Murray Cutter

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Murray Cutter (15 March 1902,

The Wizard of Oz. Similar to fellow arranger Alexander Courage
, Cutter's name has tended to be overshadowed by the popularity of the composers with whom he was most associated.

Cutter was unusual among orchestrators who tended to specialize, in that he was adept in all genres: musicals (New Moon, Kismet, The Desert Song); romantic drama (Waterloo Bridge, A Summer Place); adventure (Northwest Passage, The Caine Mutiny); family/comedy (National Velvet, Sugarfoot); suspense (The Picture of Dorian Gray, Key Largo); epics (Helen of Troy); and westerns (The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, Johnny Belinda and The Searchers).

An early assignment were the vocal arrangements for the 1937 film version of

The Wizard of Oz. Under the loose musical direction of Herbert Stothart he contributed the "metallic sound" for the Tin Woodman's "If I Only Had a Heart". Cutter told Oz historian Aljean Harmetz for "Over the Rainbow" he made it sound as pretty as he could with many strings and a touch of woodwind.[1]

After the war he collaborated most closely with Steiner during his golden period with

ASCAP
in 1946, Cutter occasionally wrote original music for the screen but rarely received a credit.

His last credit, along with Steiner's, was for the 1964

. No known Broadway credits are recorded for him.

References

  1. ^ Harmetz, Aljean, The Making of The Wizard of Oz, Hyperion, New York, 1977, p. 97.

External links