American musical composer, arranger and conductor.
Born March 18, 1911 in St. Paul, Minnesota, USA.
Died February 20, 1971 in Los Angeles, California, USA.
Lava was an prolific and film composer. He worked on the Warner Bros.' Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies animated cartoons from 1962 onwards, replacing the deceased Milt Franklyn. Lava's music was very different from that of Franklyn and previous composer Carl Stalling. It has a tendency towards atonality. A sense of tension is often created in Lava's scores using sequences based on the notes of the diminished seventh chord. Lava also sang the theme to the popular T.V. western series Cheyenne.
He was educated at Northwestern University.