM
(Member)
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Walter told me he did some arranging work on COURT JESTER. I also recall him mentioning this title in his book, too, which I can't seem find either! Maybe someone's stealing all the copies? Schoen wrote for that picture, and I believe there's a lot of tracked music in it, too, courtesy of "Paramount composers" Rozsa, Waxman, Young, and Van Cleave. I don't remember him saying he wrote music for the picture, so if any was used, it was more likely tracked, as he does receive performance royalties for the film, and arrangers don't get royalties.
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