Sunday, March 19, 2023

Book: Music for Prime Time (Burlingame)



Music for Prime Time
- A History of American Television Themes and Scoring -

by
Jon Burlingame

Oxford University Press
2023

3 comments:

Simon St. Laurent said...

Hot off the press!....

Author Jon Burlingame loves his subject, which will make this book a terrific read.

Stanley Wilson, Johnny Williams, Jerry Goldsmith, Lud Gluskin, Henry Mancini, Pete Rugolo, Nelson Riddle... they're all there.

Simon St. Laurent said...

I have about 80 pages to go, but I can safely say that Music for Prime Time is excellent, and highly recommended to people who might be interested in the art and craft, and finances involved in, television scoring.

Simon St. Laurent said...

It's a terrific book. I've been meaning to post a review for a while now.

In summary....

For me the most interesting chapters were those covering television scoring's earliest days: the use of library music, writing music for music libraries, and music for drama and documentaries.

Two series with the highest level of episodic scoring: The Twilight Zone and Star Trek, the original incarnations. Author Burlingame rightfully gives them a few pages each.

I had not realized that Bernard Herrmann and Franz Waxman scored so much television.

No doubt I'll reread Music for Prime Time ― A History of American Television Themes and Scoring.