"Citizen Kane" scores big

Synopsis

For American conductor and composer Bernard Herrmann, 1940 was a busy year. On the East Coast, he had been appointed chief conductor of the CBS Radio Symphony; on the West Coast, he was busy in Hollywood, scoring Citizen Kane for director Orson Welles.

Herrmann was 30 at the time and recalled: “I was given twelve weeks to do my job. I worked on the film reel by reel, as it was being shot and cut. This way I had a sense of the picture being built and of my own music being a part of that building. Many sequences were actually tailored to match the music.”

The finished product was released to the public on today’s date in 1941, and was an instant success, with The New York Times review noting “the stunning manner in which the music of Bernard Herrmann has been used.”

Although nominated for Best Picture and Best Musical Score, the film didn’t win either Oscar in 1941. No matter — for many film makers, film critics, and film fans, Citizen Kane rates No. 1 among the greatest films ever made.

Music Played in Today's Program

Bernard Herrmann (1911-1975): Citizen Kane film score (opening); National Philharmonic; Charles Gerhardt, conductor; RCA CD 707

On This Day

Births

• 1582 - Early Italian opera composer Marco da Gagliano, in Gagliano

• 1602 - Baptism of English madrigal composer William Lawes, in Salisbury. He was the younger brother of the more famous English composer Henry Lawes (1596-1662).

• 1872 - Swedish violinist and composer Hugo Alfvén in Stockholm

• 1895 - American organist and composer Leo Sowerby, in Grand Rapids, Michigan

• 1899 - Icelandic composer Jón Leifs, in Sólheimar

Deaths

• 1904 - Czech composer Antonin Dvorák, 62, in Prague

• 1978 - Soviet composer Aram Khachaturian, 74, in Moscow

Premieres

• 1786 - Mozart: The Marriage of Figaro in Vienna at the Old Burgtheater

• 1886 - Franck: Symphonic Variations for piano and orchestra, in Paris

• 1909 - Rachmaninoff: The Isle of the Dead, in Moscow, conducted by the composer (Julian date: April 18)

• 1925 - Piston: Three Pieces for flute, clarinet, and bassoon (his first published work), at the École Normale in Paris, by the Blanquart-Coste-Dherin trio

• 1939 - Barber: The Virgin Martyrs, with students from the Curtis Institute of Music on a CBS Radio broadcast, with the composer conducting

• 1971 - Dave Brubeck: oratorio Truth Has Fallen, at the opening of the Center for the Arts in Midland, Michigan

• 1987 - Harrison Birtwistle: Endless Parade for trumpet, vibraphone and strings, in Zurich (Switzerland) by the Collegium Musicum conducted by Paul Sacher, with trumpeter Hakan Hardenberger

• 2002 - Jennifer Higdon: Blue Cathedral, by the Curtis Institute Symphony conducted by Robert Spano, commissioned to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the Curtis Institute of Music

• 2003 - Lukas Foss: Concertino (Passacaglia, Bachanalia, Passacaglia) for vocal soloists, chorus and orchestra, by the New York Choral Artists and the New York Philharmonic, Kurt Masur conducting

Others

• 1761 - Franz Joseph Haydn begins his 30-year tenure as Second-Kapellmeister at Prince Esterhazy’s estate in Eisenstadt. In 1766, Haydn succeeded the much older composer Gregor Joseph Werner as First-Kapellmeister.

• 1825 - first documented American performance of Haydn’s Symphony No. 100 (Military) at Boylston Hall in Boston, at a benefit concert for Haydn’s former pupil, Johann Christian Gottlieb Graupner (1767-1836)

• 1837 - American premiere of Rossini’s opera Semiramide in New Orleans

• 1938 - The German Reichsmusikkammer (Imperial Ministry of Music) forbids Aryan music instructors to teach pupils of Jewish extraction