Best Music, 1940

Awards presented February 27, 1941

The nominees were ... 
(Original Score) 

• Aaron Copland, Our Town 
• Louis Gruenberg, The Fight for Life 
• Richard Hageman, The Howards of Virginia 
• Richard Hageman, The Long Voyage Home 
• Leigh Harline, Paul J. Smith, Ned Washington, Pinocchio 
• Werner Heymann, One Million B.C. 
• Alfred Newman, The Mark of Zorro 
• Miklos Rozsa, The Thief of Bagdad 
• Frank Skinner, The House of the Seven Gables 
• Max Steiner, The Letter 
• Herbert Stothart, Waterloo Bridge 
• Franz Waxman, Rebecca 
• Roy Webb, My Favorite Wife 
• Meredith Willson, The Great Dictator 
• Victor Young, Arizona 
• Victor Young, The Dark Command 
• Victor Young, North West Mounted Police 

(Scoring) 

• Anthony Collins, Irene 
• Aaron Copland, Our Town 
• Roger Edens, Georgie Stoll, Strike Up the Band 
• Cy Feuer, Hit Parade of 1941 
• Erich Wolfgang Korngold, The Sea Hawk 
• Alfred Newman, Tin Pan Alley 
• Charles Previn, Spring Parade 
• Artie Shaw, Second Chorus 
• Victor Young, Arise, My Love 

(Song) 

• "Down Argentine Way," from Down Argentine Way; music by Harry Warren, lyrics by Mack Gordon   
• "I'd Know You Anywhere," from You'll Find Out; music by Jimmy McHugh, lyrics by Johnny Mercer 
• "It's a Blue World," from Music in My Heart; music and lyrics by Chet Forrest and Bob Wright 
• "Love of My Life," from Second Chorus; music by Artie Shaw, lyrics by Johnny Mercer 
• "Only Forever," from Rhythm on the River; music by James Monaco, lyrics by John Burke
• "Our Love Affair," from Strike Up the Band; music by Roger Edens, lyrics by Arthur Freed 
• "Waltzing in the Clouds," from Spring Parade; music by Robert Stolz, lyrics by Gus Kahn 
• "When You Wish Upon a Star," from Pinocchio; music by Leigh Harline, lyrics by Ned Washington
• "Who Am I?" from Hit Parade of 1941; music by Jule Styne, lyrics by Walter Bullock 

... when they should have been ... 

(Original Score) 

• Aaron Copland, Our Town 
• Louis Gruenberg, The Fight for Life 
• Richard Hageman, The Howards of Virginia 
• Richard Hageman, The Long Voyage Home 
• Werner Heymann, One Million B.C. 
• Alfred Newman, The Mark of Zorro 
• Miklos Rozsa, The Thief of Bagdad 
• Frank Skinner, The House of the Seven Gables 
• Max Steiner, The Letter 
• Herbert Stothart, Waterloo Bridge 
• Franz Waxman, Rebecca 
• Roy Webb, My Favorite Wife 
• Meredith Willson, The Great Dictator 
• Victor Young, Arizona 
• Victor Young, The Dark Command 
• Victor Young, North West Mounted Police 
•  

(Scoring) 

• Anthony Collins, Irene 
• Roger Edens, Georgie Stoll, Strike Up the Band 
• Cy Feuer, Hit Parade of 1941 
• Leigh Harline, Paul J. Smith, Ned Washington, Pinocchio 
• Erich Wolfgang Korngold, The Sea Hawk 
• Alfred Newman, Tin Pan Alley 
• Charles Previn, Spring Parade 
• Artie Shaw, Second Chorus 
• Victor Young, Arise, My Love 

(Song) 

• "Down Argentine Way," from Down Argentine Way; music by Harry Warren, lyrics by Mack Gordon   
• "I'd Know You Anywhere," from You'll Find Out; music by Jimmy McHugh, lyrics by Johnny Mercer 
• "I Concentrate on You," from Broadway Melody of 1940; music and lyrics by Cole Porter  
• "I Hear Music," from Dancing on a Dime; music by Burton Lane, lyrics by Frank Loesser 
• "It's a Blue World," from Music in My Heart; music and lyrics by Chet Forrest and Bob Wright 
• "Love of My Life," from Second Chorus; music by Artie Shaw, lyrics by Johnny Mercer 
• "Waltzing in the Clouds," from Spring Parade; music by Robert Stolz, lyrics by Gus Kahn 
• "When You Wish Upon a Star," from Pinocchio; music by Leigh Harline, lyrics by Ned Washington
• "Who Am I?" from Hit Parade of 1941; music by Jule Styne, lyrics by Walter Bullock 

And the Oscar went to ... 

(Original Score) 

Leigh Harline, Paul J. Smith, Ned Washington, Pinocchio.

Out of place in its division, the music for Pinocchio should have been nominated and won for Scoring instead, as below.

(Scoring) 

Alfred Newman, Tin Pan Alley. 

This Alice Faye-Betty Grable-John Payne musical was typical of 20th Century-Fox's 1940s musicals: handsome production values, pleasantly nostalgic early-20th century songs, second-rank stars. The sensational dancing of the Nicholas Brothers helps make up from the dullness of the story and the top-billed performers. It's a little hard to know what Newman did, exactly, to earn this, the second of his nine Oscars. The songs were arranged by Fletcher Henderson and the additional music was composed by Urban Thielmann. If Pinocchio had been properly placed in this category instead of "Original Score," Newman might have had one less statuette. But the work by Edens and Stoll on Strike Up the Band strikes me as a better choice among the actual nominees.  

(Song) 

"When You Wish Upon a Star," from Pinocchio; music by Leigh Harline, lyrics by Ned Washington.

Leigh Harline, Walt Disney

Ned Washington

Only the Fred Astaire-Ginger Rogers musicals of the 1930s produced more memorable songs than the Disney animated films have, and they did it by hiring the finest songwriters of the day: Irving Berlin, Jerome Kern, and George and Ira Gershwin. Disney did it with less-celebrated songwriters such as Harline and Washington. Pinocchio's song score was the first from Disney to be recognized by the Academy. Harline was a studio veteran, having joined Disney in 1932 as an arranger and moved up to head the music department. As a lyricist, Washington also has to his credits a string of nominated songs, and won another Oscar for the lyrics to Dimitri Tiomkin's High Noon theme song. But Harline and Washington are best remembered for what has become, via Cliff Edwards's ethereal falsetto, the Disney studios' theme song.  

Jiminy Cricket (voiced by Cliff Edwards) sings "When You Wish Upon a Star" in Pinocchio

... when it should have gone to ... 

(Original Score) 

Aaron Copland, Our Town. 

Aaron Copland

There are many things wrong with the film version of Thornton Wilder's Pulitzer Prize-winning play, but Copland's score is not one of them. The play had freshness and immediacy: Performed without scenery and with only a few props, it draws a theater audience into creating Grovers Corners for itself, which is why it has not only become a staple of amateur companies and high schools but also receives frequent professional revivals. The movie, however, has conventionally realistic scenery, and an awful cop-out Hollywood ending undermines the poetry of the play's last act. Copland's harmonics evoke his music for the ballets Appalachian Spring, Billy the Kid, and Rodeo, all of which lend an atmosphere of "Americana"entirely appropriate to Wilder's play, restoring some of the freshness lost by the film version. Although it failed to receive an Oscar in either of the categories in which it was nominated, the score is still performed in an orchestral version, and recordings of it are frequently used as intermission music for theater productions.

William Holden as George and Martha Scott as Emily in Our Town

(Scoring) 

Leigh Harline, Paul J. Smith, Ned Washington, Pinocchio. 

Paul J. Smith

Though Harline, Smith, and Washington won for Original Score, their achievement was more properly for arranging and integrating the songs with the musical motifs of the film, which is what the music branch of the Academy presumably intended when they decided to divide the category. The confusion was about to be eliminated, however: Starting with the 1941 awards, the categories became "Musical Score of a Dramatic Picture" and "Scoring of a Musical Picture." But even that demanded further clarification, and with the 1942 awards, the former category became "Musical Score of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture." This was the sole Oscar for Smith, who had begun working as a composer at Disney on the Silly Symphonies in 1930 and remained with the studio for half a century.