Id never seen this fascinating little film until today! Not only was it fun to see and hear Simon Rodilla (apparently not Rodia) talking about his work, but the film sent me off on an interesting tangent to find out who wrote the theme to The Twilight Zone (watch the film to see why). Turns out it was Marius Constant, who is not credited as the composer. Heres his Hollywood tale, according to IMDB: Romanian-born, Paris-based avant-garde composer and conductor, a student of Nadia Boulanger and Olivier Messiaen. His Etrange No. 3 and Milieu No.2 (for electric guitar, bongo, saxophone and French horns) were famously spliced together to create the iconic theme for Rod Serlings Twilight Zone (1959). The pieces were originally commissioned by CBS orchestrator Lud Gluskin in the late 1950s. They remained unused until the second season of the Twilight Zone, when they were employed as a replacement for Bernard Herrmanns rather more subtle original theme, a combination of strings, harp, flute and brass (which CBS apparently considered as too downbeat). Since the company had acquired all rights to Constants work, he received neither screen credit nor royalties. It was not until much later, that he came to realise the amazing popular success of the pieces he had sold for a few hundred dollars to the CBS Music Library.
Posted on: Wed, 02 Jul 2014 19:28:09 +0000
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