Richard Robbins

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

Richard Robbins was an American composer who became known as the regular film composer of Merchant Ivory Productions. He was born in 1940 in Weymouth, Massachusetts, and began playing the piano at the age of five. He studied at the New England Conservatory in Boston and then received a scholarship to continue his studies in Vienna. Later he headed the Mannes School of Music in New York. He drew inspiration from the compositions of Philip Glass.

Music and breakthrough

In 1976 he met Ismail Merchant, the co-founder of Merchant Ivory. Robbins wrote and directed for him the short documentary Sweet Sounds about the Mannes School. In 1979 he composed the music for The Europeans. From that moment he became the company's musical director and wrote the music for almost all of their films, including Heat and Dust, The Bostonians, A Room with a View, Maurice, Howards End and The Remains of the Day. For the last two he received Oscar nominations, in 1992 and 1993. For Maurice he won the Golden Osella.

Influence

His film music suits the costume dramas he worked on: restrained, elegant and often built around piano and strings. He gave those films a clear, refined sound, without the music drowning out the images. Robbins died in 2012 in Rhinebeck, New York, of Parkinson's disease. His work shows how a composer and a director duo could build a single style over many years, so that the music became almost a signature of the company.

Listening

• 
  The Pensione Bertollini · Richard Robbins, 1985

Discography

Studio albums

• 1979The Europeans (soundtrack)
• 1981Quartet (soundtrack)
• 1983Heat and Dust (soundtrack)
• 1984The Bostonians (soundtrack)
• 1986A Room With a View (soundtrack)
• 1987Maurice (soundtrack)
• 1990Mr. & Mrs. Bridge (soundtrack)
• 1992Howards End (soundtrack)
• 1993Remains of the Day: Original Soundtrack Recording (soundtrack)
• 1995Jefferson in Paris (soundtrack)
• 1996Surviving Picasso (soundtrack)
• 1996The Proprietor (soundtrack)
• 1998A Soldier's Daughter Never Cries (soundtrack)
• 1998Place Vendôme (soundtrack)
• 1999Cotton Mary (soundtrack)
• 2001The Golden Bowl (soundtrack)
• 2002The Mystic Masseur (soundtrack)
• 2003Le Divorce (The Original Soundtrack Album) (soundtrack)
• 2006The White Countess (soundtrack)

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 3^NL Reader

Mentioned in other articles

• British costume drama and literary adaptation GenreMerchant Ivory made A Room with a View (1985) with arias by Puccini and music by Richard Robbins.

See also

• British costume drama and literary adaptation