William Lava
Encyclopedia
William "Bill" B. Lava (March 18, 1911 St. Paul, Minnesota - February 20, 1971 Los Angeles, California
) was a musical composer
and arranger
who worked on the Warner Bros.
' Looney Tunes
and Merrie Melodies
animated cartoon
s from 1962 onwards, replacing the deceased Milt Franklyn
. Lava's music was very different from that of Franklyn and previous composer Carl Stalling
. It has a tendency towards atonality
. A sense of tension is often created in Lava's scores using sequences based on the notes of the diminished seventh chord
. Lava also sang the theme to the popular T.V. western series Cheyenne.
Arriving in Hollywood in 1936, Lava arranged for musical radio programs, then scored a number of motion pictures, such as The Painted Stallion; A Boy and His Dog; Embraceable You; Dangerously They Live; The Hidden Hand; I Won't Play; Star in the Night and Hitler Lives. He was also responsible for scores for the Warner Bros.
' Joe McDoakes short subjects and Republic
serials
. Among his compositions during this era were The Moonrise Song (It Just Dawned On Me).
Walt Disney Productions hired Lava in the mid-1950s, where he wrote or co-wrote the incidental music for Zorro and the Spin and Marty
and Hardy Boys segments of The Mickey Mouse Club. While he was later known for cartoon music, Lava did not write any of it for Disney, though he is credited with the score for 1955's TV segment The Story of the Silly Symphony.
On his arrival at the Warner Bros.'s cartoon studio, Lava's first assignment was the Tweety
Looney Tune The Jet Cage
. Franklyn scored the first two minutes (and received credit for the score) while Lava completed the cartoon. Franklyn used strings and flutes in his portion, arranged similarly to his other cartoons, while Lava's sounds more mechanical and less orchestrated, with a xylophone at one point. His first credited cartoon is Good Noose, also released in 1962. Lava's previous work also sounded mechanical, but were greatly enhanced by the studio orchestra; however at the time of his arrival the studio reduced and later dismantled its full-time orchestra. Without a music budget that he was used to, Lava was forced to work with a much smaller orchestra to record his scores.
cartoons subcontracted by DePatie-Freleng Enterprises
to Format Films
in 1965 and '66. The budgets for these cartoons were even tighter still, meaning that only the first one (Run, Run, Sweet Road Runner
) had real scored music. The other 10 used a set of generic musical cues, which did not follow the action closely as in other Warner Brothers productions.
He also composed music for 19 of the 124 Pink Panther cartoons (USA, 1964, animation), always based on Henry Mancini
's original theme, adapting it to closely follow character action.
Lava co-wrote the theme (with Irving Taylor
) and most of the incidental music for the TV series F Troop
. Lava also composed the silent-film music for the "bookend" sequences at the beginning and end of the 1961 Twilight Zone
episode "Once Upon a Time
".
. He spoke in favor of direct military action against the Castro
regime, continuing to protest in this manner from 1959 until his death.
Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...
) was a musical composer
Composer
A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...
and arranger
Arranger
In investment banking, an arranger is a provider of funds in the syndication of a debt. They are entitled to syndicate the loan or bond issue, and may be referred to as the "lead underwriter". This is because this entity bears the risk of being able to sell the underlying securities/debt or the...
who worked on the Warner Bros.
Warner Bros.
Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc., also known as Warner Bros. Pictures or simply Warner Bros. , is an American producer of film and television entertainment.One of the major film studios, it is a subsidiary of Time Warner, with its headquarters in Burbank,...
' Looney Tunes
Looney Tunes
Looney Tunes is a Warner Bros. animated cartoon series. It preceded the Merrie Melodies series and was Warner Bros.'s first animated theatrical series. Since its first official release, 1930's Sinkin' in the Bathtub, the series has become a worldwide media franchise, spawning several television...
and Merrie Melodies
Merrie Melodies
Merrie Melodies is the name of a series of animated cartoons distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures between 1931 and 1969.Originally produced by Harman-Ising Pictures, Merrie Melodies were produced by Leon Schlesinger Productions from 1933 to 1944. Schlesinger sold his studio to Warner Bros. in 1944,...
animated cartoon
Animated cartoon
An animated cartoon is a short, hand-drawn film for the cinema, television or computer screen, featuring some kind of story or plot...
s from 1962 onwards, replacing the deceased Milt Franklyn
Milt Franklyn
Milton J. Franklyn was a musical composer and arranger who worked on the Warner Bros.' Looney Tunes animated cartoons....
. Lava's music was very different from that of Franklyn and previous composer Carl Stalling
Carl Stalling
Carl W. Stalling was an American composer and arranger for music in animated films. He is most closely associated with the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies shorts produced by Warner Bros., where he averaged one complete score each week, for 22 years.-Biography:Stalling was born to Ernest and...
. It has a tendency towards atonality
Atonality
Atonality in its broadest sense describes music that lacks a tonal center, or key. Atonality in this sense usually describes compositions written from about 1908 to the present day where a hierarchy of pitches focusing on a single, central tone is not used, and the notes of the chromatic scale...
. A sense of tension is often created in Lava's scores using sequences based on the notes of the diminished seventh chord
Diminished seventh chord
A diminished seventh chord is a four note chord that comprises a diminished triad plus the interval of a diminished seventh above the root. Thus it is , or enharmonically , of any major scale; for example, C diminished-seventh would be , or enharmonically...
. Lava also sang the theme to the popular T.V. western series Cheyenne.
Career
Lava was educated at Von Humboldt Grammar School and Lane Tech. High School in Chicago, then attended Northwestern University where his major was journalism. He studied conducting with Dr. Albert Coates in Los Angeles. Lava also wrote short stories for various magazines and was the editor of Northwestern Commerce Magazine and associate editor of Purple Parrot..Arriving in Hollywood in 1936, Lava arranged for musical radio programs, then scored a number of motion pictures, such as The Painted Stallion; A Boy and His Dog; Embraceable You; Dangerously They Live; The Hidden Hand; I Won't Play; Star in the Night and Hitler Lives. He was also responsible for scores for the Warner Bros.
Warner Bros.
Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc., also known as Warner Bros. Pictures or simply Warner Bros. , is an American producer of film and television entertainment.One of the major film studios, it is a subsidiary of Time Warner, with its headquarters in Burbank,...
' Joe McDoakes short subjects and Republic
Republic Pictures
Republic Pictures was an independent film production-distribution corporation with studio facilities, operating from 1934 through 1959, and was best known for specializing in westerns, movie serials and B films emphasizing mystery and action....
serials
Serial (film)
Serials, more specifically known as Movie serials, Film serials or Chapter plays, were short subjects originally shown in theaters in conjunction with a feature film. They were related to pulp magazine serialized fiction...
. Among his compositions during this era were The Moonrise Song (It Just Dawned On Me).
Walt Disney Productions hired Lava in the mid-1950s, where he wrote or co-wrote the incidental music for Zorro and the Spin and Marty
Spin and Marty
Spin and Marty was a popular series of television shorts that aired as part of ABC's Mickey Mouse Club show of the mid-1950s produced by Walt Disney. There were three serials in all, set at the Triple R Ranch, a boys' western-style summer camp. The first series of 25 eleven-minute episodes,...
and Hardy Boys segments of The Mickey Mouse Club. While he was later known for cartoon music, Lava did not write any of it for Disney, though he is credited with the score for 1955's TV segment The Story of the Silly Symphony.
On his arrival at the Warner Bros.'s cartoon studio, Lava's first assignment was the Tweety
Tweety
Tweety Bird is a fictional Yellow Canary in the Warner Bros. Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series of animated cartoons. The name "Tweety" is a play on words, as it originally meant "sweetie", along with "tweet" being a typical English onomatopoeia for the sounds of birds...
Looney Tune The Jet Cage
The Jet Cage
The Jet Cage is a Looney Tunes cartoon released in 1962 by Warner Bros.. The short runs for about 6 minutes and is written and directed by Friz Freleng....
. Franklyn scored the first two minutes (and received credit for the score) while Lava completed the cartoon. Franklyn used strings and flutes in his portion, arranged similarly to his other cartoons, while Lava's sounds more mechanical and less orchestrated, with a xylophone at one point. His first credited cartoon is Good Noose, also released in 1962. Lava's previous work also sounded mechanical, but were greatly enhanced by the studio orchestra; however at the time of his arrival the studio reduced and later dismantled its full-time orchestra. Without a music budget that he was used to, Lava was forced to work with a much smaller orchestra to record his scores.
Television
Lava was responsible for scores in eleven Road RunnerWile E. Coyote and Road Runner
Wile E. Coyote and The Road Runner are a duo of cartoon characters from a series of Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies cartoons. The characters were created by animation director Chuck Jones in 1948 for Warner Bros., while the template for their adventures was the work of writer Michael Maltese...
cartoons subcontracted by DePatie-Freleng Enterprises
DePatie-Freleng Enterprises
DePatie-Freleng Enterprises was a Hollywood-based animation production company, active from 1963 to 1981. They produced theatrical cartoons, animated series, commercials, title sequences and television specials. Notable among these is The Pink Panther film titles and cartoon shorts and the Dr....
to Format Films
Format Films
Format Films was a television animation studio which was founded by Herbert Klynn in 1959 with Jules Engel as vice president, Herb McIntosh and Joseph Mugnaini. It was most active during the 1960s, producing episodes of The Alvin Show, Popeye, and The Lone Ranger...
in 1965 and '66. The budgets for these cartoons were even tighter still, meaning that only the first one (Run, Run, Sweet Road Runner
Run, Run, Sweet Road Runner
Run, Run Sweet Roadrunner is an animated cartoon in the Merrie Melodies series released by Warner Bros.. It features Wile E. Coyote and Road Runner and was directed and written by Rudy Larriva for release in 1965....
) had real scored music. The other 10 used a set of generic musical cues, which did not follow the action closely as in other Warner Brothers productions.
He also composed music for 19 of the 124 Pink Panther cartoons (USA, 1964, animation), always based on Henry Mancini
Henry Mancini
Henry Mancini was an American composer, conductor and arranger, best remembered for his film and television scores. He won a record number of Grammy Awards , plus a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award posthumously in 1995...
's original theme, adapting it to closely follow character action.
Lava co-wrote the theme (with Irving Taylor
Irving Taylor (songwriter)
Irving Taylor , was a Jewish-American composer, lyricist, and screenwriter. He enlisted in the US Navy the day after Pearl Harbor...
) and most of the incidental music for the TV series F Troop
F Troop
F Troop is a satirical American television sitcom that originally aired for two seasons on ABC-TV. It debuted in the United States on September 14, 1965 and concluded its run on April 6, 1967 with a total of 65 episodes. The first season of 34 episodes was filmed in black-and-white, but the show...
. Lava also composed the silent-film music for the "bookend" sequences at the beginning and end of the 1961 Twilight Zone
Twilight zone
-Television series and spinoffs:*The Twilight Zone, the anthology television series and its franchise:**The Twilight Zone , the 1959–1964 original television series***Twilight Zone: The Movie, a 1983 film based on the original series...
episode "Once Upon a Time
Once Upon a Time (The Twilight Zone)
"Once Upon a Time" is a 1961 episode of the American television anthology series The Twilight Zone.-Synopsis:Woodrow Mulligan is a grumpy janitor in 1890, dissatisfied with his time and place: a backwater town called "Harmony" with seventeen-cent cuts of meat, two-dollar hats, livestock freely...
".
Personal life
A staunch anti-communist, Lava became known as an outspoken critic of the Cuban RevolutionCuban Revolution
The Cuban Revolution was an armed revolt by Fidel Castro's 26th of July Movement against the regime of Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista between 1953 and 1959. Batista was finally ousted on 1 January 1959, and was replaced by a revolutionary government led by Castro...
. He spoke in favor of direct military action against the Castro
Fidel Castro
Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz is a Cuban revolutionary and politician, having held the position of Prime Minister of Cuba from 1959 to 1976, and then President from 1976 to 2008. He also served as the First Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba from the party's foundation in 1961 until 2011...
regime, continuing to protest in this manner from 1959 until his death.