National Cattlemen’s Beef Association used Hoe-Downas the background
music to their marketing campaign, “Beef ... it’s what’s for dinner.” This piece
was also used during the 78th Academy Awards. Hoe-Downresurfaced once
again in Spike Lee’s film He Got Game, where it played in the background of a
neighborhood basketball game. It’s difficult to overestimate the influence
Copland has had on film music. Virtually every composer who scored for
western movies, particularly between 1940 and 1960, was shaped by the style
Copland developed.Raymond Scott, 1909–1994 .........................................................................
If you’ve ever watched a Looney Tunes cartoon, or really any cartoon in the
Warner Bros. catalog, you’ve heard the music of Raymond Scott, a.k.a. Harry
Warnow. Ironically, Scott never consciously wrote any music for cartoons,
and, according to his wife, never even watched cartoons. Scott simply sold
the rights to a huge chunk of his music to Warner Brothers in the 1940s, and
the rest is animation history. Carl Stalling, music director for Warner’s Looney
Tunesand Merrie Melodies, was allowed to adapt anything in the Warner
music catalog, and he immediately began making liberal use of Scott’s scores.
Scott’s music scored more than 120 Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck animated
shorts, while today The Simpsons, Ren and Stimpy, Animaniacs, The Oblongs,
Batfink,and Duckman are just a few of the cartoon series that regularly use
Scott’s music. His best-known composition, “Powerhouse,” was used ten
times in 2003’s full-length feature movie, Looney Tunes: Back in Action.To the casual observer, it might seem like Scott had given the best work of
his life away, but Scott was involved in so many other music projects it prob-
ably felt like getting a lot of money for nothing. Almost immediately after
graduating from Julliard in 1931, Scott had been working as a professional
musician, with the support of his older brother, Mark Warnow, who was the
musical director for the very popular radio show Your Hit Parade. While still
in his early 20s, Scott became the pianist for the CBS Radio house band, where
he met the members of his first band, the Raymond Scott Quintette. Coming
from a classical background, Scott disliked the popular jazz tradition of
improvisation, but also disliked the concept of sheet music, believing that
good music would just stick in the heads of the musicians involved without
need to write it down. He wrote nothing down on paper, insisting that the
other members of his group follow lead lines often hummed at them from
behind the piano.The Quintette existed from 1937 to 1939 and sold millions of records, despite
being labeled a novelty jazz band. When Scott was appointed music director
of CBS radio in 1942, he made history by breaking the color barrier by orga-
nizing the first racially integrated radio band, which included saxophonist
Ben Webster and trumpeter Charlie Shavers.260 Part V: The Part of Tens