Nathan Van Cleave
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Van Cleave (born Nathan Lang Van Cleave) (May 8, 1910 – July 3, 1970) was a gifted composer and orchestrator for film, television, and radio. He usually used "Van" as his first name.
Biography
Born in Bayfield, Wisconsin, he moved to New York City where he led his own band (the Van Cleave Orchestra) in the early 1930s, then played trumpet and arranged music for Charlie Barnet's orchestra.[1][2] He studied music with noted composer and music theorist Joseph Schillinger. He worked in radio, as a staff arranger for Paul Whiteman (1938–39), Andre Kostelanetz, and for CBS Radio.[3]
In 1933, he married Doris Blumenfeld, a Broadway chorus girl and the child of vaudeville actors of the German Blumenfeld circus family.[4]
In 1945, Van Cleave moved to Los Angeles to pursue his musical career. His film credits, as composer and orchestrator, include Cinerama Holiday, The Colossus of New York, Easter Parade, Funny Face, Robinson Crusoe on Mars, and White Christmas. He composed the VistaVision Fanfare to accompany the opening of theatre curtains to the wide screen format. In addition, he worked on many TV episodes of Gunsmoke and The Twilight Zone, where he pioneered the use of the theremin in television scores.
References
- ↑ Barnet, Charlie. Those Swinging Years: The Autobiography of Charlie Barnet. Da Capo Press, 1992, 46-51.
- ↑ Rayno, Don. Paul Whiteman: Pioneer in American Music, 1930-1967. Rowman & Littlefield, 2012, 189.
- ↑ Rayno, Don. Paul Whiteman: Pioneer in American Music, 1930-1967. Rowman & Littlefield, 2012, 492.
- ↑ Doris Blumenfeld Van Cleave, Circus Blennow & Blumenfeld Genealogy Retrieved 20 September 2014
External links
- Van Cleave at the Internet Movie Database
- Nathan Van Cleave at Soundtrack, the Cinemascore & Soundtrack Archives. Retrieved 19 September 2014.
- "VistaVision Fanfare" Score at the University of Wyoming. American Heritage Center. Nathan Van Cleave papers.
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