Athaneal The Trumpeter (for orchestra) (1949)
(A Comedy Overture)

Raoul Walsh’s The Horn Blows At Midnight (Warner Brothers, 1945) was one of Jack Benny’s major film credits and, although the film was a failure, it provided a running gag for him during the following 39 years! Reginald Gardner and Margaret Dumont supported him in this comedy-fantasy about Athaneal (Benny), the trumpet-playing angel.

While dozing off during a radio broadcast, studio musician Athaneal (Benny) dreams he is a trumpet player in Heaven’s celestial orchestra. At the behest of a glamorous angel (Alexis Smith), Athaneal is brought before the Chief (Guy Kibbee) who is dissatisfied with the state of things on planet Earth and decides to destroy it. In fairness, he elects to send Athaneal down to New York City to blow his trumpet at midnight to herald the end of the world. Unfortunately, Athaneal botches the job, falls for an earthly “angel,” pawns his trumpet to buy a meal and sets off a chain reaction of comic complications in a Harold Lloyd-like slapstick climax.

Waxman wrote to the Atlanta Symphony in 1949:

The orchestral thematic material for this overture was first used as the opening music for The Horn Blows At Midnight. At the suggestion of my good friend Bernard Herrmann, I rewrote the piece in the form of a concert overture with an extensive trumpet solo. Mr. Herrmann also suggested the title. The first performance of this piece took place under Leopold Stokowski at the Hollywood Bowl. It was later performed in a radio broadcast of the Standard Oil Symphony and again this year by the Cincinnati Symphony under Thor Johnson’s direction. The feeling throughout the work is one of unrestrained gaiety and scherzo-like ease.

The Cincinnati Times reported: “The composition is refreshingly original and ingenious in its bright harmonies.”