This News Friday 1/9/98
by Lukas Kendall
I was just at something very cool. It was the dedication for the reopening
of the Newman scoring stage at 20th Century Fox, which had been closed
for renovations the past few years. The new stage retains the dimensions
and many materials from the original, restoring the location of the control
booth and adding a state of the art board.
Among the guests were seemingly dozens of Newmans--including Randy,
David and Tom--as well as John Williams, who gave the "dedication"
as it were, along with Fox head of music Robert Kraft. I've interviewed
Williams and heard him speak a few times, but this was the most enthused
I've ever seen him--he talked about playing in the orchestra under Alfred
Newman and the first time he ever set foot on the stage, as a boy in the
late 1930s.
We'll have tons o' photos in an upcoming FSM.
News
Here is what people are dying to know. But, there aren't answers yet:
I don't know if there will be a Vol 2 of Tomorrow Never Dies, as
people have speculated and as David Arnold wants. I also haven't heard
of any plans for a Vol 2 of Titanic--the current album is tearing
up charts, logging in at #11 on the Billboard 2000, thanks to Ms. Dion
no doubt.
And there is no one signed yet to replace Jerry Goldsmith on Lost
in Space, although the most mentioned "frontrunner" (not
confirmed by the studio, however) is Mark Isham. No doubt people will
be shocked to hear this since he's such a not-the-obvious choice for a
retro sci-fi film.
But, some definite news: there will be an expanded Close Encounters
of the Third Kind CD released some time this year by Arista--a commercial
release, not anything tied to the laserdisc. Complete score, produced by
Shawn Murphy, like the expanded E.T. disc. Groovy.
Shirley Bassey turned 61 yesterday (1/8/97). (Thanks to Steve Head for
the info.)
Looking for a cool John Williams site? Try http://www.sestran.com/~accaaa/jwsite/index.html
My Mission Statement
I got some wonderful responses to my Mission
Statement from last Monday. Most were quite lengthy, and a few personal,
so I won't be printing them. Most people are supportive of FSM and I thank
them all for their comments. (The people who are not supportive do not
bother to write me personally. Let's hear it for skewed sample sizes!)
In short, thanks, and keep reading!
Horner Corner
James Horner will be on Los Angeles PBS KCET-TV, Wednesday, January
14, 7:30PM, with an interview and footage from the dubbing of The Mask
of Zorro. It will probably be rebroadcast throughout the day.
From: Jeff S McNurlin <jeffsm@earthlink.net>
A visitor of your site was wondering about the music played as the
Titanic sank. You thought it was period music but you weren't sure. Well,
you're right. I don't remember the exact title, but all the music played
by the musicians is based on survivors accounts. In the 1953 version of
Titanic, they played the same piece (the sad one), except in the old version
the passengers sang the words with it.
Was it "Slap Your Bitch Up"?
From: TERRY GOETT <"pentium@voyager.net"@voyager.net>
I would like to say that your comments about Horner's music are
certainly very biased. I tried to figure out why you and others of your
type try to find problems with every one his scores. In my humble opinion
I see you as being like the movie critic and becomes anal with minor details
instead of viewing it as entertainment. I will agree with you however,
with the comment that Titanic is definately not the greatest score ever,
but when seen in the film it adds a decent amount of character to the motion
picture. I would like to hear your opinions on his earlier scores: Krull,
ST2, ST3, Brainstorm, Willow, Glory, Cocoon, and Land Before Time. If you
do not agree that these are at least good scores than Williams's kiddie
style is probably perfect for you.
I'm definitely not getting into an argument about Horner vs. Williams
and who has the most "kiddie" style (although I think I am going
to listen to that great kiddie score, Images). Here are my opinions on
the listed Horner scores:
Krull, Star Trek 2 and 3, Brainstrorm: my favorite years of his
work, I like these all a great deal. As I've listened to more music I've
become familiar with the classical origins of a lot of his licks, but they
are all terrific film scores, Brainstrom especially. Star Trek III is a
little lazy.
Willow: I like some of it but the shakuhachi wears thin, so do
the classical rip offs, and the source cue which is like early '80s Trevor
Jones source music (Dark Crystal). CD seems to go on for seventeen
years. I still don't know how they squeezed all 73 minutes onto the LP
of it which I used to have. You know what I love? The choral phrase over
the Paramount logo.
Glory: I am in the minority in that I find this cloying and hard
to swallow. War is hell, dammit. By the way, that's not the Harlem Boys
Choir actually on the soundtrack--they couldn't learn it in time so session
singers were employed.
Cocoon: Love some of it, the Billy May swing music gets tiresome.
Lift from Star Trek II too much to bear.
Land Before Time: I love the first 70 seconds, but I am not a
fan of this type of animated story and the score was just too cute for
me.
Well, you asked. I'm not telling people what they should like but these
are my personal reactions.
From: Ccmillar <Ccmillar@aol.com>
I always enjoy reading your material, and have been buying and/or
looking at FSM for a few years now. I happen to be a composer myself, of
film music and otherwise, and I'm a huge fan of James Horner.
He is in demand because he is consistent, delivers the emotional
goods, and helps makes movies a more wonderful experience. There's no denying
that.
Any good composer might repeat himself. It actually set his style.
We recognize Horner because it "sounds like Horner!" All the
more credit to him! He sets moods, sounds, motifs, and really composes
within his framework throughout a score. There's usually always some new
and interesting orchestration or two in any of his works, and it's amazing
now how many other scores sound like Horner's work at this point in time.
He's been as big an influence as the heavyweights who have been around
a long time as well (Goldsmith, Williams, et al.)
I have a problem with your admiration for Patrick Doyle. I find
him to be the most predictable composer around. Unoriginal, is stylstically
usually always wrong for a time period-type piece, unstructured, etc. Most
of his stuff sounds like a kid in a new toy shop...have to use one of these,
oh!oh! and three of these...oh!oh! four of these!....etc., etc. Worst of
all, he only seems to go for nothing but the emotional heartstrings; not
building on any motifs, etc. Maybe I'm too harsh, but I haven't seen everything
he's done. I stopped my interest in him when he started singing in his
own scores. Please!
Sure, let's pick on the guy with leukemia. However, speaking of that,
I'm told Doyle is proceeding excellently through his chemo and his cancer
is in full remission. To which we can only say, thank Crom. Rent Dead
Again, that one is really cool.
Questions
From: Jeff Thomas <MaestroJW@aol.com>
I was speculating about the new Star Wars scores for the prequels,
and i wondered what you think of this. Do you think the new SW score CDs
will include every bit of music like the Special Editions did, I don't
think they will, but i am really hoping that they do... remember really
important music for scenes like the Final Duel and when Vader cut Lukes
hand off took years to be released, I don't want that to happen again with
the new music, it's gonna bug me to again have unreleased Star Wars music...
I have virtually every incarnation and reincarnation of SW scores that
were released, i hope they don't do this again, but i have this terrible
feeling that they will.
RCA Victor has had terrific success with their 2CD sets this year--the
album to Star Wars went gold recently--and I think we'll see pretty complete
representations of the new scores as they come out. But, 2CD sets are always
harder to sell than one disc, so maybe they will stagger them. I don't
know. It's still far off.
From: "Jeffry D. Heise" <jdh@socialstudies.com>
Yes, there have been other filmmusic composers who have taken up
the baton. Alfred Newman and Miklos Rosza used to conduct both the LA Philharmonic
and the Hollywood Bowl Symphony orchestra from the 40's into the 60's,
and there are recordings on older Capitol lps and EMI CD's of their output.
Andre Previn was the principal conductor and musical director of the LA
Philharmonic in the 60's and 70's. Max Steiner was the principal conductor
for one of the major theaters in NYC before he came out to Hollywood in
1929. And if I'm not mistaken, wasn't Bernard Herrmann in charge of the
CBS Radio Symphony orchestra in the 30's?
I forget what the question was but this is a useful answer. Thanks!
From: Warren Hsu <wvh@TSO.Cin.IX.Net>
Hello there! I'm searching for an excellent pops orchestra CD which
contains suites from the modern Disney classics (Little Mermaid, B&tB,
Aladdin, Lion King, etc...).
I am aware of the recent Cincinnati Pops Orchestra CD which contains
suites from LM, B&tB, A, and LK, but it also features the Indiana Singing
Hoosiers Chorus, and that pretty much ruined it for me...are there any
other CDs which contain more or less just orchestral suites of the abovementioned?
Maybe Boston Pops?
Hulk at loss. Readers, please help.
One More Time, the Judge Dredd/LIS Trailer Music
The music in the Lost in Space trailer is the piece Jerry Goldsmith
wrote originally for the Judge Dredd trailer--another film he was
at one time going to score. There is an orchestral recording of the piece
on the Varese Sarabande compilation Hollywood '95. I don't know
of any further plans to release it.
A Good Joke
From: Jeffswim <Jeffswim@aol.com>
It seems in your 1997 film score wrapup you neglected to mention
what I believe to be the best score of 1997: Rosewood (John Williams).
I noticed you were looking at only films released after Memorial Day, so
maybe you were only focusing om those. Anyway, a lot of people have forgotten
about this score, and the entire film for that matter. I thought it was
riveting, and the score complemented every scene. Unlike many scores Mr.
Foster has heard, this one did not grow on me...it had me from the start.
Hopefully the Academy will remember it on Feb. 10.
Want a good joke? What do Lukas Kendall and John Williams (and probably
JeffSwim) have in common? We are the only white people who saw Rosewood.
I was going to tell this joke to John Williams tonight but forgot. However,
Randy Newman thought it was funny. I liked the Rosewood score a
lot, but I doubt it will be nominated since the movie was so dismissed.
Film Music on TV this Weekend
Don't forget to check this site for cool scores to this weekend's movies-on-TV
fare: http://columbia.digiweb.com/~ellenbe/fmtvindex.html
Something Else That's Funny
Fans get so riled up about their favorite composers and scores. I should
know, I've made my career, such as it has begun to be, by stirring people
up. But at this event tonight, the dedication of the Newman Stage, I ran
into so many people who I know for a fact either cannot stand me or cannot
stand each other. I mean, rival agents, or composers, or competing studio
personnel. But you know what? Nobody really cares. It's like here, have
a cocktail. I ran into John Frizzell whom I was led to believe was out
for my head because we gave Alien 4 a bad review, and he's like,
hey, how's it going?
It's like, who gives a shit? I'll bet John Williams sure doesn't. It
was cool to hear him talk about Alfred Newman since he seemed so genuinely
interested. Here's a guy who is either unable or unwilling to remember
any details of some of the most famous movies of all time which he scored,
and he remembers everything about a recording session from 1955 and how
Alfred Newman came over to talk to him one day and how nervous he was.
I wonder if we put arguing people from rec.music.movies
in a room together if they'd be fighting or if they'd be having a drink.
I read an article about social norms on the plane recently, about how law
doesn't really govern people as much as our own self-adherence to social
norms out of fear of being ostracized. One of those social norms is that
you never want to be the person in a room making an ass out of himself.
It's just funny, how in real life how mellow people can be, when if you
read it on the Internet, you would think composer X would be in a duel
to the death with composer Y if given the chance. In actuality it's like
in the Godfather: "It's just business," without the killing.
The fact is, deep down it's easier to be nice to people. Except maybe for
Sam Schwartz.
I've been around fans when meeting a composer--generally an awkward
experience--and I just wish all of you guys could do it more often, or
at all, because after a while you mellow out and can actually have a conversation
without being self-conscious and geeky. (Another reason to do the next
best thing and buy
our Basil Poledouris documentary!) I've maintained all along that what
I would really like to see is honest discussion and evaluation of film
scoring as an art form and also as an aspect of an enormous industry. It's
a really cool cultural as well as artistic thing. (I think it's the smidgen
of honesty that FSM has, in addition to the craziness, that sets us apart
from other zines.) I think if every geeky fan spent a day or, for it really
to work, a week with a well known composer (or any celebrity), we'd all
have much smarter discussions. All the tension and defensiveness would
disappear and we'd realize that composers are people who work for a living
like everybody else and who are aware of the merits and demerits in most
things they do.
Have a nice day.
Mr. Namedropping soundtrack nerd from an island back east: Lukas@filmscoremonthly.com
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