Don Gillis was a composer who was in the mold of Roy Harris or Howard Hanson. His work was exceptionally well suited to the requirements of radio's Golden Age in which he worked as a producer, serving closely with Arturo Toscanini, the NBC Symphony, and the Symphony of the Air that he sometimes conducted. Radio composers wrote music that was direct and had a clear, dramatic component, and the degree to which they absorbed modernistic elements varied. Bernard Herrmann and Raymond Scott worked for CBS, and their radio scores ...
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Don Gillis was a composer who was in the mold of Roy Harris or Howard Hanson. His work was exceptionally well suited to the requirements of radio's Golden Age in which he worked as a producer, serving closely with Arturo Toscanini, the NBC Symphony, and the Symphony of the Air that he sometimes conducted. Radio composers wrote music that was direct and had a clear, dramatic component, and the degree to which they absorbed modernistic elements varied. Bernard Herrmann and Raymond Scott worked for CBS, and their radio scores could be surprisingly advanced sounding, as William Paley encouraged that to an extent, he wanted CBS to be recognized as the network of progress and sophisticated tastes. NBC, headed by David Sarnoff, was devoted to high culture with a capital "C," and a good deal more conservative than CBS in its musical tastes, employing solid composers whose music was no more radical than, say, that of Ferde Grofé. Albany Records SACD, Don Gillis: Symphonies No. 1, 2 & 5 1/2 includes three...
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