Murray Cutter

Who was Murray Cutter?

Murray Cutter was a versatile Hollywood orchestrator, working mainly for filmcomposer Max Steiner, with over 150 credits spanning the mid-thirties to early 1960s. Nevertheless, he remains relatively unknown except for the much-loved original arrangement of Over the Rainbow, which continues to be sampled by modern filmmakers. Similar to fellow arranger Alexander Courage, Cutter's name has tended to be overshadowed by the popularity of the composers with whom he was most associated.

Cutter was unusual among orchestrators who tended to specialize, in that he was adept in all genres: musicals; romantic drama; adventure; family/comedy; suspense; epics; and westerns.

An early assignment were the vocal arrangements for the 1937 film version of Rosalie, which ten years before had been orchestrated for Broadway by Steiner. At MGM Cutter worked for Arthur Freed and Mervyn LeRoy on The Wizard of Oz. Under the loose musical direction of Herbert Stothart he contributed the "metallic sound" for the Tin Woodman's If I Only Had a Heart. Cutter told Oz historian Aljean Harmetz for "Over the Rainbow" he made it sound as pretty as he could with lots of strings and a touch of woodwind.