Film Score Friday 9/7/01

Tomorrow, September 8th, marks the tenth anniversary of the death of the great Alex North...it's hard to believe it's been a decade. North's music, however, lives on in recordings such as Varese's 2CD set of Cleopatra.

The Alex North family is presently working on a website which should be launched shortly.

We've received a report that scoring sessions with the London Symphony Orchestra have been booked for January 2002 for the recording of Star Wars Episode Two: Attack of the Clones (John Williams).

Rhino's 2CD set of of King of Kings (Miklos Rozsa) has been delayed until early 2002. This will be a regular Rhino release, not a "Rhino Handmade" limited edition. A 2CD set of Mutiny on the Bounty is forthcoming for 2002 as well.

Elmer Bernstein is featured on the cover of the ASCAP member magazine, "Playback," for July-August, 2001. The publication features an interview with Bernstein, who recently received the ASCAP Founders Award. See www.ascap.com.

Warner Bros. in Germany will release Petulia -- a terrific late '60s Barry score -- on CD on September 10th (according to www.amazon.de at least). On October 1st, Decca will release Barry's score to the new film, Enigma. Barry's next non-soundtrack album, Eternal Echoes, will be out on October 22nd, also on Decca. Finally, Prometheus is releasing Barry's 1987 score to Masquerade.

The Television Academy recently hosted a reception for this year's Emmy nominated television composers. For photos and a list of nominees, see http://www.traxzone.com/content/index.asp?section=news. (The page's text is in French.)

Opera singer Russell Watson will perform the theme to the new Star Trek series, Enterprise, "Faith in My Heart" by Diane Warren (previously featured in Patch Adams). The theme will be adapted into an "Aerosmith, power ballad-like fashion" with a 45-piece orchestra. The theme will be featured on Watson's next album, to be released in October 2001 on Decca.

Velton Ray Bunch will join Jay Chattaway and Dennis McCarthy as regular composers on Enterprise. Bunch previously scored Quantum Leap, starring Enterprise captain Scott Bakula.

Apparently Rhino's previously announced box set of Philip Glass soundtracks has been indefinitely postponed. However, Glass' new label Orange Mountain Music will release his score to the original Candyman on September 24th. Distribution may be limited; use amazon.com.

From: "Neil S. Bulk" <indysolo@home.com>

I thought you might want to let your readers know that the Cinemark 16 in Somerdale, NJ will be showing the new restored 151 minute print of Superman - The Movie this month. This will be the east coast premiere of the film, and will be presented in a theater with stadium seating, a curved screen and Dolby Digital surround sound.

The show dates and times are:

Friday, September 14 - Midnight
Saturday, September 15 - 10 am and Midnight
Sunday, September 16 - 10 am

Here is the theater's address and phone number as well:

Cinemark 16
Lions Head Plaza 711 Evesham Road
Somerdale, NJ 08083
856-784-7964

John Williams's upcoming Harry Potter score will make its European concert debut at the CBBC Proms in the Park on Saturday, September 16th at 3pm in Hyde Park (http://www.bbc.co.uk/proms/2001/promsinparkcbbc.shtml). "Hedwig's Theme" will be performed.

The Flanders International Film Festival -- Ghent is hosting the World Soundtrack Awards on October 18th in Belgium. The night will also feature a concert by film composers Gabriel Yared and Elmer Bernstein. For eight million confusing press releases about the festival, see http://www.filmfestival.be.

From: "Larry Best Sr." <larrybestsr@hotmail.com>

The reference to one of James Horner's forgotten score Jack the Bear [coming soon on Intrada], suddenly recalled a fantasy titled Wizards of the Lost Kingdom, that Mr. Horner scored in 1985 in which he used nearly his complete original score from Krull.

It isn't unusual for composers to sometimes use themes from a previous score in a sequel, but to use most of the material from an unrelated picture in a subsequent project in my opinion is unusual to say the least.

I do not know whether Wizards... has ever gone to video, but it sometimes shows up on the SciFi Channel. If you want a completely different impression of Horner's outstanding Krull score, take a look at Wizards of the Lost Kingdom. the movie is rather mediocre, but the Krull score does punch it up most of the time.

Actually, I think this used Horner's score to Battle Beyond the Stars. There were a handful of Roger Corman films in the 1980s which reused Horner's earliest works for the producer, Battle Beyond the Stars and Humanoids from the Deep. Horner had nothing to do with the reuse of the music.

Does anyone knows if the music in the trailer is really coming from Howard Shore? Is it from the soundtrack or composed for the teaser?

That's a good question and I don't know. See the trailers list at www.soundtrack.net is my time-tested reply to queries like this.

I just recieved Morituri in the mail yesterday and I want to thank you. Just a quick note... I have the bootleg recording of the score on Tsunami, I believe, and to tell you the truth, I wasn't exicited about the score as I usually am with Jerry's stuff. Also, I've never seen the film, which is unusual for me. This recording changed my mind completely. It sounds great and, Wow! what a great score from the master. Bootlegs suck , you guys rule!Thanks again

Thanks! We aim to make bootlegs obsolete. The stereo separation makes Morituri a whole new ball game on our official CD.

Have a great weekend!

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