Mail Bag 1959

Responses by Arthur Lintgen

See Arthur Lintgen's article on the best of 1959's film scores, and vote in our ongoing poll. Here are some responses to his article, with his rebuttals:

From: Sean Carpenter <SCarpenter@cpr.org>

Arthur Lintgen's snippy article about 1959 does nothing to further the cause of film music appreciation. As someone who clearly knows quite a lot about film music from this period, he has the perfect opportunity to help less-experienced film music fans learn about - and maybe learn to enjoy - film music that in a real sense is before their time. Instead, he takes the stance that film music can only be truly appreciated if you know as much as he does:

"This is primarily an exercise for people who recognize the importance of film music, and acknowledge that Williams, Goldsmith, and Horner are part of an artistic evolution that extends back to the nineteenth century and before."

Well, how about instead of getting together Lintgen's exclusive club, why don't those who know share what they know without resorting to this kind of attack:

"Those of you who think the world of film music begins and ends with Williams and Goldsmith, and spend most of your time making petulant arguments as to which one of them is better (like, who cares? Be thankful for both of them!) ."

Better to read Lintgen's petulant arguments about Golden Age composers?:

"Herrmann was either sulking or being ignored by ignorant directors." Or writing North by Northwest - or about to write Psycho. "Rozsa really had little to say after El Cid, which was to follow in 1961." Gosh - he didn't seem to think so. What about his Piano and Cello concertos? His solo sonatas? His later scores?

"[Waxman] was writing dissonant, atonal film music long before it became fashionable to rave over Mr. Goldsmith during the same thing as if it was something new original."

Atonal? Are you quite sure? No key signatures at all? And you'll have to point out the Waxman score that matches Freud or Planet of the Apes for dissonance and serialism.

Lintgen is right to highlight scores for films that are not often seen or heard today. But if his goal is to entice others who may be quite legitimately unfamiliar with them, then he would do well to stop acting his Golden Age.

I am grateful that I it has been so long since I have seen Anne Frank and On the Beach that I am not qualified to contribute to the poll. Here's hoping Mr. Lintgen has a similar opportunity in future to refrain from sharing his opinions.

Yes the article is a little "snippy,"but that was designed to stimulate discussion, which it certainly did. "Exclusive" is Mr. Carpenter's word, not mine. I feel that anyone who is seriously interested in film music should acknowledge the influential importance of the music of the Golden Age to contemporary composers. My operative term would therefore be inclusive, not exclusive. The history of music is a history of influence. The critic Irving Kolodin wrote a fascinating book on the subject called "The Continuity of Music."What is applicable to Beethoven and Mozart can also be applied to Williams and Goldsmith. That is hardly an insult. Williams and Goldsmith do not exist in a stylistic vacuum. To deny the influence of the Golden Age composers is to ignore the obvious. Mr Carpenter's comment that he is grateful for not having seen Anne Frank and On the Beach recently certainly implies a narrow outlook. Or was that just a petulant remark?

The constant bickering over Williams and Goldsmith (who is better) is ,to me, ridiculous. They are both geniuses. Do music lovers constantly debate whether Beethoven or Mozart is better, or do they intelligently discuss their music? Beyond that, it is a matter of taste.

It is common knowledge that Herrmann was his own worst enemy in that his attitude often forced directors to avoid utilizing his prodigious talent. I did say the directors were ignorant! By the way, Herrmann (along with Korngold, Waxman, and Williams) is my favorite film composer.

Rozsa's concert music is not under discussion. His film music after 1961 was negligible compared to what he wrote earlier.

Scores such as The Nun's Story and Mr. Skeffington contain dissonant and atonal passages within the overall context of stylistically heterogeneous music, something which was quite progressive in those days. No one said the whole scores were atonal. And if they were, would that in itself make them better? Is music better simply because it is dissonant or atonal? Are Goldsmith's serial scores his best scores? I think not. It depends more on how good the music is than what the style is. Concerning originality and modernism, serialism was avant-garde in the early twentieth century. By the fifties, it was already becoming passe as evidenced by the fact that highly acclaimed doctrinaire serialists like George Rochberg were abandoning it for neo-romanticism. Calling serial music avant-garde in the sixties and seventies simply does not pass historical scrutiny.

Mr. Carpenter's comment about my age (whatever that may be) is offensive. Is he implying that you have to be older to appreciate the music of the Golden Age? If so, I guess you would have to be 200 to appreciate Beethoven.

From: Bjmj2000@aol.com

All the scores are great, even PILLOW TALK by the underrated Frank DeVol.

BEN-HUR is fine, but I find it too gargantuan to really enjoy. It's more like the score to 2 or 3 films.

DIARY as you say can be cloying but I'm a big fan of Newman so I enjoy that aspect of his music.

ON THE BEACH is essentially the one song done in various ways, though each interpretation is brilliant.

THE NUN'S STORY is by far the best of the five. It conveys and strengthens the whole range of emotions in the film. From the tension and terror of "Killing of Aurelie" to the somber melancholy of "Father's Death", this lush score represents at his best at the sunset of his career.

From: Philip Harwood, Masteryid@aol.com

I wish to comment on the article written by Arthur Lintgen about filmscores of 1959. Between 1985 and 1988, I produced a film and broadway show music program for WRHU, 88.7 FM (Hofstra University's radio station), titled SOUNDTRACK. One of the topics was an hour devoted to Filmscores of 1959. Back in the late 1980's, there wasn't as much available in restored or reissued soundtracks available. Most of the recordings I used came from albums. My restrospect on 1959 filmscores included much air time devoted to Rozsa's Oscar winning score to Ben Hur. I also included excerpts from Herrmann's Journey To The Center of The Earth and North By Northwest, Newman's Diary of Anne Frank and The Best of Everything, Elmer Bernstein's The Miracle, Waxman's The Nun's Story, and ended the program with Steiner's A Summer Place. I always think, with the mutlitude of scores now available on CD, what I would also include in that program, if I were doing SOUNDTRACK today: North's The Sound And The Fury, and Kaper's Home From The Hill (recently made available on THE LION ROARS: FILM MUSIC FROM MGM 1935-1965), What a great year for film music, truly the last great year of the golden age of Hollywood!

The scores you list make an excellent case for 1959 being the best year ever. I share your enthusiasm for Home from the Hill -- in my opinion, Kaper's greatest score.

From: Dale Dworak <hmshyperion@yahoo.com>

In a recent Film Score Monthly essay Arthurn Lintgen wrote:

"Please vote only if you are familiar with all four scores. This is primarily an exercise for people who recognize the importance of film music, and acknowledge that Williams, Goldsmith, and Horner are part of an artistic evolution that extends back to the nineteenth century and before."

I have no problem with the first sentance. And because I have not heard all four scores, I did not vote. But I found the second sentance rather pretentious and arrogant, if not dimissive of what knowledge Mr. Lintgen's readers bring to his essay. Especially when the names Williams, Goldmsmith, and Horner could easily be replaced with Gold, Waxman, Rozsa and Newman or Wagner, Beethoven and Mozart.

Just tell me about the music, I value your opinions (even when I do not agree)and am interested in what you have to say and willing to learn more. But do not treat me as if I am ignorant. It simply destroys the rest of your message.

My comment was not meant to be arrogant, and if you or anyone else found it to be so, I am happy to apologize. However it was meant to be provocative -- to provoke and stimulate discussion of not only Williams and Goldsmith, but how they relate to Korngold, Waxman, Strauss, Wagner, Beethoven et al. And indeed they do. The problem is that some contemporary film music fans are interested primarily or even only in Williams and Goldsmith, and have no desire to investigate their prior influences. This is sad because they are missing a great potential source of pleasure. Thanks for your comments.

From: prossen@cmp.com

Very interesting article by Arthur Lingten. However, Rozsa's Ben-Hur is still in this writer's opinion one of the greatest scores ever written.. And that is nothing to take away from Waxman's Nun's Story.

However, if one reviews the film scores of 1960...only one year later, there is also a crop of scores that have remained classics since the time they were composed.

Namely, Herrmann' s Pyscho....Bernstein's Magnificent Seven...Tiomkin's The Alamo...yes, Gold's Oscar winning Exodus(I enjoyed it at the time and still do!) and perhaps the greatest score ever written...North's Spartacus.

Oh well, Korngold was gone but we still had Bernstein, North, Rozsa, Tiomkin, Newman, Herrmann and a new kid coming on...Goldsmith. Those were the days when every score was an event that truly lived up to it's composer's talents...

1960 was a great year, but I think not on the level of 1959. I personally don't regard The Alamo very highly as an original score. The Magnificent Seven is fun, but not on the level of the 1959 nominees. Psycho, of course, is great, and Spartacus is greater, but I would not call it the greatest score ever written. It is one of the Academy's greatest blunders that Exodus beat Spartacus.

From: Howard Liverance <HLiverance@tpa.HealthPlan.com>

Max Steiner may have been "relatively inactive" at the time, but his A Summer Place that year was another melodic gem. No, it was a great melodic gem which elevated a soapy potboiler into something more. A gorgeously photographed production with dialogue that was rather hard hitting for its day but at times shows its "datedness" 40 years later, the music nonetheless dignified a story of love lost, rekindled, and newly-discovered. Dignifying the imperfect human struggle to live and to love is something Steiner's works never failed to accomplish. The score to A Summer Place cries out for a full-blown release.

I agree. The extreme popularity of the Theme from A Summer Place (which is essentially "Tara's Theme" with a swinging rhythm) has probably detracted from the perception of seriousness of one of Steiner's most extravagantly lush and beautiful scores. I would like to hear it in modern sound.

From: "Ralph Hooper" <rkhooper@earthlink.net>

Arthur Lintgen asks for a vote on the best score among 4 of 1959's oscar nominated scores. I agree with him that Franz Waxman's Nun's Story ranks No. 1. However, I do not agree that Rozsa's Ben Hur was another in a long line of costume epic scores. It remains a great achievement and one of Rozsa's great works. As fine as William Wyler's work was on this film, it would not have been the same film without Rozsa's score. There were also other excellent scores not nominated in 1959. Steiner was certainly not inactive. Between 1959 and 1963 he had a run of excellent work, including two 1959 efforts, A Summer Place and the underrated western classic, The Hanging Tree. 1959 also saw Bernard Herrman;s witty score to Hitchcock's North By Northwest.

From: Chris Kinsinger <76263.2355@compuserve.com>

I enjoyed your assessment of 1959's Oscar nominated film scores. Thank you very much for an entertaining article. There was one statement you wrote that I'd like to respond to, concerning Bernard Herrmann's output during that time:

"Herrmann was either sulking or being ignored by ignorant directors."

My response: "HELLOOOOOO! ANYBODY HOOOOOME?"

Mr. Lintgen, if you're writing about the finest musical scores for a particular year, it's necessary that your research move beyond the Oscar nominated scores for that year. Following his triumphant score for Hitchcock's "VERTIGO" in 1958, Herrmann didn't break his enormous stride for a moment, producing absolutely amazing scores for both "NORTH BY NORTHWEST" and "JOURNEY TO THE CENTER OF THE EARTH" in. . .guess when!. . .1959!!! WOW! Oscar didn't even notice! SO I guess Herrmann must have been SULKING, or being IGNORED! Less than a year later he produced the scores for "PSYCHO" and "THE THREE WORLDS OF GULLIVER". If that's how Herrmann sulked, we should ALL take sulking lessons. I like your writing, Arthur. But you need to do a little better on your homework, OK?

From: "Russell, Kirsten" <RussellK@brevard.cc.fl.us>

I first saw THE NUN'S STORY and BEN-HUR at a most impressionable age and cannot rate the score for one more highly than the score for the other.

However, I was pissed then, and am still pissed, that Bernard Herrmann's score for NORTH BY NORTHWEST wasn't even nominated.

From: Alan Sheffield <arsheffield@telebot.net>

Perhaps I'm reading this wrong, but your comment:

Incidentally, the fifth nominee of 1959 was Frank DeVol's Pillow Talk. Given the Il Postino/Life Is Beautiful syndrome, it is actually surprising that Pillow Talk didn't win.

seemed a little negative towards the two foreign films. I haven't heard Il Postino, but I felt that Piovanni's Life is Beautiful was. . .well, beautiful. It is repetative, but with the two beautiful main titles ("Buon Giorno Principessa" and "Life is Beautiful") being so pleasant, repeating them didn't detract from the score. The small-orchestra period sound, as well as the integration of "The Tales of Hoffman" piece (does anyone else hear that fleetingly) do very well.

I don't recall reading a review for the score, and I'm interested to know what you didn't like about it.

There is nothing I didn't like about these two scores, and they worked reasonably well for the movies. But even allowing for my obvious bias toward more dramatic film music, I don't think Il Postino and Life Is Beautiful are Oscar caliber scores. Your descriptive term "pleasant" is perfect. And yes, that is "Tales of Hoffman."

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