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On this day, September 10, 1908, Harry Warnow was born. You know him better as Raymond Scott.
Mon Sep 10, 2018: This would have been his 110th birthday: Raymond Scott
Who?
I've brought him up at DU before. Since I knew the anniversary of his birth was coming up, I sat down and watched a tape of the film "Funny Bones" on Saturday night. I've seen it several times, but not in over a year. One of his tunes is heard several times in the film, and I tracked it down.
I think I'll watch "Funny Bones" again tonight.
{edited. No, I won't. My older brother threw away the videotape. I have yet to find it on DVD.}
I love that movie. If you haven't seen it, find it. Surely you can view it on demand.
Funny Bones
This tune plays as the credits roll:
Raymond Scott
Raymond Scott (born Harry Warnow, September 10, 1908 – February 8, 1994) was an American composer, band leader, pianist, recording studio maverick, and inventor of electronic instruments.
Scott never scored cartoon soundtracks, but his music is familiar to millions because Carl Stalling adapted it in over 120 Bugs Bunny, Porky Pig, Daffy Duck, and other Warner Bros. Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies cartoons. His compositions may also be heard in The Ren and Stimpy Show (which uses the original Scott recordings in twelve episodes), The Simpsons, Duckman, Animaniacs, The Oblongs, and Batfink. The only time he composed to accompany animation was three 20-second commercial jingles for County Fair Bread in 1962.
Early life and career
Scott was born in Brooklyn, New York to Russian Jewish immigrants, Joseph and Sarah Warnow. His older brother, Mark Warnow, a conductor, violinist, and musical director for the CBS radio program Your Hit Parade, encouraged his musical career.
A 1931 graduate of the Juilliard School of Music, where he studied piano, theory and composition, Scott, under his birth name, began his professional career as a pianist for the CBS Radio house band. His older (by eight years) brother Mark conducted the orchestra. Harry adopted the pseudonym "Raymond Scott" to spare his brother charges of nepotism when the orchestra began performing the pianist's idiosyncratic compositions. In 1935 he married Pearl Zimney.
In late 1936, Scott assembled a band from among his CBS colleagues, calling it the Raymond Scott Quintette. It was a six-piece group, but he thought Quintette (his spelling) sounded "crisper"; he also told a reporter that he feared "calling it a 'sextet' might get your mind off music." His sidemen were Pete Pumiglio (clarinet); Bunny Berigan (trumpet, soon replaced by Dave Wade); Louis Shoobe (double); Dave Harris (tenor saxophone); and Johnny Williams (drums). They made their first recordings in New York on February 20, 1937, for Master Records, owned by music publisher/impresario Irving Mills (who was also Duke Ellington's manager).
{snip}
Electronics and research
Scott, who attended Brooklyn Technical High School, was a electronic music pioneer and adventurous sound engineer. {snip} In 1946, he established Manhattan Research, a division of Raymond Scott Enterprises, which he announced would "design and manufacture electronic music devices and systems." {snip} Relying on several instruments of his invention, such as the Clavivox and Electronium, Scott recorded futuristic electronic compositions for use in television and radio commercials and records of electronic music.
{snip}
Scott developed some of the first devices capable of producing a series of electronic tones automatically in sequence. He later credited himself as being the inventor of the polyphonic sequencer. (It should be noted that his electromechanical devices, some with motors moving photocells past lights, bore little resemblance to the all-electronic sequencers of the late sixties.) He began working on a machine he said composed using artificial intelligence. The Electronium, as Scott called it, with its vast array of knobs, buttons and patch panels is considered the first self-composing synthesizer.
{snip}
In 1969, Motown impresario Berry Gordy, tipped off about a mad musical scientist engaged in mysterious works, visited Scott at his Long Island labs to witness the Electronium in action. Impressed by the infinite possibilities, Gordy hired Scott in 1971 to serve as director of Motown's electronic music and research department in Los Angeles, a position Scott held until 1977. No Motown recordings using Scott's electronic inventions have yet been publicly identified.
{snip}
Scott later said he "spent 11 years and close to a million dollars developing the Electronium." Scott was thereafter largely unemployed, though hardly inactive. He continued to modify his inventions, eventually adapting computers and primitive MIDI devices to his systems. He suffered a series of heart attacks, ran low on cash, and became a subject on Where Are They Now?
Largely forgotten by the public by the 1980s, he suffered a stroke in 1987 that left him unable to work or engage in conversation. His recordings were largely out of print, his electronic instruments were cobweb-collecting relics, and his once-abundant royalty stream had slowed to a trickle.
{snip}
The cartoon connection
In 1943 Scott sold his music publishing to Warner Bros., who allowed Carl Stalling, music director for Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies, to adapt anything in the Warner music catalog.
Stalling immediately began peppering his cartoon scores with Scott quotes, such as in The Great Piggy Bank Robbery. Besides being used in Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies, Scott's tunes have been licensed to The Simpsons, The Ren and Stimpy Show, Animaniacs, The Oblongs, Batfink, and Duckman. "Powerhouse" was quoted ten times in the Warner Brothers feature Looney Tunes: Back in Action (2003).
Obscurity and rediscovery
His legacy underwent a revival in the early 1990s after Irwin Chusid met Raymond and his wife Mitzi at their home in California and discovered a vast collection of unreleased recordings of rehearsals and studio sessions. In 1992, the release of Reckless Nights and Turkish Twilights by Columbia, produced by Irwin Chusid with Hal Willner as executive producer, was the first major-label CD compilation of his 1937–39 six-man quintet. A year earlier, Chusid and Will Friedwald produced a CD of live Scott quintet broadcasts titled The Man Who Made Cartoons Swing for Stash Records. Around this time, the director of The Ren & Stimpy Show, John Kricfalusi, began using quintet recordings. In the late-1990s, the Beau Hunks, a Dutch ensemble formed to perform music created by Leroy Shield for the Laurel and Hardy movies, released two albums of by Scott's sextet: Celebration on the Planet Mars and Manhattan Minuet (both released by Basta Audio-Visuals). Members of the Beau Hunks ( reconfigured as a "Saxtet", then a "Soctette" ) performed and recorded Scott works, sometimes in collaboration with the Metropole Orchestra.
"Powerhouse" has been used as a promotional bumper for the Cartoon Network and was used the rock band Rush in their 1978 song "La Villa Strangiato". The same tune was reinterpreted as "Bus to Beelzebub" by the New York band Soul Coughing, which also used "The Penguin" in their song "Disseminated." They Might Be Giants used Powerhouse in their song "Rhythm Section Want Ad".
{snip}
Devo founding member Mark Mothersbaugh, through his company Mutato Muzika, purchased Scott's only (non-functioning) Electronium in 1996, with the intention of restoring it to working order. In November 2012, the restoration team was able to get the Electronium running and producing basic sounds. In 2017 Brian Kehew began working on the restoration of the Electronium, in an effort partially financed by Gotye.
{snip}
Raymond Scott (born Harry Warnow, September 10, 1908 – February 8, 1994) was an American composer, band leader, pianist, recording studio maverick, and inventor of electronic instruments.
Scott never scored cartoon soundtracks, but his music is familiar to millions because Carl Stalling adapted it in over 120 Bugs Bunny, Porky Pig, Daffy Duck, and other Warner Bros. Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies cartoons. His compositions may also be heard in The Ren and Stimpy Show (which uses the original Scott recordings in twelve episodes), The Simpsons, Duckman, Animaniacs, The Oblongs, and Batfink. The only time he composed to accompany animation was three 20-second commercial jingles for County Fair Bread in 1962.
Early life and career
Scott was born in Brooklyn, New York to Russian Jewish immigrants, Joseph and Sarah Warnow. His older brother, Mark Warnow, a conductor, violinist, and musical director for the CBS radio program Your Hit Parade, encouraged his musical career.
A 1931 graduate of the Juilliard School of Music, where he studied piano, theory and composition, Scott, under his birth name, began his professional career as a pianist for the CBS Radio house band. His older (by eight years) brother Mark conducted the orchestra. Harry adopted the pseudonym "Raymond Scott" to spare his brother charges of nepotism when the orchestra began performing the pianist's idiosyncratic compositions. In 1935 he married Pearl Zimney.
In late 1936, Scott assembled a band from among his CBS colleagues, calling it the Raymond Scott Quintette. It was a six-piece group, but he thought Quintette (his spelling) sounded "crisper"; he also told a reporter that he feared "calling it a 'sextet' might get your mind off music." His sidemen were Pete Pumiglio (clarinet); Bunny Berigan (trumpet, soon replaced by Dave Wade); Louis Shoobe (double); Dave Harris (tenor saxophone); and Johnny Williams (drums). They made their first recordings in New York on February 20, 1937, for Master Records, owned by music publisher/impresario Irving Mills (who was also Duke Ellington's manager).
{snip}
Electronics and research
Scott, who attended Brooklyn Technical High School, was a electronic music pioneer and adventurous sound engineer. {snip} In 1946, he established Manhattan Research, a division of Raymond Scott Enterprises, which he announced would "design and manufacture electronic music devices and systems." {snip} Relying on several instruments of his invention, such as the Clavivox and Electronium, Scott recorded futuristic electronic compositions for use in television and radio commercials and records of electronic music.
{snip}
Scott developed some of the first devices capable of producing a series of electronic tones automatically in sequence. He later credited himself as being the inventor of the polyphonic sequencer. (It should be noted that his electromechanical devices, some with motors moving photocells past lights, bore little resemblance to the all-electronic sequencers of the late sixties.) He began working on a machine he said composed using artificial intelligence. The Electronium, as Scott called it, with its vast array of knobs, buttons and patch panels is considered the first self-composing synthesizer.
{snip}
In 1969, Motown impresario Berry Gordy, tipped off about a mad musical scientist engaged in mysterious works, visited Scott at his Long Island labs to witness the Electronium in action. Impressed by the infinite possibilities, Gordy hired Scott in 1971 to serve as director of Motown's electronic music and research department in Los Angeles, a position Scott held until 1977. No Motown recordings using Scott's electronic inventions have yet been publicly identified.
{snip}
Scott later said he "spent 11 years and close to a million dollars developing the Electronium." Scott was thereafter largely unemployed, though hardly inactive. He continued to modify his inventions, eventually adapting computers and primitive MIDI devices to his systems. He suffered a series of heart attacks, ran low on cash, and became a subject on Where Are They Now?
Largely forgotten by the public by the 1980s, he suffered a stroke in 1987 that left him unable to work or engage in conversation. His recordings were largely out of print, his electronic instruments were cobweb-collecting relics, and his once-abundant royalty stream had slowed to a trickle.
{snip}
The cartoon connection
In 1943 Scott sold his music publishing to Warner Bros., who allowed Carl Stalling, music director for Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies, to adapt anything in the Warner music catalog.
Stalling immediately began peppering his cartoon scores with Scott quotes, such as in The Great Piggy Bank Robbery. Besides being used in Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies, Scott's tunes have been licensed to The Simpsons, The Ren and Stimpy Show, Animaniacs, The Oblongs, Batfink, and Duckman. "Powerhouse" was quoted ten times in the Warner Brothers feature Looney Tunes: Back in Action (2003).
Obscurity and rediscovery
His legacy underwent a revival in the early 1990s after Irwin Chusid met Raymond and his wife Mitzi at their home in California and discovered a vast collection of unreleased recordings of rehearsals and studio sessions. In 1992, the release of Reckless Nights and Turkish Twilights by Columbia, produced by Irwin Chusid with Hal Willner as executive producer, was the first major-label CD compilation of his 1937–39 six-man quintet. A year earlier, Chusid and Will Friedwald produced a CD of live Scott quintet broadcasts titled The Man Who Made Cartoons Swing for Stash Records. Around this time, the director of The Ren & Stimpy Show, John Kricfalusi, began using quintet recordings. In the late-1990s, the Beau Hunks, a Dutch ensemble formed to perform music created by Leroy Shield for the Laurel and Hardy movies, released two albums of by Scott's sextet: Celebration on the Planet Mars and Manhattan Minuet (both released by Basta Audio-Visuals). Members of the Beau Hunks ( reconfigured as a "Saxtet", then a "Soctette" ) performed and recorded Scott works, sometimes in collaboration with the Metropole Orchestra.
"Powerhouse" has been used as a promotional bumper for the Cartoon Network and was used the rock band Rush in their 1978 song "La Villa Strangiato". The same tune was reinterpreted as "Bus to Beelzebub" by the New York band Soul Coughing, which also used "The Penguin" in their song "Disseminated." They Might Be Giants used Powerhouse in their song "Rhythm Section Want Ad".
{snip}
Devo founding member Mark Mothersbaugh, through his company Mutato Muzika, purchased Scott's only (non-functioning) Electronium in 1996, with the intention of restoring it to working order. In November 2012, the restoration team was able to get the Electronium running and producing basic sounds. In 2017 Brian Kehew began working on the restoration of the Electronium, in an effort partially financed by Gotye.
{snip}
You've heard his tunes, but you probably never knew it.
Raymond Scott 1908-1994, Frequently Assumed Questions
Q: What is the name of the ”assembly-line” (or ”conveyor-belt,” ”factory,”’ or ”robot”) music I’ve heard in so many cartoons?
A: That’s “Powerhouse,” and it was written for Scott’s six-man “Quintette” in 1936. It was first recorded in February 1937, and released on record the same year. This is the Scott work which has been most used in cartoons. Though many people don’t know the title, it contains two distinct sections which are immediately recognizable to every Earthling: Part “A” has a frantic, cat-chase-mouse feel: {snip link} While part “B” is the “assembly-line” riff: {snip this link too}
Q: What is the name of the ”assembly-line” (or ”conveyor-belt,” ”factory,”’ or ”robot”) music I’ve heard in so many cartoons?
A: That’s “Powerhouse,” and it was written for Scott’s six-man “Quintette” in 1936. It was first recorded in February 1937, and released on record the same year. This is the Scott work which has been most used in cartoons. Though many people don’t know the title, it contains two distinct sections which are immediately recognizable to every Earthling: Part “A” has a frantic, cat-chase-mouse feel: {snip link} While part “B” is the “assembly-line” riff: {snip this link too}
Without further ado, "Powerhouse":
RaymondScottArchives
Published on Jan 14, 2011
Warner Bros. made this official montage of Raymond Scott's classic 1937 tune, "Powerhouse," in vintage LOONEY TUNES and MERRIE MELODIES animation • More into about Raymond Scott: http://RaymondScott.com
Had you been in Los Angeles last weekend, you could have attended this:
Raymond Scott 1908-1994
"The Penguin," from 2012:
ODDIO INC.
Published on Jan 28, 2013
THE MUSICAL MAYHEM OF RAYMOND SCOTT: Featuring STEVE BARTEK & EGO PLUM
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 9, 2012 • WALT DISNEY HALL'S REDCAT THEATER, LOS ANGELES CA • ONE NIGHT ONLY
Steve Bartek's Ensemble:
Steve Bartek (guitar)
John Hernandez (drums)
Sam Phipps (Tenor Sax)
Brian Swartz (Trumpet)
Chris Bleth (Clarinet)
Freddy Hernandez (Bass)
Brad Dutz (Xylophone/Percussion)
with guest vocalists:
Brendan McCreary (Vocals) Raya Yarbrough (Vocals)
Arrangements based on transcriptions by Les Deutsch, Tim Rodier and Steve Bartek
Video Directed and Edited by Aaron Cohen
Produced by: Jeff Winner/REDCAT/Ego Plum/Steve Bartek/Rogue Artists Ensemble
#Rush #LaVillaStrangiato #Remastered
Rush - La Villa Strangiato (Official Music Video)
5,113,640 views Dec 21, 2012
Rush
457K subscribers
REMASTERED IN HD!
Watch the official music video for "La Villa Strangiato" performed by Rush
Amazon: http://bit.ly/Rush2112SDE_Web
Music video by Rush performing La Villa Strangiato. (C) 2012 The Island Def Jam Music Group and Anthem Entertainment
#Rush #LaVillaStrangiato #Remastered #Vevo #Rock #GeddyLee #OfficialMusicVideo
{snip}
Hal Willner
{snip}
Hal Willner (April 6, 1956 – April 7, 2020) was an American music producer working in recording, films, TV and live events. He was best known for assembling tribute albums and events featuring a wide variety of artists and musical styles (jazz, classical, rock, Tin Pan Alley). He died during the COVID-19 pandemic due to complications brought on by the virus.
{snip}
Personal life
At the time of his death he was married to television producer Sheila Rogers, and they had one son Arlo.
Death
Willner had symptoms consistent with COVID-19. He died at his home on the Upper West Side of Manhattan on April 7, 2020, one day after his 64th birthday during the pandemic in New York City. A tribute to Willner was played during the April 11, 2020 episode of Saturday Night Live, featuring both the reminiscences of current and past cast members and a choral rendition of Lou Reed's song "Perfect Day".
{snip}
{snip}
Hal Willner (April 6, 1956 – April 7, 2020) was an American music producer working in recording, films, TV and live events. He was best known for assembling tribute albums and events featuring a wide variety of artists and musical styles (jazz, classical, rock, Tin Pan Alley). He died during the COVID-19 pandemic due to complications brought on by the virus.
{snip}
Personal life
At the time of his death he was married to television producer Sheila Rogers, and they had one son Arlo.
Death
Willner had symptoms consistent with COVID-19. He died at his home on the Upper West Side of Manhattan on April 7, 2020, one day after his 64th birthday during the pandemic in New York City. A tribute to Willner was played during the April 11, 2020 episode of Saturday Night Live, featuring both the reminiscences of current and past cast members and a choral rendition of Lou Reed's song "Perfect Day".
{snip}