Pages

Tuesday, September 25, 2012

Joining Lawrence Welk Among Music Greats From North Dakota

Alf Clausen has been nominated for 23 Emmy Awards, winning twice.

Starting early in season two, he has since scored every episode of "The Simpsons." Viewers will enjoy "The Simpsons" for its 24th season this year, with first episode this season this Sunday night.

It turns out that he scored the music for one of my favorites shows, long ago: "Moonlighting." According to the Wall Street Journal where he's quoted, Mr Clausen says "Moonlighting" was his crowning achievement. Google scoring 'the simpsons'
Mr Clausen was trained as a jazz musician on bass and French horn. While at North Dakota State University, he took a correspondence course in big-band writing offered by Boston's Berklee College of Music. ... later he moved to Boston.
Who wudda guessed?

Note to the Granddaughters

I played coronet in middle school and high school band for three or four years, until Mr Syverson could no longer take my lack of musical abilities. He figured that a "bad" French horn player was better than "no" French horn player, so he had me switch. I don't recall lasting into my senior year, but I suppose it was possible.

5 comments:

  1. HT bakkenblog

    Harold Hamm, an oil billionaire who has been a lead player in drilling the Bakken shale, and his Oklahoma-based Continental Resources Inc. donated $10 million toward the $14 million project.

    http://www.grandforksherald.com/event/article/id/245624/

    ReplyDelete
  2. Wow, I played coronet for him too, 1974-76. Virgil was an outstanding teacher, and as I know too, very patient!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. He had to have had incredible patience to put up with my playing!

      Delete
    2. So that's how we lost you to the French Horn section. We were never the same with your loss!

      Delete
    3. Yes, you "were never the same." You were much, much better. (There was probably much less talking when I left.)

      Delete

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.