It's About the Music, Man!

Compiled by Lukas Kendall

Last Friday while responding to a letter speculating about the completeness (or lack thereof) of the upcoming Phantom Menace letter, I said to hell with it, we're all missing the point by obsessing on quantity of music rather than quality. Here are two responses: an "agree" and a "disagree" (like Hollywood Squares, I guess):

From: Sean Carpenter <SCarpenter@cpr.org>

I've been reading your site for years (and your magazine for months), and I've idly thought about sending your some spec articles and other opinion/analysis stuff for some time. You finally said something today in the Friday update that I felt needed some chiming in on. As someone who's collected film music for 25 years, and who owns nearly a thousand CD soundtracks, I am personally delighted that Sony is releasing a single, 70-minute CD of The Phantom Menace.

By the way, doesn't anyone remember that that's just what we got 22 years ago when Star Wars came out - the equivalent 2-record set with about 75 minutes of score, including a repeat of the second part of the overture (or finale, depending on your point of view). I listened to that sucker pretty much non-stop for three months in the Summer of '77, and in the meantime went to see the movie half a dozen times. I'd been collecting movie music for about four years by then, and I knew very well that the movie included music that was not on the album. In fact, as with many soundtrack albums especially at the time (but also, for example, true of Sleepers), a number of cues were composed of music from different parts of the movie. Was I disappointed and frustrated? NO! I loved the movie, and I loved the album, but I didn't think of them as interchangeable.

Without treading too far into the debate about the value of film music apart from the films they were written for, I have had quite enough of these exhaustively complete score albums, particularly for the Star Wars trilogies. There seems to be a need in the filmmusic fan community to hear every note of every beloved score exactly as played in the movie. But thanks to cheap and practically universally available videos (and more and more, DVD), we can get exactly that by simply buying and watching the movie. A soundtrack album, is an opportunity to hear the music apart from the film - to hear the music as music, not as one element of a larger experience. All the best soundtracks I've ever heard were presented as an enjoyable musical experience, not as a substitute for the entire movie.

After all, if we think that with a complete album we're getting to hear the music as it was heard in the movie, we are wrong. What about the other elements of the soundtrack - dialogue, special effects, even silence? Are they separable from the music as used in the film? Certainly not - the music is not necessarily intended to stand alone as is. Imagine watching Deep Rising without Goldsmith's kicky "Horror in the Bahamas" score - a good example of a score that would be hopelessly fragmentary if it were presented on record the way it's used (effectively, I think) in the film. (I know, I know, everybody hates the movie and, except Doug Fake, the album, but I think it's a hoot. Lighten up, fer crissakes!)

From the beginning, I bought a score album listen to music that I enjoyed when I saw the movie or TV show - not infrequently, music that I enjoyed more than the show. (John Addison's Swashbuckler was a great example of this in 70's - and it's true of most of Goldsmith's scores from any decade.) When a composer (or record producer) segued bits together, I never minded - if the result was effective. Since film scores are most often a set of variations on one or two themes, the albums are inherently repetitious - I believe that it was my years of listening to soundtrack albums that made it possible for me to be open to minimalism. What I came to want in an album was the representative music from the film. The only time I'm really disappointed with short soundtrack albums is when they leave off musical ideas that were important (or at least notable) in the film.

When all the expanded edition CDs started coming out a few years ago, I thought I'd be thrilled. And indeed, I buy most of them. But I don't enjoy many of them as much as I think I'm going to, and often I go back to the original albums if I have them. I found this especially true of Close Encounters. The original album is full of segues to radically different kinds of music from different parts of the movie, but it always struck me as a genuinely involving and coherent musical experience. The expanded album, playing most of the music in the order it is heard, is fragmentary, with a number of very short cues that develop a bit and stop. It may be the record of the music in the film, but it's not at all enjoyable to listen to unless I keep in my mind the on-screen action at every moment.

After I bought the four-volume Star Wars Trilogy set in '93, I thought I had heard every note of the music I wanted to hear from those three films. Then the expanded albums came out in '97, and I bought them all - and it turned out that I was right in '93. In these films, and in most films, there's a lot of utility music - material that works fine in the movie but that is tediously repetitive on an album, because it's meeting only cinematic, not musical needs. In other words, Empire Strikes Back is a fine movie score, but Williams sure as hell wouldn't have written it like that if it were a symphony - or a record album. My preferred Star Wars albums are the 45-minute re-recordings of Empire and Jedi done by Charles Gerhardt at the time of the initial release of the movies, and Williams' own compilation of an expanded trilogy concert suite played by the Skywalker Symphony.

I'd rather have 70 minutes of music carefully selected to work as an album than 2+ hours of music intended to be heard under a chaos of sound and image.

From: Brian Martell <01270767@3web.net>

I was quite surprised by your response to the PHANTOMS VOLUMES bit. It is about the music. We like John Williams' music and want as much if not all of it.

20 years ago, when I got into scores--okay 22, all we had was vinal, and you usually got 30 to, maybe 40 minutes of score if you were lucky. We didn't complain because that was all the music the medium allowed, and we enjoyed our wonderful albums. Even then, the release for STAR WARS, which started so many enjoying film music, was a "definative" release: 2 albums, a poster, really good notes re Williams and the scoring, plus detailed track listings. EMPIRE also followed form. The STAR WARS films set the standard we judged all other albums on--well, me anyway.

It's now 1999 and vinyl is dead, we have the CD, which can hold almost 80 minutes of music. I expect almost 80 minutes of music! I get really p@#$$%d off when a score is substantially less--Goldsmith drove me crazy, but your articles and postings regarding re-use fees, and the fact that Varese is a small label sort of explain that. Sure, PHANTOM MENACE promises a 75 minute score. Great for HOOK, JURASIC PARK, LOST WORLD, SLEEPERS, etc, but this is a STAR WARS film we're talkin' about--it should set the standard, not fall in line. Sure, I could have used a regular jewel case rather than the "books", but the music was all there, good essays re the history of the original releases, and the remastering. Fairly "okay" liner notes--could have used a new Williams interview, but that's pickey. The point being, the RCA/BMG Special Editions set the standard for a STAR WARS score, and we now have a new STAR WARS film, and--damn it Jim!!!!!!--it should follow, or exceed the standard, not fall below.

I am personally really anoyed with both Williams and Lucas here: they KNOW people love these films, and the music--read their comments in the new liner notes. There is NO EXCUSE for their not insisting on a delux, 2 CD set with the complete score, alternate takes, Williams' concert suites and more (2 CDs would hold 155 minutes of music. There is supposedly 2 hours (120 minutes) of new music, which would have left 35 minutes for the rest of Williams' magic. Why not? No one would buy it? Give me a break. We (the fans of these two men) have put out a lot of our money to make them alot of money; we deserve a few treats, and some respect now and then. And this time was one of them!

Lucas and Williams have let us down here, we should be mad, and have a right to be. And pushing Sony to release a Volume 2 disc now isn't silly--in this case (STAR WARS, Williams)--but, unfortunately, necessary; because, as you said, "it's all about the music."

I think you're distorting my comment... to me this is missing the boat. Obsessing about the length of the CD is a way to AVOID having any meaningful reaction or thoughts about the music -- it's just a way to quantify the experience. I think it's dumb. Anyway, vote in the current poll as to your preference.

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