Film Score Friday 12/21/01

Thanks to everyone who ordered our new CD releases: Broken Lance (Leigh Harline) and John Goldfarb, Please Come Home! (John Williams). We got Goldfarb in stock earlier this week and have frantically shipped all the orders, hopefully to arrive before Xmas. If not, our apologies. Thanks also to the many people who thought of us as a great gift idea, either with magazine subscriptions or gift CD orders.

Tron (Wendy Carlos) is coming to CD at long last, to be released by Disney on January 29th as part of a marketing campaign to coincide with the new 20th anniversary DVD. See http://www.wendycarlos.com/+tron.html

Mark Snow has contributed music to the latest short film spoof of a blockbuster, Pearl Harbor II. It's fun to hear one film composer knock off another's style (Hans Zimmer) -- at least ON PURPOSE for once. See http://www.pearlharborii.com.

Amazon.com has been listing Jon Burlingame's book, The Newmans of Hollywood, as being published this month; they're even accepting pre-orders. But WAIT! They're wrong, the book is still not ready; no word as to its release.

Wallace and Gromit fans, composer Julian Nott's website has news on an upcoming CD release; see http://www.peninsula-films.demon.co.uk/Howtogetholdofmymusic.html

A Los Angeles trip including dinner with Star Trek composer Alexander Courage was just auctioned on ebay.com for $3,000. Wow! (I put a note about this on our message board several days ago; bidding closed last night.) Courage doesn't even have to give $1,500 to Gene Roddenberry for writing bad lyrics. See http://cgi.ebay.com/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=1046740697

There was recently a news item about a four-woman classical group called Bond which had supposedly been contacted about providing music for the next Bond movie. However, that was just promotional bluster -- no such offer or arrangement has been made.

Larry Groupe's Fantasy for Orchestra, "Water Unfolding," will be performed by the Lansing Symphony Orchestra, Lansing, Michigan, on January 12. Groupe will be the featured guest at an upcoming program titled "A Score Is Born" with the San Diego Symphony, with various score cues and themes played live to picture.

Dutch composer Johan De Meij has recorded Symphony No. 1: The Lord of the Rings, having nothing to do with the current film but inspired by the J.R.R. Tolkien books. The symphony is authorized by the Tolkien estate and was written between 1984 and 1987, originally for winds, now for orchestra. The new album is performed by the London Symphony Orchestra.

Music nominations this year are as follows -- with a curious EIGHT nominees in the score category.

Original Score

Craig Armstrong, Moulin Rouge
Angelo Badalamenti, Mulholland Drive
Lisa Gerrard and Pieter Bourke, Ali
James Horner, A Beautiful Mind
Howard Shore, The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
John Williams, A.I. Artificial Intelligence
Christopher Young, The Shipping News
Hans Zimmer, Pearl Harbor.

Original Song

"Come What May" from Moulin Rouge, by David Baerwald
"May It Be" from The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring," by Enya
"There You'll Be" from Pearl Harbor," by Diane Warren
"Until..." from Kate & Leopold," by Sting
Vanilla Sky from Vanilla Sky, by Paul McCartney

From: "Ricard L. Befan" <ricard@jwfan.net>

On January 15, 2002 Sony Classical will release the full score to Steven Spielberg's The Unfinished Journey, as part of the new Williams release "American Journey". The CD also includes the Salt Lake 2002 Olympic Theme, as well as 'Jubilee 350 Fanfare', The NBC News Theme ('The Mission'), 'Satellite Celebration' and other previously unreleased fanfares and themes composed by Williams during the last two decades. http://www.jwfan.net has special sections devoted to the new release, the Winter Olympics theme and 'The Unfinished Journey'.

From: "Benoit A. Racine" <baracine@idirect.com>

This piece of news for you... Please use it! I was in a Toronto department store-shopping mall yesterday (The Bay store at Bloor and Yonge) and guess what the Muzak background music was playing for our holiday shopping pleasure... The theme from "Jurassic Park"! I am no great fan of John Williams but I was sickened just the same. Needless to say all the life, specificity and character had been sucked right out of the melody and what was left was barely distinguishable from "Walking My Baby Back Home". Their orchestrator must be called D. Great Leveler... Strike one for the greater acceptation of film music in public rest rooms!

In reference to Kjell Neckebroeck's article, "Horner, the Mystic?", I agree that James Horner has provided us with more than a fair share of outstanding music and indeed, I will continue to buy all his albums and enjoy his music.

Still, I feel that the argument stating that if his music provides the same emotional response even if recycled, then it accomplishes its purpose is fundamentally flawed. How would you feel if Beethoven had recycled a couple of times "Fur Elise" and just called it "Fur Natalie Too" and "Fur Sophie As Well"? The music is just as beautiful, but I believe all three ladies would rightfully feel cheated.

True, all composers draw from the bag of tricks they've been developing and sometimes, in response to the film's producers will even attempt to provide a similar sound to some other composer's work, but every artist, particularly someone with Horner's credentials and potential, should continuously fight for the creative individuality of his work.

It's all right to re-visit a particular motif once or twice, but not as often as Horner has done. His work sometimes feels like patchwork, which is a shame; I am constantly amazed at how someone who obviously has the talent to produce such beautiful art doesn't do so in every opportunity.

Just wanted to thank you for the release of Henry Orient. I started collecting film music at 12, with Tiomkins the Alamo, that was 41 years ago. Mr. Bernstein score of The Magnificent Seven and Henry Orient were two I hoped and hoped for, finally the score to The Magnificent Seven came out...but I never thought I'd see Henry Orient. Thanks again from an old film music collector...

Christopher Young recently had selections of his score for The Shipping News performed by a Celtic band at Dublin's Pub in Los Angeles. See http://www.wireimage.com/GalleryListing.asp?navtyp=gls====5327 for thumbnail photos (you must be a wireimage subscriber to see the full-size photographs).

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