Irwin Bazelon

Irwin Bazelon (b. Evanston, Illinois, June 4, 1922; died August 2, 1995) was an American composer of contemporary classical music.

Contemporary American composer Irwin Bazelon’s music is known for its interesting rhythms and its emphasis on the brass and percussion sections. In total, Bazelon composed nine symphonies and over sixty orchestral, chamber, and instrumental works. Some of his most famous works are Short Symphony, Churchill Downs, and Propulsions, which is written for 113 percussion instruments to be played by seven performers. His music is recorded on Composers Recordings, Inc. and on Albany Records. Artists who recorded his music include conductors Harold Farberman and Gianmaria Griglio, soprano Nancy Allen Lundy, pianist Scott Dunn, and percussionists William Moersch, Eliseo Rael, and William Klymus. Bazelon’s music lacks any regular pulse, instead it is characterized by unpredictable syncopation, irregular groupings, unexpected triplets, and off-beat accents.

His theme music for NBC News opened the show from 1962 to 1977.[1].

Irwin Bazelon was the elder of two sons born to Roy and Jeanette Bazelon. His grandparents emigrated from Russia to the US in the 1890s. Early in his childhood, Bazelon contracted a case of scarlet fever that left him with a perforated eardrum and severe hearing loss in one ear. This caused introspection to the point that the composer described being cured as unleashing “the violent, silent world” inside. Bazelon’s very acute ear and sensitivity to sound also resulted from his early partial hearing loss.

As a child, Bazelon was a gifted athlete. His father once hoped that he would have a career as a baseball player. Also in his youth, the composer also played in a jazz band, which later served as a source of inspiration for many of his works such as Symphony No. 3 and Churchill Downs. When Bazelon was 17, he heard Beethoven's Seventh Symphony performed by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. This was when the young Bazelon decided that he would pursue music and become a composer. In 1942, he transferred from his Northwestern University liberal arts course to study music at DePaul University.

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