I’ve seen Uncle Aaron a few times since I’ve been here. He’s been working furiously finishing up his film [The North Star] – and the scoring was completed last night. Aaron let me come to the studio to watch. They had only five small scenes to complete, but the music sounded fine. There’s an especially cute little theme for Walter Brennan who seems to be portraying a crusty, lovable old peasant. It’s a sort of cross between a Slavonic dance and Schumann’s “Jolly Farmer”. Anyway, that’s the mood. The orchestra that recorded the score was largely made up of the Warner Bros. musicians’ crew and I never saw musicians as excited and enthusiastic over anything as they were over Aaron’s score. It was just miraculous to them after all the Steiner-Korngold crap they’ve been playing. Imagine a composer who not only does not have the hero & heroine do their big kiss to the accompaniment of surging strings, & bl-w-l-anging harps in great Straussian release, but cuts the music entirely at that point. << less