Lawrence Crosley

Crosley, Lawrence

Lawrence (Larry) Crosley. Composer, conductor, producer, teacher, b Oaklandon, Indiana, 19 May 1932, d Ottawa 24 Jan 1998; B MUS (ESM, Rochester) 1957, M MUS (ESM) 1960. He lived in Ottawa as staff composer 1959-60 and music director 1961-6 for Crawley Films and then worked on a freelance basis for the CBC in Ottawa and Toronto, Crawley Films, the NFB, and others. In 1967 Crosley scored music for films at Expo 67 and Ontario Place. He also attracted attention in 1970 when he employed new NRC-developed computer technology to create the music for the film The Johari Window (Carleton University.) He was head of music and post-production sound 1978-80 at the NFB.

Crosley composed and produced music for more than 200 films, including the successful Cry of the Wild (NFB 1972), the Academy Award winners The Man Who Skied Down Everest (Crawley Films 1974) and I'll Find a Way (NFB 1977), CBC TV's The Tenth Decade (1971) and The Days before Yesterday (1973), the NFB series War (1983), and CTV's The Teddy Bears' Picnic (1988), an animated special that received a 1990 Gemini nomination for best original music score. Crosley's other honours include Canadian Film Awards for 'Best original music (non-feature)' for Seasons of the Mind (Milne-Pearson Productions 1971) and 'Best music score' for Journey to Power (Crawley Films 1972), the Canadian Film Association award for The Narwhale Game (Undersea Research Ltd 1977) and the Canadian Short Films and Television Award for 'Outstanding original music score' for The Lost Pharaoh (CBC/NFB 1981). His film scores in the 1990s included music for the 1995 IMAX film Mystery of the Maya, and for canoeist-director Bill Mason's Path of the Paddle: White Water (1996). Crosley also composed for his own jazz groups, and for orchestra, brass, and woodwind quintets and other chamber groups, and played jazz clarinet. Crosley taught at Northern Arizona University in 1987 and was visiting professor 1989-90 at the University of Ottawa's music department. He was a member of the CLComp and an associate of the Canadian Music Centre. In 1996 Crosley donated his manuscript scores and other materials to the NL of C. He died two years later of the debilitating condition ALS (Lou Gehrig's disease).

See also Film Scores.