This News Friday 11/7/97
by Lukas Kendall
Patrick Doyle has been diagnosed with a form of leukemia and is presently
undergoing treatment in a London hospital. Although there are many forms
of leukemia, this particular type is curable and one from which people
make full recoveries, and Doyle's doctors are optimistic about the composer
doing just that.
Despite his illness, Doyle is continuing his work on the upcoming Warner
Bros. animated film, Quest for Camelot, from his hospital room.
He had to cancel his appearance at a concert of his work at Seville on
Thursday, however.
Needless to say, this is the type of "yikes" news that gives
people pause. Doyle is the acclaimed composer of scores such as Hamlet,
Dead Again, Henry V, Much Ado About Nothing, Carlito's Way and many
more. Our best "get well" wishes go out to him. Cards can be
sent to:
Patrick Doyle
c/o Air-Edel Associates
18 Rodmarton Street
London W1H 3FW
England
Composers as Actors
This is actually something relevant to Patrick Doyle, has he started
his career as an actor and has had bit parts in several Kenneth Branagh
films.
From Christopher Nuzzi, cnuzzi@bway.net
As I sat at my PC with the TV on about an hour ago, I happened to
look over at the screen just as The Six Million Dollar Man was going off
on the Sci-Fi Channel. I noticed that this particular episode featured
someone name Dennis McCarthy as an air force doctor. Could it have been
*the* Dennis McCarthy?
Okay, now things get weird. I still have Sci-Fi Channel on, and
Twilight Zone just ended. It was the ep where Jack Weston is the TV writer
who conjures up Shakespeare to write for him. The bard of Avon was played
by someone named John Williams.
Maybe there will be a Jerry Goldmsith in seaQuest tonight...
Goldsmith did have bit parts in Gremlins and Gremlins 2,
with a line in the latter which he spends a half hour discussing at his
concerts ("Did somebody say 'rats'?"). Goldsmith also has an
on-camera bit at the beginning of In Harm's Way (1966). I told him
after his recent Pasadena concert that this actually would be his first
"acting" role, and he growled, "You weren't even born then!"
Last week we revealed that Basil Poledouris was a bit actor on an episode
of the original Star Trek series, although we haven't identified
the episode and Basil doesn't remember anything except that he had this
tacky green shirt and black pants, and that it was indoors (so it wouldn't
be "A Private Little War"). However, he also mentioned that he
was on The Mod Squad (where he was the "resident hippie")
and I, Spy quite a bit.
I feel compelled to tell you all that for Halloween, Jeff Bond and I
went as Bele and Lokai from Trek's "Let That Be Your Last Battlefield."
For no reason, Jeff's wife Brooke was a mud wrestler. All the guys at the
party were like, "Hey, are you guys going to start fighting now? I
remember that episode!" and all the girls were like, "Who are
you?"
Star Wars Research
I got this letter but my reply bounced, so I'll print it here. I forget
the sender's name and address, unfortunately:
I am a final-year Music student at Cambridge University, England.
I am doing my dissertation on John Williams' film score to the Star Wars
Trilogy. In connection with this, I am trying to find "serious"
film criticism on George Lucas' films & scripts, and/or on John Williams'
musical score.
My reply was that there is a great essay on Lucas and Spielberg movies
in a book called Seeing Through Movies, but I forget the publisher.
Check amazon.com or something.
There has never been any serious writing about the Star Wars score
in a book, to my knowledge, outside of a chapter on The Empire Strikes
Back in Kay Kalinak's Settling the Score--the Samuel French
Bookstore might be a source for this (call them at 213-876-8570).
I also recommend the Star Wars issue we did in Film Score
Monthly, which also had essays by Michael Matessino and myself on the
SW music, in addition to the Williams interview archived on this site.
Go here for backissue
ordering information.
Answers
From: kevin@paradigmsim.com
Regarding the inquiry from a correspondent last Friday as to "What
has happened to Bill Conti?" It might be worth noting that Conti has
scored some IMAX films (Yellowstone, Grand Canyon, others?). The soundtrack
music is available on CD. I don't know when these IMAX films were originally
made.
I feel constrained to add that good music seems to gain added force
in an IMAX theater, emanating from all those speakers behind the wrap-around
screen. I can understand why a film composer would be attracted to writing
music for such a project. Now that there is a Star Trek IMAX movie in the
works, this format of filmmaking will eventually reach a broader audience;
any chance that Goldsmith could score the IMAX Star Trek movie?
If they fork over enough money, I'm sure he'd consider it.
From: Corey C. Witte, Galt1138@aol.com
In reference to William Zarvis' THX music info, it can also be found
at the beginning of "Countdown to Zero," a rather ponderous song
from the Asia's Astra album.
Horner Corner
From: Benjamin Cluff, johnnyvegas@juno.com
Does anyone know where I could purchase a copy of Willow or The
Rocketeer? I know they are impossible to find but if anyone knows where
they can be found, it's you guys.
Try the wonderful world of mail order: Footlight Records (212-533-1572),
Intrada (415-776-1333), Screen Archives (202-364-4333), STAR (717-656-0121),
and Super Collector (714-839-3693). Also see their web sites, go to our
links page.
From Michael Lyons, MikeyL7076:
The lyrics posted to Horner's Glory [last Friday] are not complete.
The English words go like this:
Blow the horn, play the fife, beat the drum so slowly.
Blow the horn, play the fife, make the drum beat lowly.
Also, I have listened some to track 10, "Charging Fort Wagner."
The words to this are in Latin, but most are sung so fast that I can't
understand them well enough to translate. I can, however, tell you that
two of the words on the second "chorus" section is "Libera
me" or free me.
Oh, by the way, why do you dislike Horner so much? You always say
mainly negative things about him, but I cannot tell why. Furthermore, in
your opinion, what do you think are Horner's top 5 scores, and his best
one since 1995. Thanks for your time and answers.
Thanks for the lyrics.
I'll tread lightly on this second question, because Horner has quite
a following and I've noticed that people's reading skills decline tremendously
when reading the Internet.
First, let reprint a TITANIC SNEAK PEEK! from Paul Tonks in England:
UK CD release 17/11, Playing Time 72:45, Cat # SK 63213
Let's quickly mention the Love Theme is "My Heart Will Go On,"
sung by Celine Dion. As a female vocalist she doesn't do it for me personally,
but the song is OK. The orchestral backing being about the best part.
The trailer music *is* from the film. What was touted as 'Enya for
full orchestra' is indeed the 'ship theme.' The resemblance to Book of
Days from Enya's Shepherd Moons CD is frankly outrageous. Since it appeared
in Far & Away, I'm amazed anyone would think the similarity would be
overlooked. The 1st couple of appearances are OK. Once you start to notice
the level of other synth samples (particularly voices), it may start to
grate.
What will even more so is that Horner deja vu. The album opens with
Braveheart's Uilleann pipies, kena and whistle. With enough fingers, you'll
then count off: Patriot Games' atonal sketches / Rocketeer's End Titles
climax / Aliens' Futile Escape opening / and lashings of Legend of the
Fall.
Now don't get me wrong - this is a nice solid album. The most consistently
worthwhile listen from him (IMHO) for a while. But when this particular
'middle road' opinionated listener starts wincing at over-familiarity,
it raises a larger question mark than I'd like.
You may or may not know Horner has signed a contract of exclusivity
to Sony Classical. There's a proposed symphony of un-used Titanic material
to be followed by a ballet.
It's not long before you'll make of this what you will for yourself.
You may not have needed to hear from anyone that this would fall down in
the same old ways. Just thought y'all might appreciate fair warning.
If this is true, that Titanic is merely another collection of
recylced passages and themes, I will be severely disappointed. Why do I
dislike James Horner? Because it is not acceptable to score films with
fragments of scores from other films. People will say this is Horner's
style, and that John Barry or Ennio Morricone will write the same type
of music for many films, but there's a difference. Barry and Morricone
do have deeply personal tendences towards progressions, orchestrations,
etc., and will craft new melodies based in part on their past works. But
they'll write something different to tie it together. Horner will stitch
together a fragment from this score, to a fragment of that one, and it
will all be so similar, it's outrageous. I don't see how anyone could have
any respect for movies or movie scores and do that. It will be especially
grating if true for Titanic because this is from all reports an
excellent film, and is the biggest Oscar bait Horner could ask for.
OK, send your hate mail now. To answer the question, my favorite Horner
scores would be Wolfen, Star Trek II, Brainstorm, Krull, Field of Dreams,
and Sneakers, and nothing since then (Sneakers was 1992,
I think).
Retrograde's Plans
From: John Russell, Xenozoic@aol.com
Do you have any plans for future Retrograde CDs? If so, what films?
Don't worry, I won't hold you to whatever titles you may be considering.
I understand the difficulties in bringing such things to their fruition.
I love it when people want to know what I'll release next. We have a
few things we are looking into but can't announce anything yet.
By Popular Demand: Star Trek Voyager Lyrics
As originally published in FSM #57, May, 1995:
Star Trek there!
[going there - over there - over there]
Star Trek voyaging there
[going there - over there - and there and there]
Star Trek voyaging over there way over / Way over there / And there
they go / Over there/ They go
Star Trek voyaging over there way over / And over there / And over there
/ They go
Sometimes when they are going way over there/ No mat-ter where, they
will find, the same... things
Star Trek voyaging over there/ Way over, and over there / Way over there
/ They go
[warp speed!]
Star Trek voyaging there.
[Commercial bumper: Star Trek voyaging there.]
Cassette Watch
Listen carefully: this message is about tapes. Not CDs. TAPES:
From: Scott Hutchins, sahutchi@iupui.edu:
Recently I've been purchasing a lot of cut out cassettes in the
MCA classics series. These have included:
Bronislaw Kaper--Mutiny on the Bounty
Ennio Morricone--Guns for San Sebastian
Elmer Bernstein--Cast a Giant Shadow
John(ny) Willaims--Fitzwilly
John Addison--Tom Jones
Andre Previn--Irma La Douce
There are quite a few others, like Popi (Frontiere), Les Girls/Lili,
etc. I wonder why these have not been released on CD, most are really good.
I also picked up Cocoon and *batteries not included. Unfortunately, I don't
have any cassette players that are very good. I wonder if I should open
my cassette of Mom and Dad Save the World to listen to in the car, since
no one seems to want it.
Generally there is not a collector's market for cassettes, even though
many scores available on them still have not been released on CD. But,
as far as cut outs go, how can you go wrong with a $2.99 tape?
Swept by Barry
A reaction to Swept by the Sea, the new John Barry score reviewed
on the site this
Wednesday:
From Eric Wemmer, dragon7@icanect.net
After his last "trilogy" (Across the Sea of Time, Scarlet
Letter, and Cry, The Beloved Country) and before those the magnificent
Chaplin, this two year drought without Barry seemed to last forever. This
music for this new unknown film that no one will ever see gives us an excuse
to get a new John Barry score. This one was defintiely worth the wait.
It is for me the best score of the year so far. As good as it is, on Barry's
standards, it isn't quite as amazing as the other scores I have mentioned,
but it is still better than most of the other stuff that is out there right
now.
Well, now there's a ringing endorsement. Paul Tonks wanted to add that
the one source cue jig halfway through the CD, which I think is great (like
the source cues Barry used to write in the '60s for ethnic locations) had
to be written first by Barry, to be used during filming of an early "homeland"
sequence in the film.
Don't Forget: Tomorrow!
L.A. residents: Basil Poledouris will sign Starship Troopers
CDs at Creature Features in Burbank (1802 W Olive Ave; 818-842-9382) on
Saturday, November 8, from 1-3PM.
One rule: if you want to get a Starship Troopers CD signed, you
have to buy it in the store. Feel free to bring other Basil CDs like Conan,
Robocop and Lonesome Dove and have those signed. But in order
to avoid losing a ton of money the store will not allow other copies of
Starship Troopers inside.
I'll be there. See you tomorrow!
Send your comments: MailBag@filmscoremonthly.com
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