The Twilight Zone

Synopsis

“This highway leads to the shadowy tip of reality: you're on a through-route to the land of the different, the bizarre, the unexplainable... Go as far as you like on this road. Its limits are only those of mind itself. Ladies and Gentlemen, you're entering the wondrous dimension of imagination…”

Next stop The DATEBOOK Zone.

OK, all kidding aside, but “submitted for your approval” as Rod Serling would say, this is the COMPOSERS DATEBOOK for September 30th. I’m John Birge.

On today’s date in 1960, the second season of “The Twilight Zone,” — the legendary TV series created by Mr. Serling — began airing on CBS. For this, the producers added a new signature theme written by Marius Constant, a Romanian-born French composer. Constant had studied composition with Olivier Messiaen, Arthur Honegger, and Nadia Boulanger and had a very respectable career as a composer and teacher, but he’s best known for his brief, but iconic, “Twilight Zone” theme.

During its five-season run, that show also employed the talents of other famous composers, including Jerry Goldsmith, Leonard Rosenman, Fred Steiner, and Franz Waxman.

And in case you’re wondering who wrote the theme for the FIRST season of “The Twilight Zone,” well, that was another famous Hollywood composer by the name of Bernard Herrmann.

Music Played in Today's Program

Marius Constant (1925-2004): The Twilight Zone Main Theme (2nd version) –Orchestra; Joel McNeely, cond. (Varese-Sarabande VSD2-6087)

Bernard Herrmann (1911-1975): The Twilight Zone Main Theme (1st version) –Orchestra; Joel McNeely, cond. (Varese-Sarabande VSD2-6087)

On This Day

Births

• 1840 - Norwegian composer Johann Svendsen, in Christiania;

• 1852 - Irish-born British composer Sir Charles Villers Stanford, in Dublin;

Deaths

• 1989 - American composer and music critic Virgil Thomson, age 92, in New York City;

Premieres

• 1791 - Mozart: opera, "Die Zauberflöte" (The Magic Flute), in Vienna at the Freihaustheater auf der Wieden, conducted by the composer;

• 1863 - Bizet: opera "Les Pecheurs de perles" (The Pearl Fishers), in Paris at the Théâtre Lyrique;

• 1935 - Gershwin: opera "Porgy and Bess," during trial run at Boston's Colonial Theater; According to Opera America magazine, this is one of the most frequently-produced American operas during the past decade;

• 1944 - R. Vaughan Williams: Oboe Concerto, with soloist Leon Goosens and the Liverpool Philharmonic conducted by Sir Malcolm Sargent;

• 1960 - Barber: "Toccata Festiva" for organ and orchestra, at Philadelphia's Academy of Music, by the Philadelphia Orchestra conducted by Eugene Ormandy, with Paul Callaway the soloist;

• 1979 - Penderecki: "Te Deum" in Assisi, Italy;

• 1989 - Daniel Asia: Piano Quartet, at Wigmore Hall in London, by the Domus ensemble;

• 1999 - Michael Tilson Thomas: "Whitman Songs for Orchestra," by the San Francisco Symphony, composer conducting.