Film Score Friday 6/16/00
by Lukas Kendall
Actually, it's Mail Bag Friday. We'll be back with news next week --
including hopefully the announcement of the next FSM Silver Age Classics
CD, if it's back from the plant in time!
Morricone Concert
See the
Wednesday report.
From: Tom <sauron158@mindspring.com>
I for one would have been thrilled to see Morricone conduct the
concert he gave in Ghent, Belgium. I must start off by saying it is true
that he is an icon in the film industry merely for the fact of the 400
or so score he has composed. That would have been wonderful to watch. But...
I must totally disagree with the assesment made by the write Tylski
that Morrione's genius lies in making music opposite to what is being seen
on film. I thoroughly enjoyed his work for "The Mission", which
I think is his best score ever, and even enjoyed "Casualties of War".
His earlier work in the 60's are at times good, like his score for "Once
Upon a Time in the West", but there are times that his music is outright
awful. I saw "Mission to Mars" and people were LAUGHING at the
score itself, this in a full audience on opening weekend. I overhead many
complaints upon leaving the theatre over how the music made the film worse
than it already was. Morricone's statement that "a good film score
has to be heard" is ridiculous. A good film score normally is hardly
even noticed until after a 2nd viewing of a good film. I saw the film "Disclosure"(with
Michael Douglas and Demi Moore, directed by Barry Levinson and composed
by Morricone) with a rabid film lover and student and the music ruined
the movie for him, albiet a so so film itself.
To make a film score to draw attention to itself is a detrement
to the entire film making process and a slap to the entire crew who is
making the motion picture. The music must add mood and enhance the film,
to make it whole and complete,and even add to the viewing/listening pleasure.
If one wants to be an iconoclast in the motion picture industry, do it
in experimental films.
Morricone will always be remembered for his work in the "spaghetti
westerns" of the 60's and rightly so. His work back then was perfect
for the tone and mood of those films and in the decade in which they were
made. And someday I'm sure he will get a Lifetime Achievement Oscar for
his body of work over the past several decades and deservedly so. I thought
he should have one for "The Mission", considered by many his
most beautiful score. But just because one is different or one makes something
or does something different, going from the norm, doesn't make it good.
It makes it different. That of itself is not always good.
Compilations
See yesterday's
column:
From: "David Wishart" <david@musickco.screaming.net>
Thanks to Dennis for his article(s) on compilations. Dennis obviously
has nicely eclectic taste - and is not averse to the more flighty "arrangements"
of film music which have soemeimes appeared on compilations, especially
during the Fifties and Sixties. However, I would take issue with him over
one album:
Dennis mentions:
"Sherlock Holmes (Classic Themes from 221B Baker Street): Varese
Sarabande 5692. When film music fans complain about what is not produced
for their pleasure, this is a CD I would like to put under their noses."
I cannot help but feel this is one album film music fans would not
like under their noses. Some of the tracks are OK-ish ... but the paring
down of music specifically composed for a fifty or even a seventy-piece
ensemble to a group of only twenty-six musicians has resulted in some dire
"arrangements"; certainly Miklos Rozsa's fine music for The Private
Life of Sherlock Holmes is rendered virtually unrecogniseable.
In my time I have produced and/or recorded many compilation albums
- and in the past I have attempted not to criticise the work of other record
companies ... but now I am retired I feel free to tell a sorry tale connected
with this Sherlock Holmes album ... or more specifically, about a Sherlock
Holmes album which did not happen.
Dennis goes on to say about this Varese compendium:
"I would like to have been a fly on the wall as they talked
about producing this gem."
Well, I worked for quite some time in preparing an album of selected
Sherlock Holmes cues - which would have included Miklos Rozsa's The Private
Life of Sherlock Holmes, a number of the Holmes movie scores from Fox,
plus James Bernard's music for Hammer's The Hound of the Baskervilles.
All of the selections would have featured the original orchestrations -
and the recording would have been made in London with an augmented Royal
Ballet Sinfonia (60 - 70 players depending on the session).
I rang my old friend James Bernard to ask him if he would be kind
enough to prepare a suite from The Hound of the Baskervilles - and he told
me that Varese had just asked him for the score as they were embarking
on a Holmes collection. Well, I thought I had been pipped at the post -
and as I considered the marketplace would not sustain two Holmes compilations
at the same time I cancelled my project. I then looked forward with some
enthusiasm to the release of the Varese album ... one which I would definately
buy.
Well, in the event I found the album a musical travesty ... my disappointment
made acute by the fact I had cancelled production on what would have been
a worthwhile Holmes collection - and should any wag want to doubt the quality
of the album I would have produced it should be noted I gained both the
Gramophone and American Film Institute Awards for the next album I produced
with the Royal Ballet Sinfonia.
Well, its nice to be retired and embark on being an old grouch!
I have to say that in general I much admire Varese film music albums -
and for me they are the best company in this field ... but on this occasion
I think they just plain struck out.
I remember when this album came out and how the reaction was split between
that of Dennis' on the one hand (that it was an interesting and enjoyable
concept album) and David's on the other (that it was a disappointing rearrangement
of material that deserved presentation more accurate to the original recordings).
Not being a Holmes buff I don't have much of an opinion -- but if the producer,
Bruce Kimmel, wants to chime in, he's of course welcome.
From: Christopher Nagel <rmos@csinet.net>
I enjoyed the article Compilations: Rants, Ravings and Reviews 2
by Dennis Logsdon. But, just FYI, Command was not a British label. It was
started in the late 1950s in the USA by Big Band leader Enoch Light as
a "stereo spectacular" label, after he sold his Grand Award record
label to ABC-Paramount records. He sold Command to ABC Records (again!)
and started his third label, Project 3, (which released "The Planet
of the Apes" soundtrack, among others) in the late 1960s.
Obligatory Gladiator Letter
From: "Dan Hobgood" <dhobgood@hotmail.com>
I was slightly distressed to read that, in yesterday's mail bag,
the scores for GLADIATOR and THE MUMMY had been compared to one another.
Perhaps the films are both "guilty pleasures" in and of themselves,
but I cannot agree to any extent regarding the conception that Jerry Goldsmith's
brilliant score for THE MUMMY is devoid of artistry and academic strength--or
at least that it is devoid of it to the extent that GLADIATIOR's score
is.
I stand by my opinion--regardless of that of the score's detractors
or anyone else--that THE MUMMY is the best of this decade's scores...so
far that is. It's a close call and, when scores all are just right for
their films, a matter of preference. Also perhaps THE HOLLOW MAN will be
more delightful.
The most striking difference between the two scores (THE MUMMY and
GLADIATOR, again) initially to me, regards the exact primary criticism
of GLADIATOR's music that I had in my article from a couple of weeks past.
Unity. I mentioned two Goldsmith scores that represent wonderful contrasts
to GLADIATOR; these were THE GHOST AND THE DARKNESS and THE 13th WARRIOR.
I used those two examples because both films/scores approached the same
sort of epic scope of GLADIATOR's narrative and its music. I could have
easily substituted scores like SPELLBOUND, LAURA, or THE SIXTH SENSE as
great examples of musical unity in contrast to GLADIATOR's incoherence,
but chose not to do so because of the great differences between the scopes
of any of these and that of GLADIATOR.
I almost, however, included THE MUMMY along with these other two
Goldsmith scores--but felt at the time of writing the article like it would
be overkill...and, since my love for the score is no secret, I thought
it best at the time to omit it.
But with this score Goldsmith demonstrates yet again why he is,
according to David Wishart, "the greatest exponent" of all film
composers. Goldsmith's approach to film composition in a storytelling way,
with emphasis on melody and thematic integration and relation, may be quite
methodical. But in practice, his talent is simply uncanny. With score after
score, Goldsmith weaves together musical stories of fascinating coherence
and direction. THE MUMMY is no exception. The themes are wonderfully evocative
permutations of one another. My favorite storytelling device is the way
in which Goldsmith--beginning from what I can best describe as the "musical
starting block" for the themes of the score--gives the heroic theme
a delightful and triumphant rise while making the horrific motif descend
ominously.
The themes for THE MUMMY are very well interrelated and interchangable,
in stark contrast to GLADIATOR. In fact, aside from the diegetic source
music in the film (which should have a distinctive sound to it), each moment
of THE MUMMY's score is thematically-based.
Here I should note that one might say, regarding this type of unity
and coherence, "Well, I could do that!" I recall hearing an amusing
anecdote about someone once taking a look at a Jackson Pollack art piece
in a museum once--with its paint thrown on the canvas--and saying much
the same thing ("Well, I could do THAT!"). The funny part is
that someone beside him asked, "Don't YOU wish you had!"
That's what it comes down to; Goldsmith is the only film composer
to have consistently and in a musically-effective and compelling way, crafted
melodically-unified scores. It's not brain surgery, but--for whatever reason,
be it his unique talent and/or education, other's lack of enthusiasm about
copy-catting, etc.--he's the only one who seems to do it...*consistently
as PART OF HIS STYLE and in a musically substantial way.* Herrmann for
instance unified his scores more with orchestration and rhythm; I think
Goldsmith (with me) and he would simply disagree regarding the most accessible
way to affect an audience. John Williams' and John Barry's soundtrack popularity
almost singularly proves an audience's capacity to understand and prefer
melodic scores. There's no denying that Herrmann was a very good film composer
still. I think that, like Mr. Goldsmith, I agree that his music could have
used a bit more emphasis on melody. And, certainly, James Horner--with
scores like THE MASK OF ZORRO--shows his capability to rise to the occassion,
but he runs into trouble with the consistent and musically substantial
aspect.
If the mail bag respondent wants to argue that THE MUMMY doesn't
really offer anything terribly original, I would agree to an extent. Goldsmith's
style of theme and variation though is everlastingly appropriate given
that he fulfills his responsibilities well in meeting his audience's need.
Goldsmith, in seemingly the best of ways, helps his audience to understand
a film better.
However, as regards originality, THE MUMMY's music on the whole
is very distinctive. There's no confusing it, for instance, with Goldsmith's
music for the very similarly-themed KING SOLOMON'S MINES. (And, as an aside,
in reaction to one reader response about these two scores in the last FILM
SCORE MONTHLY: first, FSM wasn't around in 1985, and, second, if no one
was acclaiming KING SOLOMON'S MINES as a masterpiece in 1985, he should
have been.) As so many others that I have come across have said, GLADIATOR's
music was very non-descript in relation to at least several other Zimmer
scores.
Goldsmith's score for THE MUMMY also functions in many other important
ways. His music creates moods that the film otherwise does not convey,
and his music is emotionally accurate and precise (as all just plain average
scores should be).
Quite simply, in summary, Goldsmith's music tells a story. And tells
it well. This is maybe the best part about Goldsmith's ability to score
films. I wouldn't be the first one to suggest it.
Zimmer's score, which in some small way is turning into the TITANIC
of the season I suppose, does not even begin to compare to Goldsmith's.
Even though year in and year out Goldsmith writes scores of high caliber,
few approach the quality and energy of THE MUMMY musically, the extraordinary
storytelling component of the score, its dramatic effect, nor its unity
and variation upon a "musical starting block."
And so this, or my article, is not a flagrant attack on Hans Zimmer,
I felt like his score to MI:2 displayed a much greater talent for film
scoring. The music flowed very well, and while some might argue it (I guess
the action music especially) was not as musically substantial as it could
have/should have been, I would respond that it did work for the film and
not against it. Don't get me wrong; it's not perfect, but it's leagues
better than the composer's work on GLADIATOR. I hope he agrees.
I understand that Mr. Zimmer reduced his schedule block for MI:2
quite a bit for GLADIATOR. Maybe he should have spent less time on GLADIATOR
too.
Weird Vocals
From: "Peter Daley" <petedaley@hotmail.com>
Goldsmith's Powder Theme Sung?
I was in a restaurant last week, and I heard a song that sounded
very familiar, it wasn't until the next day that remembered what it was.
I'm 99% sure that it was the Theme from Powder sung with lyrics by a women.
Anybody know anything about this, it sounded really good?
I remember reading that Goldsmith's Powder theme received this
treatment but I can't remember for sure. (Anyone?) I can say that I am
a fan of all the bizarre vocal versions of film themes that would otherwise
not be prime material for song presentation -- everything from Gene Roddenbery's
insane lyrics to the original Star Trek TV theme, reportedly done at least
in part so he could snag royalty rights, to the Nat King Cole performance
of Herrmann's Marnie. No kidding! I'd love it if someone could write in
with a list of must-have oddball vocals. We did include the Rio
Conchos single on our CD of the score late last year -- easily one
of my faves.
Have a wonderful almost-summer weekend!
For a new website to check out, see www.GeorgeSClinton.com,
launching tomorow (Saturday, June 17) by the composer of Austin Powers,
Wild Things and more.
MailBag@filmscoremonthly.com
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