Master of the Untrained Melody

There’s something about Spud Murphy that has struck a chord with three generations of Hollywood music composers.

Part of it, of course, is Murphy’s willingness to share his unusual technique of music composition that takes place in your head over a desk instead of through your fingers at a piano.

But a lot of it is Murphy’s quick wit, his photographic memory and his ability to move as easily with those playing symphonic music as with those doing cartoon movie tunes.

So no wonder 100 of his students and friends will gather Sunday to celebrate Murphy’s 92nd birthday and swap stories of how his radical concept of writing music continually saves their necks as they crank out tunes for the entertainment industry around town.

The birthday salute at noon at the Twin Dragon Restaurant on West Pico Boulevard is an annual affair that in the past has attracted the likes of Buddy Collette, Jimmy Haskell, Ray Conniff and Neal Hefti.

Murphy is almost a cult hero to about 250 musicians and composers who have studied under him since 1948, when he first devised a 12-tone composition technique he calls the “equal-interval system.”

Alumni include jazz artists Oscar Peterson and Gerald Wiggins, Pink Floyd saxophonist Scott Page and film composer Tom Chase.

“He’s very wise, always funny and like nobody I’ve ever met,” said Dave Blumberg, a composer and arranger from Brentwood who worked 14 years for Motown Records before turning to television and motion picture work such as “Around Midnight.”

“He’s like my best friend. I talk to him almost every day. He’s helped so many of us break through our own barriers and achieve our own greatness without having to imitate somebody else.”

That’s high praise for someone who was never formally trained in music composition himself.

Utah-born Lyle Murphy--his nickname “Spud” is a takeoff on the lyle potato--started out as a jazz trumpeter in the 1920s. But he quickly became known more for his writing and arranging than for his performing.

In the 1930s, he wrote more than 100 arrangements for Benny Goodman’s orchestra and 75 arrangements for Glen Gray’s Casa Loma Orchestra.

In the 1940s, he worked at Columbia Pictures on 50 movies, arranging music for the dance routines of Fred Astaire and for films starring Rita Hayworth and Marilyn Monroe.

Because he was unschooled in music composition, Murphy didn’t realize he approached music differently until a friend asked him why he listened for the intervals between musical notes on records.

After World War II, others were paying attention to his composing style. A fledging composer persuaded Murphy to teach him through veterans’ GI Bill benefits.

Murphy wrote his own text as he went along. It’s now 1,200 pages long. With one $100 lesson a week, it takes about 4 1/2 years to graduate from Murphy’s course.

Those who use Murphy’s system say music written his way is easy to orchestrate because it is composed horizontally--the way the ear hears it--instead of vertically.

“A person who writes at the piano like most composers and arrangers [is] sometimes more likely to write piano music. But if you write at the desk you write for the orchestra. You hear the oboe, the bassoon, the trumpet,” said Dell Hake, a La Canada-Flintridge resident who has composed television commercial music for Ford, IBM, Nike and McDonald’s.

Hake and others say music-writing using Murphy’s system is quick--something that is important in Hollywood.

“In this town, in order to make a living, speed is of the essence,” agreed keyboardist-turned composer Tom Griep, a Murphy student who lives in the mid-Wilshire district. “You learn under him to write faster, more adventurously.”

Composer Craig Sharmat of Woodland Hills said he has landed jobs and kept them because of Murphy.

“I had a one-day turnaround for ‘America’s Most Wanted’ and I was trying to make it sound orchestral. I followed what Spud teaches and not only delivered on time but got the job and have been doing it three years,” said Sharmat--who is still studying under Murphy.

Murphy’s approach is especially effective in fast-paced cartoon work, said Tim Torrance, a Sherman Oaks resident whose music work includes TV’s “101 Dalmatians.”

Murphy himself is perhaps best known for his arrangement of “Three Blind Mice” that was used on the old “Three Stooges” shows, he said.

Others use Murphy’s concept to write and arrange jazz, chamber music and even cave music.

“I just came back from Indonesia where I used Spud’s technique to create music from people tapping on stalactites,” said composer and record-label owner Chuck Jonkey of Glendale.

Several of Murphy’s graduates have begun teaching his composing techniques, using Murphy’s texts. And Pasadena City College has introduced it as part of its music curriculum.

That’s a nice note to end your 91st year on.