This News Friday 3/27/98

by Lukas Kendall

Jeff Bond and I just got back from seeing the Los Angeles Philharmonic under Esa-Pekka Salonen perform Jerry Goldsmith's "Music for Orchestra," a 1972 concert work that sounds like all the cool atonal parts from Planet of the Apes, The Illustrated Man, The Mephisto Waltz and The Satan Bug rolled into one. It's a terrific piece, 8 min. long, and the performance tonight -- its first in 25 years -- was brilliant. The rest of the concert was great too: Shostakovich's Piano Concerto No. 2 (very playful), Mendelssohn's Symphony No. 4 (a bit of a haul) and Copland's El Salon Mexico (1936--sounds like a great western score, not surprisingly).

If you are in the Los Angeles area you owe it to yourself to get to one of the other performances: it's tonight (Friday) at 8PM and Saturday at 8PM. There is a pre-concert lecture at 7PM, part of which is a Q&A with Goldsmith, who was wearing a very nice suit and who was later introduced after the stunning performance of his piece. Call 213-850-2000. Jeff and I just showed up and bought tickets (good ones) a half hour before the lecture, but I wouldn't recommend that for Fri. or Sat. The LA Phil play at the Dorothy Chandler Pavillion at 1st and Grand, downtown, right off the 110 and 101.

Wait, fear not! Even if you are not in LA you can hear this kick-ass work: it's being broadcast the week of May 25, 1998. I don't know yet on what radio channel, or if that's web only, but see www.laphil.org.

Reaction Most Overwhelming

Thanks to all the people who wrote in last week about what they want on CD and their buying habits. It's a lot of data to collate and we'll respond at a later time. Suffice it to say the responses have been most articulate and helpful.

Oscar reaction has also been passionate and we'll post those comments on Monday. The "in memoriam" music was from Randy Edelman's Dragonheart, by the way, and if you were wondering which piece was Goldsmith's new Oscar fanfare, man, so were many people. It started the telecast and was heard over a few bumpers but was largely absent.

Williams Project

From: Michael Schuermann <mschuermann@bigfoot.com>

About John Williams's Upcoming Project With the LSO: I did some digging about what Williams was recording with the LSO, and managed to find that he would be recording music of Gershwin with them... wasn't able to determine what pieces in particular.

Good work, sleuth.

Answer Time

Okay, the following, plentiful bits of information are in response to various items raised last week. In other words, last week I was lazy and asked readers to answer questions for me, and they did. Now I'm being lazy and printing their answers verbatim. I love my job.

Pirates of Penzance

From: David Ferstat <dferstat@iinet.net.au>

The latest new releases list from Soundtracks Direct, the mail-order division of Silva Screen records, includes a listing for: The Pirates of Penzance: First CD release for this 1981 Broadway Cast Recording of the Gilbert & Sullivan Operetta starring Kevin Kline and Linda Ronstadt. Cat: WA 601" (label not specified)

It is a 2-CD set, and will cost, apparently, 35.90 pounds plus freight (which would be 6 pounds air-mail). It may not be the film, but it must surely be an improvement over a Broadway cassette.

From: "harryson shinn" <jerjerrod@worldnet.att.net>

With regards to Pirates of Penzance, the original broadway cast recording, with literally the same cast as the film, save Angela Lansbury, has been released as a double cd by Elektra (Elektra 601-2). Apparently they've remastered the thing since it sounds wonderful. It's also great to hear the both acts in their entirety without having to turn the vinyl lp over midway through!

The Sting Question

From: "Jeffry D. Heise" <jdh@socialstudies.com>

Someone had a question on the use of Joplin's "The Entertainer" in THE STING. According to director George Roy Hill, he considered himself a fair piano player and had always loved playing and listening to ragtime music, and it was his idea to use Joplin's music in the film, even though the time period for the music and the story were about 25-30 years apart. Either a family member or a close friend heard his piano playing and told him to contact Marving Hamlisch, who had a talent for adapting certain types of music and had already scored Woody Allen's first two films as well as composing the music for A CHORUS LINE and working on THE WAY WE WERE.

Hill probably chose the music because of the rights question but also because with the exception of "Maple Leaf Rag," no one was playing Joplin's music and so it would all seem fresh and not familiar. Hamlisch later said that that was the reason he ruled out "MLR" was because of its familiarity. It must have worked, because even though the ragtime revival has most definitely ebbed since, at least all the music (and those of other composers) is still available to us.

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

I was around at the time of the release of The Sting, and Joplin's music was resurrected for the project. I recall a lot of interviews with Hamlisch, who at the time noted the use of ragtime for the movie was really out of period, but the material seemed to fit so well. I don't recall him pointing out that copyright had expired...but then you wouldn't expect him to, would you? Hamlisch got a lot of attention for the score, which really wasn't any more than adaptation and arranging (which, admittedly, he did very well...and certainly helped bring some attention to Joplin's probably otherwise neglected work).

From Preston

From: Preston Jones <pjones@fulpat.com>

1) I'm glad to know there are other Vince Guaraldi fans in filmscoredom. I don't know if the album is available on CD, but perhaps Mr. G's most beautiful melody was "Theme to Grace" in his concert from Grace Cathedral. A kids' chorus humming along with the composer's piano -- highly recommended for Charlie Brown appreciators. (The halting, tentative rendition by George Winston on his recent Guaraldi tribute album was disappointing.)

2) ALL THAT JAZZ recalls a story the late Mr. Fosse once told about waiting to be wheeled in for one of his real-life open-heart surgeries. His lawyer arrived with BF's latest Last Will and Testament; Fosse signed, then asked his assembled friends to sign as witnesses. All dutifully did so, except Paddy Chayevsky, who first proceeded to read the Will, paragraph by paragraph, page by page. Fosse tried to assure him that this was unnecessary, but P.D. countered: "I sign nothing I don't read." No one could persuade Chayevsky to hurry up and, when he'd finally read the whole will, he said, "I notice that my name appears nowhere in this document." Fosse, taken aback, acknowledged, "Well, yes, Paddy, I think the world and all of you, but you're right, you don't happen to be a beneficiary." Whereupon Chatevsky handed the unsigned will back to Fosse with the words: "F--- you: live!"

We have blanked out the last three letters of the f word above because some of the people who read our column are square and take offense at such things. Although evidently that hasn't caused anyone on our message board to behave. Preston Jones, by the way, knows more about Hans Salter music than anyone on the face of the planet. Hi, Preston!

Ferris Bueller Answers

From: David Koran <d_koran@acs.org>

I just did some tracking down of the music used in Ferris Bueller, and found that all but three of the pieces can still be found and purchased. The pieces that can't be found (below) could probably be found in the library of your local alternative/progressive rock radio station.

Blue Room - "I'm Afraid" (sequence from them at Lake Michigan) The English Beat - "March of the Swivel Heads" (when Ferris runs home at the end of the movie).

Dream Academy - "Please Please Please Let Me Get What I Want" (The instrumental piece from when they were in the art museum)

The Flowerpot Men - "Beat City" (the tracking shot of Ferris and the crew driving into Chicago at the beginning of the movie)

The score was composed by Ira Newborn of "Police Squad / Naked Gun" fame (also an interesting score to "The Late Shift" [HBO Movie]). There has not been a release of a soudntrack album (or plans to). Please read the FAQ located at www.filmmusic.com/faq/ for more details.

From: Michael Rose <flippy@yucc.yorku.ca>

The song Andrew (from last week) is trying to remember is "Oh Yeah" by the Swiss band Yello, which is by no means their greatest work but is undoubtedly their best known. It is widely available on several Yello albums including "Stella", "1980-1985", and "Essential Yello". John Hughes seemed to like them rather well as he also used bits of their music in Planes, Trains and Automobiles. They have also scored numerous films including Nuns On The Run and The Adventures of Ford Fairlane.

Bond Question

From: Ian Robinson <IRobiUK@aol.com>

Those Bond CDs refered to on your page have been out here in Britain since Goldeneye, priced at £10 (about $15). They were part of a whole re-issue thing involving the videos as well. I don't know the label but they're straight CD versions of the original LPs. So far, they've only released up to Live and Let Die.

In case anyone is wondering what the above is about: Rykodisc is the record label that has entered into the exclusive MGM soundtrack deal: they recently reissued Octopussy on CD and will release The Living Daylights (with extra music) on June 9. Meanwhile, some U.K. label is reissuing some of the earlier Bond soundtracks but without any extra music. Rykodisc is unable to tackle these earlier Bond titles right away due to a rights hang-up between MGM and EMI.

Horner Corner

From: Martin Paternoster <mpater@primustel.co.uk>

I read somewhere that Battle Beyond The Stars was unlikely to be released on CD because Horner hated the performance. Would it not be a good idea for Horner to re-record the score to his liking?

I'll bet that Horner is embarrassed by the entire project (his score is full of rip-offs, blatant even by his standards) and would never want to re-record it.

From: Zack Appleton <abyss@eden.rutgers.edu>

In the weeks before the Oscars, NPR had a series in which nominated scores were reviewed and critiqued. I was only able to catch the last one, which was last Sunday, I believe, and it was Titanic that was getting the once-over. The thrilling moment for me was when the reviewer (I didn't catch his name), commented rather diplomatically on James Horner's propensity for plagiarism, then (this was great), played the docking sequence cue from Capricorn One and then that similar ostinatto pattern as written in Titanic. The guy also commented that Titanic wasn't the first score in which Horner uses Goldsmith's riff. I'm sure that this didn't make a bit of impact on die-hard Horner fans, but at least it's been brought to attention in a national forum. The reviewer then gave his favorites to win, choosing L.A. Confidential over Titanic in dramatic score.

I did not hear this but several people mentioned it on our message board. Evidently Horner was asked backstage after his Oscar win about whether he was influenced by Enya for Titanic, and he responded that anything Irish with a female voice is going to sound like Enya. He was then asked about how he was paid for Titanic (front-end vs. back-end, stuff like that), and he denied whatever the question was, and said something like "I don't really feel comfortable talking about this." For once, I don't blame him. (This was reported in The Hollywood Reporter.) By the way, Horner will make between $20 and $30 million on Titanic overall. I must apologize to my grandma for mentioning that, because as she rightfully says, don't count other people's money.

Nosferatu

From: Alan Vallely <avallely@julian.uwo.ca>

I was just wondering if you knew of or could post any information on NOSFERATU: A SYMPHONY OF HORROR. I've noticed that there have been two versions released in the last 3 years: RCA in '95 and Silva US in '98. The RCA release has the original composer's name (ERDMANN) on it, but the recent Silva release has the composer "BERNARD" listed. I have seen the laserdisc and love the organ pieces, and I wondered which one is the best one? I've heard that Bernard's is a full orchestra, but does it make it "better"?

The Bernard album is a new score while the Erdmann album is the music that (I assume) was originally written to be performed with the film. Jeff Bond has reviewed the Bernard album for our May FSM (due, amazingly, in May)--he liked it a lot and it should be more to the liking of film music buffs... and especially fans of Bernard's Dracula scores.

Trailers

From: James Luckard <jjl4h@server1.mail.virginia.edu>

In answer to Zach Abella's question, the music in the "Dragon" trailer, which was a truly amazing trailer, was straight out of Randy Edelman's score for the movie. It includes the sweeping theme, best stated at 3:47 in track 15, "The Dragon's Heartbeat."

From: CronoStr <CronoStr@aol.com>

Can you tall me anything abnout the score for LOST IN SPACE? Do you know if the score is the one on the TRAILER at the LOST IN SPACE web site?

Someone just told me what's in here but I forget already... Dan Goldwasser, are you there?

From: thrawn8@juno.com (Matt Martyniuk)

Hi! I was just wondering if you or anyone knows who composed the music on some of the New York Times commercials currently airing on the east coast, and if that music is available on any CD or as a download on the net. Thanks a lot!

From: Snazap <Snazap@aol.com>

In The Fifth Element, when Korbin decides to help Leelo and the insuing car chase begins, they play a raging cool song, that is not included in the soundtrack for the movie. I have searched and searched to no avail. Can you help me on this?

Okay, that last one's not a question about a trailer, but it's sort of phrased like one.

Composers Sound Off

From: "Daniel M. Ragle" <dragl@provide.net>

I just finished reading your informative article "So you want to be a film composer?" on your web site, and I have a question. What is the best way for a film score wannabe (like myself) to get work where I would be exposed to the overall process of creating a film score as it happens? While I am vaguely familiar with the concepts of creating a film score, I would welcome the chance to work in an environment where I could work up to a position as a music editor or the like (and then perhaps into the actual scoring). Obviously, this is not the type of stuph one just "steps into" (or at least, I would assume it isn't) and it's difficult for the avearge dweeb (again, such as myself) to know where to start.

I'm asked this many times, and the one answer is Los Angeles. I do not mean this as a "My city is better than your city" statement--after all, I'm from Massachusetts and only recently moved here myself. But if you want to be in the movie (and movie music) business, don't make it even harder for yourself than it already is. LA is the place to be. And once you're here there are all kinds of menial jobs you can get at copyist places, recording stages, agencies, etc. where you can soak up knowledge. And remember, personal contacts are more important than personal competency--for which we are always grateful at FSM when we hang out with our cool friends and act like morons.

Holy cow, I almost forgot. This Saturday in LA is this year's SCL (Society for Composers and Lyricists) and Hollywood Reporter film music conference. It's all day, at the DGA building, and costs over $100, which should make it of interest to professionals and not really fans. Keynote speaker is Elmer Bernstein, and Alan Silvestri and Stewart Copeland are among the many scheduled guests. Call the Reporter at 213-525-2000 and ask for the extension relating to the conference. Do it, quick! They might be all registered out.

Send all of your fabulous comments and have a helluva weekend: MailBag@filmscoremonthly.com