Film Score Friday 10/19/01
by Lukas Kendall
Erich Wolfgang Korngold's A Midsummer Nights Dream adaptation
score will be performed in concert for the first time since 1934, when
it was played at the Hollywood Bowl. The Pasadena Symphony will perform
the piece at 8PM tomorrow night, on Saturday, October 20, at the Pasadena
Civic Auditorium, conducted by Jorge Mester. Korngold family member Kathryn
Korngold will be speaking in an informal gathering at Vroman's bookstore
on Colorado Blvd in Pasadena this afternoon at 4:30PM, October 19th.
Bernstein Event
Elmer Bernstein is being honored in celebration of his 50th anniversay
of film scoring in a tribute program at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts
and Sciences on Thursday, November 8, at 8PM, in the Academy's Samuel Goldwyn
Theater. Among the planned guests paying tribute are James Coburn, John
Landis, Carl Franklin, Noel Pearson, Terence Blanchard, and Cecelia DeMille
Presley, granddaughter of Cecil B. DeMille. Carl Reiner will server as
master of ceremonies.
Following the event over the next two weeks will be a screening series
at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art of Bernstein-scored films, such
as The Man with the Golden Arm and To Kill a Mockingbird,
from November 9 through December 1. Call 323-857-6010 or visit www.lacma.org
for information.
Tickets for "An Academy Tribute to Elmer Bernstein" are $5 for the general
public and $3 for Academy members. They may be purchased in advance at
the Academy during regular business hours or by mail, or, if still available,
on the night of the program when the doors open at 7 p.m. The Academy is
located at 8949 Wilshire Boulevard in Beverly Hills. For more information
call 310-247-3600.
Obituaries
Two passings to report, sadly:
Raoul Kraushaar (1908-2001), composer of numerous Hollywood "B"
movies of the '40s and '50s. See the imdb.com for his complete
credit list.
Jay Livingston, Oscar-winning composer and lyricist. Here's the
obituary which has been going over the wire:
Composer and lyricist Jay Livingston, whose collaboration
with Ray Evans led to such hits as "Silver Bells," "Que Sera, Sera," and
"Mona Lisa," died Wednesday at the age of 86. Livingston, whose songwriting
partnership with Evans spanned 64 years, died of pneumonia at Los Angeles'
Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, according to a family spokesperson.
Often called the last of the great songwriters, Livingston and Evans
had seven Academy Award nominations and won three Oscars -- in 1948 for
"Buttons and Bows" in the film "The Paleface," in 1950 for "Mona Lisa"
in "Captain Carey, USA," and in 1956 for "Que Sera, Sera" in "The Man Who
Knew Too Much."
They wrote the television theme songs for "Bonanza" and "Mr. Ed,"
and were honored by ASCAP for "the most performed music for film and TV
for 1996."
The members of the Songwriters Hall of Fame also produced such hits
as "The Cat and the Canary" from the 1945 film "Why Girls Leave Home,"
"Tammy" from the 1957 movie "Tammy and the Bachelor," "Almost in Your Arms"
from the 1958 film "Houseboat" and the title song of the 1964 film "Dear
Heart."
Livingston was born on March 28, 1915, in the Pittsburgh suburb
of McDonald. He met Evans in 1937 at the University of Pennsylvania, where
they were both students.
The team's final project was the recording, "Michael Feinstein
Sings the Livingston and Evans Song Book," due for 2002 release.
FSM CDs
From: David Diamond <DDiamond@aeclp.com>
HI - I love your publication and your website. I just ordered
the Prince Valiant CD and I'm so excited about finally owning it. You seem
to have access mainly to 20th century Fox material. Any plans on a Mark
of Zorro (1940) Alfred Newman? That would be a good one.
Finally - I know your CDs are initial pressing of 3000 copies. It
might be a nice idea of again updating on the site what you have left before
telling us if they are sold out or not. Thanks. Keep up the good work.
Thanks for your nice words! Presently there are two releases of
which we have quantities remaining of less than 200 apiece: The
Omega Man and The
Towering Inferno. Folks -- get them now! The
Poseidon Adventure is also dwindling -- probably less than 400 left.
Everything else is in solid supply.
Regarding The Mark of Zorro, we have received MANY requests for
this Newman score, but unfortunately the master recordings are believed
to be lost.
Questions
From: "brad" <grayle@flash.net>
My continuing search has brought me to your website, and
so I must ask you what i'm sure you've been asked hundreds of times in
the past...
Is the Christopher Field music from the Lord of the Rings trailer
available on CD anywhere??? If you have any information on this it would
be GREATLY appreciated, as I feel like i've been looking for this answer
forever.
Not that I know of, sorry! But I could be wrong, seeing as how I don't
care. Folks, if you know, please write in, or write Brad directly.
From: "Scott McCulloch" <scott.mcculloch@tiscali.co.uk>
In the movie Jaws, is the source music heard on harmonica
and guitar during the opening beach-party scene something John Williams
wrote, or is it an R&B standard by another composer? In the film the
music occurs between the cues Main Title and First Victim as represented
on the Collectors Edition Soundtrack album (Decca 467 045-2).
Now I am impressed -- a Jaws question that has never been
asked before. I do not know the answer as I have never had access to the
complete Jaws recording sessions, and I don't have the film on DVD (shame
on me) to check. Presumably the producers of the recent OST CD would know.
But it is possible Williams did it, as he scored various source music for
The Towering Inferno and other pictures in the '70s.
Rush Hour 2
From: Randy Derchan <rderchan@captioneering.com>
I just got Rush Hour 2 cd and I tell you, it's rocks.
One of the best of the year, and it's Schfrin doing what he does best --
action and jazz. A must have. It's also nice to hear real symphonic music
in action movies again.
I agree. I liked Schifrin's Rush Hour 2 more than the original,
even though the album by necessity has a weird construction with the Vegas
music in the middle.
Blast from the Past
Courtesy of G.D. Hamann, who finds these old news clippings in the process
of his Hollywood journalism research. Check out this one:
11/16/1945 (Hollywood Citizen News)
MIKLOS ROZSA SETS HANGOVER TO MUSIC
By Florabel Muir
Just like Ray Milland, the star of Paramount's Lost Week End, Miklos
Rozsa, composer of the film's musical score, carefully refrained from seeking
the logical inspiration for his musical interpretation of the pictureÇs
moods. In fact, he stayed high and dry on the water wagon while laboring
on the chore of translating delirium tremens into sharps and flats.
"All I really had to do," he told me, "was to read the book. This
I did 10 times. Each time I felt myself getting a worse case of the heebie-jeebies.
I went to work after I decided I couldn't stand another re-reading."
Finally, we've been warning about temporarily shutting down the Message
Board because we need to switch it over to a different location. It
would be down only a couple of days. We have had to put off the move for
another week, so relax. Thanks for understanding.
Have a nice weekend! Go see The Last Castle, with its "Twilight's
Very Last Gleaming" score. Good Jerry music!
MailBag@filmscoremonthly.com
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