Raymond Rasch

From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Artist

Raymond Rasch was an American pianist and arranger who worked in Hollywood in the 1950s and 1960s. He was born on 1 March 1917 in Toledo, Ohio, and died on 23 December 1964. Not much more is recorded in the sources, and what is known about him is mainly his work behind the scenes.

Music and breakthrough

His name is linked to one film: Charlie Chaplin's Limelight from 1952. Chaplin wrote the music himself, but could not notate it, and so needed people to work out and orchestrate his melodies. Rasch was one of them. The film contains the theme that later became known as a song. It took a long time for the music to win a prize: only in 1972 was the film shown in Los Angeles, and that made it eligible for an Oscar. Rasch won the Oscar for best original score posthumously that year, together with Chaplin and Larry Russell.

Influence

In this way Rasch is an example of the many arrangers and pianists who helped shape the sound of popular music without their names becoming known to the public. He died more than seven years before he received the prize. Anyone who sees and hears the film experiences, at any rate, the result of his craftsmanship, in a score that sounds both sentimental and elegant.

Listening

In School of Rock

The chapters, maps and magazine stories of School of Rock are currently available in Dutch only.

• The Dream Factory: Film Reel 1^NL Reader