David Raksin's father Isidore, who both conducted and owned a music
store, taught his son to play piano as well as woodwind instruments at
an early age. He eventually studied music with
Arnold Schönberg, but became
by-and-large a self-taught multi-instrumentalist (organ and
percussion), as well as composer and arranger for radio and for his own
jazz/dance combo which he led at the age of 12 ! In between classes at
the University of Pennsylvania, he often worked gigs and jam sessions,
playing clarinet. After graduation, he joined
Benny Goodman for a while and then
got his major break when the conductor
Al Goodman bought his arrangement for
'I Got Rhythm'. Goodman pianist and famous wit, Oscar Levant,
was impressed and recommended David to his lifelong friend
George Gershwin, who in turn helped him
to get a job with the publishing company Harms/Chappell.
At the behest of Alfred Newman, who was in
charge of the 20th Century Fox music department, David was invited to
Hollywood in 1935. His first assignment was as arranger (in conjunction
with Edward B. Powell) of the musical
score for the Charles Chaplin film
Moderne Zeiten (1936), but the
collaboration with the famous comedian was not an entirely happy
experience. At one stage, David was fired after making a stand on
improvements to the score, which Chaplin did not appreciate. He was
reinstated only due to Alfred Newman's intercession but, ultimately,
never received due credit for his input. Many of his other early
Hollywood orchestrations suffered a similar fate. For several years,
David worked on a variety of second features, often horror films, but
occasionally broke out of the mold, as with the 'Polka Dot Ballet'
written for
The Gang's All Here (1943).
The big career-changing breakthrough happened in 1944, when both Alfred
Newman and Bernard Herrmann
refused to score the Otto Preminger movie
Laura (1944). Newman was already overloaded
with assignments, and, in any case, rumours persisted at the studio,
that this was the type of film unlikely to enhance a composer's
reputation. Johnny Mercer and David Raksin
eventually landed the job, the former writing the lyrics and David
composing the score with the central theme being the romantic ballad
'Laura'.
This evocative, wonderfully haunting piece of music has
since become one of the most often recorded in history and the only
song Cole Porter
admitted to being jealous of not having composed himself. It was also
one of Frank Sinatra's personal favorites.
However, the
'Laura' theme
might have been stillborn if Preminger had gone with Gershwin's
'Summertime' or Duke Ellington's
'Sophisticated Lady', as he had intended to
do at first. David stood his ground with the director (as he had
previously with Chaplin and would later do with Alfred Hitchcock),
arguing that these pieces were unsuitable for the film because "of the
accretion of ideas and associations that a song already so well known
would evoke in the audience". While he would always have his fair share
of detractors, who thought his music too complex or too avant-garde,
David Raksin was now on his way to becoming a significant film composer
in Hollywood. His next memorable achievements were the score for the
lavish costume drama
Amber, die große Kurtisane (1947), with yet
another haunting melodic leitmotif; the off-beat, almost
expressionistic
Die Macht des Bösen (1948), particularly
the finale; the stirring theme for the all-star movie
Stadt der Illusionen (1952).
Later noteworthy efforts included
Carrie (1952),
Getrennt von Tisch und Bett (1958) and
Zwei Wochen in einer anderen Stadt (1962).
What set David Raksin apart from other film composers was his
unmitigated willingness to experiment, to be creatively different. In
so doing, he enhanced the impact of, and, in the long run, the
reputation of many a motion picture. David also composed for the small
screen (for instance, the theme for
Ben Casey (1961)) and for the
stage ('Volpone', 'Mother Courage', 'The Prodigal'). When not writing
music or conducting, he lectured in music theory and technique at the
University of Southern California and at UCLA (1958-2003). He served
eight terms as president of the Composers & Lyricists Guild of America.
He was awarded the Golden Soundtrack Award in 1992 by the American
Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers.
