Yes, "Au Revoir" to Michel Legrand for that sensational Academy Award-winning score in the 1968 film, 'The Thomas Crown Affair', who just died; 11/12 days ago, in fact. Legrand received his first Oscar for 'best original song' for composing the musical score to that classic song of songs...
Having only chanced to hear a reference to some artist (whose name I didn't manage to catch) a week or so ago (upon some national radio show) - majorly involved with this masterpiece of 20th Century music - it's taken me awhile (this very eve) to actually ascertain precisely who is/was responsible for what... Evidently while Michel Legrand composed the music, an associate of his (at that time), Eddy Marney, wrote the French words, and Alan and Marilyn Bergman wrote the equivalent English lyrics...for the song soon enough sung by Noel Harrison (who only died in 2012 or 2013 himself).
Later popularized - as a chart-topping hit, I've little doubt - by such disparate and well-known singers (and/or actors/actresses) as Dusty Springfield...Ed Ames...Val Doonican... Nana Mouskouri... Barbara Streisand...Dinah Shore... Petula Clark...Neil Diamond, not to mention Andy Williams...Jack Jones... Ray Conniff...John Rowles... Johnny Mathis...and New Zealand's very own Kiri Te Kanawa...and the group Sting...
'The Windmills of Your Mind' is really a quite unusual song, whose very twists and turns, zigzags, meanderings, curves and contortions, and roller-coaster crescendos, climaxes & ultimate unravellings - both verbally and musically - have ever made me feel (implicitly, intuitively, instinctively) as though I was on one of those schoolyard roundabouts (or a ferris wheel) unable to take control, or in a rapid-onset spell of dizziness; experiencing something as thrilling and exhilarating as it is simultaneously terrifying and literally almost mind-blowing. So all credit to Legrand and Marney for having the sheer creative genius for gifting us this unusual piece of musical and lyrical brilliance...
Some interesting tidbits of info I've since gleaned from *the two websites I accessed in composing this I'll now give as a series of bullet-points...for your perusal and due consideration... Michel Legrand...
*is of Armenian descent, though evidently lived lifelong in Paris.
*studied music from the age of 10/11 at the Paris(ian) Conservatory, winning a raft of prizes in a variety of musical instruments.
*was also awarded 'best original music score' (by the Australian Film Institute, 1991) for music in 'Dingo'...
*in 2018 had the asteroid '31201 Michellegrand' named in his honour...
*in 1989 released a solo vocal album, and staged his own oratorio, inspired by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (as part of the bicentenary celebrations for the French Revolution).
*created a Christmas album, 'Noel!Noel!Noel!' for his then upcoming 80th birthday.
*remained active right up until his death, with further concerts scheduled for the upcoming spring.
To conclude, I'll likewise simply relate two items, a revealing anecdote from his childhood, and an - equally revealing - personal survey of his lifework from the vantage point of very late in his life...
Legrand, having been abandoned by his dad at age three and brought up by a struggling mum, 'found a consoling friend in the[ir] flat's battered piano and it quickly emerged that he had a gift.'
'He lived his last years as he had lived his earliest ones as a precocious music student in Paris - guided, as he said, by the "ambition...to live completely surrounded by music. My dream is not to miss out anything. That's why I've never settled on one musical discipline. I love playing, conducting, singing and writing, and in all styles. So I'll turn my hand to everything - not just a bit of everything. Quite the opposite, I do all these activities at once, seriously, sincerely and with deep commitment."
Hopefully something all of us can say, whenever we depart this life...for a life worth living is surely worth living well...
*Due acknowledgement/credit (for the various facts contained herein) to two websites:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki//Michel_Legrand; and https://www.theguardian.com/music/2019...
Having only chanced to hear a reference to some artist (whose name I didn't manage to catch) a week or so ago (upon some national radio show) - majorly involved with this masterpiece of 20th Century music - it's taken me awhile (this very eve) to actually ascertain precisely who is/was responsible for what... Evidently while Michel Legrand composed the music, an associate of his (at that time), Eddy Marney, wrote the French words, and Alan and Marilyn Bergman wrote the equivalent English lyrics...for the song soon enough sung by Noel Harrison (who only died in 2012 or 2013 himself).
Later popularized - as a chart-topping hit, I've little doubt - by such disparate and well-known singers (and/or actors/actresses) as Dusty Springfield...Ed Ames...Val Doonican... Nana Mouskouri... Barbara Streisand...Dinah Shore... Petula Clark...Neil Diamond, not to mention Andy Williams...Jack Jones... Ray Conniff...John Rowles... Johnny Mathis...and New Zealand's very own Kiri Te Kanawa...and the group Sting...
'The Windmills of Your Mind' is really a quite unusual song, whose very twists and turns, zigzags, meanderings, curves and contortions, and roller-coaster crescendos, climaxes & ultimate unravellings - both verbally and musically - have ever made me feel (implicitly, intuitively, instinctively) as though I was on one of those schoolyard roundabouts (or a ferris wheel) unable to take control, or in a rapid-onset spell of dizziness; experiencing something as thrilling and exhilarating as it is simultaneously terrifying and literally almost mind-blowing. So all credit to Legrand and Marney for having the sheer creative genius for gifting us this unusual piece of musical and lyrical brilliance...
Some interesting tidbits of info I've since gleaned from *the two websites I accessed in composing this I'll now give as a series of bullet-points...for your perusal and due consideration... Michel Legrand...
*is of Armenian descent, though evidently lived lifelong in Paris.
*studied music from the age of 10/11 at the Paris(ian) Conservatory, winning a raft of prizes in a variety of musical instruments.
*was also awarded 'best original music score' (by the Australian Film Institute, 1991) for music in 'Dingo'...
*in 2018 had the asteroid '31201 Michellegrand' named in his honour...
*in 1989 released a solo vocal album, and staged his own oratorio, inspired by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (as part of the bicentenary celebrations for the French Revolution).
*created a Christmas album, 'Noel!Noel!Noel!' for his then upcoming 80th birthday.
*remained active right up until his death, with further concerts scheduled for the upcoming spring.
To conclude, I'll likewise simply relate two items, a revealing anecdote from his childhood, and an - equally revealing - personal survey of his lifework from the vantage point of very late in his life...
Legrand, having been abandoned by his dad at age three and brought up by a struggling mum, 'found a consoling friend in the[ir] flat's battered piano and it quickly emerged that he had a gift.'
'He lived his last years as he had lived his earliest ones as a precocious music student in Paris - guided, as he said, by the "ambition...to live completely surrounded by music. My dream is not to miss out anything. That's why I've never settled on one musical discipline. I love playing, conducting, singing and writing, and in all styles. So I'll turn my hand to everything - not just a bit of everything. Quite the opposite, I do all these activities at once, seriously, sincerely and with deep commitment."
Hopefully something all of us can say, whenever we depart this life...for a life worth living is surely worth living well...
*Due acknowledgement/credit (for the various facts contained herein) to two websites:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki//Michel_Legrand; and https://www.theguardian.com/music/2019...
