This News Friday 6/19/98
by Lukas Kendall
I had all kinds of interesting things to say, then I stayed out too
late, so now I'm too tired and we have to cut right to the chase. Sorry.
Here's something amazing to announce... this was supposed to be a secret
for a little while longer, but the cat's out of the bag on one of the film
music mailing lists, so here it is: Rykodisc's upcoming Greatest Story
Ever Told album is not going to be a 2CD set. It's going to be a 3CD
set, which blows my mind. The first disc will be the original LP in
good stereo, and the second and third discs will have the actual score
from the movie. Incredible. I can't think of any other score to a single
movie that was actually released on 3CDs. I hope Alfred Newman fans are
doing backflips. It's due this August.
I got some letters from people who couldn't find copies of Rykodisc
CDs like The Living Daylights in their local stores. Hmm... try
mail order is all I can say. See our links
section. Ryko is independently distributed, but they should be carried
in most stores.
Site Watch
The Unofficial John Williams Home Page has been updated and given a
new home; check it out at http://www.classicalrecordings.com/johnwilliams.
http://www.movie-scores.com
is a new site all about Star Trek music. Actually, it features online
versions of recent radio programs about Star Trek, and also has sound effects,
rare photos and interviews.
What the Library of Congress Is Good For
The Performing Arts wing of the Library of Congress has published a
casebound, 269-page illustrated anthology, Motion Pictures, containing
numerous articles relating to film music: John Green's Raintree County
and "Twilight's Last Gleaming: The Americanization of Hollywood
Film Music, 1950-1965" (two separate articles, Ross Care); Herrmann's
Vertigo, with music examples (James McCourt); jazz in film (Patricia
Willard); the making of Night of the Hunter (Preston Jones); the
Marathon sequence in Olympia, with music-action layouts (Cooper
C. Graham); and short articles on Gene Kelly, Robert Saudek, and Gerry
Mulligan.
The book, edited by Iris Newsom, is available for $49.00 from the Library
of Congress, Sales Shop, 101 Independence Ave SE, Washington DC 20540;
or Superintendent of Documents, PO Box 371954, Pittsburgh PA 15250-7954;
fax: 202-512-2250. Stock number: 030-001-00172-51, ISBN: 0-8444-0937-5.
Rota Manuscript Help
If anyone has any info:
From: Donny Gilbert, <BflatM@concentric.net>
I have in my possesion a score of Nino Rota's that you people might
help me out with. Back in 1966, Rota wrote a Trombone Concerto, and the
score to this I know have. It is distributed in the US by Theodore Front
Musical Literature, Inc, but published in Italy by G. Ricordi and C Editori,
Milano.
The concerto is written for a small ensemble including 1 Flute,
1 Oboe, 2 Bb Clarinets, 2 Bassoons, 2 Horns in F, Timpani, Solo Trombone
and Strings.
If any body has any information or any leads to this piece or any
other of Rota's concert works, please let me know.
Composers Ages
The following are in response to the column
on Wednesday where I listed how old composers were when they did their
first feature or major feature:
From: CsinoSkunk@aol.com
Good question! Two reasons: Movies today are more geared towards youth,
and moviemaking today features younger directors, producers, and composers.
Also, many composers today come from pop and not classical backgrounds,
where they tend to get a lot of experience, and develop their "voice,"
at a younger age.
From: STLATSHAW@aol.com
Just a note... I believe John Barry was 27 when he composed the
score for BEAT GIRL (1960).
Now I wouldn't exactly consider that a major film credit, but neither
would I ROBOT MONSTER for Elmer Bernstein.
From: "Craig \"Krieger\" Beam" <krieger@internetcds.com>
From: Henry Fitzgerald, henry@coombs.anu.edu.au (Henry Fitzgerald)
You seem to be restricting your list to currently active composers;
but all the same, no list of this sort would be complete without ...
Ralph Vaughan Williams: The Forty-Ninth Parallel (69)
(And it wasn't a mere sport. He was a reasonably active film scorer
thereafter.)
Henry is correct--I should have mentioned this, but the list was of
only living composers. We'll put together another one for deceased composers,
including ages at final scores.
AFI Complaining
From: Lester Sullivan <lsulliva@mail.xula.edu>
Now that the vampirical Washington beaureaucracy that is the American
Film Institute has chosen its top one hundred movies of all time, how about
soliciting reactions from visitors to this web site? Although not entirely
limited to American movies--there are a few British ones there--the A.
F. I. list does seem limited: No French, Italian, German, or Japanese movies,
for one, very few silents, for another, and--keep nausea at bay--the inclusion
of such things as Rocky! What do FSM and FSD readers think about the list,
and what do they think about the scores of those one hundred movies? Also,
what do they think about the deal that the A. F. I. has worked with the
movie studios to release the one hundred in a video set that, in many cases,
will utilize older, bad transfers even of movies that have since been released
in better restored versions? (I would guess, in the case of the few widescreen
classics included, such as Ben Hur, probably in "pan and scan"
versions, too.) Also, why were such very recent things as Pulp Fiction
and Fargo included? No matter how good they may be, don't we lack the perspective
of time needed before we can deem them among the greatest? Was their inclusion,
as well as the preponderance of Spielberg movies (again, no matter how
good) as compared, for example, with the relative dearth of titles by Hitchcock--sadly,
no North by Northwest--somehow influenced by the prospect of the video
set? Finally, would we all care to work up a new list of the one hundred
greatest movie scores?
I saw some of this program and thought it was well done, but the list
is obviously geared to boosting the video rental business. Well if it makes
people rent Citizen Kane, that's OK with me. See the AFI's site
at: http://afi.100movies.com.
Star Wars Rumor Revealed as Gag!
From: Ian Robinson, IRobiUK@aol.com
I'm sorry but I had to laugh when I read the letter [last week]
from someone worried that Jonathan Cohen and not John Williams would be
scoring Star Wars Episode I. The article he mentioned is on Empire magazine's
humour page and is entirely made up.
The joke refers to the fact that Cohen used to do the music for
loads of British kids shows about 20 years ago. His most famous show was
'Playaway' where he did loads of songs and told us how to make music ourselves.
Pretty much most of Empire's twentysomething readership in the U.K. would
have got this, and it did make me smile when I read it, but I guess you
had to be there...
Thanks. What a relief! Actually, I had been wondering what this was
about. What a sucker. Henrik Jordan, who posed the question, also wrote
in to realize he'd been had:
From: Henrik Jordan <henrik.jordan@berlin.snafu.de>
I apologize for not having looked up this article by myself before
asking you guys about this business. But then again, when another friend
told me in 1995 that Eric Serra was going to compose the next Bond Score,
I nearly died laughing and did not believe it.
Good point.
Truman Show
From: Topher Yorks <cay112@psu.edu>
I saw a report on CNN this past weekend dealing with the music for
The Truman Show. It was interesting that director, Peter Weir, cited Philip
Glass as being the main musical inspiration for the picture whilst Burkhard
Dallwitz recieved the title and press credits. He also stated that he used
Pink Floyd's "Wish You Were Here" in the early stages of filming
to provide Jim Carrey with inspiration and insight into his (Weir's) intentions.
Did you happen to catch this? Any thoughts?
I didn't know that about the Pink Floyd song, but that's interesting.
I did not see this segment.
Trailers
From: Dan Goldwasser <dsg@soundtrack.net>
Responding to a question from last week: the music in question (the
choral bits) from the X-Files feature trailer is from ROMEO + JULIET (1996),
composed by Nellee Hooper. The track is "Escape From Mantua."
From: "Chris Tilton" <chris46@email.msn.com>
Randy Edelman seems to be getting lots of attention lately in the
line of preview music. I wonder where the popularity comes from. Most preview
music seems to sound inspiring, but when you look at it, it's full of typical
melodies and unoriginality. Edelman's Dragonheart used was used for Seven
Years and Tibet (and a ton of other movies) and it doesn't even come close
to John Williams's haunting theme. My friend has had me listen to many
Randy Edelman and James Horner scores, and I constantly tell myself, "you
know, this music kinda sucks, but it would make good preview music."
It seems that now I'm considering preview music as an insult to
the composer. What my point is that not all, but most preview music is
simply not that great. Instead of using good music, they use mediocre themes
that weren't ever considered great or good in the first place. I mean let's
face it, if Edelman's Dragonheart were not used in previews, then most
will have no idea what it's from. I have a question. Who do you (the readers
& editors) think makes the most common preview music, and what good
music would be more appropriate for previews. I call James Horner and Randy
Edelmman, preview composers because their work lacks originality (Randy
Edelman is not nearly as bad as Horner since he doesn't blatantly rip off
others), let's try to change that.
It is funny how Edelman's music is so consistently appropriate for trailers.
He just writes tuneful nuggets which are orchestrated in a very broad way.
A River Runs Through It Miscredit
Last
week we printed a letter from David Morgan (sorry David, I'm at home
and forget your first name, I think it's David) about A River Runs Through
It, saying he saw a version of the movie on TV with a music credit
for Elmer Bernstein. Bernstein scored the film originally, but Mark Isham
wrote a replacement score.
From: rnotch@pioneerpress.com (Rick Notch)
I believe it's possible Mr. Morgan saw a print with Bernstein's
credit because of the following. A couple years ago a local station in
Minneapolis ran "Fitzwilly," the 1967 Dick Van Dyke comedy scored
by Johnny Williams. However, the print provided to the station by MGM/UA
had no sound effects, only dialogue. And, no music by Williams. What it
had was a temp track made up of music from "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad,
Mad World."
It's possible the print of "A River Runs Through It" Mr.
Morgan saw was also an early print with a temp track.
Mr. Morgan has now actually sent me a videotape--which foolishly I haven't
watched yet--of I assume the broadcast with this mis-credit. I'm going
to check it out, probably around the time 12 people e-mail me about this
point.
From: thalfman@viser.net (Travis Halfman)
While attending film school at Montana State University, we watched
two scenes of the Bernstein-scored version of A RIVER RUNS THROUGH IT.
Apparently, the film was completed enough to have opening credits that
featured Elmer Bernstein's name instead of Isham's. The copy we saw was
pretty rough with time code numbers and little in the way of foley.
By the way, my professor preferred the Isham music but I found Bernstein's
opening title music (featuring a lovely piano theme) to be fairly good.
Isham's near-minimalistic music for the boating scene early in the film
was an improvement over Bernstein's, in my opinion.
Call for Suggestions
GNP/Crescendo is in the very preliminary stages of putting together
a compilation CD of western themes. They're interested in your suggestions!
Send your recommendations to MrGNP@earthlink.net.
Have a Nice Weekend
Go see the X-Files movie and we'll talk about the score. And
send your thoughts as always! MailBag@filmscoremonthly.com
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