Arthur Lange (April 16, 1889 – December 7, 1956) was a United States
bandleader
A bandleader is the leader of a music group such as a dance band, rock or pop band or jazz quartet. The term is most commonly used with a group that plays popular music as a small combo or a big band, such as one which plays jazz, blues, rhyth ...
and
Tin Pan Alley
Tin Pan Alley was a collection of History of music publishing, music publishers and songwriters in New York City that dominated the American popular music, popular music of the United States in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Originally ...
composer of popular music. He composed music for over 120 films, including ''
Grand Canary'' and ''
Woman on the Run''. Lange shared an
Oscar
Oscar, OSCAR, or The Oscar may refer to:
People and fictional and mythical characters
* Oscar (given name), including lists of people and fictional characters named Oscar, Óscar or Oskar
* Oscar (footballer, born 1954), Brazilian footballer ...
nomination with
Hugo Friedhofer for the film ''
The Woman in the Window''. He was nominated four times for Oscars, but did not win any.
Life and career
In the 1910s, Lange was active as a songwriter, collaborating frequently with lyricist
Andrew B. Sterling and publishing with the Joe Morris Music Company. During the first half of the 1920s Lange recorded abundantly for
Cameo Records
Cameo Records was an American record label that flourished in the 1920s. It was owned by the Cameo Record Corporation in New York City.
Cameo released a disc by Lucille Hegamin every two months from 1921 to 1926. Cameo Records are also noted f ...
. His 1923 orchestra, which also played the Cinderella Ballroom on
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 Stre ...
and included trumpeters Earl Oliver and Tommy Gott, was at the end of that year bought by young well-to-do bandleader
Roger Wolfe Kahn
Roger Wolfe Kahn (October 19, 1907 – July 12, 1962) was an American jazz and popular musician, composer, bandleader (Roger Wolfe Kahn and His Orchestra) and an aviator.
Life and career
Roger Wolfe Kahn (originally spelled "Wolff") was born i ...
, and it is not known whether the recordings Lange made after this point and up to 1926 were still made by these musicians (Kahn himself did not start recording under his own name for
Victor Records
The Victor Talking Machine Company was an American recording company and phonograph manufacturer, incorporated in 1901. Victor was an independent enterprise until 1929 when it was purchased by the Radio Corporation of America (RCA) and became ...
until March 1925) or by another group.
His 1928 recordings for
Pathé Records
Pathé Records was an international record company and label and producer of phonographs, based in France, and active from the 1890s through the 1930s.
Early years
The Pathé record business was founded by brothers Charles and Émile Pathé, ...
were, however, almost certainly made by other unknown personnel. Though Lange himself played both
piano
A piano is a keyboard instrument that produces sound when its keys are depressed, activating an Action (music), action mechanism where hammers strike String (music), strings. Modern pianos have a row of 88 black and white keys, tuned to a c ...
and
banjo
The banjo is a stringed instrument with a thin membrane stretched over a frame or cavity to form a resonator. The membrane is typically circular, and in modern forms is usually made of plastic, where early membranes were made of animal skin.
...
he seems (with the exception of a recording by his "Lange trio" in 1922) to have acted only as
conductor and
arranger
In music, an arrangement is a musical adaptation of an existing composition. Differences from the original composition may include reharmonization, melodic paraphrasing, orchestration, or formal development. Arranging differs from orchestrat ...
on his band recording dates.
Lange arranged the musical score for the segment featuring Buster Keaton in
The Hollywood Revue.
Census records show that Lange shared a residence in the Hollywood Hills in 1930 with
Ray Heindorf, who would go on to win three Academy Awards.
Lange was a prolific arranger of dance band orchestrations during the 1920s. His "stock" orchestrations were in use by many bands of the day. Lange wrote "Arranging for the Modern Dance Orchestra" which was the definitive work of its day (published Robbins Music, 1926).
Lange also wrote the ''Spectrotone System of Orchestration - Book One'' (1943), with subtitle "A colorgraphic exposition of tone-color combinations and balanced as practiced in modern orchestration". That book was published by CO-ART. He published ''How to write double-stops for viola, violin and Cello, a supplement to Spectrotone'', with the same publisher CO-ART. That work is available from
Cambria Music His work has recently been made more famous b
Alexander Creative Media
Selected Songs
* with
Andrew B. Sterling, ''
A Mother's Prayer for Her Boy Out There'', New York: Joe Morris Music Co, 1917.
* with
Andrew B. Sterling, ''
America, Here's My Boy'', New York: Joe Morris Music Co, 1917.
* with
Andrew B. Sterling, ''
What'll We Do with Him Boys? (The Yanks Made a Monkey Out of You)'', New York: Joe Morris Music Co, 1918.
Partial filmography
* ''
A Woman of Experience'' (1931)
* ''
The Common Law'' (1931)
* ''
Devotion'' (1931)
* ''
Freighters of Destiny'' (1931)
* ''
My Weakness'' (1933)
* ''
Orient Express
The ''Orient Express'' was a long-distance passenger luxury train service created in 1883 by the Belgian company ''Compagnie Internationale des Wagons-Lits'' (CIWL) that operated until 2009. The train traveled the length of continental Europe, w ...
'' (1934)
* ''
In Old Kentucky'' (1935) (uncredited)
* ''
The Magnificent Brute'' (1936)
* ''
Lady of Burlesque
''Lady of Burlesque'' (also known as ''The G-String Murders'' and in the UK, ''Striptease Lady'') is a 1943 American musical comedy mystery film directed by William A. Wellman, produced by Hunt Stromberg, and starring Barbara Stanwyck and Mi ...
'' (1943)
* ''
The Woman in the Window'' (1944)
* ''
Casanova Brown'' (1944)
* ''
Along Came Jones'' (1945)
* ''
The Fabulous Suzanne
''The Fabulous Suzanne'' is a 1946 American romantic comedy film directed by Steve Sekely and starring Barbara Britton, Rudy Vallee and Otto Kruger. A waitress inherits a fortune from one of her customers.
Plot
The young and beautiful Suzanne O' ...
'' (1946)
* ''
Woman on the Run'' (1950)
* ''
War Paint'' (1953)
* ''
The Mad Magician'' (1954)
Awards
Lange was nominated five times for an
Academy Award for Best Original Score
The Academy Award for Best Original Score is an award presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) to the best substantial body of music in the form of dramatic underscoring written specifically for the film by ...
.
* ''
The Great Victor Herbert'' (1939)
[1940 Academy Award nominations and winners]
for films released in 1939 at Oscar.org
* ''
Lady of Burlesque
''Lady of Burlesque'' (also known as ''The G-String Murders'' and in the UK, ''Striptease Lady'') is a 1943 American musical comedy mystery film directed by William A. Wellman, produced by Hunt Stromberg, and starring Barbara Stanwyck and Mi ...
'' (1943)
[1944 Academy Award nominations and winners]
for films released in 1943 at Oscar.org
* ''
Casanova Brown'' (1944)
[1945 Academy Award nominations and winners]
for films released in 1944 at Oscar.org
* ''
The Woman in the Window'' (1944)
[
* '' Belle of the Yukon'' (1945)][1946 Academy Award nominations and winners]
for films released in 1945 at Oscar.org
References
External links
*
*
Arthur Lange recordings
at the Discography of American Historical Recordings
The Discography of American Historical Recordings (DAHR) is a database catalog of master recordings made by American record companies during the 78rpm era. The 78rpm era was the time period in which any flat disc records were being played at ...
.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lange, Arthur
1889 births
1956 deaths
American bandleaders
American male composers
American composers
20th-century American male musicians