Film Score Friday 12/10/99
by Lukas Kendall
Silva Screen is delving even deeper into re-recording John Barry --
they'll next tackle the complete score to Walkabout (1971) with
the City of Prague Philharmonic and Crouch End Festival Chorus, conducted
by Nic Raine. The album will be filled out with other Barry selections,
as the complete Walkabout is 25 minutes.
Coming on Tuesday from Sony Classical is the soundtrack CD for HBO's
The Sopranos. Not a note of score by this is a great collection
of music from the series.
John Williams reportedly recorded his score yesterday for the 16-minute
Millennium short film that Steven Spielberg has directed for broadcast
on New Year's Eve on CBS. He did it at Sony Pictures... around a mile from
the FSM offices. Meanwhile, FSM's editors sat around inside all day answering
email.
Angela's Ashes Sneak Peek
From: "David Coscina" <dcoscina@hotmail.com>
I just bought John Williams' score to Angela's Ashes and find it
quite good. As is usual with most Williams' discs of late, the CD opens
with what is ostensibly an overture featuring various themes from the entire
score. The main theme is a long spun melody which recalls everything from
Schindler's List to Seven Years in Tibet. This is not to say that it's
a total derivation from any of the composer's other works but it definitely
bears his stamp (which is good!). Funny enough, when I found out the nature
of the film, I somewhat expected to hear music resembling Far and Away.
To Williams' credit, there is none of that present. In fact, if anything,
Williams' drew upon English composer Vaughan Williams for some of the inner
material on the disc. But again, there aren't any direct lifts (and I'm
well acquainted with the a good deal of Ralph's work). Williams also cleverly
skips from folk type melodies encompassing a more modal framework to some
nice chromatic passages keeping the listener interested. As for the narration,
I look upon it as functional. Again, I'm used to several concert works
which have narration (Prokofiev's Ivan the Terrible oratorio) so it doesn't
bother me too much. In some ways, it serves as a better context for some
cues, especially for those who haven't seen the film. And, if you listen
to it enough, there is a certain rhythm and tempo to the narration. For
those of you who were greatly disappointed by The Phantom Menace, this
should fill the gap quite nicely.
Mr. Hankey Has a Special Treat for You
From: jyoung@pobox.com (Jonathan Young)
The new "South Park" Christmas album, "Mr. Hankey's
Christmas Classics," was co-produced and arranged by Marc Shaiman,
who also performed and co-wrote several of the songs. And it has a "Parental
Advisory" sticker on it, which is probably a first for a Christmas
album. Definitely worth picking up if you enjoyed the "Bigger, Longer
and Uncut" soundtrack.
Mission to Mars
From: Andrew Shepherd <cinema@falcon.cc.ukans.edu>
I also find it interesting that, according to the credits on the
trailer, Ennio Morricone will be collaborating again w/ director Brian
De Palma for the first time since the late 80s brought "Casualties
of War" & "The Untouchables," and Ennio's first mainstream
American film scoring assignment in nearly two years, since "Bulworth."
On the surface, "Mission to Mars" appears to be in the mode of
"Armageddon" (though hopefully much better), therefore seemingly
begging for a 'Team Zimmer'-type score. I hope Ennio is up to the task.
Almost certainly, his score will be a departure from the usual for this
type of film, which very well could be a blessing. Come March, we shall
see, or rather hear.
I was surprised to hear this as I had heard that Ryuichi Sakamoto is
doing the score -- Sakamoto scored De Palma's last movie, Snake Eyes.
I'm sure the truth will come out soon enough. I'd be happy with either
composer. Morricone is of course one of the greatest ever, but can be hit
or miss on American projects.
Lincoln LS Commercial
From: Sean Carpenter <SCarpenter@cpr.org>
Since you had several messages in the Film Score Friday column in
recent weeks, I thought you might want to print a solution to the mystery
of "What is the music in the Lincoln LS Commercial?"
I found an article (originally from May 1999) on the Advertising
Age website (a trade publication for advertising and marketing) on the
"Lincoln LS" ad campaign. The commercial is called "Surprising
Journey," and takes a trip from inside a piano to the CD the music
is playing on on to the CD slot in the car's dashboard etc...and on to
where the :30 second version starts, with a rook on a chessboard inside
a train inside a Swiss chalet.
As it happens, the music playing under the ad is original, composed
specifically for the commercial, which was directed by Gerard DeThame.
No word on who composed.
Thanks for the info!
FSM Products
From: "Tom Donoho" <cbdb@ix.netcom.com>
Was finally able to order the Vineyard Haven video documentary on
Basil Poledouris; an excellent profile of an equally excellent composer.
Unfortunately, it's only left me wanting more. Are there any plans whatsoever
for future installments in the series? With such a fantastic production,
I'm sure the volume of tape sales hasn't been a problem, and I've no doubt
the interest is there among FSM's many readers.
So, how 'bout taking us on that flight in Alan Silvestri's plane,
into Hans Zimmer's high-tech studio, or on that tour of Danny Elfman's
horror memorabilia? I'm sure I speak for every film music fan when I say
I'd love to see it.
We still don't have any plans to make another composer documentary --
which is too bad because they're fun and we're proud of the Poledouris
video. They're just too expensive, however.
From: "Jansen, Machiel" <machiel_jansen@nl.compuware.com>
Big Xmas present for me 'cause it's arrived! Yesterday the "Monte
Walsh" CD slipped into my mailbox so I'm very impressed with the extreme
fast service you provided, within one week!
The CD itself is superb, it's stunning, it's beautiful. It is truly
a hell of a release. Not padded with Bond songs or dialogs. It is exactly
what score-lovers like us want. Receiving a score that was never released
before is exciting but being it is a score with bonus tracks lasting almost
on hour is THE BEST!
If this was not clear yet, thanks, thanks. I hope you sell clean
out which in turn encourage you to release other unreleased (preferably
Barry) scores. Hopefully also Mr Walker and Mr Leonard or even Mr Barry
himself hear this cry-out. Not that I can really complain since I also
recently bought "Raise the Titanic" but I feel my Barry-collection
isn't complete without "The Tamarind Seed", "Hanover Street"
and "Hammett".
Or what about a (double) CD with all the unreleased extra music
from Barry's Bond-scores. Seeing these movies I always notice that there
is a lot of source and action music that is not released. Even if two pieces
per film are selected, there will be enough to fill an entire CD and I'm
sure there will be enough interest for it from Barry and Bond fans.
Well, all just secret desires. I'm sure most plans die because of
legal rights, pity. Please keep me notified if (Barry) projects are in
the pipeline and many thanks again also for all your other activities involving
filmmusic.
We don't have any more Barry scores in the works, but we're proud of
the Monte
Walsh release and thanks for your nice comments. We have some goodies
by other composers in the pipeline, and we'll surely get around to Barry
again in the future.
1993 Poll
We ran a poll last week on the best score of 1993, accompanied
by an article. The poll is now closed, but we got some thought provoking
letters.
From: Jeff Commings, Jeffswim@aol.com
So hard to choose! On the one hand, I am 100% biased towards John
Williams, so I can pick John Williams' Schindler's List (especially becuase
of the jaunty "Schindler's Workforce" and the weepy "Auschwitz-Birkenau"),
but I can't turn my back on James Newton Howard's driving score for The
Fugitive or Dave Grusin's all-piano music for The Firm.
So how can I decide? Which one evokes the most feeling, which forces
me to pick The Fugitive. I think it IS his best to date, and one that makes
the suspense of the film drive forward. Please don't tell John Williams.....I
only turned on him this one time.
From: Shaun Rutherford <whisper@keyconn.net>
I'm sure that you've already noticed that Wyatt Earp was released
in 1994, so it shouldn't be on the new poll. Sorry to be like the comic
book guy on The Simpsons.
Oops! And Tom Demary wrote to tell us we should have included Tombstone
(1993) by Bruce Broughton. Sorry, we just confused our Earp epics.
From: PlAN0MAN@aol.com
Well, I just rad Cary Wong's article on the best of 1993, and I
felt that I really would like to respond to some things that he stated.
In all, his article was very intuitive and interesting. I generally enjoy
the opinions of your writers here.
First off, I would like to say that I don't think that Schindler's
List was mediocre by any means, and fully deserved both the nomination
and the win in my opinion. It's a superb effort by Williams, and marked
a significant change in his style up until that point. He was one of the
first to feature such a prominent solo player, and make simplicity sound
both large and haunting. The effect of a solo instrument is incredible,
and since that score has become fairly popular. The score has clear themes
for those out there that feel a movie score is only successful if you have
themes. But it also has atmosphere for those of us out there that know
that the "mood" is really one of the more important characteristics
of film music theory and technique.
Secondly...I DO agree that Much Ado About Nothing and RUDY are fantastic
scores. Goldsmith's fanfares create quite a scintilating listening experience,
and speaking from my heart, really evokes the honor and glory of the football
tradition at Notre Dame. Doyle's effort in the same way captures the romance
and whimsical nature of one of Shakespeare's best plays. It's "airy"
and light-hearted themes and modulations are fantastic. They keep your
head bobbing along and your mind soley in the Victorian setting. How can
you possibly think of anything else when listening to this? Thirdly....I
agree that Jurassic Park is one of William's best efforts of the decade,
and possibly career. However, I'm not a big E.T. fan, and can honestly
say that while it's a brilliant demonstration of creativity and orchestration,
it's not one of my favorite William's efforts. And I don't really see the
link between the two scores. Jurassic Park I think is much more enjoyable
a listen, but I'm a brass fanatic.
Lastly, I think there were a few scores that are noteworthy that
were left out here. The first being Gettysburg. While I'm sure the general
population finds the repetition of the three or four themes boring after
3 hours, it is a landmark piece, and those themes that are there are pretty
good. Very powerful, and very enjoyable. This is the kind of score I thought
would be more popular since there are so many fans who only like Main titles.
Hmmm....always a surprise I guess. The other is The Three Colors: Bleu.
Preisner is a brilliant and oft overlooked composer. He doesn't do 5 scores
a year, but his output is always enjoyable, top-notch, and fitting. I really
wish more attention was paid to him. At Play In The Fields Of The Lord,
was another great effort by him. I highly reccommend his scores to anyone
who is realyl interested in music. They are wonderfully and sometimes innovatively
orchestrated. Always a fresh sound out of Ziggy.
Well, those are the few things I have to say. I love your magazine,a
nd your web site there at FSM, and I'd love to write an article or two
for you guys sometime. Feel free to write me back and comment. I love to
talk about Music, and hear other's opinions.
Have a Benny Christmas
Visit the Bernard Herrmann Web Pages (http://www.bernardherrmann.org)
for a new interview with conductor William Stromberg.
MailBag@filmscoremonthly.com
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