Film Score Friday

by Lukas Kendall

Our message board is screwed up. Hopefully it will be up and running again and accepting messages today. Jerry Goldsmith's concert at Carnegie Hall is on October 4th at 2PM.

Japanese readers, Nori Kuga is presently exploring publishing a Japanese-language digest of FSM, both the web site and the hardcopy. There is a survey presently up at http://www.mars.dti.ne.jp/~sow/ which will help him (us) in his (our) plans. Check it out.

Trailer City

From: "Nick Rheinwald" <nrheinwa@emerald.tufts.edu>

The trailer for the new Drew Barrymore Cinderella-genre film "Ever After" has a really cool song that sounds like sort of a cross between Enya and Moby. Does anybody have any idea what it is?

Respondents on rec.music.movies said this was Loreena McKennitt's "Mummer's Dance" (the radio-friendly version) followed by Robert Miles's "Fable."

From: Dan Goldwasser <dsg@soundtrack.net>

Frequently asked answer:

The trailer to SAVING PRIVATE RYAN is actually comprised of COURAGE UNDER FIRE, and _then_ THE AMERICAN PRESIDENT. Why people forget the first half is beyond me. :)

In reply to the Friday FSD question, here's the lowdown (more or less) on the X-FILES trailers:

Trailer #1: Original music by Mark Snow

Trailer #2: Unknown percussion music, followed by ROMEO + JULIET

Trailer #3: same as #2

Basically, the large choral music with the techno beat is from ROMEO+JULIET, and is available on CD (the 2nd ROMEO+JULIET cd).

The first trailer's music (where you hear Scully say "Mulder?") by Mark Snow is not available, and wasn't in the film.

Re: Yesterday's Funny Letter

From: Eugene <matijczy@interlynx.net>

Greetings Villainous Ones:

Hopefully, both you, Lukas, along with Jeff, can easily ignore the censorship criticism being brandished your way. We all tend to be a bit emotionally affected by criticism whether it is true or not, even if this reaction is anger or mocking laughter at its falseness.

I have criticized both of you, Jeff for his love of Goldsmith's atonal music, and you, Lukas, for similar feelings towards John Williams' dull music. I particularly dislike how both of you at times argue by looking at one part of an argument and ignore the full argument presented. Nonetheless, I would never say that either of you are guilty of censorship, particularly in presenting intelligently argued views that criticise the views that either one of you express.

The views the two of you express leave plenty of openings for intelligent criticism. The views of these censorship claimants will hold little credibility in the future because of their present "cry wolf" criticisms.

Yeah! Too bad the message board is on the fritz today - it will only lead to more conspiracy theories (music by Carter Burwell).

Towering Williams

From: "Linda Smith" <firecracker@sprint.ca>

I was watching the NBC Nighty News and at the end the theme song came up. As i was listening to it I said to myself, "Hey I've heard this before." So later that night I decided to watch a movie so I popped in The Towering Inferno and there it was. The NBC Nightyly News' theme sounded exactly the same as the opeing main title for The Towering Inferno. Now I know that the main title for The Towering Infenro was written by John Willams but was the theme for the NBC Nightly News written by him and if so was it writen around the same time?

Yes and no: Williams did write the NBC news theme, but in the mid-1980s, whereas The Towering Inferno dates from 1974. I gotta jump in here and say that I can understand how the themes sound similar, but the melodies are different and I find each theme distinct. It's just a style of writing Williams has used... actually, if you want to know what it is, it's characterized by a very Coplandesque device of having a C Major chord over an F in the bass, or G Major over C (you see the pattern). It's all over Superman, too. It's cool.

DTS

Sender: dnedrow@dnedrow.inhouse.compuserve.com

I know I'll probably receive be flayed alive for saying this, but I'm excited about Fifth Continent's upcoming DTS releases (as I am about any number of upcoming DTS titles, both music and movie.)

I own a large number of DTS laserdiscs and music CDs. I'm one of those "strange" people who can hear a significant difference between DTS and Dolby Digital LD's with DTS always coming out ahead (in most cases dramatically so.)

Multi-channel DTS CDs are a great experience and remind me of some of the discrete sound tracks of long ago. The closest I've ever come to the type of experience DTS multichannel music recording/mixes yields is the original Cinerama version of "How The West Was Won". I had the good fortune to see this in Dayton, OH last year and was astounded at how enveloping the movie was (primarily attributable to the 7 channel soundtrack.) The score itself is one of my favorites, with the standout entre acte and intermission music sounding absolutely lifelike due to the multi-channel recording.

If I could by a DTS version of the original discrete HTWWW score, I would be in heaven.

As it stands currently, no original film scores are available on DTS CD and it's a shame. Titanic (ugh!) will likely be the first this fall, but I'll hold off for Fifth Continents titles to see how well they're produced.

In any case, I would have to agree with John Lasher and say try it before you deny it.

The cost of integrated receivers with DD and DTS capability is getting rediculously low (sub-$500), so cost really can't be considered an issue any longer.

Nice letter. Guess what? Fifth Continent has postponed its DTS releases until 1999 at the earliest. Sorry!

Garden of Evil

Garden of Evil is Bernard Herrmann's 1953 western score, recently recorded on Marco Polo. Last week I asked people what they saw in this thing, because, although I'm a huge Herrmann fan, I never could get into this one (when I saw the movie).

From: Michael Schramm <mschramm@ftw.nrcs.usda.gov>

I have to echo similar reservations to the Marco Polo release of Garden of Evil. Having waited since August 1996 for the release and also having read Herrmann biographer Steven C. Smith's glowing review that same year (wherein he stated that the recording was very "Herrmanesque") I had very high expectations. John Morgan and William Stromberg indeed deserve high marks for their devotion to the preservation of film music from the golden age (recent "King Kong" recording and compilations of music by Friedhofer and Newman) as well as their obvious understanding of the enormous contributions made by Bernard Herrmann to the world of film music (refer to the interview with Morgan on the Bernard Herrmann web pages).

However, in spite of the fact that Herrmann composed Garden of Evil near the pinnacle of his creativity, this score does not rank as high as a listening experience to me as say "Beneath the 12-Mile Reef" or "The Kentuckian", 2 films he composed around that same period. I would have been content with a 15 to 20 suite of the score featuring the most Herrmann sounding cues such as "The Mission". My favorite moment occurs about 40 seconds into "The Quarrel" as this was used to wonderful effect in the "Lost in Space" TV series, most notably in the episode "Follow the Leader" where the spirit of an ancient warrior invades the mind of prof. John Robinson. This is the only piece of music I've been able to hear from the original soundtrack as a comparison to the Stromberg conducted re-recording so I can't relate much (however that portion of the cue is too fast under Stromberg's baton). What is impressive is the Prince of Players suite, most notably the main theme--it illicits pure pagentry. It's amazing that this piece of music has gone virtually unheard for over 40 years.

So, while I won't play "Garden of Evil" as often as "North by Northwest" I'm still enormously grateful that producers and conductors like Morgan and Stromberg share the same enthusiasm for Herrmann's arresting compostional style and skill. I look forward to many more recordings in the future from these two, hopefully "Beneath the 12-Mile Reef", "Five Fingers" and "On Dangerous Ground" among them.

From: jason.henry@lw.com

As for Garden of Evil, Bombast?, repetitive? Sure!! but, to me at least, it is because it is such an odd score, particularly within those eerie string lines (listen to the end title as an example). Its not my favorite, but still a great score and the Marco Polo CD is growing on me.

From: "Mark Bagby" <bagby@calcot.com>

Probably because it's the only Western the great Bernard Herrmann ever wrote...so that rarity makes it, um, rare. And therefore valuable. And since it wasn't before available, and now it is...

You got me.

Armageddon

The following are in response to our Trevor Rabin/Armageddon cover story in the new July issue of Film Score Monthly. (Subscribers, if you don't have your copy yet, you should have it VERY SOON! Thanks for your patience.) ... which makes this another good time to remind people that the hardcopy version of our magazine has TONS of stuff not on this web site.

From: LucyJ1@aol.com

Thank you for printing my letter regarding Harry Gregson-Williams. Despite what Mr. Deppe of Germany stated, I still think Mr. Gregson-Williams is an extremely talented composer. Mr. Gregson-Williams has the ability to capture what is happening on the screen and creating the exact type of music to make the scene more intense, more suspenseful, or more heartfelt. We movie fans are fortunate to have so many talented composers, such as Mr. Gregson- Williams to make our movie viewing so vastly entertaining. I am confident he will continue to bring us many, many more wonderful, memorable and entertaining scores.

Also in this issue, your article on Trevor Rabin (Armageddon) was wonderful. I have seen the movie (The Best of the Year!) and have purchased the CD. As you indicated, fortunately a cut of Mr. Rabin's music is included along with the songs from the movie, however, it would be wonderful if an Original Score CD also came out as well.

At the moment, it is still undecided whether or not there will be an Armageddon score CD.

From: "James R. Auman" <jrauman@ncrb.org>

Just got the new issue, and was thrilled to see the Trevor Rabin article. Very little has been heard about Trevor since leaving "YES" and these are some of the first quotes I've read from him in a long time. What is strange about this situation, is that Film Scores and Trevor Rabin's music have been co-existed as favorites of mine for decades and now they have converged. I'm excited for Trevor, but at the same time cautious, 'cause I know the standards of film music that have been set by others. I'm not sure how many other film music enthusiasts have listened to Trevor's work prior to his film music. Those that haven't are probably enrolling Trevor into the Hans Zimmer club, due to his rock roots. Certainly, he his getting jobs that in the past have gone to the Media Ventures crew (Zimmer, Mancina, etc) so the comparisons can be justified. My take on Trevor is this: his greatest skill is his ability to come up with catchy, memorable melody. Whether this translates into great film scores or not, I believe it's too soon to tell. I found hope with Glimmer Man, but Con-Air was average. I did find myself humming the themes to Armageddon though, despite the less than average movie it had to accompany. I haven't heard Homegrown yet.

Subject: Women

From: stookie@pacbell.net

What are the chances of success for a female film composer, and how come there doesn't seem to be too many around?

I think overall your chances are as good as anyone's who wants to be a film composer: if you're talented, hard-working, good to work with, and persevere, you have a great chance.

However, I must add my totally cynical codicil. Skip this if it upsets you--that goes for anyone. Having been in L.A. now for a couple of years, I am convinced that many people (not all) manage to be successful based on their physical attractiveness. I've met writers, producers, agents - people who work behind the camera where it wouldn't matter how ugly they were - who are successful and also happen to be very attractive. And by the way, I'm talking mainly about men, even though men culturally can be ugly and more easily go on to great success.

I simple think people in general are a bunch of barbarians who find confidence in people with pretty faces and nice bodies. It shouldn't be that way but it's true.

In this respect, women film composers have two strikes against them... for one thing, film composing is male-dominated, that for women doing it, it's like, what are you, ugly? It's the same prejudice that women atheletes receive.

So, and I know this is going to sound awful, but I think aspiring film composers who are women should, simply for the sake of their careers, try to find a way to reconcile their music and their femininity, so that they don't scare men... this is cynical, I know. I'm not saying "have to" in that I care, but "have to" just as a career tactic. I don't even think this has to be an outward thing, but maybe more of a behavioral/confidence thing. Somehow the women who have been building great careers recently - Rachel Portman, Anne Dudley, Debbie Wiseman, and a few others - have managed to avoid being bimbos or writing Barbie music, but still, I don't know, they've played to their strengths.

By the way, Shirley Walker tells a story where she was up for some big action movie, and an executive just flat out told her, "I'm sorry, I just can't imagine a woman writing the music for this." (p.s. Shirley's awesome.)

Okay, has this been totally offensive yet? I'd be interested in hearing what other people think. I mean, isn't it screwed up that there are so few women film composers (or directors for that matter?). It's cool that the walls are finally breaking down... I'm just wondering if we're not too far away from a Miss America contestant saying "I want to be a film composer" and then doing it based on her looks. Remember, we are all barbarians.

Ooga Booga. Send your thoughts: MailBag@filmscoremonthly.com