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March2000 Film Music CD Reviews Part 3 |
Film Music Editor: Ian Lace |
|
Return to the March Index with thumbnails [Part 1] [ Part 2] [Part 3]
music conducted by the composers
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Here we have a triple bill from Citadel, two scores by Elmer Bernstein and a lengthy suite from Henry Mancini. Midas Run was a 1969 thriller staring Richard Crenna, Anne Haywood and Fred Astaire, and the European setting found Bernstein conducting the Rome Cinema Orchestra. The plot revolved around a gold heist, the film losing-out at the box-office to the same year's remarkably similar The Italian Job. The music is a lightweight, jaunty affair, very 60's and rather MOR. An apt comparison would be Mancini's Charade, though without the melancholy kitsch charm of the latter. It is really all so pleasantly superficial that nothing stays in the memory or compels further listening. The music appears to be everything the vacuous film it was written for required.
Much more interesting is The House. This is a seven part chamber music score for a short art film House: After Five Years of Living, made in 1955. The composer himself takes the piano part and is joined by flute, harp and cello. The music is essentially an architectural study and ranges from the pastoral to the jazzy. This was the year of The Man With the Golden Arm and Lust for Life, and either musically or cinematically, both reverences are relevant. This is a charming, melodically rich work with a light, breezy atmosphere that is absolutely delightful. If the spirit of Debussy is rather obvious, this is still an enchanting gem from Bernstein's back-catalogue. Bernstein actually scored 32 short films for the director's of House, Charles and Ray Eames, and it is to be hoped that more of the music will be released in future. It should also be noted that the 1955 stereo sound is quite exceptionally good, being full, detailed and entirely lacking in distortion. There is a warmth which suits the music ideally, and it puts to shame many recordings made twenty years later.
The Night Visitor, staring Max Von Sydow, Trevor Howard and Liv Ullman, was a dark psycho-thriller set in Sweden against a bleak winter landscape. This is not what most expect from the composer of The Pink Panther and other assorted light comedies. Here Mancini, who had composed marrow-chilling music for An Experiment in Terror (a film referenced in many ways, including musically, by Twin Peaks), ventured into Bernard Herrmann territory. He wrote his score not for conventional orchestra, but for synthesiser, 12 woodwinds, organ, two pianos and two harpsichords, one tuned a quartertone flat. The music, sequenced into a single movement suite containing all the significant material from the film, is sparse and cold as the Scandinavian landscape against which the action is set. This is stark, tortured, profoundly unsettling music, presumably excellent film music, but really offering few pleasures in isolation. The biggest compliment I can pay The Night Visitor is to say that it could easily be mistaken for rare Herrmann.
The range from disposable fluff to attractive chamber writing to twisted psychological introspection unfortunately makes this an album of limited appeal. A release for very serious film music enthusiasts who want everything, it is impeccably presented but provides little to interest any but the most committed film music buff. Taken as an archive document, the issue is beyond criticism, though perhaps more attractive would be an anthology of music from the short films of Charles and Ray Eames.
Reviewer
Gary S. Dalkin
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Marking the directorial debut of Italian gothic director Mario Bava, La Maschera del demonio (The Mask of Satan) later translated as Black Sunday, shocked and scared whole generations of viewers. Wrenched images of a mask of spikes being hammered onto a face; an undead henchman pushing through the earth and scrambling from his grave; newly-regenerated flesh crawling on bony remains; all remained imprinted on the minds of viewers and served as a reference for subsequent horror movies. Black Sunday was originally scored by Italian composer Roberto Nicolosi. He followed the Italian tradition and emphasised more the film's romantic aspects rather than its dark, gothic nature.
The task of rescoring was entrusted to Les Baxter, no stranger to the horror genre having scored several low-budget schlock films. This album represents his score in one long suite, along with a suite of another classic Bava film, Baron Blood. In Black Sunday, Les Baxter unleashes every imaginable horror that can be delivered by musical instruments. Ominous strings, plucked violins, shrilling winds, pounding percussion and brass, atonal repetitive statements, bursting crescendos all deprived of every emotion and warmth combined with Bava's powerful visuals; and all managing to scare you witless. The orchestration is highly textured and sharp, and what makes the whole soundscape more eerie is the strategically placed short melodic motifs, fragments of the powerful but also sweet theme that concludes the suite, destined to release the tension before scaring you again and again. This is pure unabridged and relentless horror. If you have managed to sit through the whole suite, you will be rewarded with the already mentioned exquisite theme rendered by strings and brass, which underscores the romantic moments of the film.
Twelve years later, Baxter was summoned again to score another Bava film, namely Baron Blood. In a manner similar to Black Sunday, a sadistic ancestor is brought back to life by a foolish descendant, and confronts the family owning the castle. The score, again compiled as a long suite, bursts open with a call-and-answer orchestration of bass and cymbal as pulsating life comes back to the long dead body of the Baron. A spooky electronic keyboard theme follows driving a chase and a tour of the Baron's dungeons. Not exactly succeeding in maintaining the suspense and powerful horror demonstrated in Black Sunday, the score reverts to underscore status in many occasions, interrupted by short melodic passages. Although the orchestrations are again quite textured and this is emphasised by the good quality of the recording, the music seems washed out and unimaginative. The crescendos are not that powerful, the atonal passages are understated, the pounding piano does not seem to liven up the score, and in general the horrific atmosphere so skilfully built in Black Sunday is somehow lost.
If you appreciate horror scores and love the works of Jerry Goldsmith and Bernard Herrmann, you will certainly enjoy this CD. Although the recording of Black Sunday is old, and it shows, its power and detail will captivate you.
Reviewer
Kostas Anagnostou
Black Sunday
Baron Blood
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Meetings with Remarkable Men is a remarkable film with a remarkable score. The film appeared in 1979, and quickly disappeared, rarely to be seen or heard of since. Perhaps this is not surprising, for even in the eclectic 70's this was an unusual project. Theatre director Peter Brook - who later made the marathon C4 TV drama based on The Mahabarata, the score for which is an intriguing collaborative work available on the REALWORLD label - chose to bring to the screen the autobiographical story of Gurdjieff's 20 year quest for the meaning of life. This involved much beautifully filmed sojourning against the mountains and deserts of Afghanistan, ably standing-in for both the Middle-East and Asia, and understandably proved to have very little box-office appeal. It is therefore initially surprising to find, over 20 years later, the score appearing on a specialist label. However, as recent releases have proved, Citadel know what they are doing, and would not have issued this music had it not deserved a fresh lease of life.
This disc comes with two sets of notes, the first by Laurence Rosenthal, the second unaccredited. Regarding Peter Brook's approach to the score, Rosenthal comments "he envisioned music pervading the film, music of all kinds and colors, a rich atmosphere of sound..." However, rather than create a specifically 'ethnic' score which would relate to the places visited, it was decided that the music must "relate in a dramatic way to the inner meaning of the narrative". This was found in the music of Thomas de Hartmann, a celebrated composer who came under Gurdjieff's influence and developed a new, simpler style of writing out of their collaboration. Hartmann's pieces were all piano works, and with the permission of Madame O. de Hartmann, Rosenthal was able to arrange and orchestrate selections from these works to suit the film. Additionally, he wrote pieces 'from scratch', where nothing appropriate could be found in Hartmann's work as a starting point. When orchestrating the music Rosenthal augmented the orchestra with a wide variety of ethnic instruments, from the kantele to the cheng, the zither to the santur. The result is a unique score, and while such practices are now relatively common, being implemented by Graham Revell for The Crow and John Debney for End of Days, to name but two, this was far from usual in the 1970's.
Given that the whole was recorded with the National Philharmonic and the Ambrosian Singers - the same forces as recorded Charles Gerhardt's magnificent Classic Film Scores series in the 70's - it is clear that the music was taken with the uttermost seriousness, and as is to be expected, both the sound and the performances are first rate. The result is an epic tapestry, a richly orchestrated arthouse Lawrence of Arabia, an ethereal mystical pageant anticipating Seven Years in Tibet by two decades. The music is exceptionally diverse, spanning the English pastoral tradition to the sounds of the Far East, a big, serious score, delicate as a snowflake, as austerely powerful as a mountain face. Richly rewarding for those prepared to give it the attention it deserves, Meetings with Remarkable Men really is a remarkable achievement worthy of recommendation without reservation.
Reviewer
Gary S. Dalkin
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Here we have music from a couple of very obscure films. Hands up everyone who has seen Woman Undone or Zooman. OK, hands up anyone who has even heard of them. The cover is no more promising. With no enthusiasm whatsoever I pressed play. Surely this was to be an exercise in barrel-scraping? What possible reason could there be to transfer these scores to disc and hope to sell them? And how wrong I was.
In my defence I shall maintain that both are simply terrible titles. Woman Undone sounds like it should be a routine TV movie, while Zooman summons visions of a straight-to-video superhero flick. But then a look at the Internet Movie Database reveals that they are both TV movies, even though the packaging strongly implies they are 'real' cinema films - certainly that's what I think most people take the legend 'Original Motion Picture Soundtrack' to mean. However, TV movies or not, they are not the sort one might expect. Woman Undone is dark Hitchcockian mystery thriller, while Zooman is a serious urban drama adapted from an off-Broadway play.
Woman Undone is largely an exercise in atmosphere, with a deeply reverberant piano, wordless soprano voice (Kris Gould) and glittering percussion creating a mysterious, otherworldly soundscape. Strings describe distant portent and finally offer moments of restrained uplift, while throughout there is much effective suspense and a finely sustained suspense-action set-piece in 'The Trial Starts/Desert Light'. It is the sort of thing that might work very well with one of Brian De Palma's less commercial films, brooding, accomplished and elegantly crafted. The distant voice, and mournful, elegiac air summons visions of lonely marshes somewhere between The Snow Goose and Great Expectations. In fact, in terms of sound this score has much in common with Peter Salem's fine work for the BBC's most recent interpretation of Dicken's classic.
Many soundtrack albums would simply stop here, so it is good to see Citadel offering good value by reviving the old cinematic format of the contrasting double bill. Of course this is not the first time this has happened. There is a fine GNP disc CD which offers transfers of two original Jerry Goldsmith LPs, Capricorn One and Outland. That disc has a reversible insert book, so the disc can appear to be the soundtrack of either film, and the same has been done here. Turn the insert around and Woman Undone becomes Zooman.
The clichéd image of a black man pointing a handgun at the head of another black man does nothing to inspire confidence. However, the film appears to be rather more cerebral than another tale of ghetto slaughter. Zooman director Leon Ichaso told Daniel Licht that he wanted a contemporary version of a 60's urban jazz score. Fortunately Licht is an ex-jazzman, and as a single soprano voice brought great character to Woman Undone, here the trumpet of Jeff Beal serves the equivalent purpose. This is a sombre, moody, score. The obvious touchstones are Miles Davis' Lift to the Scaffold, and Johnny Mandel's The Sandpiper, a score which was itself influenced by Davis' Sketches of Spain. That said, this is both more varied and more urban than The Sandpiper, though without such a distinctive central theme. Dark string writing is more to the fore, and there are passages with intense electronic effects mixed with the orchestra and late night trumpet which summon nothing so much as visions of Angelo Badalamenti's Twin Peaks. Licht's work does however assimilate these influences completely, giving the score a more compelling character all its own.
Citadel are to be commended for putting two such fine scores on a single disc, and Daniel Licht should be given the opportunity to score major theatrical releases as soon as possible. This is a most unexpected jewel in film music's crown and it would be a shame if film music fans passed it by in favour of the many better-known but often inferior albums on the market.
Reviewer
Gary S. Dalkin
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Founding member of new-wave band Devo, Mark Mothersbaugh has written scores for numerous movies including: Drop Dead Gorgeous, Rushmore, and The Birdcage. In The Big Squeeze he tackles a story of new-born love and revenge, as a young bartender tries to retrieve her rightful share from her husband's insurance money, assisted by a small-time crook.
Mothersbaugh drives the score with layers of jazzy undertones, supported by almost never-ending percussion. The score is devoid of highlights; the same jazzy underscore approach seems to daunt every track. Although this treatment might imbue the score with an updated 60-70's feel, it does not sustain listener interest. To make matters worse, in several tracks, like 'Lambshade Ninny' the score drops below the underscore level. Also the Latin songs, performed by the Iguanas, is somehow questionable especially within the overall jazzy colour of the score. Surely, the almost linear quality of the story, doesn't call for a complex soundscape but, still, the score lacks some much needed refreshing sentimental moments to break the sameness and some character-exploration would have been beneficial. Only in 'Flowering Tree' does the composer abandon the jazz idiom to attempt a warm, sensitive theme. It it stands out quite well, providing a short but inadequate breather to the score.
As it is, the score fails to entertain and probably and it probably won't hold your attention for long unless you are mad keen on jazz/Latin music.
Reviewer
Kostas Anagnostou
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About Promotional CDs
The advance word from those critics who understand the film's targets is that Galaxy Quest is a decidedly superior and wittily informed spoof. A group of second-rate actors, living on the fan convention circuit glory of having once stared in the cult TV show Galaxy Quest, end-up on a starship having to save the galaxy for real. Star Trek is the obvious target, but so is the fanaticism of those fans that take their favourite TV show rather too seriously. By all accounts the film, although marketed as a children's movie, is a superior and intelligent piece of cinema. Any film which opens in TV ratio Academy, spends the next 20 minutes in 1.85-1 widescreen, then expands to full 2.35-1 Panavision, is clearly showing an awareness of the difference between TV origins of its source material and the epic visual scale of real film-making. Likewise, David Newman's score, not officially released, but available on this promo, is an extremely informed and self-aware piece of work.
This is a most unusual score, for while film composers are often given temp tracks to emulate, rarely can a brief have been so specific as to deliberately and noticeably ape for comic effect pre-existing film music. Yet this is precisely what David Newman was required to do, to spoof Star Trek music. Given that film music is itself of limited interest to the general album buying public, it is therefore not surprising that this score has not been officially issued. The market for a film music spoof must be vanishingly small.
What Newman has delivered will, I can only assume, work very well with what I know of the film. We have the classic Galaxy Quest theme, the more muscular new theme, and in between we have a lot that sounds rather familiar! The main theme itself is suitably heroic, though played just that bit too fast, taking it from the realms of the uplifting to the amusing. Likewise, the score alternates between being straight-faced, and heading into that territory best marked as 'a bit over the top', recognisable devices pushed until the reaction becomes laughter rather than excitement or wonder. For it is all here, much of it ingeniously woven around the sound of one score in particular, and that one of the very finest film scores ever penned: Jerry Goldsmith's Star Trek - The Motion Picture. Thus we have the majestic theme, the leaving spacedock music, the atmospheric/dramatic fusions of electronics and orchestra, the big choirs going 'OOOH' and 'AAAH' for the sense-of -wonder moments, and the frantic battle writing. It is all most accomplished, and I have no doubt at all that it will work superbly with the film. However, inherent in being a spoof, is that the pleasures derived from the music depend largely upon familiarity with what is being spoofed. The music has little life of its own. Further, having 49 minutes of music split of 30 tracks does mean that this is a rather bitty release.
The result is, like many comedy albums, an entertaining and enjoyable release which probably won't sustain repeated listening, thus making it one for die-hard Trekies and David Newman fans who must have everything. It does though prove that the composer would be an excellent choice to score a future Star Trek movie, or indeed, virtually any big and heroic adventure film.
Reviewer
Gary S. Dalkin
Rating: as a film score
as an album
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This really is a strange one. I didn't see the BBC television serial from which this music comes, so I can not say how, or even if, it worked. Suffice to say, I have my fears that it didn't. Vanity Fair is the acerbic social satire by Thackery, and the producers has the laudable aim of avoiding the 'pretty costume-drama' rut into which it is so easy to fall. Therefore composer Murray Gold and director Marc Munden decided to do something different. Which is admirable, except that there are reasons why people do things a certain way. It is because they work.
Deliberately anachronistic scoring can be most effective - there were no symphony orchestras in the time of the Roman Empire - or it can be tremendously irritating, coming across as no more than a gimmick - a classic example being Chariots of Fire. With Vanity Fair there are no electronics, but out of the chamber orchestra sized ensemble, brass is very much to the fore, including saxophones long before their time. Murray Gold mixes, to quote his notes, "...jazz, Spanish folk, New Orleans funerals, Klezmer, classical and a bit of Kurt Weill for good measure." The only question is why? What has any of this to do with early 19th century England?
Gold flits from style to style with considerable invention and confidence, sometimes throwing utterly disparate elements into the space of a single piece and letting them fight for supremacy. It is often witty, vibrant, fun, brash and cutting, and may well be a lot more enjoyable away from the programme than with it. A recommendation is difficult: this is bold, iconoclastic scoring which some will adore and others passionately loath. In all honesty it is not something which I can see myself playing often, yet it is an elegantly straightforward presentation of a striking score. If you liked the music in the serial, I doubt you will be disappointed by the album.
Reviewer
Gary S. Dalkin
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Once upon a time there were documentaries and soap operas, and the former had nothing to do with the latter. Then a new beast emerged to roam the televisual landscape. The 'docusoap' was cheaper, less demanding and more popular. It soon made the 'quality, serious documentary' seem like a very dull and old fashioned animal indeed; though a few can still be observed, timidly appearing out of peak hours, or tucked away on BBC2 and C4, where they hope to evade extinction. Meanwhile, the 'docusoap' flourishes, television for ordinary people to come home from doing their ordinary jobs, and watch other ordinary people doing their ordinary jobs. Inevitably, some of the ordinary people videoed doing their ordinary jobs became popular in their own right, going on to become television presenters, famous simply for being famous for becoming famous by appearing in a 'docusoap'. Thus we have Vets in the Wild, an African wildlife 'documentary' designed to showcase the appealing personalities and photogenic looks of Trude Mostue and Steve Leonard, two young vets the BBC have followed being ordinary from student days. Without them Vets in the Wild would not exist. It is instant television, cute and fluffy as a kitten, but rather more disposable.
And here is the problem with the music as an album. The score is the work of a young composer by the name of Ty Unwin, and he is clearly very talented. Unfortunately, given the nature of the series, he has not been given much money with which to produce the score. As a consequence he has produced an almost entirely sample-based work. He had previously composed the score for Born to be Wild, another documentary set in Africa by the same producer, and the working relationship was apparently such that a very interactive method of score creation was developed.
Unwin wrote several themes, and from these chose those which would be developed for Vets in the Wild. Then he created a series of complete musical pieces, to which the TV show could be edited. The process was then refined, with much to-and-fro between footage and music, music sometimes written to edited sequence, sometimes video being edited to score. The generous view is that this is the same sort of interactive collaboration enjoyed by Prokofiev and Eisenstein enjoyed on Alexander Nevsky, or Williams and Spielberg on Close Encounters of the Third Kind and ET. The less generous view, that Unwin was forced to take the old and cheap TV method of creating a series of library tracks from which the producer could take selections. Reading between the lines of the booklet notes, the reality probably lays somewhere between the two.
The plus side is that the music appears in 12 quite lengthy and well-developed pieces. The negative side of the equation is that the music, being built from samples, often sounds too clinical. Some sounds are deliberately synthetic, others attempt to replicate real instruments. The synthetic sounds are fine, as, astonishingly are the sampled voices. Where the album sometimes falls down is in the sampled 'real' instrumentation - the percussion and piano in the opening 'Sun East' are particularly poor. Mixed in with sound-effects and layered in short extracts behind voice-over, the music is less noticeable, and works well. When exposed to CD the digital precision of the sound over extended sequences begins to become irritatingly domestic, ironic when it is intended to capture the dynamic, vibrant excitement of a Western perception of the untamed wilds of Africa. It is doubly a shame, because the writing itself is often most melodically attractive.
There are real strings on one track, and some appealing vocals by Dawn Foxall on a third of the disc, but it would have been a much more rewarding release had these tracks simply been the demo, the penultimate stage before going to a real orchestra. As it is, the album is a slightly uncomfortable hybrid, pitched somewhere between an electronic concept album and a conventional score release. The sound has as much in common with Mike Oldfield and Vangelis, as with a more traditional score. Unfortunately, it does not have the quality of those artists best work. It is, like the show from which it springs, undemanding, pleasantly diverting, and all too disposable. I do though look forward to hearing what Ty Unwin might produce with a decent budget, as he clearly has the talent: here he works comparative wonders on the most limited of resources.
Reviewer
Gary S. Dalkin
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Documentary composer extraordinaire Nicholas Hooper blends Indian music and cultural samples with full orchestra in a fascinating manner, truly providing the emotional and educational experience that earned the score the 1998 Golden Panda Award for Music.
Hooper conducts the BBC Concert Orchestra and various ethnic instruments including tabla (a wooden, three-skinned hand drum), santoor (a dulcimer) and Indian flutes and violins. At times, his orchestral style is reminiscent of Alan Hovhaness, building upon
animated melodies, broad intervals, and noble horn passages. His Indian ensemble is not as instantly approachable to my ears, but becomes even more interesting once the personal disposition toward Western music recedes. Indian vocals and electronically sampled birdcalls are especially exotic standouts. Consider also that the title theme is an exceptionally striking tribal melody generously evocative of the India subcontinent and heard in a dramatic variety of guises all through the score. There are social and environmental riches ready for mining here.
The production is nothing to shout about, but is more pleasing than I thought at first glance. The featured photography is nothing short of magnificent. Notes on the composer and behind-the-scenes of the score itself are gushing but proportionately informative. The use of visual contrast may simply add to the aura created by the music.
The emotional tone is strong, so the music bears functionality on its own. It serves to heighten awareness of an oft-underrepresented area of our global ecosystem, and it works as a compositional whole surprisingly well, though it may take some getting used to for those not from 'the land of the tiger.'
It has my endorsement.
Reviewer
Jeffrey Wheeler
Kostas Anagnostou adds:
Another entry into the long list of BBC documentaries, Land of the Tiger is a six part series capturing the fascinating and exotic wildlife of the Indian subcontinent. Not surprisingly composer Nicholas Hooper weaves the score with a variety of styles, from Central India to the Himalayas. To an ear unaccustomed to Indian music, the soundscape of this album might seem quite flat, most of the tracks being similar. On the contrary, the composer utilises textured and ethnic orchestrations, extending the musical palette so as to include wordless solo Indian female voice, making the music sound quite authentic.
The music evokes: high and mighty mountains, 'Up to the Himalayas' building slowly into a grand and magnificent theme, hot and majestic deserts, 'Desert Ass Dance', and the deep and mysterious seas. Every kind of life is musically imprinted, from the tiny spider, using quiet winds and soft clashing metals, to the enormous whale shark, with a clean, string-based theme accompanied by magnificent brass statements which never loose the Indian flavour of the score. 'The Tiger' itself is relished with a slow and menacing theme, which also serves as the main theme to the score.
The music is as varied and as complex as the Indian life it portrays. The composer travelled to India to gain some insight in the tradition of Indian music, and combined the BBC Concert orchestra with various authentic Indian instruments, creating a highly textured musical tapestry along with some interesting orchestral themes. Recommended as a great companion to the series, but also as a stand-alone listening experience that conveys so many images of this exotic land.
Reviewer
Kostas Anagnostou
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I imagine Michal Pavlicek will be a new name to virtually everyone reading this, though as the extensive (and shoddily proof-read) insert notes reveal, he has had an accomplished career in both rock and orchestral music in his home city of Prague. This has ranged from huge sell-out rock gigs to ballets and symphonies, as well as a stint on TV presenting a show which seems to be the Czech equivalent of Jools Holland's Later. He would seem to be an odd choice of composer for the BBC's revival of The Scarlet Pimpernel, but then it transpires that the series was shot in Prague, the music performed by 'The Prague Philharmonics' (surely some close relation of Silva Screen's favourite ensemble, The City of Prague Philharmonic?) with the Choir Angelus, and all falls into place.
The album contains an astonishing 57 tracks, though many of these are sequenced seamlessly together, from the three TV movies screened to-date. The fact that the score is 'arranged' by the composer but has three orchestrators suggests that rock musician Pavlicek handed over MIDI files for orchestration, and may explain why the music lacks a certain individual character. This is essentially 'bread-and-butter' scoring, action and suspense writing with some wit and flair, but nothing in the way of memorable tunes, though Pavlicek does contribute some nice acoustic guitar playing to the more reflective moments. Given that the BBC promoted the series as The Scarlet Pimpernel for the James Bond age, the score might best be summed up as "million dollar Mickey Mouse music", and taking inflation into account, that's really not too impressive. Right now, nobody does it better than David Arnold.
Reviewer
Gary S. Dalkin
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Great Expectations is yet another adaptation of the famous Dickens' novel for the screen, this time in the form of a BBC miniseries. Unlike the recent Great Expectations outing to the big screen though, the BBC version remains true to the original, being the period costume drama it was intended to be. To score the series the BBC chose composer Peter Salem, whose credits include several British television projects as well as providing underscoring to various theatre plays.
Approaching the scoring of Great Expectations, Salem developed three quite different but complementary musical strands, each representing major aspects of the series; the music of the marshes, the music of Satis House and the music of Pip's 'expectations'. The music of the marshes is characterised by its dark nature, depicted by shrilling violin harmonics, first presented in 'Marsh Theme' which permeates the whole film, as Magwitch, the convict saved by Pip, monitors and intervenes in Pip's progress. The theme representing the Satis House is primarily static, and string based.
Suspense is infused by sustained violin notes, bells, and piano motifs such as in 'Mrs Haversham's Room' and 'Walk me'. 'Estella's theme' is partly linked to this brittle piano music. 'Pip's theme', loosely based on period music, is elegantly rendered by piano and layers of strings and can be relished fully-blossomed in 'Pip Becomes a Gentleman'. The score is a reworking and an interweaving of the major themes, similar to the interweaved lives of the characters, often assisted by secondary motifs, refined orchestrations and passing atonal and suspenseful music. The music is quite dark, even in jubilant scenes such as 'The Kiss'. Only in the last two tracks is the mood is elevated as music for the Hall is presented, true to the form of period lounge music.
An appropriately dark score for this costume drama but not being an easy listening experience, probably will not appeal to many film music fans.
Reviewer
Kostas Anagnostou
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This album under-sells itself in its title, for it contains music from not one, but two Dr Who serials from the 13th series of the programme's history. This was the mid-70's, Tom Baker was The Doctor, and the series was at its most ambitiously gothic. For fans this is generally recognised as the golden age of Dr Who.
The 13th season opened with The Terror of the Zygons, a 4 part adventure involving aliens whose spaceship had crashed into Loch Ness, and who embark on an Earth-conquering plan with the help of a robotic 'monster', which in the badly animated finale cruised up the Thames. The season concluded with the 6 part The Seeds of Doom, essentially a fusion of The Thing (From Another World) and The Day of the Triffids, opening in the Antarctic, but for budgetary reasons relocating most of the botanical mayhem to an isolated stately home.
Though Dr Who's regular musical companion was Dudley Simpson, the scores for these two stories were penned by Geoffrey Burgon, who at much the same time was completing his popular Requiem (1976), and who would go on to write music for such acclaimed BBC series as Testament of Youth and Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy. Given the low budget accorded to Dr Who, Burgon employed a small ensemble of five musicians, playing flute, clarinet, harp, violin, cello, clavichord and percussion. Dick Mills at the BBC Radiophonic Workshop added various electronic processing and synthesiser tones, and the musicians used every performance trick in the book to create both variety, and the strange, otherworldly sounds the programme required.
The album contains almost 30 minutes of music from the first serial, and over 46 minutes from the second, though without reading the titles and counting the tracks, few listeners could tell where on ends and the other begins. Apart from the occasional Scottish inflection in The Terror of the Zygons, the two scores merge seamlessly, creating an overall style for the show. There really are no tunes, this being essentially chamber underscore for family viewing friendly nightmares. In fact, out of context, the music sounds very much like some of the contemporary classical music of the 70's: atonal, disturbing and not much fun at all.
There are 44 tracks - two of which are the original Dr Who opening and closing titles by Ron Grainer - yet because the music is all so similar, the disc does not feel especially fragmented. Just as the BBC was fond of wiping video-tapes of old shows, losing many treasures in the process, so the BBC also destroyed music tracks, including the original session-tapes for these ten episodes. It is actually an understandable thing to have done, for no one can have seriously imagined that there would ever be a demand for this music to be released on album. It can only now be released because Dr Who fans have grown-up, increased their spending power, and are, in some cases, prepared to buy anything associated with the programme. Thus Geoffrey Burgon's own mono 'listening tapes' have been remastered by Mark Ayres, a composer himself long associated with Dr Who. Given the circumstances, the sound is very good indeed.
Some will object, but Ayres has taken the dryness of the sound by placing the music in 'a subtle stereo space'. To my ears it sounds fine, though doubtless some purists will howl in outrage.
The result is an album which lovingly presents 78 minutes of music from a well loved TV show. As a souvenir it is hard to criticise. It does exactly what is expected of it. However, I suspect that away from the programme - in which the music works brilliantly - all but the most dedicated of Whovians will find this hard listening after 20 minutes or so.
Reviewer
Gary S. Dalkin
Rating: as used in original television context
Kostas Anagnostou adds:-
Terror of the Zygons and The Seeds of Doom are the first and the last adventures of the thirteenth season of the now classic series Doctor Who, aired in 1974-75. The first regards an alien race living in their spaceship beneath Loch Ness, and their attempt to conquer the world assisted by their pet monster. The second concerned a pair of plant pods discovered in Antarctic which, when burst, slowly transformed the infected humans into grotesque animal-plants. Geoffrey Burgon was commissioned to work on the scores instead of the series' regular composer Dudley Simpson.
This era of the programme was known for its "gothic horror" content and accordingly called for a gothic approach to the music. Due to budget limitations, Burgon had to work with a small chamber ensemble of five musicians (including himself) and his palette included flute, clarinet, harp, violin, cello, clavichord and percussion, topping up with some electronic sounds. The size of the ensemble had a direct impact on the body of the music, making it sound thin and one dimensional. The score launches predictably enough with the short 'Dr Who title theme', a medley of atonal electronic music and effects. One of the very few melodic attempts in the score is presented in 'Landing in Scotland' where the small ensemble renders a tuneful theme, winds soon followed by harp. After that the score becomes atonal and suspenseful, maintaining the style throughout. Even in promising tracks such as 'The Zygons Attack' the composer refrains from elevating and increasing the pace of the score. Even the march-like music, for instance in 'False Harry', sounds subdued and lifeless, perhaps due to the size of the ensemble.
The same approach is more or less used in The Seeds of Doom although in this case the sound is clearer and has more depth, avoiding the muddled feel of the first score. Equally repetitive, more in style than in motif, it constantly and slowly builds a sense of suspense with a more refined orchestration. Most tracks sound alike, with a few notable exceptions. 'The Creature Attacks', 'Sabotage', and the quite interesting 'Amelia Ducat's Theme' manage somehow to elevate the score a little bit, mainly in pace. Overall the second score is not as one-dimensional as the first one, as the composer manages to squeeze more out of his small ensemble.
Both are mainly dark, repetitive, atmospheric underscores, destined to accompany the drama on screen but failing as a stand-alone listening experience, especially Terror of the Zygons. Dr Who fans will appreciate this effort, but that probably won't hold true for the rest of us. Perhaps a much shorter version would help.
Reviewer
Kostas Anagnostou
Terror of the Zygons
The Seeds of Doom
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The Mrs Bradley Mysteries set in the 1920s is presumably BBC's answer to ITV's Hercule Poirot? Four pilot episodes were recently screened with Diana Rigg as the rather superior upper class sleuth and Neil Dudgeon as her long-suffering Watson-like chauffeur. The music was particularly good mixing all-time greats from the 1920's and 30's as source music with original music by Matthew Scott.
Scott's music, written fully in the spirit of the music of the era, for the four episodes is encapsulated on this album in four short suites. He cleverly mixes references to Mrs Bradley's theme song ('You're the Cream in my Coffee') with jazzy variations on material from the other songs used in the series, together with sinister, tense and chase -like material. For his 'Death at the Opera Suite', he adds an ending that has a chill, remote and eerie piano solo embellished with some disturbing dissonances. To the music for his 'The Rising of the Moon' suite, he adds some atmospheric exotic eastern material and in his 'Laurels are Poison' music there are overt references to Bernard Herrmann's Vertigo film score while 'The Worsted Viper' suite is more tingling and doom-laden.
The source music mostly comprises famous original recordings of such evergreens as 'If I had a Talking Picture of You'; 'Cole Porter's 'Let's Misbehave', and 'Keep Young and Beautiful' by such celebrated artists as: Jack Hylton, Duke Ellington, Fats Waller, Al Bowlly and Paul Whiteman. Additionally there are spirited new recordings by Graham Dalby and the Grahamphones, properly in the spirit of the 1920s, of, 'It had to be you', 'Jealousy', 'Sarawaki', 'Wedding of the Painted Doll' and : 'You're the Cream in my Coffee'
Delicious
Reviewer
Ian Lace
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This is an album comprising instrumental only performances of themes from the 'hit' musical Saturday Night Fever. My guess is that most of us who cherish memories of the original John Travolta movie will be going back screaming to hug our Bee Gees albums after listening to this CD. All the tunes here:-
Stayin' Alive, How Deep is Your Love, You Should be Dancin', Night Fever, More Than A Woman, Jive Talkin', Tragedy, If I Can't Have You, Immortality, Nights on Broadway, Disco Inferno
- are given a new spin with a sometimes bizarre mix of synths and accoustical instruments, that for my money rarely works. Furthermore the musicians seem to be so enamoured of their work that they seem reluctant to let it go, so much so that I thought their 'Stayin' Alive' would assume an unwelcome immortality.
Reviewer
Ian Lace
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This is an easy listening collection of twelve classic swing numbers given variable treatments by a mix of well-kown and 'who?' personalities. There is the old smoothie Dean Martin smoochin' his way through 'Ain't that a kick in the head' with a big band accompaniment. Paul Anka shines in the swift-paced and catchy 'Adam and Eve'. There's a real Heart beat caused by her 'Magic Man' and Sammy Davis Jnr with Count Basie really thrill in their 'She's A Woman (W-O-M-A-N)'. Abba fans might not take to kindly to the wicked parodying of Mary and Elayne in 'Staying Alive'. Mel Tormé is in good form with 'Down for Trouble' with another big band backing. Ann-Margaret sexyily predicts a change in the weather and in the way she struts herself in 'There'll be some changes made' And I could not resist Willie Nelson's way with one of my favourites 'Bring me Sunshine' - bring back Eric and Ernie!
Reviewer
'Zara'
Curio Corner
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One may well ask why we are including this album on Film Music on the Web? Well, for one thing Frank Cordell's King Charles's Galliard comes from his music for the film, Cromwell (Cordell also scored for other films including Khartoum and Ring of Bright Water). Then Roy Douglas, assisted Ralph Vaughan Williams in his composition, Sinfonia Antartica which itself was based on RVW's music for the film Scott of the Antarctic. [Douglas was Vaughan Williams' assistant and amanuensis from 1942 to 1958]. And Philip Lane is well known to astute readers of Film Music on the Web for his work as a writer and an arranger and reconstructionist of music etc for films. But beyond all of this I have chosen to feature this disc because it is full of wonderful examples of the English sting music tradition, which seems to be fashionable amongst film composers at this time.
This is a delightful album and an adventurous programme for which Naxos should be applauded. David Lloyd-Jones is sympathetically attuned to this idiom and these performances are well nigh perfect.
The concert commences with John Rutter's Suite (for Strings), based on English folk songs, and written in 1973. Both the opening and closing movements have additional counter melodies: the joyful and racy 'A-Rovin' with the more delicate I sowed the seeds of love in the first; and the breezy 'Dashing away with the smoothing iron' with 'The Bailiff's Daughter of Islington' in the last Handelian-like number. In between there is 'I have a bonnet trimmed with blue' - all fluffy, fussy feminine elegance; and the haunting poignancy of 'O Waly, Waly'.
Cecil Armstrong Gibbs is represented by his gentle parody of 18th century and erlier forms, Miniature Dance Suite. There is the mock pomposity of the 'March'; a terribly correct 'Quick Minuet'; a 'Graceful Dance'; mournful 'Sarabande' and a lively 'Jig'.
I have written enthusiastically, elsewhere, about the work of David Lyon an important voice in English Light Music who has skill and imagination in abundance. His Short Suite (1971) is thoroughly engaging, full of vivacity and colour, striking and twisting rhythms and generally novel and exciting harmonic writing. His suite opens with an arresting 'Rustic Dance' proceeds to a 'Gavotte' that cheekily mimics Prokofiev, thence to a spellbindingly beautiful and pensive 'Aria'; and concludes with breezy 'Moto perpetuo' that is a richly complex virtuoso showpiece with some novel pizzicato effects.
Orr's A Cotswold Hill Tune owes much to Delius; while Peter Dodd's Irish Idyll is a lovely treatment of the Irish folk tune, The Lark in the Clear Air. Frank Cordell's King Charles's Galliard, comes from his music for the film Cromwell parodies the music of the time and Peter Warlock seems close-by. George Melachrino, remembered as a sort of British Glenn Miller, is represented by his memorable Les Jeux that is a jolly scamper but with a yearning, sweet sentimental centre. Roy Douglas's Cantilena (1957) has a long serenely flowing tune with some fleeting shadows. Concluding the concert, Philip Lane's student work Pantomime (1971) enchants. The opening 'Alla marcia' is a jolly swagger, the Andante is sweetly wrapped elegance and nostalgia and the Vivace number is a vivacious and playfully scatty cantering. Unreservedly recommended
Reviewer
Ian Lace
Feature: If Only They Had Written for Films
This month we start a new series in which we conjecture on what might have been. We look at the work of composers whose talent may well have attracted the attention of film producers. These composers more often than not lived and worked outside the era of Hollywood's Golden and Silver Ages.
We commence with the work of the little known Swedish composer Kurt Atterberg (1887-1934).
Kurt Atterberg studied piano from the age of seven and began composition in 1905. He graduated as an electrical engineer at the age of 24 and, indeed, his main source of income was outside music, as an official in the Swedish Patent Office where he worked until he was 81! (He died six years afterwards.) He wrote operas, concertos for piano, violin, cello and horn, and incidental music for Shakespearean productions etc. But he is probably best known for his symphonies especially the so-called "Dollar" Symphony No.6 that was controversially awarded first prize in a world-wide competition sponsored and organised by Columbia Records to celebrate the Schubert centenary of 1928.
Atterberg's music is robust and red-blooded; he does not shrink from displaying raw emotion. It is also vividly evocative. These are ideal qualities for film music composition and as such one could easily visualise Hollywood producers queuing up to use his services. But his music has remained little known outside Sweden.
Below are very brief descriptions of four recordings that you might like to sample.
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West Coast Pictures |
Piano and Violin Concertos |
Dollar Symphony |
Symphonies 1&4 |
I first encountered the music of Kurt Atterberg when Rob Barnett, the editor of our sister site, Classical Music on the Web, sent me a tape of the composer's Symphony No. 3 in D Major "West Coast Pictures" many years ago. I was bowled over and played it over and over. This is a magnificent evocation of the sea. In fact I think it out-Debussy's Debussy's La Mer! The central movement is a towering evocation of a terrifyingly violent storm "among the islands of the outer archipelago" contrasted with the relative calm of the waters inside the neighbouring the fjord. The final movement entitled, 'Summer Night', is simply magnificent. Although it lasts some 17 minutes, it grips from start to finish. The movement evokes a seascape in the tranquility of evening. As night falls, the breezes pick up and the wind becomes brisker. The movement ends with a glorious crescendo for the sunrise.
Max Steiner would have been envious of the opening movement of Atterberg's Piano Concerto's and one feels that Bette Davis would have given her eye tooth to have (over) acted against this 'heart-on-sleeve' music, heroic and sweepingly romantic, and in the best traditions of Late Romantic concertos. The second movement has a limpid beauty that is also irresistible while the last movement is also very much in the mode of the music of Holywood's Golden Age. The Violin Concerto while not being so overtly appealing still has much material particularly in the lovely Andante that would captivate Hollywood. Readers can catch up with a more detailed review of this disc by Rob Barnett in the January reviews collection of Classical Music on the Web.
Atterberg's "Dollar Symphony", given Toscanini's virile, fast-paced treatment, is also worthy of Hollywood. As I once wrote of the final Vivace movement, in a review of this disc, "Toscanini opts for overt heroism: in fact, in parts, you feel that the music is anticipating Korngold's film scores. You half expect to see, out of the corner of your eye, a galloping Erroll Flynn."
The record company, cpo, have just released a new recording of Atterberg's 1st and 4th symphonies. This will be the first album in a projected series that will embrace all 8 Atterberg symphonies. My detailed review will appear on Classical Music on the Web in April but suffice it to say that once again, one realises that this is ideal music for a Hollywood knights-in-shining-armour epic.
The recordings:
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Kurt ATTERBERG Symphony No. 3 in D Major ("West Coast Pictures") Recording also includes Atterberg's Concerto for Horn and Orchestra |
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Kurt ATTERBERG Piano Concerto. Violin Concerto |
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Kurt ATTERBERG Symphonies Nos. 1 and 4 |
CD and Book Review
The CD
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[I suggest that this CD review is read in conjunction with the review of Marigold, the new book on the life and music of Billy Mayerl, included on this site this month.]
This album comprises 21sunny, scintillating numbers many of which will spin around in your head for days. Many were originally written as piano solos. Some have been orchestrated by the composer (which I will asterisk) but most by other arrangers/orchestrators: Fred Adlington, Ray Noble, Hubert Bath, Herman Finck, George Windeatt, Arthur Wood and Alan Nichols.
The concert opens with the work that is always associated with Billy Mayerl, the well-loved Marigold.* But the album also contains a number of other pieces that one immediately recognises even if their names might not be easily recalled, such as the jolly upbeat Bats in the Belfry, and the cheeky Fireside Fusiliers that recaptures the dizzy world of the 1920s flappers.
Marigold (1927) is the earliest piece on the CD. There are three late works from 1956: the charming Minuet by Candlelight*, the equally delightful Waltz for a Lonely Heart* and the ebullient Busybody*, a nice rounded character study of someone who is nosy and boisterous but romantically inclined too (or maybe it's a she?)
The Ace of Clubs Suite (1933) commences with 'Ace of Clubs' that has an appropriate devil-may-care, man-about-town suavity while 'Ace of Diamonds' has a sophisticated, syncopated sparkle. The well known 'Ace of Hearts' has a very appealing tune but the Slovak players seem a little uncomfortable with this one; it sounds just a bit too world weary and it just cannot compare with Billy Mayerl's own piano solo version. The 'Ace of Spades' begins with a magical Ravelian flourish (Mayerl loved Debussy and Ravel) before the tempo picks up and we have syncopations with an oriental flavour - another easily recognisable piece.
The Aquarium Suite (1937) has another well-known number, 'Fantail' - Gershwin influenced, this beautiful fish certainly is very self-aware and rather disdainful with it! Other inhabitants of Billy's aquarium are: 'Willow Moss' a nice slow engagingly romantic jazz-based piece which occasionally ripples and darts about; a decorative 'Moorish Idol' and 'Whirligig'* that's in a real jazzy whirl.
Pastoral Sketches (1928) is a three movement suite that is unusually quiet and restrained in its first movement 'A Legend', and although 'Lover's Lane' seems serenely leafy there is also hints of lovers' quarrels as well as their passion; while 'A Village Festival' contrasts carnival jollity with quieter reflective material.
A Lilly Pond is quiet and whimsical with something of an 18th century elegance about it. From A Spanish Lattice is Spain observed form a distance with much more of Mayerl. Autumn Crocus sweetly lilts and is that Eric Coates peering over the hedge? Parade of the Sandwich Men is full of cheeky Cockney frolics, with the implicit cries of barrow boys.
Although the Slovak players seem occasionally uncomfortable, this is a very commendable and enjoyable album Reviewer
Ian Lace
Book Review
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Pianist, composer, educator and celebrity, Billy Mayerl, was one of the most brilliant and popular figures in British music from the 1920s to the 1950s. Beginning his career playing the piano for silent movies, his story could almost be one of the screenplays he accompanied.
Mayerl was born in London in 1902. As a boy he was a fine swimmer and high diver but he also worked at his piano for six to eight hours a day. He entered Trinity College of Music at the age of nine and studied there until 1915 (Barbirolli also studied there at the same time). Mayerl however left because his habit of playing syncopated jazz was considered to be subversive and his love of Stravinsky considered beyond the pale.
According to Dickinson, Mayerl's experience in cinemas as a teenager seemed crucial to his whole musical makeup. "Around 1916 he was paid around £15 (in today's value) a week and played from 6 p.m. to 11 p.m. including Sundays. Describing his routine Mayerl commented, "Most of the films in those days were about cowboys and Indians or about the American Civil War and I had a lovely bit of hurry music that fitted all films of that type - the quick bits of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony. Then I used to play 'Hearts and Flowers' whenever there was a passionate love scene! And when I was in doubt there was always the Mayerl music! After all - that was my reason for being there!" In fact, Mayerl developed a technique of rapid response to the equally rapid on-screen movements and changes of scene and mood, that gave him an approach which his faster music never seemed to loose.
Mayerl also moved around the country playing in local gigs and he was fortunately in the right place at the right time to make the big step that would boost his career. He was playing in a hotel in Southampton, probably in 1922, when he was heard and liked by Bert Ralton who had just arrived in England to form the Savoy Havana Band but without a pianist. Mayerl of course got the job. Dickinson goes on to describe the great success of the Band particularly through the early days of radio (2LO the early predecessor of BBC Radio was conveniently headquartered around the corner in Savoy Hill). The highly popular Savoy Orpheans concerts at the Queens Hall are covered; so too, is the first British public performance of Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue for which the soloist was Billy Mayerl! Dickinson comments: "Mayerl's performance of Rhapsody in Blue would certainly have been authentic in style since he had heard Gershwin play it, had met him, and was in totally sympathy with his aims." Indeed, when he heard of Gershwin's premature death, Billy was devastated.
Carrol Gibbons, Henry Hall, Zez Confrey, Paul Whiteman and Gershwin himself are just a few of the personalities that cross the pages. Dickinson covers Mayerl's work in the music halls including his many stunts like playing two pianos at once; and the highly successful Billy Mayerl School, founded in 1926, for teaching syncopated piano techniques. Its students included the Prince of Wales (later the abdicated Duke of Windsor) and the Duke of Kent. Its equally successful offshoot, the Billy Mayerl Club, that, amongst its many activities, promoted the playing of Mayerl's transcriptions, is covered too. Mayerl's less successful song writing career is detailed -- and his more popular light music that occupied him increasingly after World War II (during which he played an important role entertaining the troops) when the fashion for syncopated music fell away.
Dickinson's book rightly concentrates on Mayerl's piano compositions, which in quality and quantity are the most significant contribution to the genre of the novelty piano that succeeded ragtime and overlapped with early jazz. The pace of these dazzling, cinematic sketches in rag form perfectly encapsulates the hedonism of the jazz age. But Mayerl also wrote more contemplative pieces belonging to the English pastoral tradition: he was never just the composer of Marigold. Indeed he loved Delius and his work shows that composer's influence and of a number of other English composers - both of light music and more classical forms - including Cyril Scott, John Ireland and Frank Bridge; plus Edward German, Roger Quilter and Eric Coates. His love of Grieg and the French impressionists - Debussy and Ravel -is also very apparent.
Dickinson analyses Mayerl's music and proves its classically-based craftsmanship. The 29 pieces on the accompanying CD all played by Mayerl, show his incredible technique and wide range. The numbers embrace the early Six Pianolettes demonstrating his breathless speed (but delivered with a light touch) through to the less hectic but more romantic Ace of Hearts and the impressionistic and atmospheric Harp of the Winds taking in his immortal Marigold on the way.
[I would just mention, in passing, the paragraph on the Four Aces Suite since it assists in the appreciation of the performance of the Four Aces Suite on the Marco Polo Billy Mayerl Light Music for Piano and Orchestra CD that is also reviewed on the site this month. "The cover design (of its sheet music) is ingenious...It depicts the four playing cards with figures standing on them. The 'Ace of Clubs' is a blindfold ballerina who looks as if she has materialised from above as a result of a magic wand brandished by an acrobat as 'Ace of Diamonds'. The 'Ace of Hearts' is a cherub with a quiver-full of cupid's darts. He is gesturing towards a black, cloaked Mephistophelean figure as the 'Ace of Spades'. Since spades are used to dig graves, he looks like the symbol of death, seen as the ultimate end of all romance."]
The book includes illustrations, the full Queens Hall concerts programmes; an analysis of Mayerl's BBC broadcasts; his Performing Right Society earnings (1926-1998); his Desert Island Discs choice (he was Roy Plomley's 'castaway' guest on 21st April 1958); a list of works compiled by Alex Hassan, an exhaustive Billy Mayerl performance discography compiled by John Watson, and a bibliography. What is missing is an additional discography of recordings of Mayerl works made by other artists, especially Eric Parkin.
For composer, pianist and writer, Peter Dickinson, who is an Emeritus Professor of the Universities of Keele and London, this book is clearly a labour of love. He is meticulous in gathering and presenting his facts almost to the point of being pedantic (some facts have been rendered hazy by time and therefore Dickinson has felt obliged to offer alternative viewpoints of the truth)
As Dickinson points out, Billy Mayerl's magical and essentially happy music - "...acts as a kind of therapy sorely needed as the stresses of modern life reach unparalleled severity and we meet the challenges of a new millenium."
Reviewer
Ian Lace
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After all the laughter and tears of Angela's Ashes, I could not bear to await the arrival of the paperback edition of its sequel 'Tis. So, with a local bookshop offering copies at less than £10 each, and feeling particularly sorry for myself because I had a really vicious and pernicious species of virus, I took the plunge.
'Tis continues the saga of Frank McCourt's misfortunes through his life in America. With red, scabby eyes and redder blush-filled cheeks, and blackened teeth, McCourt blunders his way through menial jobs in New York's Biltmore Hotel courtesy of the kindness of a passing straying priest and the Democrat Party. McCourt is subsequently drafted into the army to become a dog handler then a crack typist in West Germany from where he pays a call to his mother in Limerick. She is hesitant about moving from her slum home into a new house with proper facilities and a garden because she will miss all her friends and Uncle Pat who couldn't care a 'fiddler's fart.'
Back in the Big Apple, Frank describes his education, as a GI, at New York University where he is admitted on a trial basis. He endures tribulation after tribulation as he works at all types of job to fund his education. When he eventually qualifies as a teacher, he has to survive the tough world of New York's high schools. The existence is "somewhere between Goodbye Mr Chips and The Blackboard Jungle" with the emphasis on the latter. All his brothers, as they grow up, follow Frank to New York, as does his mother, Angela herself who rapidly becomes a crotchety, old woman berating her sons to stick to their own (Irish Catholics). Frank's supposedly reformed father comes too but he is shipped back to Ireland, pronto, when he arrives off the ship stinking drunk. Mind you, it appears that Frank is something of a chip off the old block because he often gets the worse for wear from the hard stuff, including a binge on his wedding day which costs him the enjoyment of his nuptial bed.
McCourt's memoirs takes his story up to 1985 to the death of both his parents. On his way, McCourt tells a tale of endurance and survival that is a s hilarious and harrowing as Angela's Ashes. Already, I have heard whispers about a possible filming of this book too. It is interesting to conjecture who might play the grown up Frank McCourt(s) and who might score such a film.
Although this new book is not quite as appealing as the original Angela's Ashes, McCourt's appeal is still very strong and I can guarantee, if you liked his first book, you will not be able to put this one down either.
Reviewer
Ian Lace
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