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North (Alex) Motion Picture Music
PASC-M.0017
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Contributing Institution:
UCLA Library Special Collections
Title: Alex North motion picture music
Creator:
North, Alex
Identifier/Call Number: PASC-M.0017
Physical Description:
33.2 Linear Feet
(83 flat boxes.)
Date (inclusive): 1951-1991
Abstract: The collection contains scores for forty-six feature films, as well as two television documentaries, a television movie, and
a promotional film for the Ford Motor Company. It also includes the score North composed for
2001: A Space Odyssey, which was unused.
Physical Location: Stored off-site. All requests to access special collections material must be made in advance using the request button located
on this page.
Language of Material: Materials are in English.
Open for research. All requests to access special collections materials must be made in advance using the request button located
on this page.
Restrictions on Use and Reproduction
Property rights to the physical objects belong to UCLA Library Special Collections. All other rights, including copyright,
are retained by the creators and their heirs. It is the responsibility of the researcher to determine who holds the copyright
and pursue the copyright owner or his or her heir for permission to publish where The UC Regents do not hold the copyright.
[Identification of item], Alex North Motion Picture Music (Collection PASC-M.0017). UCLA Library Special Collections, Charles
E. Young Research Library, University of California, Los Angeles.
Provenance/Source of Acquisition
Alex North; gift; 1976.
Processed by UCLA Library Special Collections staff. Finding aid edited by Doug Johnson, December 2022.
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UCLA Catalog Record ID:
9942335093606533
North was born Isadore Soifer on December 4, 1910, in Chester, PA; attended the Curtis Institute, Juilliard School, and Moscow
Conservatory; became music director of the German Theater Group and the Latvian State Theater, and the only American member
of the Union of Soviet Composers; returned to the US in 1935; studied with Ernst Toch and Aaron Copland in NY, and composed
ballet scores for Martha Graham, Hanya Holm, and Agnes de Mille; composed for the NY stage, including scores for
Life and Death of an American (1939),
Of V We Sing (1942), and
Death of a Salesman (1949); wrote music for some 50 documentary shorts between 1937-50; in 1939 went to Mexico as music director for the Anna
Sokolow dance troupe and studied with Silvestre Revueltas; served as a captain in the US Army in World War II; his
Revue for Clarinet and Orchestra was performed by Benny Goodman and the NY Philharmonic under Leonard Bernstein in 1946; began scoring feature films in the
early 1950s, becoming a leading Hollywood composer; his musical language encompasses dissonance and lyricism, and ranges from
chamber to symphonic proportions; he was nominated for 15 Academy Awards but did not win one until 1986, when the Motion Picture
Academy presented him with an honorary life-achievement award; he died on September 8, 1991 in Los Angeles.
The collection contains scores for forty-six feature films, as well as two television documentaries, a television movie, and
a promotional film for the Ford Motor Company. It also includes the score North composed for
2001: A Space Odyssey, which was unused. Complete scores (indicated in the container list simply by the film title) are handwritten in pencil,
with notes and annotations. Scores for individual instruments (indicated by the word "parts") are a combination of handwritten,
printed, and photocopied pages, and tend to have fewer notes and annotations.
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Music -- Manuscripts.
Composers -- United States -- Archives.
Motion picture music -- Scores.
North, Alex -- Archives