Exclusive: Conversations and Music with Michael Feinstein- The Music of David Raksin

Do you know what that is

Do you know the name of that piece of music? It's a piece of film music

It was written by David Raxon, and it's called Laura. David Raxson was a composer, mainly of Hollywood film music

He scored over 200 motion pictures. And if he's remembered at all, at least by name, it's because of Laura

Laura is the face of the mist. Well, I come back to how that song came to be composed

a song that both Irving Berlin and Cole Porter said was the one song that they wished that they had written

Eventually, that song gained lyrics by Johnny Mercer, but it was just one of many, many film themes that were composed by David Raxson

David was born in Philadelphia. He was musically precocious. He was educated at the Curtis School of Music in Philly

And he was classically educated, but he eventually decided he wanted to come to New York and get involved in popular music

He was on Broadway orchestrating for many Broadway musicals. He was so talented and he was an innovator in that period of Broadway when a lot of things were changing

This was the 1930s. It was the Depression era. And songwriters were trying to find ways to stretch the envelope, for want of a better term

it's a time when music and lyrics were becoming much more sophisticated

The books and plots of the Broadway shows were still in many cases rudimentary

And so it was up to the musical minds to find ways to unify these shows

George Gershwin talked about how he would repeat certain notes in different songs that he wrote for a single score

certain sequences, musical sequences. in order to create a sort of subconscious or subliminal sense of cohesion

because there was so little else in these shows that had a sense of cohesion, at least plot-wise or book-wise

So David was, in his early 1920s, there in the midst of this amazing explosion of Broadway talent

working with Richard Rogers and with Vernon Duke and with Jerome Kern, with Mr. Irving Berlin

whom he said was the only songwriter of all those with whom he worked, with whom he didn't really get along

Even though he did have problems with Richard Rogers, Richard Rogers was very upset when David had made a mistake

in orchestrating part of On Your Toes. He inadvertently put a note in the orchestration

that was a mistake. And when Richard Rodgers heard this note at the read-through

he said, what have you done to my music? Getting very angry. It was just a simple mistake

So David, not taking guff from anyone, said, what music? And he was immediately fired from On Your Toes

But it was in that same period that he got a call from his friend Edward Powell

to come to Hollywood. You see, Eddie Powell was another guy who was working on Broadway very successfully

He orchestrated the Gershwin show Let Him Eat Cake, which was the sequel of The I Sing

and he was very much in demand. But Alfred Newman, who went to Hollywood from Broadway

called for Eddie to come and join him to do orchestrations for his film scoring work

and Alfred Newman became one of those people that invented modern film scoring

So this call comes from Eddie Powell to David Rackson saying, can you get out here to Hollywood because I've got a job for you that you're going to like, you're going to want

And so David came to Hollywood. Now, the job was to orchestrate and to notate the score for Charlie Chaplin of a film that was in production called Modern Times

Alfred Newman was the musical director and Charlie Chaplin was composing the score for the film

himself. Charlie Chaplin was one of the most extraordinary creators of motion pictures in

cinema history. He was the star, the writer, the director, the producer, the composer. He was a guy

who had this extraordinary vision for film that has never been equaled and by the 1930s he had

gone from being a baggy pants silent film comedian to creating a character called the little tramp

and becoming iconic and so Chaplin was so powerful and so rich that he called all of the shots he

took several years making modern times because with all of his films he had the luxury of taking

as long as he wanted spending as much money as he wanted none of that mattered the only thing that

mattered was the finished product whenever it would be done, and nobody knew except when

Chaplin said, it's done. So as time progressed, he made fewer and fewer films through the 30s

40s, and 50s, but modern times is considered by many to be the best of all of his feature films

even though David Rackson told me that City Lights was his personal favorite, one released in 1935

five years earlier. Now, Chaplin, even though he worked well into the sound era, made modern times

as essentially a silent film. His character never spoke in the movie, nor did the other characters

because he preferred the medium of the music, telling the story along with the action

So David comes to Hollywood and he meets Chaplin. They head it off and he becomes, along with Eddie

Powell, one of the two people transcribing the Chaplin score. Now Chaplin whistled. He would

whistle the score, and it was up to David and Eddie Powell to take that whistling and turn it

into something that resembled full harmonization, a full piece of music. Now David said that Chaplin

had great musical instincts. He had zero education or ability, so it was hard for him to articulate

musically what he wanted, but he could demonstrate through mime and through explanation and sometimes

hitting little things on the piano sort of haphazardly, he could communicate what he wanted

Or David would say, well, how about this chord? How about this chord? How about this chord

And eventually they would get to what Chaplin wanted. But years and years after that, David did

say to me confidentially, because he didn't want to say it publicly, that he did co-compose

part of the score of modern times because Chaplin did not have the ability to realize everything

that he felt inside. And he was not denigrating Chaplin, which is why he never publicly made a

statement that I composed part of that. That wasn't his desire because he revered Chaplin

So one of the pieces of music that Chatelaine wrote as underscore for modern times went

Then it goes on in a form that may not be familiar to you

If you did recognize that theme, you'll know it in this version

Smile, though your heart is breaking Smile, even though it's aching Well, that was a lyric that was added to that tune

15 years or so after it was composed. Parsons, and I forget the name of the other guy, I should have looked it up

changed the music, took the beginnings of that theme, and turned it into what became a great standard called Smile

Well David years later was my guest at a Hollywood ball concert where I was performing with the Boston Pops I was singing his song Laura and the orchestra played instrumentally the theme for modern times Smile

My father was seated next to David Raxon in a box at the Bowl, and when the orchestra started to play..

Sorry. My father knowingly turned to David and said, did you know that Charlie Chaplin wrote that

And David looked at my father and said, I wrote that. So that's as close as he ever came to taking credit for writing that thing

And I do believe it was a collaboration. But without David Raxon, we might never have had the song Smile

So, David was considered to be the finest of the Hollywood film composers in his time

And of course, there were many other extraordinary composers, such as Max Steiner in France, Waxman in Eric Wolfgang Kornbould

I mean, you can go down the list of the major writers that were geniuses that happened to create for the medium of motion pictures

But David had something special, because he was one of the most learned and educated people whom I ever knew

He knew music on a level that very few did. He not only understood it technically, but the history

And he was fascinated with antique musical instruments and would go all around the world

when he had a vacation or a break and would go to museums to seek out and discover these

obsolete antiphonal instruments that were housed here and there. So he had an intellectual capacity that was quite extraordinary

I was very fascinated when once I was talking to David about inspiration, he told me that he didn't believe that music came from a divine place because I think it does

He said it was perspiration and work and the result of the work is that you would get the ideas and you would work it out

Well, that's pretty amazing to me. Stephen Sondheim said that his single favorite piece of film music

is the theme that David composed for a movie called The Bad and the Beautiful

which was a 1952 MGM drama that was directed by Vincent Minnelli

and produced by John Hausman. It starred Kirk Douglas and Lana Turner, and it is a film noir theme

and I'd like to play it for you. The Bad and the Beautiful

Thank you

Thank you

Thank you

Bad and Beautiful

A couple of funny notes in there. I mean, I played a couple of funny notes, but I hope David will forgive me

It's not easy to play, but it's a typical Raxon because it's majestic

It has beautiful melody. It's jazzy. And it was a perfect expression musically of the dramatic nature of that film

Later, Dory Previn wrote a lyric for it, which I recorded. David came to the session and was very happy about the song being recorded because it's one of those things that has a multi-octave range and it's very, very hard to sing, which is why it's rarely done

There was another theme that he wrote for a movie called Two Weeks in Another Town, which was also directed by Minnelli and produced by John Hausman and is sort of the emotional sequel to The Mad and Beautiful and also starred Kirk Douglas

This theme is pretty obscure, but it's one of my favorites, and I played it for David at his 90th birthday celebration

A few weeks in another town. Let's see if I can do this without making mistakes. And that could do very well as a song

That could have a beautiful lyric. Two weeks in another town. I love this one

I just love it. So in the 1940s, David went back to Broadway as a composer

He wrote the music for a musical that was called If the Shoe Fits, which was a musicalization of Cinderella

The lyrics were by June Carroll. The producer was Leonard Silman. Leonard Silman was best known as producing the New Faces shows

He produced the New Faces reviews starting in the 1930s, I think 1934, and the last one, I think, was 1968

The most famous New Faces review was 1952 because it produced so many stars, including Ronnie Graham, Carol Lawrence, Eartha Kitt, Paul Lind, Robert Clary, who later became known from his recurring role on Hogan's Heroes

was. Leonard Stillman's sister was June Carroll, and June Carroll was a very talented lyricist

So David is collaborating with June on If a Shoe Fits and the show was a disaster It unfortunately did not last very long but there were some beautiful songs that came from it

David came to call the show If the Foo. I don't want to use that last word in case there's someone underage watching this

But June Carroll continued to write songs for Broadway through the decades, particularly collaborating with her brother Leonard Silman when he produced shows

So during New Faces of 1952, Paul Lynde was not happy with the songs that he had to perform in the show

And he went to Leonard Stillman and said, Leonard, those songs I'm singing, who wrote them

Leonard said, my sister. Paul said, they're wonderful. Well, here is a song that David Raxton and June Silman Carroll wrote for the score of If the Shoe Fits

The plot is just the same

In every fantasy The lovers meet and fall in love And then live happily

But now the story's changed For something's gone awry Now my forever action has passed me by

This is the end of a story That started so well

This is the scene where the love is Nothing, I have nothing more to tell

Love the end in here is useful So dry my tears, my friend

Nice song, isn't it? I wish I had the sheet music cover to show you

It's a very beautiful, sort of dark pink, gorgeous thing. So, getting back to David's piece de resistance

Laura. So, David has given the assignment to write the score for a movie to be directed by Otto Preminger called Laura

Now, there's a scene in the film that Gerald Zanuck wanted to cut because it involved Dana Andrews as a detective wandering around a place

trying to find clues about what happened to Laura, who has disappeared

and there's a beautiful oil painting of her. And as he wanders around, it's very melancholy

and he's very much in his brain. It's all contemplative. And Daryl Zanuck wanted to cut the scene

because he thought it was sort of like a stage wait. But David, who was very courageous in speaking up to Daryl Zanuck

who was the head of 20th Century Fox and was an autonomous tyrant, could have easily fired him

but David was the guy who spoke his mind. So Zanuck said, I'm going to cut the scene

because they've watched a rough cut of this movie. And David said, I think that's a mistake

And Zanuck said, who are you? That kind of thing. And David said, if you write the score, the right kind of music for this

if I write the right kind of music, it will give you an emotional sense of what he's feeling and thinking

and it could be wonderful. Zanax said, I'm still going to cut it. But David insisted. And so Zanax said, OK, well, let's see what you can do

In the meantime, Otto Preminger wanted to use Gershwin's Summertime as the leitmotif of the film, and they couldn't get the rights

And then he wanted to use Duke Ellington's Sophisticated Lady. And David objected to that, not only because he was writing original music for the film

but also because he felt that Sophisticated Lady was a known song that had a lot of baggage connected to it

So anyway, Preminger said, well, do you think you can do better than Gershwin and Ellington

It was a Friday, and he said, I'll give you till Monday to come up with a theme. And if you can't come up with it, we're sticking with Sophisticated Lady

So David had the weight or the burden of having come up with a piece of music over the weekend

that had to be accepted for this film by these people that he was worried about being able to please

And the pressures were getting to him because he worked all through the weekend writing tune after tune

and none of those tunes pleased him. He didn't think that any of them were any good

Well, he had sitting on his piano a letter he had received from his wife

who was appearing in a musical in New York on Broadway. He had been puzzling over the meaning of that letter, trying to figure out what the heck she was saying

because it was kind of like haiku. He couldn't quite figure out what she was trying to tell him

And then he re-read the letter while he was sitting at the piano, and he realized that she was telling him that their marriage was over

At that point, he literally went... The theme music came to him

Literally, that tune came to him, and it was almost fully formed, and he presented it to the studio the following Monday

He was devastated at the breakup of his marriage because he loved his wife, even though they had been apart, but they accepted the tune

The tune went into the film, and it's used all through the movie in many different ways

It's used majestically as I played it, then it's used in a nightclub scene where you hear a dance band playing it

It's heard on a jukebox. The thing is all through the film, and it works beautifully

Well, after the movie came out, 20th Century Fox Studios was inundated with letters from

people asking about that piece of music. What is that theme? Well, there were so many letters that David said he stopped counting after a thousand

There were letter after letter asking where they could buy the music

What was it? So the publishing branch of 20th Century Fox Studios thought, well, let's turn this into a popular song

David said he wanted Oscar Hammerstein to write the lyric. Well, Hammerstein very much wanted to write the lyric, but he had his own publishing company

and 20th Century Fox would not share the publishing with him, so that was over and done with that

That was unfortunate, but didn't happen. Then Abe Ullman, who was the head of publishing, said, I've got the guy

And he suggested Irving Caesar. Irving Caesar wrote the lyrics to Swanee

How I love you how I love you My dear one Swanee also also wrote Picture upon my name T for two and two for tea

All big hits in the teens and twenties. Irving Caesar wrote a lyric

Unfortunately, he did not write a lyric called Laura. David wrote the theme

It would be Laura. That was one thing that he imbued into that tune

Well, the lyric that Irving wrote that David hated was, Two dreams lie awake in my secret heart

Two dreams tell me which shall it be. Well, when David heard the lyric, he said to the publisher

I hate those words. And Abe Ullman said the absurd lines, Who are you to not like that lyric

He said, Who am I? I'm the composer. And Abe Olin said, well, then who would you like to write the lyric

And David said, I'd like Johnny Mercer. Well, they got Johnny Mercer

When David met Johnny Mercer, Mercer immediately started needling him because David had been working on the movie The Harvey Girls

was orchestrating the number on the ashes in Topeka and the Santa Fe. And Johnny said, I heard you've made up some dirty lyrics to Atchison Topeka

and so David sheepishly told him the the lyrics that he had written and Johnny got a kick out of

that but then he got to work and he took David's tune and he wrote a lyric for it and the thing

that is amazing about the lyric is that Johnny Mercer had never seen the film Laura at that point

yet the lyric absolutely describes what is going on in the film and what the theme of the movie is

So he sensed that whole thing through David's music. However, there was one more problem that had to be solved with Johnny Mercer writing the lyric

and that is that the original tune of Laura as it was used in the film had, again, an octave range or a musical range

that would make it very, very hard for someone to sing, because the original tune went..

So far, so good, but then it went... Immediately out of a singer's range

So David had to rewrite it, so the turnaround after the bridge would go back to the same range, so it was singable

So with that corrected and revamped melody turned into a 32-bar form, that's how Johnny Mercer lyricized it

Well, the next thing was trying to get somebody to record the song. It was rejected by Bing Crosby, who was the number one recording star at that time because he said it was too odd of a melody

but it was eventually recorded lyrically by Woody Herman, and after Woody Herman recorded it, the floodgates opened

and Laura eventually received hundreds and hundreds of recordings. So before I sing it for you, I'd like to show you one thing

David Raxson, in addition to being an extraordinary film composer, was also a master orchestrator

He was one of the great arrangers of the 20th century in that he knew everything about any kind of orchestra and was a masterful man who could choose different tone qualities and all of the different sonorities that would make his orchestrations very special

And so in the early 1990s, I asked David if he would do a symphonic setting for me of Laura so I could sing it

So the only time that David Rackson ever did a full symphonic orchestration for a singer of his composition, Laura, was for me

So this is one of my prized possessions. David presented the score to me

And that's a photocopy inside of what he conducted from when we premiered it with the San Francisco Symphony

This is his orchestral sketch. It's his manuscript in his hand, his pencil manuscript

And then this is his full orchestral score in his hand, in ink and in pencil, which is on onion skin paper

so it could be reproduced. And those post-its are his notes to the copyist

so it would be copied properly for all the instruments in the orchestra

So this is something that I treasure. I recorded this arrangement with the Israel Philharmonic a number of years ago

And I always think of my friend David when I sing it

You know the feeling of something half-remembered, of something that never happened, yet you