Scott Bradley (composer)
| Scott Bradley | |
|---|---|
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| Background information | |
| Born | November 26, 1891 |
| Origin | Russellville, Arkansas, U.S. |
| Died | April 27, 1976 (aged 84) |
| Genres | |
| Occupation(s) | |
| Instruments | Piano |
| Years active | 1930–1957 |
| Labels | Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer |
Scott Bradley (November 26, 1891 – April 27, 1977) was an American composer, pianist, and conductor.
Bradley is best remembered for scoring the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) theatrical cartoons, including those starring Tom and Jerry (Hanna-Barbera 1940–1958, 113 of 114 episodes), Droopy (all 24 episodes), Barney Bear (all 26 episodes) and many one-off cartoons.
In an autobiographical sketch, Bradley noted that he began his career performing with and later conducting theatre orchestras in Houston, Texas. He studied organ and harmony with Horton Corbett, the choir director of Houston's Christ Church Cathedral, but was "otherwise entirely self-taught in composition and orchestration." (Years later, when he was already established in Hollywood, he sought to improve his technique by studying privately with MGM colleague Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco). In 1926, Bradley moved to Los Angeles to conduct programs over KHJ Radio, an activity that led to his growing involvement in animation at the start of the talkie era. He was a staff musician for Walt Disney (1929) and the Ub Iwerks studio (1930–1934), then became music director for Hugh Harman and Rudy Ising, who were hired to produce cartoon shorts for MGM. After MGM established its own cartoon studio in 1937, Bradley was hired permanently and remained with the company for twenty years.
During the 1930s, Bradley also composed music for the concert hall, including the tone poems "The Valley of the White Poppies" (1931) and "The Headless Horseman" (1932) and the oratorio "Thanatopsis" (1934), based on the poem by William Cullen Bryant. His most notable success was "Cartoonia" (1938), a four-movement orchestral suite of his MGM work, premiered by Pierre Monteux with the San Francisco Symphony. It was an early expression of Bradley's belief that cartoon music was an art form of great potential.
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