Film Score Friday 6/23/00
by Lukas Kendall
Hans Zimmer will open the 27th Flanders International Film Festival
- Ghent with a live concert of his best-known film scores on October 10,
in the 5,000-seat Kuipke hall in Ghent (Citadelpark). The program will
include The Thin Red Line, Driving Mrs. Daisy, The Lion King, True Romance,
The Power of One, Nine Months, Crimson Tide, The Fan, Thelma and Louise,
Rain Man and Gladiator. Zimmer will perform with the Flemish
Radio Orchestra, conducted by Dirk Brosse. John Powell and Harry Gregson-Williams
will join Zimmer with a medley of some of their work as well. See www.filmfestival.be
for ticket information.
Elmer Bernstein has launched his own website at www.elmerbernstein.com.
Included is ordering information on the premier CD release from the composer's
new label, Amber Records, a collection of his music to short films by the
Eameses.
The Star Tribune in Minneapolis is running a story on our FSM
CDs by Randy Salas. Apparently as part of the coverage they've loaded
clips from some of our CDs onto a phone line you can call to hear the samples.
So, quoting their release:
To sample some of the music from Film Score Monthly's soundtrack
CDs, call 612-673-9050 and, when prompted, press 5016 for Jerry Goldsmith's
``Entr'acte'' from ``Patton,'' 5017 for John Williams' ``End Title'' from
``The Poseidon Adventure,'' 5018 for Franz Waxman's ``Main Title'' from
``Prince Valiant,'' 5019 for Gerald Fried's ``Dracula Fugue'' from ``The
Return of Dracula'' and 5020 for Leonard Rosenman's ``The Human Brain''
from ``The Fantastic Voyage.''
Fantastic Herrmann Article
Once in a while there comes a website article that is so fantastic,
I wish so much it was from Film Score Monthly and not some other place.
But alas, AMC is running a Hitchcock program and their website has a fantastic
roundable interview focusing on Hitchcock's most frequent musical partner,
the great Bernard Herrmann, with daughter Dorothy Herrmann; Herrmann biographer
Steven C. Smith; and Gunther Koegebehn, a contributor to the Herrmann website.
Devour it at http:
//www.amctv.com/ontheair/blocks/hitchcock/hitch_music.html. Thanks
to Preston Jones for the heads-up.
Chicken Run
See Cary
Wong's article from Wednesday.
From: "Dennis Logsdon" <logied@mediaone.net>
When a fan gets their ear up and writes such a good article as Cary's
this morning, I know I'm in for a treat when I see this movie and hear
this score. Being I agree with his other cue choices, how can I go wrong.
Chickens, here I come.
From: Paul MacLean <pamaclean@earthlink.net>
In response to Cary Wong's review of the score for CHICKEN RUN,
its nice to know that score came-out well. However I remain very disappointed
at the absence of Nick Park's usual composer Julian Nott. Nott's scores
for the WALLACE AND GROMMIT films (as well as other Aardamn Animation productions)
were outstanding works of musical cleverness, and showed-off a very rare,
and deft dramatic sensibility. Clever and esoteric references to older
film scores also abound in his scores, and I'd have to say Nott's music
for THE WRONG TROUSERS and A CLOSE SHAVE is unquestionably some of the
best film music of the 90s.
So my qustion is WHY was this talented composer, who deserves a
big break, not called upon to score CHICKEN RUN?
It is too bad that Nott did not get a break, as he did fantastic work
on those Wallace and Gromit shorts. But I'm sure Dreamworks, as the producing
and paying entity behind Chicken Run, wanted to use John Powell
and Harry Gregson-Williams, who did such a great job on the very successful
Antz.
Harpist Obituary
From: "Kyle Beatty" <kyle_beatty@hotmail.com>
From the Sunday obits:
'Aida Mulieri-Dagort, 82, a professional harpist whose singing strings
were heard in classic soundtracks from "Bambi" to "Sunset
Boulevard" and "The Ten Commandments," June 9 of a brain
tumor at her home in Rancho Mirage, Calif.'
And probably countless other soundtracks, as well. The harp is such
a prominent part of the orchestra that it is no stretch of the imagination
to think that Ms Mulieri-Dagort must have contributed much to what we know
as the Hollywood sound.
I'm going to listen to the Ten Commandments right now.
Hobgood Reactions
See Dan
Hobgood's latest commentary piece from earlier this week, about the
accessibility of film music.
From: Jay Cox, Musicunite@aol.com
Good God! Let's shoot all those composers whom may have the boldness
to compose serial(12 tone) music in their films. Bye-bye Altered States(
"Dear John, could you please return that Oscar nomination you received"...)
By all means, lets dig-up old Max, Erich and company, to write today's
film music, so that we are certain to get ONLY a melody line or catchy
theme. I can enjoy a tune just like anyone else, but, I would also like
to hear something original that does have to use a corn syrup-induced reaction,
to make a musical statement.
Film music is NOT composed with we film music admirers in mind,
nor is film music capable of very much "unity". It is written
within the context of the film for which it was composed and not (sadly)for
the enjoyment of we few film score buffs.
To be quite frank; the general audience wouldn't know the difference
between an atonal or tonal score, if it stood out and bit them on the a-s.
"A-s." What's that? I could never figure out what dirty word
you are blanking out.
From: Fred Tam <Fred.Tam@trw.com>
As a long time Jerry Goldsmith fan, I was very receptive to Dan
Hobgood's praise of Goldmith's scoring of Hoosiers in his article about
film music accessibility (6/20/00). I am most impressed with Mr. Goldsmith's
chameleon-like ability over the years to create such complete and diverse
musical soundscapes for films such as Hoosiers, Star Trek, Legend, Poltergeist,
First Knight, Under Fire, City Hall and Medicine Man, just to name a few
of my favorites. And he does such a thorough and convincing job with each
one these that if you picked any CD track, I could never mistake one film
for another. What a talent! (I mean Jerry's, not mine). However, since
there's plenty of film music talent out there, I suppose it's not too hard
either to point to the merits of other composers besides the obvious Goldsmith
and Williams. What I think might be more challenging for a critic (perhaps
even impossible) is to pick out examples of recent film music where the
music couldn't be more off the mark for a particualr scene, yet it passed
the scrutiny of all those involved in the film. Granted, this may be impossible
to find, since there's so much room for what may be deemed appropriate.
I was just curious if there's something out there that even a pro might
point out to as an example of how NOT to score. Think of this as the film
music equivalent of when movie fans point to flaws in a script, the editing,
the cinematography or even the acting!
From: John Koehler <trek88@yahoo.com>
Dan Hobgood's recent articles on film score unity and accessibility
really say all there is to say on the subject. Never has such clarity in
film music definition been put into words, anywhere! I am astonished at
Mr Hobgood's fluency in the subject, and grateful for the lessons he has
brought forth. These articles are in my archive, for future reference.
What is most apparent from Hobgood's expert analyses, and unarguably
so, is that Jerry Goldsmith is without peer in this art. Whether Hobgood
says so directly or as a lesson gleaned from his thesis, anyone with an
ear for real music, for the art of composition, for the talent required
to match music to the screen, must see, or rather hear, the genius of Goldsmith.
Even John Williams acknowledges it!
Elementary, My Dear Wishart
Last
week we printed a letter from Silva Screen producer David Wishart taking
to task a concept-album compilation from a few years back of Sherlock Holmes
music. I invited producer Bruce Kimmel to reply; he did:
From: Bruce Kimmel
Thank you, Lukas, for the offer to respond to Mr. Wishart's letter.
I'm sure Mr. Wishart is a perfectly nice person, and I'm sorry that
he felt our Sherlock Holmes album bit the bullet to his. I know opinon
is sharply divided on the album - some "get" what I was trying
to do, and some abhor what I was trying to do, and that's what makes horse
racing. The fact is, Holmes buffs really do like the album a lot, and casual
film music fans seem to also. Hardcore fans who simply must have everything
in the original orchestration with the original size orchestra of course
take exception to these kinds of albums. But Mr. Wishart is severely mistaken
on several points, most importantly the size of our orchestra. I don't
know where on earth he comes up with the 26 piece orchestra figure (well,
I have my suspicions) but the orchestra was in fact 50 pieces (Mr. James
Bernard commented on the fact that we had MORE players than he did on the
original tracks of Hound of The Baskervilles, which, BTW, used his original
orchestrations and scores). The album was designed as a musical journey
through Holmes territory - even the sequencing was done in a kind of Holmesian
way - not to be a record of selections which were exact replicas of the
film tracks. That said, the Addison and Broughton pieces, while rescored
for 50 players, were very faithful to the intent and layout of the original
orchestrations. There is simply nothing wrong with 50 players, it's only
in the last forty years that these HUGE orchestras have been used - I have
a wonderful still of Alfred Newman conducting his brilliant orchestra at
Fox in the late 30s and the orchestra is barely fifty players. I have no
problem whatsoever with Mr. Wishart (or anyone else) not liking the album
(of course, I wish EVERYONE loved it but I'm smarter than that). I do question
his need to thrust his "awards" forward or to demean this album
as if it were somehow responsible for his cancelling his project. Since
ours was the very first Holmes compilation, I'm sure the market could have
stood one more - especially a brilliantly produced one using nothing but
the original orchestrations and a one hundred piece orchestra. I have several
Silva compilations in my collection, and I am here to tell you they are
not all brilliantly done and they do not all use original orchestrations.
So what? Who cares? Some hit and some miss. Silva has done many albums
whose releases have very similar or the same concepts to Varese and whose
releases have interestingly come out just weeks before the Varese releases.
So, given that, why would the Varese Holmes album preclude Mr. Wishart
from producing what he clearly feels would have been his masterpiece? Especially
when he felt ours was so horrendous. Two interesting points: The album
sold very well, better than most of Varese's rerecordings - and Mr. Bernard
called me to tell me how pleased he was with the performance of Hound of
The Baskervilles. Also, since Mr. Wishart feels it necessary to boast of
his awards, may I just say that I am a two time Grammy nominee and loser?
But someday I may WIN one of the damn things, and only then, I suppose,
will I be a worthy record producer. In the meantime, I guess I can console
myself with the fact that my Titanic compilation (similar in tone to the
Holmes) sold over sixty thousand copies and spent an astonishing forty-three
weeks on the Billboard Classical Crossover Chart. And now, back to Broadway.
Dish Soundtracks
From: Jason Foster <jgfoster@ix.netcom.com>
Don't know if you've heard about this, but thought you might want
to include it in the mailbag. I recently subscribed to the Dish Network's
newest programming package and was pleasantly surprised to find that one
of their audio music channels (946) is exclusively Hollywood and Broadway.
In just over a few days, I've heard a wide variety of film music ranging
from the Golden Age through The Phantom Menace. There's naturally a lot
of Broadway song stuff, too, but the selections of film music provide quite
a nice sampler of what's out there. In addition, the title, artist, and
record label are listed on the screen for the duration of each cue. The
only downside, however, is that the channel is in mono.
Cool! I think DirecTV has something similar -- I'll check when I get
home.
Links
Phil Castillo has started a website where Graeme Revell fans can put
up their comments about Revell's work and also their wishes for CDs of
his unreleased scores. As I told Phil, I don't know if this can help get
any of them released, but check out the site at: h
ttp://home.earthlink.net/~philcastillo/GRevell/revellwishlist.html
Go here for a review of FSM's Silver Age Classic release of The
Comancheros by Elmer Bernstein. This comes to us from Roger Hall at
Film Music Review: http://hometown.aol.com/Mu
sBuff/page25.htm
See http://www.johnottman.com
for the latest update on John Ottman's score for the film he has directed,
Urban Legends: The Final Cut. He recently recorded his score in Munich.
MailBag@filmscoremonthly.com
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