I see at AICN that composer Alexander Courage has died. He had a very long career in Hollywood, both as a composer and an orchestrator, and he had his fingerprints on a great deal of amazing film music. But what is he best known for? Something pretty iconic, I think:
Before Jerry Goldsmith, James Horner, Dennis McCarthy, Ron Brown, Cliff Eidelman, and others came along, it was Alexander Courage taking us into the final frontier. And now he’s gone there himself.
Earle Hagen died recently. Not only did he write a bunch of TV themes (Dick van Dyke, Andy Griffith, to name just two), he wrote the classic jazz tune Harlem Nocturne. Love those eclectic musical types.