Film Score Friday 7/2/99
by Lukas Kendall
I saw the South Park feature last night, and it's a sad commentary
on the state of the art that this is the best Hollywood musical in decades.
Look for the on-screen animated cameo of Marc Shaiman as the pianist for
Big Gay Al.
Randy Edelman is tentatively scheduled to sign CDs at Borders in Westwood
on July 15. This is sponsored by Milan, who are releasing Edelman's score
for the Civil War submarine story The Hunley, and earlier released
Gettysburg. There will probably be a Q&A as well as a signing
session. Stay tuned for more info.
Patrick Doyle Sneak Preview
From: "Gaumont Télévision Documentaires" <jcharuet@gaumont-television.com>
Patrick Doyle has reunited with director Regis Wargnier, scoring
East West, the lastest thriller from the Academy Award winning director
of Indochine. After a long hiatus following his fight against illness,
I am glad to report to his (many?) fans that composer Patrick Doyle's latest
score is also one of his three or four best. The movie is set in Russia
in 1946, following the life of a french family returning to live in Odessa
on the invitation of the Soviet government. Unfortunately, it is the beginning
of the cold war and things are not what they seem. Marie (Sandrine Bonnaire)
remains stranded on Russian soil with her husband and nine year son, unable
to return to France. She pleads help from a famous French comedian(Catherine
Deneuve) on a tour of Russia. The plot successfully blends romance, deceit
and political thriller.
Patrick Doyle's score is the perfect complement, although unlike
Indochine the score is used sparingly for the two hours running time. The
main title starts with a proud epic theme, bringing back memories of Frankenstein
and Hamlet (Go bid the soldiers shoot). Doyle wrote a secondary theme for
Marie (Sandrine Bonnaire), the main character in the movie. It is a romantic
theme full of longing, imbued with Doyle's gift for gorgeous string melodies.
Then there is a third theme, featuring splendid piano writing in a sort
of "mock concerto" style which is heavily influenced by the Russian
composers Doyle and Wargnier admire so much, although the style is definitely
Doyle's own. The end credits display a gorgeous rendition of the main theme
scored for orchestra and male chorus. in a nutshell, this is high quality
Patrick Doyle which should please his (not so) many fans. For once again,
Doyle proves he is one of the most distinctive composers around. The music
was recorded in Bulgaria and the soundtrack album will be released by Sony
Classical in late august when the film opens in France.
I have a feeling Patrick Doyle is not one of the current four or
five favorite composers. It is a shame because I think he always avoids
repeating himself musically (James Horner, are you listening?). I hope
you will feature Mr. Doyle in your mag soon. Although East West is a french
movie and will therefore receive little cover in the United States, Doyle
is also scoring Kenneth Branagh's upcoming movie: Love's Labour Lost. It
is a Shakespearean adaptation, this time transposed in the early twenties.
Reportedly, Doyle adapted and weaved a lot of Irving Berlin and Cole Porter
songs in his score. I can not wait to hear the results... Pat is back!
Q&A Regarding Jeff Wilson's Japanese Film Music Column
From: "Anthony J. Botteon" <botteon@earthlink.net>
I've been looking for the Yojimbo soundtrack for years, and was
really pleased to find Jeff Wilson's review of a complete boxed set of
soundtracks to Akira Kurosawa's music. After reading your review, though,
I trolled the Web with no luck to find the boxed set (or, ideally, Disk
3). Is Futureland a Japanese label? Can you tell me who distributes it
here in the states?
And Jeff's answer...
From: "J/K Wilson" <wilson@teleweb.net>
As for who distributes the Kurosawa set, it isn't put out by anybody
in the States. Footlight Records have it for $119, but there is a Japanese
site called CD Japan (www.cdjapan.co.jp) which sells Japanese CDs, LDs,
DVDs, and videos to international customers for the Japanese street price,
which in this case comes to $85 before shipping and handling. There are
probably other places, and one might be able to order it locally if one
has a quality record store that has a good import service. I work in a
record store and got it through our importer, but they don't sell to the
general public, only to music retailers. Hope this helps.
Concert Info
From: Jeff Berkwits, ASTERISMSF@aol.com
Just thought I would let people in Southern California know that
the San Diego Symphony will be performing a 'Pops in Space' concert on
July 16 and 17. Here's what the ad, in the local San Diego Reader, says:
"Yearning for a little 'star' quality? Join us for an evening
of musical favorites from throughout the galaxy, including themes from
Hollywood's legendary sci-fi classics such as 2001: A Space Odyssey, E.T.,
Star Trek and a Star Wars medley of epic proportions featuring The Phantom
Menace!"
Based on the ad alone, it sounds almost exactly like the program
played by the Fort Worth Symphony Pops Orchestra. I don't know about the
business behind such performances, but are programs like these offered
as packaged deals for various ensembles throughout the country to play?
DVD Info
From: Dennis Schmidt <sfkstater@home.com>
A heads up if you weren't aware is that an isolated score of the
documentary "The Medicinal Value of Laughter" is on the newly
released DVD of Patch Adams. The score is by Marc Shaiman and supports
the 20 minute =/- documentary. The music seems to be all from the film
itself. The DVD packaging does not refer to this bonus feature.
Galactica!
In response to Jeff Bond's review of the new CD:
From: EPaddon@aol.com
Jeff wrote: "Galactica took an idea that was charmingly unsophisticated
(Star Wars) and turned it into something that was just plain dumb."
Uh-uh, Jeff. Galactica is still popular with it's fans after all
these years not because we fondly remember the FX but because it had far
more interesting characters and an easier concept to relate to (though
all of us Galactica fans do wish we could shove Muffit out an airlock)
than anything Star Wars ever served up with more definable personalities.
And today, we end up having inferior shows like Voyager that all but rips
Galactica off in it's premise with less intersting results! Also, Galactica
was the first sci-fi show since the first six episodes of Lost In Space
that tried to maintain some semblance of continuity and character development
from week to week, which is something one could never say of Star Trek.
This show has gotten too much of a bum rap IMO because of George
Lucas's petty lawsuit that a lot of people don't realize he lost on all
counts. And his filing it was the ultimate hypocrisy to begin with, given
how much he borrowed from other sci-fi genres to come up with Star Wars
(it in fact almost led to Universal refusing to let Steven Spielberg direct
Raiders, because of their anger with Lucas in the wake of the suit.)
Also, I couldn't disagree more with the comment that only disc one
is worth listening to in the four CD-set. I think Phillip's work for the
latter two part episodes, "Lost Planet Of The Gods", "Gun
On Ice Planet Zero", "Living Legend", "War Of The Gods"
and the last show "The Hand Of God" (the best episode of the
series IMO) also make outstanding listening as well.
Barry Tempi
From: thomas <thomasc@nowtranslations.com>
While I think that overall, the new Silva/Raine Zulu is the best
John Barry attempt so far and I left a good review over on Amazon, I can't
help thinking that there's something different besides tempos and phrasing
and that is: are some of the notes actually different? I know I've been
listening to a mono recording of the original all these years, yet it sounds
to these sensitive ears like things like the big timpani burst finale (among
others) aren't the way Barry wrote them. Any other listeners with the same
experience?
Links
Earl Green has an interview with Evan Chen, composer of the Babylon
5 spinoff series Crusade, at http://www.theLogBook.com/music/i_evan.html
Bob Benson has put together a feature on his website of interest to
fans of the late Charles Gerhardt -- it's a chronicle of his four-decade
friendship with the late conductor, with many never before seen photos.
See http://www.concentric.net/~classcd
Have a happy 4th! If you can't access June's FSD articles by the way,
don't worry, they'll be archived soon. Thanks!
MailBag@filmscoremonthly.com
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