Doris Howe:

>Oddly enough, this was how I felt about the music in the TV Series "Band
>of Brothers" So did someone else who took the trouble to write to the
>Radio Times and ask about it.  The music was written by one Michael Kamen ...

Michael Kamen was a founding member of one of my favorite rock groups,
the New York Rock and Roll Ensemble (later, shortened to the New York
Rock Ensemble).  Three of the five were Juilliard students (Kamen,
Rudnytzky, and Fulterman -- keyboards & oboe, bass and cello, and drums
& oboe, respectively).  They were known for intelligent lyrics, an
adventurous sense of harmony and polyrhythms, and basing their compositions
on classical pieces, without lifting wholesale.  Bernstein featured them on
a Young People's Concert.  Their most elaborate composition, Brandenburg,
was essentially a set of rock variations (a few of them remote) on the 3rd
(I think) Brandenburg.  I've followed his career since then, but he's never
come up to the wit of those early days.

Steve Schwartz

 [Kamen has also become a very prolific composer for film, specializing
 in action films - he did all the music for the Die Hard and Lethal
 Weapon series, of films for instance - but also movies such as Mr.
 Holland's Opus, 101 Dalmations, What Dreams May Come, and the HBO
 miniseries From the Earth to the Moon.  The Internet Movie Database
 (imdb.com) lists 80 films to his credit.  He conducted the S.F.
 Symphony in their collaboration with Metallica (S&M).  I have a 1990
 Warner release of his Concerto for Saxophone, a sprawling (45+ minutes),
 jazz-inspired piece.  Not bad, but not something I go back to often.
 -Dave]