Film Score Friday 10/26/01

Varese Sarabande has announced the three new releases in their CD Club: Heartbeeps (John Williams), Project X (James Horner) and Marie Ward (Elmer Bernstein). Order now at Varese's website. Three more releases will be announced next February, along with a "Masters Film Music" special edition. Heartbeeps is a terrific score for an obscure 1980-ish flop starring Andy Kaufman -- totally addictive John Williams music from his initial blockbuster era.

Lalo Schifrin has been commissioned to write a symphony by the Sultan of Oman. The work, "Symphonic Impressions of Oman," is based on the traditional music of Oman and will be recorded by the London Symphony Orchestra.

Several readers have written in about distortion which can be found on the CD of The Last Castle (Jerry Goldsmith). Apparently the error is a type of intermittent crackling sound which is most definitely not a part of the music, but some sort of mixing/mastering anomaly; a similar problem plagued the CD release of The Edge a few years ago. We do not know of any plans on Decca's part to correct the disc. Frankly, people ought to be embarrassed that this type of error has found its way onto a modern recording.

The Mr. Holland's Opus Foundation recently held a fundraiser at the home of music editor Ken Kragen in Beverly Hills. In attendance were: Executive Director Felice Mancini, Founder Michael Kamen, Foundation Board President Doreen Ringer Ross; Dave Koz and David Benoit, who performed with students who were instrument recipients from the Foundation; celebrities such as Lesley Ann Warren, Eric Idle, Paul Stanley, Michael Des Barres; and composers such as Patrick Williams, David Kitay, Ray Bunch and George S. Clinton. The Mr. Holland's Opus Foundation is dedicated to providing instruments and resources for music students who otherwise might not be able to learn their art and craft.

Philip Glass and his Ensemble will perform live to film the composer's original score to Bela Lugosi's 1931 film version of Dracula. The performance is October 31st at 8PM at Ann Arbor's Michigan Theater, 603 E. Liberty Street. Call 734-668-8480 or see http://www.ums.org/season/artists/ap.asp?pageid=17.

Local archivist and historian Gary Hamann sent in this find from a 1938 newspaper. Kind of neat to see what they were writing about back then!

2/26/1938 Daily News (Los Angeles)

Raves and Raps

By Harry Mines

Among the recipients of heavier batches of fan mail in Hollywood is a man who has never appeared on the screen and about whom little publicity material has been issued.

He is Max Steiner, composer and director of nearly 50 musical scores, the latest of them for Jezebel, starring Bette Davis, a romance of the Old South.

Almost every morning for the last four or five years Steiner has found on his desk an average of between 40 and 60 letters from people lauding him for his musical score on one picture or another.

Many ask for photostatic copies of unpublished scores or parts of them. Steiner received over 400 requests for copies of the marching song entitled "Light Brigade Patrol" from The Charge of the Light Brigade. He responded with photostatic copies of his original manuscript to each and every one of the writers.

One of the oddest "fan letters" Steiner ever received came from an 80-year-old woman in South Carolina. She wrote that she had just seen the picture, Break of Hearts, starring Katharine Hepburn and Charles Boyer, and that she had tried everywhere to purchase a copy of the theme song, bearing the same title as the picture.

"I have not been able to find one," she said. "And unless I get one within the next week I shall commit suicide."

Steiner promptly had a photostatic copy of the unpublished song made. Keeping the photostat for himself, he autographed his original manuscript and dispatched it to the woman by airmail and special delivery. He received a note in reply thanking him for the manuscript and concluding with the remark that the woman now thought she would be able to pass the century mark.

It was fortunate for Steiner that he made a photostatic copy of the song for in the years since the picture he has given away nearly 4,000 copies to music lovers who wrote to him personally asking him where the composition might be obtained.

The big difference between Steiner's and the average run of Hollywood fan mail lies in the fact that by far the greatest majority of his letters come from obviously well-educated persons. Many of the letters he receives come from the officers of large industrial and business organizations, bankers, doctors, lawyers and the like.

But there is a sprinkling of mail from near-illiterates who, apologizing for their lack of "book learning," describe themselves simply as lovers of good music desirous of complimenting him on his work.

Strangest feature of all in connection with Steiner's large volume of mail, however, is the fact that the correspondents obtain his name from the credit titles at the start of the pictures he has scored; an obscure line reading:

"Music by Max Steiner."
 

David Schecter at Monstrous Movie Music is auctioning a variety of rare Erich Wolfgang Korngold items. See this link for the complete list and descriptions: http://www.mmmrecordings.com/Autographs/korngold/korngold.html

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