Leo Shuken(1906-1976)
- Music Department
- Composer
- Soundtrack
Leo Shuken was an American composer and orchestrator, best known for
his western scores. He was co-recipient of the Oscar for best scoring
of La Chevauchée fantastique (1939). In his heyday,
Shuken was under contract to Paramount, 1937-1944, at which time he
worked on several films of the director
Preston Sturges. In collaboration with
Jack Hayes, Shuken subsequently
became a prolific writer of music for TV westerns, with many episodes
of Gunsmoke (1955),
La grande caravane (1957) and
Le Virginien (1962) to his
credit. Along with Hayes, he also orchestrated some of the best film
music of Elmer Bernstein, including
Les 7 mercenaires (1960),
La Grande Évasion (1963),
Hawaï (1966) and
Millie (1967).
His other output included a "Trumpet Concerto" and the "The Dorsey
Concerto", written specifically for the two famous band leaders and
performed on trombone by Tommy and on clarinet and saxophone by Jimmy.
