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March 2000 Film Music CD Reviews |
Film Music Editor: Ian Lace |
|
Return to the March Index with thumbnails [Part 1] [ Part 2]
************************************************************** EDITOR’S CHOICE (Joint with The Bad and the Beautiful) March 2000
**************************************************************
The London Symphony Orchestra conducted by John Williams OST
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the retailers listed at the endThis is not a reissue. This is, with 40 minutes of the music omitted from the original 2 LP soundtrack album issued in 1978 (itself a generous 78-minutes) now restored - and much bonus material this is practically, to all intents and purposes a new release. This is a major event in the history of film music and film music recordings Accordingly we present three five-star reviews from three of our reviewer - The Editor
Jeffrey Wheeler leads with the main review :-
"Now look. The Post: 'It Flies.' The News: 'Look, Ma, No Wires.' The Times: 'Blue Bomb Buzzes Metropolis.' The Planet... I want the name of this flying whatchamacallit to go with The Daily Planet like bacon and eggs, franks and beans, death and taxes, politics and corruption."
Or better yet, like John Williams and "Superman: The Movie."
Like many of his soundtracks from the late 1970s, "Superman" features a balance of familiar musical constructs and nearly continuous melody juggling with a sense of individuality that builds resolutely as the symphony progresses. Williams' technique in the period is less refined than today, but for many Williams buffs those energetic, often glitzy orchestrations mark the apex of his career. His predominately Richard Strauss-like underscore -- at times, overscore -- is a classic; the music is inseparable from the Superman mythos, now as the mythos is slowly becoming inseparable from the music. The Superman fanfares, the Krypton motifs, the love theme, the villains' march, the newly released benign ditty for Clark Kent... these personify the concept of filmusic as what Erich Wolfgang Korngold called "opera without words."
This release offers the original soundtrack recordings in as complete a form as possible. Super new cues include 'Star Ship Escapes' 'Death of Jonathan Kent,' 'The Big Rescue,' 'Crime of the Century,' and 'Misguided Missiles and Kryptonite.' Super expanded tracks such as 'Prelude and Main Title March,' 'The Planet Krypton,' 'Growing Up,' 'The Fortress of Solitude,' 'Super Rescues,' 'Chasing Rockets,' and 'Super Dam and Finding Lois.' Super bonus tracks are the alternate 'The Planet Krypton' and the amusing 'Luthor's Luau,' 'The Flying Sequence' appears with and without Margot Kidder's cutesy recitation, though definitely not super is the pop instrumental 'Can You Read My Mind' (what went through my mind upon hearing it is best left unread). The lists go on.
The production on the release is almost as astronomical. Michael Matessino's good-natured and enthusiastic liner notes diverge immoderately between being remarkably informative to dwelling on inconsequential academics. I also found one error just flipping through the booklet (he writes of 'The Fortress of Solitude,' "...and synthesizer augmenting variations on the two Krypton motifs." Correction: the cue uses a glass harmonica and no synthesizers). A wonderful surplus of graphics, production photographs, and film stills makes up for any insufficiencies in the text. The packaging is difficult to manage, but attractive! Why the super-tight dust sleeves, Rhino? Removing the CD and booklet is like participating in childbirth; it ends with joy, but the exertion leading up to that point... The sound is very good considering the age of the sources, although many will miss the slightly warmer sound of Eric Tomlinson's original mix.
The London Symphony Orchestra is in rebounding shape, faltering occasionally during some tough spots, maybe serving as a comparison for how greatly Williams has grown as a conductor over the years, but is always a pleasure to hear.
If I say I recommend this set it would probably seem redundant. Nonetheless: I recommend this release. The wait is over. Few other powerhouses in the modern canon of music are as genuinely spectacular and efficacious as this one.
Reviewer
Jeffrey Wheeler
And Gary S. Dalkin and Ian Lace add:-
At last, one of the very finest film scores ever penned, complete, and apart from a little distortion and hiss, sounding great. This must stand not just as the album of the month, but one of the greatest film music albums ever issued.
Reviewer
Gary S. Dalkin
Over 40 minutes of material omitted from the original soundtrack album restored. Bliss! At last we have all that magnificent music associated with the Planet Krypton restored, including the never-before-released cue, 'Star Ship Escapes' (with baby Superman). Another first is that moving music for the 'Death of Jonathan Kent' (Glenn Ford) that heightens even further Williams' deeply affecting and noble scoring for the cue, 'Leaving Home.' Additional material rounds out the characters of the villains in such cues as 'Lex Luthor's Lair' and 'Crime of the Century' another new cue that is particularly welcome for its tongue-in-cheek, Tom and Jerry cavortings to accompany the gang's attack on the rocket-carrying convoy. And, incredibly, this is the first time we have had 'The Big Rescue' music for the early stricken helicopter on the skyscraper scene, when Lois murmurs, "You've got me, but whose got you?!".
'Just a minor, cooler note. I also miss the slightly warmer sound of Eric Tomlinson's original mix. It is amazing how one gets used to one recording. My favourite Superman track has always been 'The Fortress of Solitude'. This new album adds much more dynamic material particularly in the early part of that cue before that wonderfully serene and other-worldly, celestial passage towards the end. Interesting as these additions are, in the final analysis it will be the original soundtrack recording that I will turn to for the better more musically satisfying listening experience. It is good to have so many alternatives of 'The Flying Sequence' At last we have the chance to hear it all without Margot Kidder's voice over. But would you believe it, I had kind of got used to her too (except for one or two excruciating phrases in her delivery) so I was grateful to have the original LP cue as a bonus.
But, bliss, bliss. Don't hesitate, open your wallet today before all the copies are snapped up.
Reviewer
Ian Lace
************************************************************** EDITOR’S CHOICE (Joint with Superman - the movie) March 2000
**************************************************************
(N.B. This CD was released in 1996)
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Does any other composer tell as many entertaining anecdotes about his music as David Raksin? How he came to write his famous Laura melody is the stuff of legends. Add to this Raksin's humorous tale of first playing his theme to The Bad and the Beautiful on the piano for Andre Previn, who was clearly underwhelmed. ("It was confused and confusing," Previn writes in his autobiography, 'No Minor Chords.' "The harmonies tumbled over one another, and themelody was a snake.") Raksin was discouraged, but days later was able to finally record the theme with full orchestra on the MGM soundstage. Previn, who was nearby, overheard the music and rushed up to
congratulate him on such a lovely work. When the rather irritated Raksin pointed out that Previn's reaction to his piano version had been quite opposite just a few days previous, Previn could only respond: "Well ...the way you played it, who could tell?!!"
The story doesn't end there, either. As Raksin tells it in his typically witty liner notes to this Rhino/Turner Classic Movies release of the complete soundtrack, the theme was later rescued from producer John Houseman's rejection by the serendipitous intervention of one of Hollywood's top music and lyric duos. But you can read that part of the story yourself. It's enough to say here that Raksin's sinewy, undulating, entangling main title theme to The Bad and the Beautiful is today considered among the greatest themes ever written for a motion picture. Yes, it's that good, and justifiably that famous. (Check the jazz catalogues to see how many versions have been recorded.)
Made in 1952, the film was a surprisingly honest, often dead-on behind-the-scenes depiction of how Hollywood works, focusing on three stories of a director, a writer and an actress, all of whom are used and discarded by an unethical producer portrayed by Kirk Douglas. Helping Douglas lure them into his schemes is Raksin's main theme which, producer John Houseman told him, needed to be a "siren's song" to make the story work. This CD features three versions of the main title theme -- the second two offered as outtakes at the conclusion of the score. (Raksin varied it yet again for an extended suite he conducted in a marvelous RCA Classic Series LP in 1976. That recording also includes Raksin's Laura and Forever Amber, and is one of the three or four recordings I could happily be stranded with on a desert island.)
Following the main title, Raksin's liner notes lead the listener on a cue-by-cue journey through the film, illustrating music's role in motion-picture storytelling as he goes. It's a bit of a history lesson, too, as Raksin evokes, without repeating them, the cliches of silent movie music, 1940s horror films, and even a tribute to Max Steiner, all encapsulated in a few short cues. One source cue for a newsreel montage deftly turns into underscoring.
But it's that main theme that keeps intriguing the listener. Raksin's variations and developments are brilliant -- the scherzo of the 'Hurry' cue, for example -- and leave an overall effect that is far from the mono-thematic approach that became so popular a decade or solater.
Just over half of the 47 cues on this disc run less than a minute, but the choppiness that's so often inherent in such a format is no bother here, perhaps in part because Raksin's liner notes fuse the music and the story so compellingly. Credit's also due to the people at Turner Classic Movies, for whom this is another in a string of exquisitely detailed film music recordings.
Reviewer
John Huether
Ian Lace adds:-
David Raksin's music for The Bad and the Beautiful is one of my ten all time favourite film scores so I was predisposed to like this original soundtrack album even before it arrived. It perfectly compliments the extended suite that Raksin recorded so superbly in the RCA Classic Film Score series in 1976. (I most heartily agree with John. This recording has to be one of the three or four recordings I could also be happily stranded with on a desert island.)
The presentation is excellent with Raksin's fulsome notes and many stills from the film. I particularly relished hearing, in context, the gorgeous clarinet solo in "The Letdown" which distinguished 'Nocturne' in the RCA recording suite; and all the music associated with Jonathan' s (Kirk Douglas) ruthless romantic manipulation of Georgia (Lana Turner).
It does seem a pity that the original stereo recording (although the film was released with in mono) was lost. This is a mono record from a ¼ inch magnetic tape copy that was, thankfully, made for safekeeping. Nevertheless, this is a classic score and it should be a treasured possession for any film music enthusiast.
Reviewer
Ian Lace
Thomas NEWMAN and Source Music American Beauty .
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Unless there is another album in the pipeline with considerably more of his material for American Beauty, Thomas Newman's contribution fills less than eight minutes of the running time of this CD. Newman always creates interesting, arresting film music and this score is no exception. His resources are spare and his treatment unusual, if not bizarre.
From the scenes from American Beauty that I have seen in a British TV documentary on the work of its director Sam Mendes, Newman's music seems perfectly attuned to the sense of entrapment experienced by its characters. 'Dead Already' the first of only two tracks by Newman, that opens the album is dominated by a simple motif - da, dada, dada - repeated over and over but with subtle variations to sustain interest and mainly given to a xylophone and guitars over drums and a synth ground that sometimes gives a sense of eerie unease. This track curiously reflects some of what I feel is carefully chosen source music to parallel the characters and plot development, take for instance, the mechanical and restrictive feel of 'Free to Go' from The Folk Implosion.
Thomas Newman's other contribution is the concluding track, 'Any other Name' which is another extraordinary creation. The listener has an eerie feeling of being transported aloft above the clouds, a notion reinforced by the eerie sustained high synth notes and the chill remote piano meanderings. Heavy sustained bass chords give some anchorage - or reinforcement of height - and, at length the piano's seemingly random chords coalesce into something of a tune which one recognises as a variation of the repetitive note sequencing of the opening 'Dead already' cue, but now sounding like some long-forgotten and remote children's nursery song.
The source music includes Peggy Lee singing Bali Ha'I from South Pacific, Elliott Smith's Because, a smoky rendition of 'Open the Door' from Betty Carter, Bobby Darin singing 'Don't Rain on My Parade' and the Free's well known recording of 'All Right Now.' The deadening effect of the curious anarchic and mainly instrumental Cancer for the Cure from Eels seems appropriate.
For only eight minutes of Newman this is certainly not value for money unless you are drawn to the source music and I really do wonder why Newman was favoured this time around but passed over last year for his infinitely better score for The Horse Whisperer?
Reviewer
Ian Lace
Thomas Newman's original music
Gabriel YARED The Talented Mr Ripley
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This album features 7 score tracks by Gabriel Yarded. In addition: 8 new recordings made for the film: classic jazz numbers featuring Guy Barker and various line-ups, one extract from Vivaldi, and one song by performed by Sinéad O'Connor with lyrics by Anthony Minghella. Plus original recordings by Miles Davis: Nature Boy, Dizzy Gillespsie: The Champ, Charlie Parker: Ko-Ko, Marino Marini: Guaglione.
This soundtrack, and of course the film from which it comes, are automatically guaranteed to attract attention if for no other reason that they unite composer Gabriel Yared with director Anthony Minghella for the first time since the enormously successful The English Patient. Yared's Oscar-winning score for that film had some fine passages, but all too often seemed as shapeless and hollow as the drama it accompanied. This was especially noticeable on disc, though some very attractive excerpts appear on The English Patient and Other Arthouse Classics. But then, what was a film musician to do? Yared is a fine composer and his scores tend to match a particular film so well as to work to their detriment away from the screen - his score for Betty Blue is marvellous film music, though rather fragmented away from the images.
Happily, the soundtrack album to The Talented Mr. Ripley is rather more enjoyable, even fun, than any Yared CD I have heard before. The film is a dark drama set against the burgeoning modern jazz scene in 1950's Italy, and there is a lot of warm, sunny, joyful music here as well as the expected romantic elegance. There are actually three aspects to the disc, intermingled to sometimes disconcerting effect.
There are 7 tracks of Gabriel Yared's score. Clarinet and accordion play over strings for the gorgeous 'Italia', a piece of gossamer-dreaminess over all too quickly. The theme is restated more urgently in 'Crazy Tom', and though an Arabic influence appears, anyone listening to Angela's Ashes recently might be forgiven for thinking this was prime John Williams. 'Mischief' heads into understated atmospherics, vibes tying to the jazz flavour of the movie, while 'Proust' is darkly glittering, introducing a secondary theme which forms the basis of the song 'Lullaby for Cain', sung by Sinéad O'Connor over the end titles, but strangely, placed 4th on the album. The song itself is bleakly haunting, and given O'Connor's flair for jazz and torch songs as evidenced by her covers album Am I Not Your Girl? she proves an appropriate choice for the number. Everything comes together in the early morning resignation of 'Syncopes', making Yared's selections here much more attractive than the complete score presented on The English Patient album. In fact in its mournful way this music has the hallmarks of another fine Italian journey into darkness in the tradition of Donaggio's 'Don't Look Now', Mole's 'Othello' and Shearmur's 'The Wings of the Dove'. After this an excerpt from Vivaldi's Sabat Mater (specially recorded for the film) is not the least out of place.
The other two aspects of the album are jazz recordings, old and new. Matt Damon, one of the film's stars, covers 'My Funny Valentine' in Chet Baker style, his slightly flat detachment suiting the mood well. The album closes with John Martyn singing 'You Don't Know What Love', his trademark world-weariness taken to the very limit over the orchestral jazz backing. At the opposite extreme is the foot-tapping, seriously swinging 'Tu Vuo' Fa L'Americano', featuring both Damon, and co-star Jude Law. This is one to play LOUD, and it's sure to put a smile on your face. Elsewhere comes a selection of original jazz classics by the likes of Miles Davis, Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie, in other words, the best in the business. The new jazz tracks all feature Guy Barker and various side-men, and they recreate the sound of 50's jazz with impeccable aplomb.
That all this glues together remarkably well as an album must in large measure be a tribute to Anthony Minghella, for he actually co-produced the new jazz recordings. And this isn't a vanity credit either, for in his very detailed an informative notes we discover that he used to write music himself and is very thoughtful about the roll of music in film, considering that "Music is at the heart of the film..." You might have misgivings about this album, but, and especially if you like jazz as well as orchestral film scoring, it is well worth acquiring. In some ways it covers similar territory, mixing orchestral melancholy with jazz, as Ennio Morricone's hugely acclaimed The Legend of 1900, though for my money, and on disc at least, The Talented Mr. Ripley does it just that little bit better.
Reviewer
Gary S. Dalkin
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Please read this review in conjunction with that of the accompanying album To Infinity and Beyond - Songs from and Inspired by Toy Story and Toy Story 2 also on this site this month
Randy Newman's light melodic touch so marvellously employed in such films as last year's Pleasantville, seems to have made him the ideal choice for this sequel to the original Toy Story. Here, he delivers a sophisticated score yet one that brims with charm and a child-like sense of awe and wonderment. The difficulty is that although it is brilliant in its primary capacity as music to watch a film, it does not provide a very satisfying listening experience. Whereas there were so many tracks in the Pleasantville score that had clear attractive and well developed themes, Toy Story 2 is too much of a dazzling chiaroscuro, a rich constantly shifting kaleidoscope. I habitually write notes for each track as I review a CD, but on this occasion I found this technique to be unhelpful and well nigh impossible; the pace is so frenetic, the constant mood and tempi changes so fast and furious, even bar-to-bar almost. Take the cue 'Woody's Dream' for instance, within only two or three minutes, you have music that is heroic, romantic and of pathos; you have material recalling Copland (in Rodeo/Red Pony mood); plus influences of Elmer Bernstein and Bernard Herrmann in Vertigo mode. Only very few cues notably 'The Cleaner' allow the score enough time to take breath and present a clear-cut theme - in this case a very appealing and catchy tune. The opening cue 'Zurg's Planet' is another exception which is an amusing parody of all those 'Star Wars' type movies with affectionate references to the music of John Williams and Jerry Goldsmith et al.
I have to say that in this case I found myself rooting more for the three source numbers that introduce the original score. 'Woody's Roundup' a charming song that will appeal to children of all ages sung by Riders in the Sky in the style that we 'oldies' would have associated with Roy Rogers or Gene Autry. 'When she loved me' is an equally old fashioned-style ballad sung with style by Sarah McLachlan and the buddy, buddy song, 'You've Got a Friend in Me' sung with big-hearted conviction by Robert Goulet.
Reviewer
Ian Lace
Rating as music for a family film:
as a listening experience
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Please read this review in conjunction with that of the accompanying album: Randy NEWMAN Toy Story 2 also on this site this month
I find myself in the unusual position of recommending this album over the main CD of Randy Newman's music for Toy Story 2. It not only has six of the most interesting and substantial orchestral tracks including 'The Cleaner', but it includes many more delightful family-orientated songs and a CD-ROM component. This CD-ROM element is a rib-tickling trailer with at least two hilarious moments: when Woody's horse rears up then squirms with embarrassment when he realises he has revealed too much of himself, and the lovely comment when the Barbie Doll drops into the car beside one of Woody's rescuers - "But I'm a married Spud!"
In addition to the songs I mentioned in my review of Toy Story 2 there is the delightful the Claw scored for organ and tambourine plus male voice and childrens' chorus performed by The Allens. This is a song for those pod-like three-eyed aliens. Another hoot is the 'Pig Rap' - it's a real snort! Composer Randy Newman's husky voice enchants in a number of the songs including 'You've Got A friend in Me', 'Strange Things' and 'I will be Sailing No More' Cadence 2 is another clever song a parody on all those military marching songs, "Sound Off, one two...sound off, three four...", that sort of thing but to a paean of Woody and his plight .
Very warmly recommended. It should keep the kids happy for an hour or two
****(*) © Ian Lace
Eleven-year old Raya, Ian Lace's step-granddaughter adds:
The Songs: I liked 'When She Loved Me' the best, it was a nicely sung song. Sarah McLachlan has a lovely voice and the words were good. I liked 'The Claw', it was funny but mainly for younger kids but the words were good and so were the voices; a bit repetitive. The 'Pig Rap' was also funny and it had a good beat but it was a bit too short. 'I think I'd be Perfect for You' was nicely sung but it was a bit of a sloppy song. 'You've Got a friend in Me' was sung several times. I liked the more entertaining version by Robert Coulet.
The Orchestral Pieces: I liked 'The Cleaner' best, it sounds more fantasy-like and the tune was good. 'Emperor Zurg' was really exciting and evil. 'Jessie's in Trouble' was very energetic.
The CD-ROM content: The trailers were very funny and exciting and really make you want to see the film
Reviewer
Raya Verrecchia
The Songs:
The Orchestral pieces:
The CD ROM content
_______________________________________________________________________
Special Gormenghast Feature
CD, Book and Video review
The CD
Richard Rodney BENNETT & John TAVENER Gormenghast
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Gormenghast, the BBC adaptation of Titus Groan and Gormenghast, the first two books of an uncompleted sequence of novels by Mervin Peak, is a major television event. Though rather more of an event than it would have been had the BBC not long ago rejected its obligation to a balanced output of drama, including regular, serious, well-made and intelligent adult science fiction and fantasy. Hopefully, Gormenghast marks the beginning of the BBC starting to put things right, though more realistically, it will probably be something the BBC use as an excuse to do nothing else for the next 30 years.
For the moment though, via this lavish gothic fairytale the BBC is taking the fantastical seriously, for which no further evidence is required than to look at the names responsible for the music. Though not prolific, Richard Rodney Bennett is one of our finest film composers, his great score for Far From the Madding Crowd (1967) alone sufficient to rank him with the best. His music is conducted by the composer John Harle, himself a member of the Michael Nyman Orchestra, and who can currently be heard playing the saxophone on the soundtrack of The End of the Affair. The producers managed a further coup in signing one of the most acclaimed and popular contemporary 'classical' composers, John Tavener (which is not to say that Bennett does not also write concert music), to provide four choral pieces. Resolutely committed to the Greek Orthodox interpretation of the Christian faith, for decades virtually all of Tavener's works have been serious religious compositions, so engaging him for a television drama really is an achievement in itself.
Gormenghast is a vast, crumbling castle subject to arcane law and ruled by a detached and eccentric aristocracy. Published in the aftermath of the Second World War, there is clearly a large element of social satire, a commentary on a British Empire in decline looking back to better days. The drama is also informed by a certain orientalism of outlook, Peak having spent his childhood in a remote part of China, though this is more implicit than explicit. Accordingly, Bennett has fashioned a score solidly within the 20th century English classical tradition. Here is confident, imperious music, complete with a very strong main theme and regal fanfares such as aptly describes the imperial and noble nature of Gormenghast. The beautifully crafted and performed title song sets a text from Peak's books. Within this sound world is a rich, sultry musical fantasy, an exoticism which suggests the human desires locked within the monumental architectural and social structures. Inside this, is darkly brooding and inventively suspenseful dramatic writing which calls to mind Bernard Herrmann and his wonderful work for Jane Eyre or The Seventh Voyage of Sinbad and, Journey to the Centre of the Earth, without for a moment ever becoming derivative.
The range of orchestration is dazzling, for gorgeous harp and strings for the opening of 'Ceremony in the Rain', to the glittering panoply of percussion which runs throughout many of the tracks. 'The Death of Swelter' summons visions of John Williams scale epic action writing, while 'Irma's Romance' offers a waltz which may not surpass Bennett's own Murder on the Orient Express, but is certainly a fine companion. 'The Death of Steerpike' is a powerful finale, while the following funeral music and farewell bring the album to a thoroughly satisfying conclusion.
John Tavener's music illustrates the rituals which take-place on screen in various parts of the story. Three are new works, while one is adapted from music the composer wrote for his father's funeral. The arrangements are by Paul Goodwin. The music is characteristic of the composer, eloquent, beautiful, and strange by turns.
The sound throughout is superb, with a detail and clarity befitting a first class classical release, and the performances are magnificent. Television music has been improving immeasurably in recent years, and regardless of carping from certain quarters, Gormenghast is simply one of the finest scores ever written for the medium. The album is generously expansive, but not for a moment does it outstay its welcome, making it an absolutely essential release. Reviewer
Gary S. Dalkin
The Art Book
THE ART OF GORMENGHAST
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This is a lavish and comprehensive souvenir of an outstanding BBC production.
For many years it was believed that Mevyn Peake's celebrated novels were not suitable for adaptation as screenplays. Indeed, the first thing you see when you open this book is the ironic reproduction of a letter, dated 30th November 1962, to Maeve Gilmore, Mervyn Peake's wife, from the author Graham Greene asserting that Titus Groan, the first novel of the Gormenghast trilogy, could not be filmed!
In an erudite Foreword, Stephen Fry summarises and argues against the objections that were first levelled at the idea of such a project - 'Can't be done... impossible.... Gormenghast is too gothic, gloomy, grotesque... Then we have a useful reminder, a synopsis of the four episodes of the television dramatisation. The concept of the BBC dramatisation and its development is covered before a section devoted to the life of Mervyn Peake and how he came to write his Gormenghast books including a discussion of the influences that guided his creation in both words and pictures. His boyhood life in China and his World War II experiences being major influences.
The art direction is covered in fascinating detail. We learn how Gormenghast was developed visually and how the buildings reflected many architectural styles from European Gothic through Near Eastern structures to the exoticism of Tibet and the Orient. Descriptions of the construction of the sets are included with many revealing illustrations. The costumes are beautifully illustrated with many full page close-ups showing their rich intricate design - the gowns, of Fuschia, Irma Prunesquallor, the identical twins and Lady Groan, based on the fashions of the Elizabethans, are all included. We learn, too, that the design of the tall, eccentrically bent hat of Nannie Slagg was taken from a Spanish gypsy mode from the 1930s.
A full diary of the production is included, so too are a number of story boards of key sequences like: the 'Earling' ceremony; the burning of the library, and the death of Barquentine. There is coverage of the way the animals were handled, the mass of white cats and birds etc; plus the influences that affected Richard Rodney Bennett's musical composition.
There are also many personal contributions, scattered through the book, from the actors who say something of what their roles meant to them and how they approached their interpretation of Mervyn Peake's characters.
A first class production that will be referred to time and again and worth every penny of its £15.
Reviewer
Ian Lace
The Video
GORMENGHAST The Complete Drama in Four Episodes
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The complete BBC TV production of Gormenghast comes in a two-video package each comprising two episodes. Viewers not only have a wonderful souvenir of an outstanding series, but also the chance to really ogle the wealth of detail that might have escaped them on a first viewing: the sumptuous costumes, the glorious and imaginative sets, the mind-boggling effects, and the superb ensemble acting. But for lovers of film music, repeated viewings of these videos greatly assists in a full appreciation of Richard Rodney Bennett's achievement. Gary Dalkin, in his review of the CD above, has already mentioned the influence of Bernard Herrmann and John Williams but the influence of the English music tradition is even more evident. Walton in ceremonial dress, Cyril Scott's exotic orientalism (befitting the identical twins); and Holst, Vaughan Williams, Warlock and Constant Lambert are all evident. The music used to underscore Lord Groan's tragedy, his loss of his library, and his subsequent descent into madness; and his interaction with the villainous Steerpike and his capricious daughter, Lady Fuschia, is especially noteworthy. This is a telling mix of desolate figures recalling Holst's Egdon Heath, cruel, combative, remote and detached material suggestive of music in Vaughan Williams's 4th and 6th Symphonies and ethereal, other-worldly impressionistic material for the child-like Fuschia. The influence of the impressionists is close too in other parts of the score notably the beautiful and darkly romantic forest music and Ravel's La Valse, recalled in connection with the romantic yearnings of the bumbling bespectacled Irma Prunsquallor. Titus's song, that opens each episode is arresting too, 'Hold Fast to the Law...Hold fast, Gormenghast'; and the weird quivering figures of the Carver's Ceremony together with even weirder bass voice chantings (presumably by Tavener) and heavy oriental gong strokes. Then there are the macabre figures for the hilarious and grotesque duel between Flay and Swelter.
Repeated viewings also help one to appreciate the 'more difficult' choral music contributions from John Tavener, for Titus's Christening, music that resounds with ancient, timeless rituals and the disturbing, edgy material for the Earling ceremony that seems to be full of foreboding and presentiment; and the gentler elegiac but monotonous intoning for poor Fuschia's funeral'
Reviewer
Ian Lace.
James HORNER Bicentennial Man
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I have to confess I had mixed feelings as I listened to this new Horner score. I was quite impressed with some tracks, bored by others. My idea for a final rating kept fluctuating and I had to fight down my inclination to go for the obvious criticism that, once again, we have rather too much self-quotation.
So let's look at the positive elements first. Once again, I was impressed with Horner's vivid and imaginative orchestrations which bring Robin Williams' robot character to life.
The music in the first two or three tracks is most appealing. 'The Machine Age' is quirky and humorous but highly evocative with its distinctive hammering and riveting sounds. Together with 'Special Delivery' and 'The Magic Spirit', there is an eerie, other-worldliness about Horner's music that is also rather cosy and folksy, and delicate and fragile; and carries, with it, a sense of awe and wonder - all very much at the same time.
'A gift for little miss' adds childish playfulness to stardust wonderment and sentimentality with just a dash of the sinister. 'Transformed' is another sparkling, tinkling track where the men's voices supersede the women's, and attractive little harp and piano figures ripple through the texture. 'A new nervous system' is one of the few upbeat, faster tempo cues; playfully joyful, with attractive pizzicato string variations of the main theme. 'A truer love' has counter melodies in the upper and lower strings indicating the romance; and the tempo picks up to express increasing elation. 'Growing Old' is a more satisfying variation of the sentimental cues that make up much of the remainder of the album.
Now to the downside. Sony seem to think they are doing us a big favour by giving us over an hour of music on many of their sountrack releases. This is fine if the music merits it. This one does not. Firstly, Horner does not present a memorable main theme. Instead, we have material glued together (but expertly and often attractively glued together) frequently based on material he has used before - in Titanic and Legends of the Fall, for instance, interspersed with borrowings from the classics. Clearly, Holst's The Planets comes to mind. Also he seems to be following a trend that is apparently popular now in Hollywood -- the English String Music tradition. This score is heavily string-based; the music is predominantly slow and elegiac. Too many tracks on this album particularly in the middle sound too much alike. I have to be frank when I say I had difficulty keeping awake. At least Elgar, Finzi and Moeran knew how to vary and enrich their writings to maintain their listeners' attention.
The CD ends with Celine Dion's excruciating warblings to even more inane lyrics than for that Titanic song. This time its called "Then You look" - no thanks.
Reviewer
Ian Lace
Gary S. Dalkin adds:
Perhaps I shouldn't be so 'agreeable', but I find myself in concordance with virtually everything Ian says in his review above. This is a long album, for serious concentrated listening, too long. Many of the tracks are indeed similar. Yet I for one don't regret the length of the disc, because it is always easy to programme out certain selections, while as high quality background listening this is a most appealing release. Certainly this is a score that falls within the 20th Century English classical tradition, while adding touches of Hollywood glitter, and it is, at a time when popular music is falling to ever more abysmal depths, gratifying to find real music flourishing and heard by millions. I think perhaps Ian is a little unfair in suggesting that Horner's music fails to keep the interest when compared to Elgar, Finzi and Moeran, as they were writing pure music designed to be the sole focus of attention, not as a subsidiary element to a dramatic production. As film music Horner's score does all that is required of it, and succeeds admirably. Yes, there are echoes of Braveheart, Legends of the Fall and Titanic, but they are not wholesale borrowings and I would class them more as indications of the composer's style, just as the echoes of Close Encounter's of the Third Kind, The Fury and Presumed Innocent which occur in John William's marvellous Angela's Ashes are indicative of his style. Bach and Handel endlessly recycled whole chunks of their music, and we rightly consider them two of the finest composer's who ever lived.
Of course there is a down side. As has become standard practice with James Horner scores, there is a wretched ballad, with idiotic 'lyrics' by Will Jennings, warbled through by the numbing Celine Dion, over a production to rot teeth at a 100 yards. It's enough to give pop music a bad name, and I'm just thankful James Horner wasn't engaged in this practice when he wrote Legends of the Fall. Fortunately there is still over an hour of enjoyable music on the disc.
Reviewer
Gary S. Dalkin
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This is the film that apparently outraged the Catholic League although it is more about faith in God than being negative. Described as a comic fantasia, a comedy parable, it is about another round in the eternal fight between good and evil. Angels, demons, apostles and prophets (of a sort) walk among the cynics and innocents of America and contest for the fate of mankind.
For Dogma, Howard Shore's usual action poundings are elevated and given a certain religious majesty and awe and an opposite demonic power - and not without a wry sense of humour. Besides an important role for organ (which in many cues will set your floor-boards shuddering), the orchestral forces are small but unusual yet the sound they deliver is often huge: just three violins, with piano, harpsichord, ondes martenot and cymbalom plus a lot of woodwinds and brass. The first purely orchestral cue 'Dogma' is imposing enough with huge organ swell, tam-tam crashes and a blending of Gregorian chant and other ancient church styles with Rozsa-type biblical music, Orff-like motifs and modern action movie material. The other cues alternate between furious satanic growlings in'The Golgothan' and the frantic chaos of Stygian Triplets in which one senses the beast ids really unleashed, and lighter more 'saintly' material ('The Last Scion'). In 'John Doe Jersey' and the following 'A very relieved deity', the side of righteousness wins and the music becomes ever more heavenly and ecstatic moving through such influences as Holst's Mars, Debussy's Nocturnes and Fauré's Requiem.
The most extraordinary - and the most appealing - track on the album is 'Mooby the Golden Calf', scored for a corporate meeting scene. (I have not seen the film yet.) Mooby is one of the cartoon characters featured in the corporation's magazines and films. The marching song, for children, describes Mooby's character. It's a very catchy number and is slightly reminiscent of Salvation Army material but the children's voices are indistinct so one cannot catch the words; and Mooby being a golden calf one must also assume a possibility of the opposite? Ah well, they always said the devil had the best tunes.
The score opens with another song called 'Still' sung with foggy diction by Alanis Morisette, only the odd word is discernible; it seems to be a collection of paradoxes sung or chanted to music of an Eastern flavour and with instrumentation that includes a sitar.
Unusual
Reviewer
Ian Lace
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Holy Smoke indeed, for we are led to believe, from the composer's note, that the themes for this score were written, in the company of director, Jane Campion, in two and a half days. Maybe, if they had taken a little more time, they might have recognised that the cue music 'Betrayal of Ruth', that brought tears to Ms Campion's eyes, was perilously close to Henry Mancini's Charade theme. This too-close-for-comfort resemblance certainly inhibited my enjoyment of this score and listening to the first few dirge-like tracks I was of a mind to dismiss this album as a temporary glitch in Badalamenti's upward progress. However the album improved markedly as the cues progressed. 'Waiting, Reaching, Searching', with its persistent three-note motif has more colour and rhythmic flexibility but with an added melancholic lassitude that reminds one of Badalamenti's Twin Peaks music again. 'Kiss All Around It' is an amusing sort of tango triste; and 'Snappy Lipstick' is a snappy catchy jazz number that swings along happily with piano, banjo, whistler. But the most memorable cue is 'The Celebration' native music with alluring and intoxicating rhythms and plenty of exotic drumming. The producers clearly thought they were onto a good thing with this one for it is repeated at the end as a six-minute cue, with the song's title, Maya, Mayi, Ma. This time it is sung by non too convincingly by an unnamed vocalist (Winslett?) who goes on to quote what sounds like Indian religious tracts (?) accompanied by appropriately Indian inflected music.
Completing the disc are three songs from Neil Diamond, The Angels, and 'Primitive' written and sung by Annie Lennox, the latter being by far the best.
Reviewer
Ian Lace
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Here is the music from the mildly controversial Mansfield Park, result of the strange ménage à trois of Miramax, BBC Films and The Arts Council. Guess which party were influential in giving the director's chair to self-professed nihilist Patricia Rozema, the Canadian director of I've Heard the Mermaids Singing, and the fascinating The White Room? Guess who promptly added sex to the virginal literary world of Jane Austin, doubtless in a misguided effort to lend the story 'contemporary relevance'. Obviously a modern audience has not the imagination to conceive of romance sans sex, which as we know, hadn't been invented in Austin's time.
The music, by relative newcomer Lesley Barber (previous credits seem to be only for When Night is Falling, Los Locos and A Price Above Rubies), is unlikely to garner much controversy. The main theme is quite captivating, though it takes a few plays to lodge in the memory, and there is much pseudo-Baroque writing that is very pleasant in a light-weight and charming way. Though undemanding, this is a perfectly respectable release, and should make fans of Rachel Portman's Emma content, while even appealing to those who like Michael Nyman's more formally precise scores. I suspect that it is the sort of score that will mean much more having seen the film, and may well grow in stature with subsequent listens. It certainly reveals Lesley Barber as a talent to watch.
All I can say about the last track is, "It's a mystery", which doubtless will be explained by seeing the film itself. Without having done so Salif Keta's song 'Djonga ("Slavery")' seems as bizarrely out of place in this otherwise quintessentially pastoral English world as a Celine Dion ballad would on the end of an historical epic.
Reviewer
Gary S. Dalkin
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This Tumbleweeds album is occupied, for the most part, by source songs. David Mansfield's score is organised into an 'Intro' track and four short suites with the emphasis on strings with guitar, banjo, mandolin etc, painting the score in American/country music colours. 'Suite #1' contains some energetic string passages, which quickly revert to a quite beautiful theme stated by a solo guitar, discreetly accompanied by a small orchestra. Delicate string themes also appear through the rest of the 'Suites' always performed with adequate sensitivity and polish. In 'Suite #3' agitated string sequences, convey anger and disagreement, later forgiveness and reconciliation in 'Making Up'. 'Suite #4' provides a care-free conclusion to the score with laid-back, mellow strings.
Hardcore filmmusic aficionados may be deterred by the abundance of source songs in this album but they will overlook an otherwise likeable, soothing and relaxing score.
Reviewer
Kostas Anagnostou
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You certainly cannot complain about lack of variety here! This score embraces the sentimental, both trad. and mainstream jazz, some lively source music, and some downright weird synth effects.
The opening 'Pool of Freedom - Theme from Crazy in Alabama' and the End Titles are in the traditional warm-and-sentimental, middle-America, pastoral tradition firmly setting the character and locale of the screenplay. You even hear, within the End titles music, a reference to a theme that Dvorak employed in his 'New World' Symphony. This is attractive, appealing material.
'Mellow Ride' is just that with harmonica, banjo and high strings with an odd interesting woodwind effect now and then. It has a quirkiness that grows on you. This facility of Snow's to create just the right effect is best displayed in the cue, 'Pool Fantasy' an extraordinary eerie evocation that ripples and echoes across the sound stage accompanied with tiny droplets and rattlesnake rattlings and indigenous Indian material. This all segues into a folksy fiddle mourning 'The Death of Taylor'. Later there are more interesting synth effects but in a grotesquely humorous mood in the fast and furious 'Headspin'. Lively trad jazz but with some disturbing breaks infuses 'Faces and Hats' which contrasts with some source mainstream jazz as Xavier Cugat imbibes 'One Mint Julep. Innocence rubs shoulders with the decadent. 'Cell seduction' is slinky, seductive, and jazz-based while 'Fame and Fortune' is all sweet innocence.
Source music includes: Nancy Sinatra singing, 'These Boots are Made for Walking' (I remember that one!); Little Richard's 'Lucille', and Sybil singing 'We Shall Overcome'.
Interestingly, the cues on this soundtrack often seamlessly segue into each other. While not outstanding, this is certainly above the average new score we are sent these days.
Reviewer
Ian Lace
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After the his successful T-Rex: back to the Cretaceous, William Ross returns to the family movies genre by scoring this sensitive, coming of age story about the bond between a boy and his dog Skip. Obviously, the movie calls for mellow, delicate and soft themes, and
Williams Ross answers accordingly with this lovely score, based mainly on sentimental and melodic themes on strings and piano.
In general, the score is a medley of well-known styles. The music is quite influenced by Goldsmith, Bruce Broughton, and, occasionally, John Williams It revolves around the main theme, beautifully rendered with piano and strings as the 'Main Title'. The theme binds the score and reappears in varying and more colourful orchestrations. This theme is interweaved with some secondary themes, but none of them sufficiently developed.
Although the main theme is practically never rendered in the same orchestration twice, its repetition begins to become wearisome and it is left to cues like 'Driving with Skip', a fast and jolly track, and 'Greenwood Cemetery', ominous and brassy and quickly reverting to faster-paced music reminiscent of Williams' scores, to barely save the score from being labelled mono-thematic.
Not very original but quite well crafted, this scores nevertheless has enough passion and sentiment but it is standard and predictable for this kind of movie and it demonstrates this promising composer's capabilities in painting emotions in orchestral colours.
Reviewer
Kostas Anagnostou
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This album certainly has an arresting opening, reflecting the album booklet cover design: the sound of a chill wind clutching at a girl perched atop a New York skyscraper. She observes, "They say the best time to jump is about five o'clock when the wind is low and the traffic won't stop for anybody..."
The blurb tells us that "One More Kiss is a story about rediscovering love and how, when perceptions are forced to change, life can hold an entirely different meaning." Sarah leaves her New York high rise affluence and goes home, to Scotland, to find her old love Sam, now married though, and to visit her father, Frank. But Sarah is under a death sentence of cancer.
Hughes and Murphy's music is perforce romantic and sentimental and tinged with sadness and regret. After the dramatic opening described above, the 'Opening titles' presents, within its 41/2 minute compass, affecting romantic music that is serene yet disturbing and turbulent, and intimate yet remote. A slight tango inflection at one point adds colour. Many of the very brief cues of original music are reflective with slow moving sustained chords mainly for strings. Two cues have special beauty. The oddly named 'Frank's false teeth' that has a lovely haunting poignancy. Seemingly summoning distant memories, this cue has the bass clarinet playing unusually at the top of its register to give a sort of ghostly effect. Then there is the radiantly romantic evocation of 'Kate Flying'.
The source music is interesting and varied. From the world of opera, Tito Beltran sings 'Amor Ti Vieta', Julian Jenson, 'Caruso' and Slava a beautiful arrangement of 'Ave Maria'. Classical popular material includes that marvellous narrative song about the young Parisian lady with airs, 'Where do you go to my lovely'; and 'How About You' (better known by its line 'I love New York in June, how about you') which is chosen by Sarah to be sung at her funeral.
One or two of the original music tracks have narrative overlain. Particularly poignant is Sarah's 'Last Speech', "It's pointless you mourning for me, I enjoyed my life. Naturally you'll miss me - I have a great sense of humour...think of me at a better party." The music at this point has warmth and compassion and is, rightly, just that little bit remote with some nice material for the oboe.
A feel-good album to be taken with chocolates and plenty of Kleenex.
Reviewer
Ian Lace
But Paul Tonks is sceptical:-
Yikes! What the Hell kind of concept is this? Although I suspect only the best of intentions, this is almost a template for what not to do in putting a soundtrack album together. Every conceivable target audience group is going to feel short-changed. Blatant rip-offs, classic pieces thrown in at random, a mish-mash of songs, dialogue, 30 second cues, and a complete absence of the title song. Let's take those in turn:
We start with a dangerously close plagiarisation of Craig Armstrong's "Weather Storm" (from his The Space Between Us solo album) in "Opening Titles". There's a couple of classical cinematic chestnuts in "Ave Maria" and "Beautiful Dreamer", then a hodgepodge of styles cocktailed together in Connie Lush's "Fascinating You" & "How About You?", Milo's "Swimmers", and Peter Sarstedt's "Where Do You Go To My Lovely?"
The film dialogue chosen is hardly anything memorable, and is wastefully mixed into the music beneath which makes programming impossible. Length of cues may only be a personal bugbear, but surely a little editing might have produced a semblance of musical growth? Lastly is the fact the film title is inspired by the song "One More Kiss, Dear" sung by Don Percival in Vangelis' Bladerunner score. All the booklet has to say is that it isn't included. Presumably the explanation comes under a licensing wrangle - but an explanation would have been nice.
Despite the obvious cameraderie in collusion between those involved, there is no pleasing result to be made from the sum of their parts.
Reviewer
Paul Tonks
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Hard on the heals of Angela's Ashes comes the film version of Brendan O'Carroll's best selling novel, The Mammy. The score is very Irish (nothing wrong with that) with original music composed by Paddy Moloney of the Chieftans. The story, set in central Dublin in 1967, concerns an Irish family facing troubles when the head of the house dies suddenly leaving his widow Agnes (Angelica Huston) to bring up seven children. How, through her resilience and sense of humour she copes with life and finds new love is the basis of the film.
The 'Opening Theme' sets the mood with music full of Irish charm and whimsy. This and many other cues that follow, including reels, the dirge-like 'Faith of Our Fathers' and other arrangements, employ all the traditional Irish instruments: drums, pipes, banjos, accordion etc. We have 'My Bonnie (lies over the ocean)' in an attractive arrangement for harp and a rather too modern version for the traditionalists (the vocal that is). On the other hand there is a rather over-flowery version of 'The Last Rose of Summer' featuring Montserrat Caballe who sounds a shade incongruous with The Chieftans. Even more incongruous-sounding is a country and western piece 'Puttin' On The Style' (a very popular melody from the 1960s). Tom Jones contributes three of his evergreens: She's A Lady'; 'It's Not Unusual'; and, of course, 'Delilah'. The only track that lingers in this reviewer's memory is 'Marion's Lament' which is genuinely touching, otherwise put this album down to a pleasant hour of traditional Irish to be supped with a pint of the black stuff and a plate of fish and chips (French Fries).
Reviewer
Ian Lace
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An emotional investment by itself is not enough to make a score effective. Kaczmarek's "The Third Miracle" is a transparently manipulative practice of drama and technique, that would be sufficient were it not for the presentation of grand ideas seemingly for the sole purpose of assaulting them as the audience listens on.
The composer neutralizes enchanting tracks such as the solo piano in 'Frank & Roxanne' with dreary mistakes like his ridiculous manner of combining nightclub double bass and the monophonic singing of the Warsaw Female Choir in 'Domine Jesu.' Unless beatniks raided the church winery, this has no use here. What are immensely artistic and penetrating classical melodies and orchestrations are really so solid that they need only one listen, but reiterating each of them nearly verbatim every few tracks sucks the genuineness away. The music identifies many emotions, but offers scanty musical support for why those emotions are important to the story it attempts (and fails) to shape. Rather than putting itself on 'repeat' it could have done something not expressed in the first 14 minutes. The juxtaposition of greatness with mediocrity, including the dull plainchant 'Before Your Eyes' composed by Kaczmarek and Elzbieta Bieluszko, does nothing but become increasingly irksome toward the end.
Compositional/dramatic unity is an essential part of film music. In order for a score to function for the film, as opposed to merely with it or possibly against it, not to mention functioning as an independent recording like this, the music must be the best it can be. If the underscore fails to uniformly work on its own toward maintaining audience interest in the film, then it is expendable. "The Third Miracle" clouds the differentiation. It is cliché to say 'he weaves a tapestry,' but Kaczmarek does, and he initially patterns it well. But I hope I am not cliché when I say this tapestry has frayed edges, holes, and seriously deserves to be put in mothballs for awhile.
Reviewer
Jeffrey Wheeler
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The more I hear of Piovani's work, the more certain I become that the Oscar win for Life Is Beautiful was richly deserved. There's a defined voice at work throughout the series of releases on the Pacific Time label, e.g.: De Eso No Se Habla, Il Sole Anche Di Notte, and Tu Ridi. The only problem that comes of the label's sparse packaging is determining at what point we are enjoying the development of that voice, since no credits in the form of dates are present.
You can hear the prevalent echoes of his style in the recurring doubled piano line of many pieces (e.g. underneath the equally staple high trumpets of "La marcia dei pentiti"). The other telling trait is Piovani's ear for percussive rhythm - something that likens him to countryman Morricone of course. "La cattura" is a superb example of controlled experimentation on a drum set.
The album opens with the title cue that acquaints the ear for the tone of the album. It's a most disconcertingly detuned bunch of instruments perhaps hinting at some form of madness (another drawback of no album notes is having to guess what it's about!). Coupled with cue 2 - "Rosaria" - which is a most entertaining conversation between 2 pianos (one jangle style) you have a full template for the following half hour.
The only changes of pace are for the exciting ensemble dash that accumulates dizzyingly in "Il professore", and a sweet little piece of smoochy jazz stylee in "Moderato slow".
If you haven't caught any of the other scores in the series, this is an ideal introduction to the collection.
Reviewer
Paul Tonks
Ian Lace adds:-
This is the Italian take on the Mafia/gangster movie. Piovani's music is very Italianate, powerful and sinister alternating with the sentimental (although one might imagine this is for the 'Godfather's' family? The score opens, arrestingly with darkly insistent timpani beats marching inexorably forward over biting string chords and the sort of brass figures that can only emanate from Italy - proud yet oddly grotesque. From then on the pressure is unrelenting. A good gripping atmospheric score complete with saloon-style pianola you feel is going to be perforated with gunfire at any moment. Paul has said all the rest.
Reviewer
Ian Lace
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Following last year's two remakes of The Thomas Crown Affair (the official one and Entrapment) Diamonds is a light-hearted romantic-comedy crime-caper, a throwback to the Hollywood of several decades ago. Quite appropriately it marks the return to the screen of two of the finest surviving stars from Hollywood's middle decades, Lauren Bacall and Kirk Douglas. The music is by Joel Goldsmith, and if his father, Jerry is frustrated to forever be in the shadow of John Williams, after two decades of film-scoring, it is equally time for Joel to step out of his father's shadow and be recognised as a major film composer in his own right.
Over its 25 tracks and 39 minutes Diamonds encompasses a great variety of music, from a romantic main theme in similar vein to Rachel Portman's Emma or Mark Thomas' Aristocrats, to the absolutely barnstorming big band jazz of 'Walk Through the Casino' and 'Reno Lights'. In-between there is elegant atmospheric music, fine pastoral writing, and even, in 'Lance's Girl', something like music from an Indian version of Twin Peaks! The closing song might have come from the pen of Eric Idol for some never-made Monty Python movie. Goldsmith's tunes are glorious, the sound, especially on the jazz tracks, fantastically good, and though there is a lot of diverse writing across a lot of tracks, somehow it all holds together to become more than the sum of its excellent parts. (The cheery lad's song excepted).
With The Legend of 1900 and The Talented Mr Ripley, combining jazz and traditional orchestral writing is emerging as a significant trend in film music. Based on the evidence here, it can only be a good thing, for while the movie Diamonds may not last forever, the tracks on this disc are real gems.
Reviewer
Gary S. Dalkin
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Despite a demonstrated gift for composing, Hugo Freidhofer toiled for years as an anonymous orchestrator for such Hollywood heavyweights as Max Steiner. Erich Korngold and Alfred Newman. Finally given his chance in 1946, he composed The Best Years of Our Lives -- a landmark motion picture score that still ranks as among the greatest works in film music history. Yet even though Freidhofer followed that triumph with other exemplary scores -- The Bishop's Wife, Boy On a Dolphin and The Young Lions come immediately to mind -- he remains one of the least heralded composers from the Golden Age of movie music. In Tony Thomas' book Music for the Movies, the author devotes a chapter titled "The Price of Excellence" to Friedhofer and two others -- David Raksin and Bernard Herrmann -- whose devotion to their art caused them to eschew musical extravagances designed to win audiences' attention at the expense of the film's and score's integrity.
For Broken Arrow , Friedhofer's music is all sinew and muscle - connecting, clarifying and illuminating. William H. Rosar's informative notes to this recent BYU/FMA release repeatedly use terms such as "stark," "bleak," and "sparse" to describe the score. Yes, there is thematic development (a great deal of it) and yes, even melody - but all to one end: serving the story. With the exception, perhaps, of The Best Years of Our Lives, no Hugo Friedhofer-scored film ever left audiences humming a theme. And he was proud of that. Happily, that's not to say Broken Arrow doesn't reward repeated listening. If you work at it, this music can grow on you. One of the first noticeable things about the score is its complete lack of cliches, both of the general Western or "cowboy" style and specifically of standard Hollywood "Indian" music. For example, Friedhofer doesn't spotlight a "war drum" until the 14th cue ('Warriors Return.') Because it told so much of its (true) story from the Indians' perspective,
Broken Arrow was something different for 1950 movie audiences. To complement this, Friedhofer wrote not one but four separate Indian themes, the primary one being 'Cochise,' a muscular statement depicting the Apache leader's mutually noble yet war-like stature. Friedhofer's main title cue uses this theme along with one he wrote symbolizing the peace treaty to illustrate the story's conflicting elements. Among the several other themes, I have found myself most immediately taken with the one for Sonseeahray, the Indian woman who falls in love with James Stewart (as Jeffords, the white Indian agent who brokers peace with Cochise). Typically, Friedhofer does not use this theme in the scene that introduces Sonseeahray's character, waiting until later when the love interest develops. For their wedding ceremony, 'Primitive Ritual,' Friedhofer manages to evoke a sense of archaic beauty from simple instrumentation beginning with a solo English horn, followed by a duet for flutes. Only later in this, the score's 20th cue, do we finally hear the film's love theme ('The Lovers.') The subtle beauty of this music turns tragic later, when Sonseeahray is slain and the music mirrors Jeffords' anguish.
Broken Arrow contains occasional hints of One Eyed Jacks, Friedhofer's crowning achievement among his Western scores, which would come more than a decade later.
This BYU Film Music Archives Soundtrack Series release is taken from the original optical studio music tracks, most of which is in stereo although the film was released in mono, and the sound is quite good despite a small amount of detectable hiss. The casual soundtrack collector might prefer to pass on this, but for Friedhofer fans - and there ought to be more of these -- this is a must.
Reviewer
John Heuther
Paul Tonks is enthusiastic:-
It's always quite daunting trying to comment on the revered classics. A fifty-year-old film has naturally been talked to death in most senses, and a score as splendid as this puts a writer to task in coming up with superlatives enough.
So instead of drooling loquaciously over Friedhofer's stunning ability to capture environment without cliché (e.g. the rousing - not amusing - pounding Indian drums of "Tucson and Cochise"), this reviewer would like to recommend this album for its outstanding restoration and presentation.
Although the sound passes from stereo to mono, and there is the occasional crackle or pop (e.g. end of "Narration and Opening"), there's something made all the more emotive by these limitations. The sweet sweet strings of "Tucson and The Lovers" says something more in its aurally dated form than any pristine digital mix might. The Brigham Young team are never apologetic for the quality of the recordings, but unlike the near inaudible She, this is nothing to apologise for.
Packaging, illustration, quality of penmanship, and a charitable cause make this an essential.
Reviewer
Paul Tonks
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Incredibly, this collection has taken three years to reach us. I understand that it was originally intended to include material from The Sea Hawk and the release was held up pending this projected inclusion, however circumstances prevented completion. It was recorded in Wellington New Zealand in March 1997 and Tony Thomas's notes, reproduced without any editings, are geared to the Korngold centenary that occurred in 1997. The two main items on the disc are welcome extended suites from Juarez and The Sea Wolf both lasting 27+ minutes. Just over three minutes of Elizabeth and Essex are sandwiched between artfully bring the total playing time to just over an hour.
I have to confess that Juarez had been my least favourite amongst Korngold's scores. I always felt it to be too saccharine and rather fuzzy and unfocused. While I am still not 100% converted, James Sedares' lively reading and presentation of this music has certainly opened my ears. Juarez relates the tale of French Emperor Louis Napoleon's (Claude Rains) ill-fated adventure in Mexico when America intervened and obliged him to withdraw abandoning his Mexican puppet emperor Maximilian (Brian Aherne) and his wife, Carlotta (Bette Davis). Carlotta, returning to Paris, pleads in vain with Louis Napoleon and consequently goes mad with grief - Maximilian, is executed by the Juarez government. After the imposing Main Title there is an evocative 'Trip Through Mexico' followed by an exciting 'French Battle Montage' and 'Guerilla Warfare' in which bloody skirmishes are very apparent. 'Carlotta Weeps' and 'The Child and Adoption' allow some romance and intimacy and 'The Mad Scene' and 'The Dream' are eerie and harrowing. The remaining cues follow the tragedy to its conclusion -'Maximilian's Surrender', 'Marche Funebre', Church Bells and the victorious 'Juarez'. The suite includes all Korngld's major themes. Aside from the use of the well-known 'La Paloma' (performed here sounding beautiful and romantic with an uncredited soprano), Korngold eschewed ethnic music which, in this case, I think, was a pity because Mexico, of all locations, has such strong musical associations. For me, this omission probably gives that unfocused quality I mentioned earlier.
The short Elizabeth and Essex suite includes: Main Title (without Gerhardt's swagger and polish), the equally thrilling 'Fanfare and Essex March' (better) and End Title.
The highlight of this disc is this extended suite for The Sea Wolf. A bleak, dark tale based on a novel by Jack London, it tells of Wolf Larson (Edward G. Robinson), the sadistic, psychotic captain of the sealing schooner, The Ghost who picks up two survivors from a wrecked ferry in San Francisco harbour - Humphrey Van Weydon, a writer (Alexander Knox) and escaped convict Ruth Webster (Ida Lupino). Larson refuses to put them ashore and they are therefore obliged to continue on with the voyage. Already on board is another escapee from the law, George Leach (John Garfield) and a crew of discontents amongst who is the vicious cook (Barry Fitzgerald). In the course of the voyage, Van Weydon discovers that despite his bullying, Larson is a cultured and well-read man. When the Ghost is attacked by Larson's vicious brother, Larson locks Leach in his cabin. The ship is sinking but mortally injured Van Weydon makes a deal with Larson to go down with him if Leach is allowed to escape with the girl so permitting something of a happy ending.
Much of Sol Polito's dramatically lit photography is of a Ghost shrouded by mist and rain and therefore not surprisingly Korngold delivers some very evocative music that evokes not only such hostile conditions but also the turbulent mindset of Larson erupting with full force in 'Larsen's book' and 'Escape and Storm'. This is bleak music indeed - yet totally riveting -and quite unique and unusual Korngold; the only relief being the Love music (with its apposite harmonica solo) which has an aura of despondency and hopelessness as well as tenderness.
The packaging is good with excellent notes by the late Tony Thomas and a touching tribute to Thomas by Korngold's biographer Brendan Carroll.
Reviewer
Ian Lace
Gary S. Dalkin adds:-
There is no mistaking his master's voice. With Max Steiner, Erich Wolfgang Korngold all but invented the sound of Hollywood film music, and his influence persists today whenever a symphony orchestra is assembled to perform the music of John Williams, Jerry Goldsmith, James Horner and countless others. All the more remarkable then, that Korngold considered himself primarily a concert composer, and only wrote a total of 19 film scores. Consequently, more than most, Korngold's film writing forms a continuum with his 'serious' work, his writing for whatever venue always thoroughly through-composed, his film work usually able to stand alone away from the silver screen.
Three films are featured. The album opens with a 27-minute suite, divided into 16 parts, from Juarez (1939). This is fiery and exciting music, full of action and swashbuckling adventure, and with characteristically fine main and love themes. The Spanish flavour is not as strong as might be expected, for essentially Korngold wrote Korngold, no matter the subject. One oddity is that, although the disc is lavishly packaged, with stills and extensive booklet notes, including full documentation of the orchestral players, there is no credit for the soprano voice which appears on the interpolation of the song 'La Paloma' into track 8: 'Farewell'. Further, although the notes on Korngold and Tony Thomas are informative, the memoir on the latter appears with no explanation of any direct connection between the man and the CD. Presumably Thomas arranged the suites recorded here.
Next is a comparatively short suite from The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex (1939), and if one wanted to be really pernickety, it could be argued that in these days of 75 minute plus albums, we could have been offered a little more than 6 minutes. This suite, offering the opening and closing music, a fanfare and march, is very much in the mould of The Sea Hawk, and is a delight while it lasts. However, given that many Korngold aficionados will already have a recording of the complete score, of rather more interest is a 27-minute suite from The Sea Wolf (1941). Yet again we are given maritime adventure, but this time of a darker hue for this wartime tale of desperate peril. Suffice to say, it is hard to imagine anyone with a love of Korngold's film work being disappointed by this suite, while it has many qualities which may appeal to those who find his music sometimes overblown or sentimental. If you thought the composer specialised only in rousing heroics and sweeping romantic melodies you may be surprised to find the almost Herrmannesque atmospherics of 'The Fog' and 'The Shipwreck', while even the 'Love Scene's is far more lyrically understated and pastoral than comparable themes from Devotion or King's Row.
The criticism that has sometimes been levelled against James Sedares and the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, particularly for their superb disc of Miklos Rozsas El Cid, is here utterly confounded. This is simply a magnificent recreation representation of Korngold's music, presented not on thin 'authentic' distorted mono sound, but as the composer can only ever have dreamed of, with rich and dynamic stereo sound, with utterly committed and finely accomplished performances. There are still too few recordings of 'Golden Age' film music, and a recording of this calibre is to be warmly welcomed by anyone seriously interested in cinema as a musical art form.
Reviewer
Gary S. Dalkin
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Poor James Horner is always getting stick for self-quotation (and quoting others) but, of course, self quotation has always been practised by even the greatest composers including Bach, Haydn, Mozart Beethoven and Schubert - and Erich Wolfgang Korngold. If you ever wondered where all his glorious music for The Adventures of Robin Hood came from, this album provides part of the answer - from material in his Sursum Corda composed in 1920.
Sursum Corda was dedicated to Richard Strauss, Korngold's mentor in his early years.
As Brendan Carroll says in his booklet notes, it is "a highly concentrated and difficult work, its constantly shifting metre making it a nightmare for conductors..." Richter gives a crisp and bravura enough reading of a work that has a tremendously wide compass embracing the heroic and romantic, a fairy-lightness contrasted with dramatic shadows and eerie, mysterious, even harrowing material. Yet in places I felt that it threatened to defeat him.
This adventurous ASV programme includes dramatic music from two of Korngold's operas that could easily have served as film music. From his most successful opera Die Tote Stadt (The Dead City) we have the magnificent Prelude to Act II which is really a miniature tone poem. It is a vivid evocation of the medieval city of Bruges with its tolling bells and the wind coursing through its streets and canals, and its procession of nuns. The opera concerns a man who is obsessed with his beautiful dead wife and who then meets a young dancer who looks exactly like her. The Prelude opens, darkly, with the voice of the dead wife singing, "You are gripped by life, you are attracted by the other one. Look, look and realise..." The Interlude between Acts 2 and 3 of Korngold's 1927 opera Das Wunder der Heliane (The Miracle of Heliane) is a massive funeral march. Sombre brass fanfares and swirling string glissandi create the grim yet strangely erotic mood heightened by the central love music reprised from Act 2.
In more cheerful mood, Baby Serenade, first performed in 1932, was a celebration of the birth of his second son George Korngold (who would go on to produce, with Charles Gerhardt, so many great classical film score recordings). Comprising five movements, Baby Serenade is scored for 14 wind instruments (including jazz trumpet and three saxophones), banjo, harp, piano, and string orchestra. It begins with 'Baby Enters the World' in a joyful whirl; then 'Song: It is a good baby' is a sweet lullaby; while 'It has really beautiful toys' evokes the baby playing with his toy soldiers to the tune of the Radetzky March. 'Jazz - Baby tells a story' is an amusing perpetuum mobile to create the effect of the little child talking endlessly and repeating himself. The final 'And now he sings himself to sleep' is another gentle lullaby and we hear a church bell as he nods off. These little pieces are played with humour and sensitivity by the Linz orchestra, and the cheeky sting in the tail of the last movement is very appealing.
The programme also includes two brief but enchanting pieces from The Snowman - the Prelude and Serenade. It is incredible to think that these two assured pieces were written by an 11-year old boy.
Recommended
Reviewer
Ian Lace
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George Antheil is remembered by film music enthusiasts for his scores for such films as The Plainsman (1938); Spectre of the Rose (1946); Knock on any Door (1949); In a Lonely Place (1950); and The Pride and the Passion (1957). He is also famous, or infamous, as the composer of the 1925 Ballet Mécanique composed for an orchestra consisting of percussion instruments, player pianos, electric buzzers, and even an airplane propeller.
George Antheil was born in Trenton, New Jersey. He studied for a while with Ernest Bloch (his studies ended prematurely when his cash ran out) before moving to Paris where he entered a coterie that included James Joyce, Ezra Pound, Ernest Hemingway, Man Ray, Satie, Picasso and many others. His Ballet Mécanique caused one of those Parisian riots that we hear about so often, but it preluded Antheil's withdrawal from things avante garde in favour of more appealing and lucrative work in the musical-theatre and film music communities back home in New York.
In 1940 he became a war correspondent (at other times he had been employed as a lonely-hearts columnist and wrote articles on endocrinology). His Symphony No. 4 was written during this period. Of it he commented that it was - "Written...during a period when the entire future of the world hung in the balance, its first movement undoubtedly reflects my tense and troubled state of mind while writing it: I had no actual program in mind; but every day, I was watching the news, from Stalingrad, from Africa, from the Pacific...the second movement is tragic - news of Lidice and the horrors of Poland had just come in - while the third; the Scherzo is more like a brutal joke of war. The fourth, written after the turn of the tide at Stalingrad and our landings in Morocco, heralds victory.
The first movement is tense and troubled indeed, a powerful astringent and gritty statement heightened by many changes of mood and tempo. At times its many complex strands scream out as a brutal cacophony of war. The second movement has a fearful, nervous lyricism and I was reminded very much in places (as I was to a lesser degree in the opening movement) of the film music of Bernard Herrmann. I wonder if he knew this symphony? This second movement ends on a chill and harrowing note. The Scherzo is cold mechanical and devilish; I was reminded of Vaughan Williams's 4th and 6th symphonies although the overall similarity in this symphony leans more towards Shostakovich and Prokofiev. As Joshua Creek says in his erudite booklet notes, of the closing Allegro non troppo, 'Antheil's work as a film score composer is nowhere more evident than in the fourth movement. One can practically envision it as a soundtrack to a newsreel. Grim march rhythms are juxtaposed with triumphant tuttis. Dozens of tempo changes serve to amplify the episodic effect...'
Antheil's 6th Symphony (premiered in February 1948), was inspired by Eugène Delacroix's painting, 'Liberty Leading the People' (see the cover design of this CD). This is another powerful symphony. A quirky allusion to 'The Battle Cry of Freedom', in the flutes and upper woodwinds, is heard early in the brusque and abrasive first movement, before a rather Prokofievian moto perpetuo theme in scurrying eighth notes is introduced. The second movement is a sombre reflective slow waltz that is rather Satie-like while the Trio sounds vaguely Mahleresque. The concluding, scampering rondo is at least a bit more cheerful and was described by Antheil as '...the triumph of joy and optimism over despair.' Post war blues? But at least there is some jazz and syncopation here to liven things a bit.
Antheil's Concert Overture, McKonkey's Ferry (1948) was inspired by the image of George Washington's crossing of the Delaware on Christmas Night 1776. Again the work's theme is victory and freedom. The music is very evocative of the troops and gun carriages crossing the river. There are telling little vignettes - perhaps a boy soldier proudly playing his piccolo, for instance. But besides the swagger and bravado there is a note or two of anxiety expressed by the strings, and brief tender passages as though the troops might be thinking of home.
Not an easy album for there is much very red meat here, but this is a rewarding experience for the adventurous music lover and the performances are first rate.
Reviewer
Ian Lace
Note: This is not a new release: this recording was made in 1995
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I am indebted to my colleague reviewer Gary S. Dalkin. He mentioned this album and especially the 'Pater Noster' from Voices of Light in his commentary about the film music of 1999 on Film Music on the Web.
Richard Einhorn's (b. 1952) varied compositions include numerous film scores. His Voices of Light is an opera/oratorio for voices and amplified instrumental ensemble in celebration of Joan of Arc. It was originally inspired by the great silent film, The Passion of Joan of Arc, which influenced the work of such filmmakers as Bergman, Fellini, Hitchcock and Scorsese. All the prints of this film were thought to have been consumed in a series of disastrous fires; but then, miraculously, an original print was found in Norway in 1981. However, Angels of Light can stand alone, without any visual images. The libretto is a patchwork of visions, fantasies and reflections assembled from various ancient sources, notably the writings of medieval female mystics like St Hildegard von Bingen, Blessed Angelo of Foligno and Marguerite d'Oingt.
It was only in 1920, nearly 500 years after her death that Joan of Arc (born in 1412) was declared a saint, the only saint who had been excommunicated and burnt at the stake.
In the middle of the Hundred Years War, much of France was occupied by the English and their Burgundian allies. Joan, an illitereate, virginal shepherd girl was called to a divine mission by angels. She persuaded Charles the uncrowned king of France to support her; she raised an army and destroyed the besieging armies around Orleans and went on to other victories that culminated in the coronation of Charles VII in Reims in 1429. However after she failed to take Paris, her fortunes declined and she was taken prisoner by the Burgundians, handed over to the English, tried by the inquisition, and tortured and burnt at the stake.
Einhorn has fashioned a fifteen-movement work from some of these events, scored for soloists, chorus, orchestra, with the telling addition of the churchbell of the village of Domremy, Joan's birthplace. Commenting on the crucial role of Joan herself, Einhorn remarks, "Since no one knows what Joan looked like, I decided no one would know much about her singing voice: accordingly, Joan's "character" is sung neither in a soprano nor alto range, but in both simultaneously, with simple harmony and in rhythmic union. In our CD, Joan is exquisitely portrayed by the members of the Anonymous 4."
Einhorn's music glows in simple transparent textures. The decision to use Anonymous 4 to portray Joan was inspired. The simple unassuming 'Victory at Orleans' in which Joan writes, "Jehanne...the Maid sends you news from these parts: that in one week she has chased the English from all the places that they held along the Loire river..." is most affecting. So too, is 'The Final Walk' in which Joan's protestations of her innocence is counterpointed poignantly and dramatically by those bells, and the final 'Epilogue' in which Joan's writing are again quoted: "So God, King of Heaven, wills it; and so it has been revealed by the Maid..."
Throughout the work the attention is gripped with music that is dramatic and deeply moving. I would just mention the 'Pater Noster' with its beautiful, luminous setting of the Lord's Prayer, the atmospheric opening of 'Sacrament' with its distant pealing bells and lovely choral settings; the other-worldly radiance of the closing of 'Abjuration', "Lord, that which I do, I do only to find you"; the quiet beauty of the 'Karitas' ("Love overflows into all things...") and the glorious 'Anima'.
Very warmly recommended
Reviewer
Ian Lace
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Rio Conchos followed in the wake of the John Wayne vehicle, The Comancheros (music on Film Score Monthly FSMCD Vol 2 No. 6) in that both films shared the same scriptwriter and novelist, Claire Huffaker and there were a number of common plot threads and character archetypes. But Rio Conchos was altogether a far darker, more hard-bitten tale with some pretty unsympathetic characters led by a grizzled Richard Boone as Major Lassiter bent on avenging the murder of his family by marauding Apaches.
Jerry Goldsmith, who already had substantial experience scoring for westerns, provided a blistering score that broke new ground for the genre. Vivid, gritty, colourful, full of jagged rhythms and sophisticated orchestration including the imaginative use of a panoply of percussion giving the score an air of menace and Latin colour appropriate to the film's Mexican locale, the music owes more to Stravinsky and Bartok rather than Copland. Here was one of the first psychological (as well as action) approaches to scoring a western.
The opening track catches one's breath. Tambourines, suggesting wild, clanging spurs, whiplashes, and scratcher comb add barbaric underlining to a rather mournful, slightly syncopated harmonica folk-like melody. Other cues continue the mood of flinty, brooding malevolence. Castanets and guitars, snearing brass, in exciting varying rhythmic patterns, add vibrant colour to many tracks. There is a palpable coiled rattlesnake-like menace attached to those cues associated with the Apaches. I was impressed with the excitement and exuberance and then the quiet build up of tension of 'River Crossing' the treading rhythms of the colourful percussion instruments is particularly good. So too, is 'The Aftermath' with its equally telling use of even more colourful percussion; and 'Wall of Fire' is breathtakingly fast-paced thrills.
Quoting the release that accompanied my review copy, "The existing CD of Rio Conchos is a re-recording conducted by the composer for Intrada Records in 1988. FSM's new release features the original soundtrack - never before released - as recorded for the film at 20th Century Fox in 1964. The recording is complete, in chronological order, and in excellent mono sound with eleven cues not included on the Intrada CD, including a great deal of moody, flamenco-based material for Tony Franciosca's character and a lengthy bravura action cue ('Drag Race') written largely for percussion. Bonus tracks include a seldom-heard vocal version of the title theme and five tracks of score remixed in stereo, focusing on the action-packed climax.
This is a thrilling score of infinite variety within a limited overall canvass and one that holds the attention through its 62 minute length. As usual the FSM documentation is thorough and fulsome.
Reviewer
Ian Lace
[This Rio Conchos CD is available exclusively from the magazine and website (www.filmscoremonthly.com) for $19.95 plus shipping: Film Score Monthly, 8503 Washington Boulevard, Culver City, CA90232. Phone: 310-253-9595; Fax: 310-253-9588; Lukas@filmscoremonthly.com ]
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Romantic love music is hardly the first thing that comes to mind when one thinks of the work of Alex North. One remembers the jazz influence, the harshness, the grit and the effective dissonances -- but love music? Well the producers of this album think it is worthy of our attention. I am not so sure. True, there are musical subtleties that did greatly enhance character and plot development, in the films, but they are altogether too subtle to make an enjoyable listening experience on their own as here. One comes away with the feeling of a sameness pervading the whole 12 track collection with an overuse of sweet high strings. With the notable exception of the well-known tune from Unchained and a very few other of these 12 tracks, there are no notable melodies that are essential for romance. Victor Young was far more successful in this context. For the record the scores covered are: Unchained; The Racers; Viva Zapata! (with some interesting Latin/Mexican rhythmic inflections); The Bad Seed (which is really an innocent lullaby for a monster of a child); A Streetcar Named Desire (which does have plenty of decadent atmosphere and sweet corruptness); The Bachelor Party; The 13th Letter; Stage Struck; I'll Cry Tomorrow; Les Miserables; The Rose Tattoo (better than most); and Desirée.
With Journey into Fear we are back in more familiar Alex North territory - dark, snarling, gritty, relentless all adjectives that are applicable to Main Title with its death rattle vibraphone figures and staccato chords scale chords and abrasive dotted rhythms. This score reeks of malignancy and and deep dank pools of corruption with the odd relaxed reflective or romantic moment. Actually North comes up with one of his best romantic melodies in 'Loneliness'. Slow, intimate, smoochy material also makes up 'Troubled Romance' with an occasional surface tremour. 'Native mood' offers more variety - this time an exotic Arabian dance that conjures scantilly clad saying dancers dancers with their finger cymbals. Not top drawer North by any means but nonetheless a very worthwhile acquisition for North enthusiasts. The booklet notes are very good
Reviewer
Ian Lace
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