Murray Cutter (15 March 1902,

Nice Nice ( , ; Niçard dialect, Niçard: , classical norm, or , nonstandard, ; it, Nizza ; lij, Nissa; grc, Νίκαια; la, Nicaea) is the prefecture of the Alpes-Maritimes departments of France, department in France. The Nice urban unit, agg ...

, France – 19 April 1983, Burbank, California) was a versatile Hollywood

orchestrator Orchestration is the study or practice of writing music for an orchestra (or, more loosely, for any musical ensemble, such as a concert band) or of adapting music composed for another medium for an orchestra. Also called "instrumentation", orch ...

, working mainly for film composer

Max Steiner Maximilian Raoul Steiner (May 10, 1888 – December 28, 1971) was an Austrian composer and conductor who emigrated to America and went on to become one of Hollywood's greatest musical composers. Steiner was a child prodigy who conducted ...

, with over 150 credits spanning the mid-1930s to early 1960s. Nevertheless, he remains relatively unknown except for the much-loved original arrangement of " Over the Rainbow" from the 1939 film '' The Wizard of Oz''. Similar to fellow arranger Alexander Courage, Cutter's name has tended to be overshadowed by the popularity of the composers with whom he was most associated. Cutter was unusual among orchestrators who tended to specialize, in that he was adept in all genres: musicals ('' New Moon'', '' Kismet'', ''

The Desert Song ''The Desert Song'' is an operetta with music by Sigmund Romberg and book and lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II, Otto Harbach and Frank Mandel. It was inspired by the 1925 uprising of the Riffs, a group of Moroccan fighters, against French colo ...

''); romantic drama (''

Waterloo Bridge Waterloo Bridge () is a road and foot traffic bridge crossing the River Thames in London, between Blackfriars Bridge and Hungerford Bridge and Golden Jubilee Bridges. Its name commemorates the victory of the British, Dutch and Prussians at t ...

'', '' A Summer Place''); adventure (''

Northwest Passage The Northwest Passage (NWP) is the sea route between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans through the Arctic Ocean, along the northern coast of North America via waterways through the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. The eastern route along the Arc ...

'', ''

The Caine Mutiny ''The Caine Mutiny'' is a 1951 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by Herman Wouk. The novel grew out of Wouk's personal experiences aboard two destroyer-minesweepers in the Pacific Theater in World War II. Among its themes, it deals with the moral ...

''); family/comedy (''

National Velvet ''National Velvet'' is a novel by Enid Bagnold (1889–1981), first published in 1935. It was illustrated by Laurian Jones, Bagnold's daughter, who was born in 1921. Plot summary ''National Velvet'' is the story of a 14-year-old girl named ...

'', ''

Sugarfoot ''Sugarfoot'' is an American Western television series that aired for 69 episodes on ABC from 1957-1961 on Tuesday nights on a "shared" slot basis – rotating with ''Cheyenne'' (first season); ''Cheyenne'' and ''Bronco'' (second season); and ...

''); suspense (''

The Picture of Dorian Gray ''The Picture of Dorian Gray'' is a philosophical novel by Irish writer Oscar Wilde. A shorter novella-length version was published in the July 1890 issue of the American periodical '' Lippincott's Monthly Magazine''.''The Picture of Dorian G ...

'', ''

Key Largo Key Largo ( es, Cayo Largo) is an island in the upper Florida Keys archipelago and is the largest section of the keys, at long. It is one of the northernmost of the Florida Keys in Monroe County, and the northernmost of the keys connected by ...

''); epics ('' Helen of Troy''); and westerns ('' The Treasure of the Sierra Madre'', '' Johnny Belinda'' and ''

The Searchers ''The Searchers'' is a 1956 American Technicolor VistaVision epic Western film directed by John Ford and written by Frank S. Nugent, based on the 1954 novel by Alan Le May. It is set during the Texas-Native American wars, and stars John W ...

''). An early assignment were the vocal arrangements for the 1937 film version of '' Rosalie'', which ten years before had been orchestrated for

Broadway Broadway may refer to: Theatre * Broadway Theatre (disambiguation) * Broadway theatre, theatrical productions in professional theatres near Broadway, Manhattan, New York City, U.S. ** Broadway (Manhattan), the street **Broadway Theatre (53rd Stree ...

by Steiner. At

MGM Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc., also known as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures and abbreviated as MGM, is an American film, television production, distribution and media company owned by Amazon through MGM Holdings, founded on April 17, 1924 a ...

Cutter worked for

Arthur Freed Arthur Freed (September 9, 1894 – April 12, 1973) was an American lyricist and Hollywood film producer. He won the Academy Award for Best Picture twice, in 1951 for '' An American in Paris'' and in 1958 for '' Gigi''. Both films were musicals. ...

and Mervyn LeRoy on '' The Wizard of Oz''. Under the loose musical direction of

Herbert Stothart Herbert Pope Stothart (September 11, 1885February 1, 1949) was an American songwriter, arranger, conductor, and composer. He was also nominated for twelve Academy Awards, winning Best Original Score for '' The Wizard of Oz''. Stothart was widel ...

he contributed the "metallic sound" for the Tin Woodman's "If I Only Had a Heart". Cutter told Oz historian

Aljean Harmetz Aljean Meltsir Harmetz (born December 30, 1929) is an American journalist and film historian. She was the Hollywood correspondent for '' The New York Times'' from 1978 to 1990. Her film books include '' The Making of The Wizard of Oz'' (1977), ...

for "Over the Rainbow" he made it sound as pretty as he could with many strings and a touch of woodwind.Harmetz, Aljean, ''The Making of The Wizard of Oz'', Hyperion, New York, 1977, p. 97. After the war he collaborated most closely with Steiner during his golden period with

Warner Brothers Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (commonly known as Warner Bros. or abbreviated as WB) is an American film and entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California, and a subsidiary of Warner Bros. D ...

. Their work on ''A Summer Place'' netted them a US #1 hit for the insistent theme song. Joining ASCAP in 1946, Cutter occasionally wrote original music for the screen but rarely received a credit. His last credit, along with Steiner's, was for the 1964

Disney The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was originally founded on October ...

film ''

Those Calloways ''Those Calloways'' is a 1964 American family drama film, adapted from the 1950 children's novel ''Swiftwater'' by Paul Annixter. The film was produced by Walt Disney and directed by Norman Tokar. It was the last credit for veteran film composer ...

''. No known Broadway credits are recorded for him.

References

External links

* * 1902 births 1983 deaths American music arrangers American film score composers American male film score composers 20th-century classical musicians 20th-century American composers People from Nice 20th-century American male musicians {{US-songwriter-stub