He was a composer and conductor born in Bucharest, Romania, who went to Paris in the 1940s to study conducting with Jean Fournet and composition with Olivier Messiaen, Arthur Honegger and Nadia Boulanger.
In the 1960s and 1970s he was known in Europe as avant-garde and wrote “musique concrete”, jazz influenced works and improvisational pieces. He founded the ensemble Ars Nova in 1963 and conducted them until 1971.
His compositions include 24 Preludes for Orchestra which was premiered by Leonard Bernstein and the French National Orchestra, the ballets Cyrano de Bergerac, Paradise Lost and Candide, 3 Portraits for piano and cello, “Gavotte” for guitar, “Alleluias” for Trumpet and Organ, “Harpalyce” for Harp and Tragedie de Carmen and Le Souper for Voice.
As a television composer he is most famous, but never credited, for “Etrange No. 3” and “Milieu No. 2” which became the theme song for the series The Twilight Zone.
He died in Paris from a brain disease in 2004 when he was 79 years old.
The Manhattan Transfer Recordings
Twilight Zone/Twilight Tone (Marius Constant/Jay Graydon/Alan Paul)
Sources:
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marius_Constant
- http://www.classical-composers.org/comp/constant
- http://www.filmmusicsociety.org/news_events/features/2004/061104.html
- http://imdb.com/name/nm0176014/