Obit: Marvin Hamlisch (1944-2012)

Subject: RE: Obit: Marvin Hamlisch (1944-2012)
From: YorkshireYankee
Date: 09 Aug 12 - 12:00 AM

Remembrance of Marvin Hamlisch on BBC Radio 4's Front Row programme (Chapter 1/first 12 min), including excerpts of a 2009 interview with him:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01lhgyl

Original (16 min) interview here (also at the start of the programme): http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00ltst6

Well worth a listen -- really shows not only how talented he is (like all true geniuses, he makes it looksound so easy!), but what a lovely guy he is -- and includes anecdotes about writing The Way We Were & Nobody Does It Better.

Subject: RE: Obit: Marvin Hamlisch (1944-2012)
From: fat B****rd
Date: 08 Aug 12 - 03:47 PM

What Wincing Devil siad.
RIP Mr. Hamlisch.

Subject: RE: Obit: Marvin Hamlisch (1944-2012)
From: Leadfingers
Date: 08 Aug 12 - 12:51 PM

Loved his arrangements for The Sting , but I was already a Joplin fan !
R I P Mister Hamlish !

Subject: RE: Obit: Marvin Hamlisch (1944-2012)
From: Wincing Devil
Date: 08 Aug 12 - 10:32 AM

I thank him for introducing me (and many of us) to the music of Scott Joplin.

Subject: RE: Obit: Marvin Hamlisch
From: gnu
Date: 07 Aug 12 - 03:55 PM

One after another... RIP.

Subject: RE: Obit: Marvin Hamlisch
From: SINSULL
Date: 07 Aug 12 - 02:24 PM

A CUNY graduate along with Simon and Garfunkel. Must have been a hell of a music dept in those years.
RIP

Subject: RE: Obit: Marvin Hamlisch
From: Cool Beans
Date: 07 Aug 12 - 11:58 AM

No, it did not. Somewhere along the way some words were dropped. Anyway, it's correct now on the Times website.

Subject: RE: Obit: Marvin Hamlisch
From: Cool Beans
Date: 07 Aug 12 - 11:55 AM

Did the NY Times actually say "The Way We Were" came from the movie "The Sting"? I must check this out. RIP, Mr. Hamlisch.

Subject: RE: Obit: Marvin Hamlisch
From: catspaw49
Date: 07 Aug 12 - 11:46 AM

Geeziz......What a loss.............He was a special friend of Groucho Marx who appreciated great musicians, and especially ones who knew would happily accompany him on piano and knew all his favorite songs. The feeling was mutual of course as MH also had a great sense of humor and was a long time Marxist.

I dunno' why I remember that so much but it was a beautiful friendship with one at the early stages of his career and the other at the end. Hamlisch left us all a huge volume of work and will be remembered for all the great writings he has done but for me, I think of that friendship, equally special...............


Spaw

Subject: Obit: Marvin Hamlisch
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 07 Aug 12 - 10:00 AM

So many of those film scores you loved came from Marvin Hamlisch.

New York Times obituary.

Marvin Hamlisch, the singularly productive and sensationally decorated composer of musicals like "A Chorus Line" and songs like "The Way We Were," has died, The Associated Press reported. A family spokesman told The A.P. that Mr. Hamlisch died in Los Angeles on Monday after a brief illness but did not provide additional details. Mr. Hamlisch was 68.

In a career that spanned film, television, theater and recorded music, Mr. Hamlisch won seemingly every award available in each medium. He was a 12-time Academy Award nominee, for his score and song contributions to films like "The Spy Who Loved Me" and "Sophie's Choice," and a three-time Oscar winner for the score of "The Sting" as well as its song "The Way We Were" (with lyrics by Alan and Marilyn Bergman). He won four Emmy Awards and four Grammy Awards, as well as a Tony Award for his score to the musical "A Chorus Line." That musical, which blended bouncy, brassy songs like "One" and "Dance: Ten; Looks: Three" with melancholy numbers like "At the Ballet," also won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1976.

As recently as last month, Mr. Hamlisch was working on a musical adaptation of the Jerry Lewis comedy "The Nutty Professor," for which he wrote the score. According to his biography at his official Web site, he held the title of principal pops conductor for the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, the Pasadena Symphony and Pops, the Seattle Symphony and the San Diego Symphony.

In an interview in July, Mr. Hamlisch talked about the emotional investment he put into each piece of music he composed.

"I'm not one of those people who says, 'I never read reviews,' because I don't believe those people," Mr. Hamlisch said. "I think they read 'em. These songs are my babies. And I always say, it's like having a baby in a hospital, taking a Polaroid and going up to someone and saying, 'What do you think?' And he goes, 'I give you a 3.' That's what criticism is like. You've worked on this thing forever – 'I give you a 3.' And it's part of you. That's the bargain you've made."

Updated by the NYT

SRS