Film Score Friday 12/11/98
by Lukas Kendall
Max Steiner fans, fantastic news: Screen Archives will be releasing
a 2CD of four original Steiner scores for United States Pictures: Distant
Drums (1951), Cloak and Dagger (1946, main and end titles),
South of St. Louis (1949) and My Girl Tisa (1948, 13 minutes).
Go here for the complete information: http://members.aol.com/RPFaiola/sperling.htm
Look for an article by Jeff Berkwits in the new issue of Cinescape
speculating on the music for the new Star Wars film. I'm one
of the proud, the few, the quoted. It's a good piece!
Star Wars Comments
Regarding the recent
column...
From: Markmgrant@aol.com
Your poll about who should score the new Star Wars if (heaven forbid)
John Williams were not to do so was very interesting indeed, as were the
various responses it generated. Personally, I voted for David Newman, simply
because, from the little I've managed to hear of him, he's a great composer
who could write in the appropriate 'big orchestral' style, and who has
not yet had enough recognition for his talents (particularly regarding
CD releases) - Star Wars would be a chance for him really to show what
he could do. However, I also agree that Basil Poledouris would be an excellent
choice. My personal favourite of all, however, would be Patrick Doyle,
whom for some reason I don't think anyone has so far mentioned. Admittedly,
Star Wars is a million miles (or several galaxies far, far away) from the
kinds of film he's been scoring so far; but in his short career he's already
proven to be one of the best and most interesting active film composers,
and demonstrated a versatility that would make his approach to Star Wars
fascinating.
On a different topic, I've noticed a couple of recent mentions on
your page about film music features in UK classical music magazines (specifically,
about Horner and Titanic). This month's Gramophone magazine has an excellent
40 page feature on film music, including interviews with Goldsmith, Fenton,
Wiseman and others, and many CD reviews. Best of all, one of the cover
CDs contains an otherwise unavailable recording of a concert Wiseman recently
gave in London. Definitely worth picking up.
Finally, just a quick plug for your video series...anyone who doesn't
have the Poledouris video should get it, it's great! I'm saying this, Lukas,
because I want more of the same! I hope this series will continue.
Thanks! See the info for the Basil
Poledouris video here.
From: Richard and Scott Hanson <srh@shore.net>
I was just thinking about what John Williams would think of all
this talk of "who would score the Star Wars films if he were unable
to". Well, I know Williams is not on the internet, so seeing as how
a lot of the replies in today's FSD refer to Williams croaking or getting
hit by a bus, that if someone in the industry happened to be reading this
stuff and happened to mention it to Williams in passing. You know how by
that time once it passes through the grapevine, the whole story changes
and the only thing that would make it through would be "Hey Johnny,
you know that the film score society are talking about what would happen
if you croaked and someone needed to fill your shoes for Star Wars? Pretty
funny huh?!" Now I know what you guys are doing is all in good fun-
I think it's a blast! But it would just be weird to see Williams' reaction
is all. If I know him well enough, he'd probably shrug it off and make
a joke about it.
Oh, I think he's smart enough to understand it.
Stepmom
From: Jim Fisher <JimF@aeimusic.com>
You probably know all this, but we got an advance to Williams' Stepmom
at work today, and I find it a typical (and I mean that in the best possible
sense) gorgeous and sumptuous score. Lots of beautiful string writing in
the "Accidental Tourist" style.
One additional thing of note, in the limited liner notes there is
a brief statement from Chris Columbus, and he makes quite a point about
"trust" between a director and composer;
"As a director, you are placing months of passionate work into
the hands of someone who will guide your film's emotional journey. It is
essential to give that person your trust, with the promise that they will
not only enrich your film, but elevate it to a higher level."
I thought these comments were interesting in light of the last minute
replacement of Mr. Doyle's original work.
Me too! I'd love to hear Doyle's score. But I just got the Williams
one and it is great. I hate "family drama" scores but this one
is so much smarter than the average bear.
Practical Magic
From: James Luckard <jjl4h@server1.mail.virginia.edu>
If nobody's already written in to say this, I wanted to let people
know that Warner has issued a new version of the "Practical Magic"
soundtrack, with Michael Nyman's two tracks replaced by two from Alan Silvestri.
It is otherwise identical, and has the same ISBN number, I assume this
means the copies out there will be the only ones.
I've been a Michael Nyman fan since being astounded by his "Gattaca"
score last year, and seeing "The Piano" for a class at school
here. I was looking forward to seeing "Practical Magic" with
his music, and was disappointed to see it with Silvestri's, which made
no impact on me whatsoever.
When I went into a record sotore today and saw this, and saw that
they had ten copies of the new Silvestri version, but only two left of
the Nyman, I took it over to the listening section. I was truly impressed.
I bought the CD for the two Nyman tracks alone, I don't know and
don't care if I'll ever listen to the rest, I thought his music was that
good. It's just too bad they tried to improve a lousy film by taking away
what seems to have been its one redeeming feature, a great score. Oh well,
at least this CD is out there, for now, until the copies out there sell
and the Silvestri version becomes the only one available.
I'd just recommend that if anyone has a store where they can listen
to CD's, they try Nyman's two pieces, I don't think they'll be disappointed,
they're fun, playful, and powerful.
I knew about this planned change but didn't know if and when it would
happen. Thanks for the info. Nifty collector's item!
Zimmer Piece
From: nils.holt.hanssen@fellesdata.no
Wow, great Zimmer interview! It actually made me want to buy more
of his CDs, which is odd because he kept talking about how he doesn't really
write very good music. The man's certainly got a personality.
He sure does... check out the interview
in question.
Bombay the Hard Way
From: kurkoskt@OIT.EDU
We got a rather interesting CD in at the radio station. It reminds
me of last month's article, Musical Diversity in Pittsburgh, by John Bender.
Bombay the Hard Way: Guns, Cars and Sitars is an compilation of
film music from Indian films by Anandji and Kalyanji Shah. The music is
from the scores they wrote during the 'Brownsploitation' period of Indian
film, after the James Bond and Blaxploitation films became popular in India.
The liner notes, by Rob Weisberg and Adrian Milan, are excellent,
although I wish they were longer for a subject I know so little about.
They give a short background on the Brownsploitation films and the two
composers.
Most of the tracks start with dialogue from the films- some in English,
some in whatever language was used in the film (I seem to recall that quite
a variety of dialects are spoken in India, and I wouldn't know hindi from
bagwhanashalinekiese). The music itself is similar to that of American
secret agent or blaxploitation movies- quick beats and jazzy rhythms. Some
do have an Indian influence to them- the melody has that 'swaami' sound
(that's the best I can describe it). At least one track is more traditional
music, with sitars and whatnot. Otherwise, most of it reminds me of music
from Enter the Dragon or a James Bond score, with some wah wah guitar and
jazzy arrangements. One of them is almost a direct rip off of Mission:
Impossible. Almost all of India's films are musicals, and the CD has a
couple of songs, although most of the tracks are score.
The most interesting part of the album is the names of the tracks.
If they are the names of the films that the pieces appeared in, the Indians
must have a sense of humor about their films. There's "The Good, the
Bad, and the Chutney', "Ganges A-Go-Go", "Fists of Curry",
"Punjabis, Pimps, and Players", and "Swami Safari"
to name a few.
It's a good album overall. The music isn't unlike anything you couldn't
already get from western composers, like Barry or Schifrin, but it's interesting
to hear the Indian versions, especially when the native instruments are
used. India has adopted so much of western culture that I'm surprised that
more of their products haven't made it to America yet. Anime and other
Japanese inventions seem to have caught on pretty well so far over here.
Cool! John Bender has indeed written about this CD for his January "Score
Internationale" in FSM.
The Power and the Glory... of NFL Films
From: Andrew Horowitz <andrew.horowitz@citicorp.com>
Sam Spence is the greatest film composer in my book. This CD is
only a sampling of consistently great uplifting pieces. He composed over
400 pieces running the gamut from fully orchestrated to pulsating electronic
and jazz pieces for NFl Films from the late 60's to 1990. Unfortunately
NFL Films does not use his music anymore - let them know if you miss it!
I sure do. Hopefully, more CD's will be released with this inordinate amount
of spine-tingling music.
I concur. Our January issue has a Spence/NFL cover story.
Current Poll
From: Matthew Bradford <m-bradford@nwu.edu>
But how could you leave A Simple Plan off your list of anticipated
movies? Everything I've heard about it has been excellent, and I'm extremely
excited to see Sam Raimi switch gears from frenetic camera moves and gore
(which he did wonderfully) to human drama. I'm equally excited to hear
what Elfman does with this new direction for Raimi, which will no doubt
be quite a departure from his previous Raimi collaborations on Darkman
and Army of Darkness. Without that as an option, though, I had to choose
Playing By the Heart, or whatever they're calling it now (I think Dancing
About Archatecture was much, much better, and much less generic) because
while I don't know anything about the movie, I've been anticipating the
soundtrack ever since you mentioned last summer that Barry would be returning
to his jazzier roots with this one.
I left it off... because I forgot! There are a lot of anticipated movies
this month, and I have to say I'm surprised that Goldsmith's Insurrection
score is the most eagerly awaited, and by such a wide margin. I thought
it would be Stepmom.
Psycho
From: jason.henry@lw.com
PSYCHO opens today on a cool winter day in Los Angeles theatres,
as well as around the nation, and what a delight to see Music by Bernard
Herrmann on the marquee 23 years after the great composers untimely death
on Christmas Eve 1975. Psycho marks the third re-working of a Herrmann
score since his death and only solidifies his continued presence on the
world of film and music and the lives of us who are endeared to his work.
The psychological nuance of Herrmann's music can lead to OBSESSION tantamount
to throwing every other film composers work out the window, but in the
end is just testament to his distinguished place in the medium, he reigns
past and present.
Incidentally, when Scorsese hinted on Taxi Driver that Herrmann
was beginning to introduce pop/jazz into his scores as "something
new in his work" I don't think Benny anticipated sharing screen credit
with Rob Zombie, Steve Earle and Psycho Sounds (Good God!) as collaborators.
Merry Christmas!
You too! I am the only person who thought the new Psycho remake
was cool. I liked seeing a 1960 film with '90s technology and actors. It
was a fascinating exercise.
Ed Zwick
From: Michael Worden Skerritt <mskerrit@umich.edu>
Just a side note, Glory was not Ed Zwick's first time directing
a film. It was actually About Last Night, probably known best as the only
time Demi Moore appeared nude in a film for less than 12 million dollars.
But hey, I'm sure Rob Lowe's powerhouse brooding just missed the top five
for nomination come Oscar time.
As for the score, I can only think that perhaps it was Horner who
dropped out of the project, and not Zwick. He's been very busy re-cycling
old material in the last year, and perhaps he was burned out. Of course,
that's just my opinion. I am definitely looking forward to MJY though,
considering Zorro, IMHO, broke him out of a long slump.
Other Poll Site
From: "Brian Donohue" <bjdonohue@hotmail.com>
Here are the final results in my November Survey of the top Sports
Scores and/or themes:
Gold Medal - THE NATURAL (Randy Newman, 1984) 15.6%
Silver - HOOSIERS (Jerry Goldsmith, 1986) 15.5%
Bronze - ROCKY (Bill Conti, 1976) 11.9%
4th Place - RUDY (Goldsmith, 1993) 9.5%
5th - OLYMPIC FANFARE (John Williams, 1984) 6.4%
6th - THE OLYMPIC SPIRIT (Williams, 1988) 6.3%
7th - FIELD OF DREAMS (James Horner, 1989) 6.2%
8th - GRAND PRIX (Maurice Jarre, 1966) 6.1% 9th -
SUMMON THE HEROS (Williams, 1996) 4.8%
10th - NATIONAL VELVET (Herbert Stothart, 1944) 3.6%
My December Survey deals with Westerns. Now there's a genre for
film score fans to get excited about...
Cool! Check out Brian's site at http://www.angelfire.com/md/filmscorefan/index.html.
See this page at amazon.com: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ts/browse-music/42/002-8058363-2021211
for a variety of interesting soundtrack lists, recommendations and interviews.
Have a great weekend!
MailBag@filmscoremonthly.com
| 
