Van Cleave (born Nathan Lang Van Cleave, May 8, 1910 – July 3, 1970) was a composer and orchestrator for film,

television Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of television transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertisin ...

, and

radio Radio is the technology of signaling and communicating using radio waves. Radio waves are electromagnetic waves of frequency between 30 hertz (Hz) and 300 gigahertz (GHz). They are generated by an electronic device called a transmi ...

Biography

Born in Bayfield,

Wisconsin Wisconsin () is a state in the upper Midwestern United States. Wisconsin is the 25th-largest state by total area and the 20th-most populous. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake M ...

, he played with big bands, including Doc Fenton and his Sooners and Al Katz and his Kittens.Patricia Kelley.
Sound Businessman
. ''Modern Mechanix'', August 1945, pp. 78-82, 148-151. He moved to

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

where he led his own band (the Van Cleave Orchestra) in the early 1930s, then played trumpet and arranged music for

Charlie Barnet Charles Daly Barnet (October 26, 1913 – September 4, 1991) was an American jazz saxophonist, composer, and bandleader. His major recordings were "Skyliner", " Cherokee", "The Wrong Idea", "Scotch and Soda", "In a Mizz", and "Southland Shuffl ...

's orchestra. In 1933, he married Doris Blumenfeld, a

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 ...

chorus girl and the child of

vaudeville Vaudeville (; ) is a theatrical genre of variety entertainment born in France at the end of the 19th century. A vaudeville was originally a comedy without psychological or moral intentions, based on a comical situation: a dramatic composition ...

actors of the German Blumenfeld circus family. He studied music with noted composer and music theorist

Joseph Schillinger Joseph Moiseyevich Schillinger ( Russian: Иосиф Моисеевич Шиллингер, (other sources: ) – 23 March 1943) was a composer, music theorist, and composition teacher who originated the Schillinger System of Musical Compositio ...

. He worked in

, as a staff arranger for

Paul Whiteman Paul Samuel Whiteman (March 28, 1890 – December 29, 1967) was an American bandleader, composer, orchestral director, and violinist. As the leader of one of the most popular dance bands in the United States during the 1920s and early 1930s, W ...

(1938–39),

Andre Kostelanetz Andre Kostelanetz (russian: Абрам Наумович Костелянец; December 22, 1901 – January 13, 1980) was a Russian-born American popular orchestral music conductor and arranger who was one of the major exponents of popular orch ...

Fred Waring Fredrick Malcolm Waring Sr. (June 9, 1900 – July 29, 1984) was an American musician, bandleader, and radio and television personality, sometimes referred to as "America's Singing Master" and "The Man Who Taught America How to Sing". He was also ...

, and for CBS Radio.Rayno, Don. ''Paul Whiteman: Pioneer in American Music, 1930-1967''. Rowman & Littlefield, 2012, p. 492. He invented new record needles with improved sound, and founded the Duotone company, which manufactured needles. In 1945, Van Cleave moved to

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, largest city in the U.S. state, state of California and the List of United States cities by population, sec ...

to pursue his musical career. His film credits, as composer and orchestrator, include ''

Cinerama Holiday ''Cinerama Holiday'' is a 1955 film shot in Cinerama. Structured as a criss-cross travel documentary, it shows an American couple traveling in Europe and a European couple traveling in the United States. Like all of the original Cinerama produc ...

'', '' The Colossus of New York'', '' Easter Parade'', ''

Funny Face ''Funny Face'' is a 1957 American musical romantic comedy film directed by Stanley Donen and written by Leonard Gershe, containing assorted songs by George and Ira Gershwin. Although having the same title as the 1927 Broadway musical ''Funny ...

'', '' Robinson Crusoe on Mars'', ''

In Search of the Castaways ''In Search of the Castaways'' (french: Les Enfants du capitaine Grant, lit=The Children of Captain Grant) is a novel by the French writer Jules Verne, published in 1867–68. The original edition, published by Hetzel, contains a number of ill ...

'' and '' White Christmas''. He composed the ''

VistaVision VistaVision is a higher resolution, widescreen variant of the 35 mm motion picture film format which was created by engineers at Paramount Pictures in 1954. Paramount never used anamorphic processes such as 2.55: 1, CinemaScope but refi ...

'' Fanfare to accompany the opening of theatre curtains to the wide screen format. In addition, he worked on many TV episodes of '' Gunsmoke'' and ''

The Twilight Zone ''The Twilight Zone'' is an American media franchise based on the anthology television series created by Rod Serling. The episodes are in various genres, including fantasy, science fiction, absurdism, dystopian fiction, suspense, horror, sup ...

'', where he pioneered the use of the

theremin The theremin (; originally known as the ætherphone/etherphone, thereminophone or termenvox/thereminvox) is an electronic musical instrument controlled without physical contact by the performer (who is known as a thereminist). It is named afte ...

in television scores. In the '' Gunsmoke'' episode "The Quest for Asa Janin," the last episode of season 8, from June 1963, with music by Van Cleave, the five-note main theme used throughout 1964's '' Robinson Crusoe on Mars'' can be heard several times.

References

External links

*
Nathan Van Cleave at Soundtrack, the Cinemascore & Soundtrack Archives
Retrieved 19 September 2014. * "VistaVision Fanfare" Score at the University of Wyoming. American Heritage Center. Nathan Van Cleave papers

1970 deaths 1910 births People from Bayfield, Wisconsin American bandleaders American television composers American film score composers American male film score composers American music arrangers 20th-century American composers Musicians from Wisconsin 20th-century American male musicians {{US-musician-stub