Biography

July 24, 1904 · Lyon, France

April 26, 1991 · Los Angeles, California, USA

Noël Leon Marius Arnaud

He composed the theme music which was used for the Olympics, "Olympic Fanfare." In 1958, conductor Felix Slatkin commissioned him to compose a piece for Slatkin's 1958 album, "Charge!" As a result of this commission, he composed "The Charge Suite," which includes "Bugler's Dream." In 1968, representatives from ABC heard "Bugler's Dream," and they wanted to use this piece for the ABC TV coverage of the Olympics. The composer and music publisher agreed, and ABC - and later - NBC network broadcasts of the Olympics have used the piece ever since. Consequently, this piece has been known by its original name ("Bugler's Dream") and its nickname ("Olympic Fanfare").

Performed on a recording of "Bugler's Dream." The Cleveland Symphonic Winds performed the piece on its album, "Stars & Stripes: Marches, Fanfares & Wind Band Spectaculars" and Arnaud flew from Hollywood, California to Cleveland to play percussion on the recording. Famed wind ensemble conductor and music educator Frederick Fennell conducted the wind ensemble for the recording.

The French born composer studied at conservatories in Lyon and Paris. After studying with composers Vincent D'Indy and Maurice Ravel, he emigrated to the United States in 1931. For many years, he performed in Fred Waring's band. He also worked in Hollywood as an arranger, composer, and orchestrator from 1936-1966.

ABC TV used his "Bugler's Dream" for its broadcasts of the Olympics and for its TV series "ABC's Wide World of Sports."

Leo Arnaud was a jazz trombonist in France as Leo Vauchant. He played trombone and arranged for the Jack Hylton band in England 1928-1930, then moved to the United States in 1931, as arranger for Fred Waring, before joining MGM's staff.

[To André Previn, on being paid by the page to write music for Hollywood movies]: Listen, mon vieux. When you are orchestrating for a true musical illiterate, then it is perfectly okay to take advantage of that situation here. We don't get any credit, so the idea is to make as much money as possible. When I am asked by one of our innocents to ghost-write some chase music for western posses or gangland car rides, the music has to be very fast, eh? This means bubbidy, bubbidy, bubbidy - two seconds of music is already a page. Whereas a more normal 4/4 or 12/8 bar would only take up a quarter of a page with the same notes. Mind you, this must only be done with those employers of ours who can hardly read music. With the good ones it would be dishonest.