Customer Reviews

Alex North, Film Composer: A Biography, with Musical Analyses of a Streetcar Named Desire, Spartacus, the Misfits, Under the Volcano, and Prizzi'

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of the music and life of composer Alex North. Long considered a genius by those in the know but yet he is still underappreciated by film music fans, at least not appreciated as much as others like Williams, Goldsmith or even Rozsa and Waxman. There are those who are put off by his modernistic approach to music---many are even put off by
his SPARTACUS score, a genuine masterpiece. But perhaps in time he will truly be embraced for his genius.
Miss Henderson sure as hell did her research because I learned many things about this great composer that I other-
wise would never have known. The first half of her book is a biography on North and a very well written and extremely
interesting dissertation on how his musical style evolved as well as many interesting facts about his personal life.
His talent was so great that it was reported that North was one of the few American composers of film music that
Bernard Herrmann genuinely admired. Herrmann was not one to heap praise undeservedly so this fact speaks volumes of
the high regard he had from his peers.
I'm no musician but even for me the highlight of this book was Miss Henderson's acute analyses of such North scores
as A Streetcar Named Desire, Spartacus, The Misfits, Under the Volcano and Prizzi's Honor. I am currently working on
a book myself about Jerry Goldsmith and I can truly appreciate the time and effort Henderson put into this essential
and necessary dissertation on one of our greatest musicians. She is to be thanked and congratulated indeed for such a fine and detailed book.
It also has the bonus of having a Foreword authored by none other than John Williams himself who was a personal friend of the late composer and his insights are illuminating and thoughtful. Like Williams said, North was and still is a hero to those who score films.
The price tag may be a bit hefty but its worth every penny.