FILM SCORE FRIDAY 10/4/02

Franz Waxman's Oscar®-winning score to Billy Wilder's classic SUNSET BOULEVARD will be released by Varese Sarabande in a brand-new recording on November 19th. Joel McNeely conducts the Royal Scottish National Orchestra on this new disc featuring seventy minutes of Waxman's acclaimed score, including a nine minute piece written for the film's original prologue which was cut before its release.

On November 12th, Varese will release Randy Edelman's score to XXX, the summer action hit starring Vin Diesel as an Extreme athlete who gets thrust into a James Bond-ian world of espionage. The film is the fifth collaboration between Edelman and director Rob Cohen.

The same day, Varese will release James Newton Howard's score to THE EMPERORS' CLUB, a Dead Poets Society-style comedy-drama starring Kevin Kline as a prep-school teacher and focusing on his relationship with a rebellious student (Emile Hirsch from The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys). The film is the fifth collaboration between Howard and director Michael Hoffman, whose partnership began with Promised Land in 1988.

Though most of the soundtrack mail order websites apparently won't have it available until October 22nd, Lalo Schifrin's expanded re-recording of his Oscar®-nominated score to THE AMITYVILLE HORROR is available at his website now for ordering.

According to Madonna's website, the soundtrack to the 20th James Bond film, DIE ANOTHER DAY, will feature approximately forty minutes of David Arnold's score, as well as the film's brand-new Madonna song and a Paul Oakenfold version of the James Bond theme (I won't dare to mention who may or may not have written the Bond theme for fear that someone will sue me). The disc will be released on November 12th. My thanks to readers Michael Arlidge and Steve Daniel for the updated info.

The scoring credit on the poster for HARRY POTTER AND THE CHAMBER OF SECRETS reads "Music by John Williams, Music Adapted by William Ross."

Koch will release the soundtrack to ASH WEDNESDAY; no word yet how much if any of David Shire's score will be featured. Ash Wednesday is directed by Edward Burns and stars, of course, Edward Burns. It is hoped that someday Burns will be able to film his dream project, a gay love story featuring himself as both of the leads.

Eternal Echoes - John Barry - Decca (U.S. release)
The Fantasy Album - various - Silva
L'Adversaire - Angelo Badalamenti - Milan (France)
Papillon - Jerry Goldsmith - Universal (France)
The Tuxedo - John Debney, Christophe Beck - Varese Sarabande

October 8
Naqoyqatsi - Philip Glass - Sony
Secretary - Angelo Badalamenti - Lions Gate
Tuck Everlasting - William Ross - Disney
Welcome to Collinwood - Mark Mothersbaugh - Sanctuary
October 15
Abandon - Clint Mansell - Silverline
Swept Away - Michel Colombier - Varese Sarabande
October 22
Below - Graeme Revell - Varese Sarabande
Film Music of Ralph Vaughan Williams - Ralph Vaughan Williams - Chandos
Frida - Elliot Goldenthal - UMG
October 29
Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever - Don Davis - Varese Sarabande
Ghost Ship - John Frizzell - Varese Sarabande
The Man From Elysian Fields - Anthony Marinelli - Varese Sarabande
White Oleander - Thomas Newman - Varese Sarabande
November 5
Far From Heaven - Elmer Bernstein - Varese Sarabande
November 12
Die Another Day - David Arnold - Maverick
The Emperors' Club - James Newton Howard - Varese Sarabande
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets - John Williams, William Ross - Atlantic
XXX - Randy Edelman - Varese Sarabande
November 19
Sunset Boulevard - Franz Waxman - Varese Sarabande
Date Unknown
The Busy Body/The Spirit is Willing - Vic Mizzy - Percepto
Children of the Century - Luis Bacalov - Decca
Down to the Sea in Ships/12 O'Clock High - Alfred Newman - Screen Archives
The Hours - Philip Glass - Nonesuch
Star Trek: Nemesis - Jerry Goldsmith - Varese Sarabande
The Swarm - Jerry Goldsmith - Prometheus CD Club

Alias Betty - Francois Dompierre
His Secret Life - Andrea Guerra
Red Dragon - Danny Elfman - Score Album on Decca
Welcome to Collinwood - Mark Mothersbaugh - Score CD due Oct. 8 on Sanctuary

THE MAN FROM ELYSIAN FIELDS - Anthony Marinelli

"Anthony Marinelli's score is also a plus"

Todd McCarthy, Variety

MOONLIGHT MILE - Mark Isham

"Massive songlist reduced Mark Isham's score (carried by Hot Tuna fret masters Jorma Kaukonen and Jack Casady) to an afterthought."

Robert Koehler, Variety

SWEET HOME ALABAMA- George Fenton

"Indicative of the pic's intensely pre-programmed quality is the musical score, which functions very much like a sitcom laugh track in cueing audience response."

Todd McCarthy, Variety

WASABI - Eric Serra, Julian Schultheis

"Techno and pop score is omnipresent but stops just short of overbearing."

Lisa Nesselson, Variety

A handful of Pauline Kael's more complimentary views on individual film scores.

BARBAROSA

The music permeates the images -- it's by Bruce Smeaton, one of the few genuinely lyrical composers working in movies.

(from Taking It All In, published by Henry Holt & Co.)

She goes right past suffering into the realm of myth, which in this movie has its own music - a recurring melody played on the panflute. That lonely music [by Ennio Morricone] keeps reminding us of the despoiled girl, of the incomprehensible language, the tunnels, the hidden meanings, the sorrow.

(from Movie Love, published by Plume)

The tastefully haunting theme music, by John Scott, has the same weakness and charm as the rest of the movie; it sounds familiar the first time you hear it -- "original" movie music often does -- yet it's lovely in it's pleasures-of-reminiscence, Noel Cowardish way.

(from Reeling, published by Warner Books)

Even Edith Head's costume designs and Maurice Jarre's musical score rise to the occasion.

(from When the Lights Go Down, published by Henry Holt & Co.)

The score, by Richard Band, has a whoopiness about it, like Bernard Herrmann with hiccups, and Gordon brings the movie in at an hour and twenty-five minutes.

(from Hooked, published by E.P. Dutton)

Even the buildings and the skies are silvery white, and the slightly acrid neo-Gershwin score, by Stephen Sondheim, enhances the design.

(from Reeling, published by Warner Books)

Ship of Fools
Lyrics by Ned Washington, Music by Ernest Gold

There's a ship of fools
On a lonely sea
With a cargo of hearts
Drifting aimlessly

Where the great unloved
Cry to you and me
"Be caerful! Be careful!
What fools were we!"

So, let's take this love
Be it big or small
On the ship of fools
There's no love at all

It's a warm kind of love
Not a love that cools
Itís a far better thing
Than a ship of fools

Originally published by Colgems-EMI Music Inc.

From: "Matt Manning" <mj_manning@yahoo.co.uk>

Whoa! Wait one cotton-picking minute! What's "Link" doing on a poll for Goldsmith's worst score!? I love that score! I stick it firmly up-front as a favourite from the pony-tailed one's mid 80's output along with "Rambo: First Blood Part2 ", "Legend", and "King Solomon's Mines" and, wait another minute, what's "King Solomon's Mines" doing on there!?

His music to "Link" and "King Solomon's Mines" (with the obvious John Williams "Raiders" comparison out the way after the main theme and the cheap Cannon Films stigma removed from both scores) are terrific examples of his exciting, robust rhythmic and melodic action-writing, far superior to any such scores he wrote after 1991! Actually you probably know that, but hell, what are these polls for if not to stimulate gob-smacked reactions! Hehehe!

"Link" is well overdue for a CD re-issue - my old Varese cassette can't stand the pounding no more!

If you were going to nominate Goldsmith's worst monkey score, why isn't "Congo" heading up that list? And in case you were wondering what I DID vote for, "Angie" got my hands-down, no quibbles mouse-click. WHY did I buy that CD!? WHY!?

From: "Paul Andrew MacLean" <p.maclean@worldnet.att.net>

I cannot see why Coma is nominated for "Worst Goldsmith Score". Is this the album we are voting on, or the score as in the film? To be sure, the poppy "Love Theme From Coma" is a little off-putting, especially as an opening album track ("This is the guy who did STAR TREK?" I thought, as a budding soundtrack collector who came across a cassette of the score in a budget bin). I concur the disco tracks are outright painful -- however they were only very briefly heard in the film, as source cues in a dance class scene (and "Disco Strut" was not in fact composed by Goldsmith, but by Don Peake).

Has anyone seen Coma, and experienced how it works in the film? "Love Theme from Coma" is actually effective in the film, used over a montage where the heroine and her boyfriend take a brief holiday (and as I recall, the pop beat is less obtrusive in the film mix). But where Coma truly impresses, is in its suspense cues -- again not great album material, but unassailable in creating an atmosphere of strident, hair-raising terror. The instrumental set-up is worth mentioning too -- no brass, virtually no percussion, but an ensemble of strings, clarinets (with one brief passage featuring flutes), tack piano and synthesizer.

From: "Randy Derchan" <rderchan@visualdatainc.com>

Subject: Polls from hell

Jerry's worst score? How dare you include Players! How dare you have a Goldsmith's worst poll!

Actually I voted IQ because I really don't remember much of it. Fierce Creatures was another waste of his time. I've grown to love Along Came A Spider, though.

How about Zimmer's best poll? You'll get one item on the page: Gladiator

Players is certainly minor Goldsmith, though that Wimbledon music is awesome. If Goldsmith ever decides to start using cues from more obscure scores in his concerts, I think that Wimbledon piece could easily bring an audience to its feet.

And personally, I think The Thin Red Line is Zimmer's best score.

In my series on movies set on other worlds, I left out the terrific Philip K. Dick adaptation SCREAMERS [1995], score by Normand Corbeil.

From: "Jean-François_Houben" <jeanfrancois.houben@chello.be>

You mentioned Raoul Kraushaar (musical director born in Paris in 1908, dead last year in Pompano Beach) as the composer for the movie "Invaders from Mars" (1952). He received a "screen credit" but the score was in fact likely (ghost-) written by composer & arranger Mort Glickman (1898-1953).

Some additions to Scott's Aliens On Earth list:

The Earth Dies Screaming (1964) Elisabeth Lutyens
Invasion (1966) Bernard Ebbinghouse
The People (TVM) (1972) Carmine Coppola
Escape To Witch Mountain (1975) Johnny Mandel
Return From Witch Mountain (1978) Lalo Schifrin
The Cat From Outer Space (1978) Lalo Schifrin
Tremors (1990) Ernest Troost, Robert Folk
Official Denial (1994) Garry McDonald & Laurie Stone
Tremors 2: Aftershocks (1995) Jay Ferguson
Escape To Witch Mountain (TV) (1995) Richard Marvin
Tremors 3: Back To Perfection (2001) Kevin Kiner

From: "Kirk Henderson" <kirksworks@attbi.com>

1962 - Disney's MOON PILOT - Paul J. Smith

The character Dany Saval played, Lyrae, was from another planet.

Subject: what's the deal here?

I was reading today's article at filmscoremonthly.com and I notice that it was yet another chronology of a certain genre of film music. Now some of this is interesting (for about a minute) but why is it even there? Do you think that we readers are interested in who scored the horror movies and alien movies of the 50's? If we really wanted to know who wrote what, we find out on our own!

What's the deal here? Saving all of the good, interesting articles for the monthly hard copy?

Faithful reader,
Brian Sadler, USN

From: "simon st. laurent" <tranya@hotmail.com>

Subject: Bravo!

Dearest (touchy) FSM,

Re: Dan Hobgood's "To Compose a Story" -- good stuff! Now that's more like it. I should check in more than once every month or two.

Dan Hobgood argued, on October second, that lietmotivic scoring requires too much effort on the part of listeners. His example was that of the Star Wars scores.

I would counter Mr. Hobgood by saying that the various themes from Star Wars, and other Williams films, are the most recognizable film themes in popular culture. And it is not due to some "effort" on the part of listeners that this is so.

For instance, The Imperial March (and motives from it and based on it) was used to underscore scenes in which Darth Vader appeared. Now, does this repeated emphasis of this three-note motive require any effort from the listener? No. The same goes for the Star Wars fanfare, the Rebel fanfare, the Indiana Jones March, the Jaws theme, etc.

I would argue that though lietmotivic scoring may be simple, it is arguably the best method for thematic retention in the minds of the listeners, and thus the very soul of popular culture.

While I've been arguing for years, to listeners both willing and unwilling, the folly of using songs to score films because assimilation of the lyrics diverts from the dialogue and images the finite amount of intellectual apprehension an audience brings into the cinema (not to mention the very specific generational and stylistic associations a song demands of its listener for it to have any pertinence to those filmed images), Dan Hobgood's assertion in "To Compose a Story" is simply ludicrous, to wit:

"If an individual attempts to do this with, for example, the Star Wars scores, he is no doubt diverting almost all of his attention from the story/narrative the music is supposed to supplement. A listener must concentrate too much attention on one component of the film, which hampers his attempt to ponder the story and how other elements of production contribute to telling it."

The idea that leitmotifs, such as those employed by John Williams in STAR WARS, must be sorted out consciously, and doing so then robs the viewer of mental capacity for the assimilation of other elements in a film, is ludicrous and just plain wrong. While I've always much preferred Goldsmith's music to Williams's, the latter's scores, however many themes they may employ, work at the same subconscious level as do the former's. Certainly the degree to which the interweaving of thematic material creates associations and advances a film's story varies from viewer to viewer, but that's no different from individual reactions to any other filmic element, or a film as a whole.

I can only conclude that Dan simply has a prejudice against the entire Wagnerian approach to film-scoring. If the leitmotiv were a static, inflexible theme that merely stated again and again what had already become musically obvious, then Dan might have a point, but in the hands of a great composer the themes expand, contract and evolve to propel the elements of character, and the relationships between characters, as no other approach can.

Frankly, rather than suggest that there is only one true and sublime method of writing music for a motion picture, as does Mr. Hobgood, I would suggest that a composer must learn to write in leitmotifs before he can be considered good enough not to have to.

From: "B. Kuo" <b.kuo@insightbb.com>

I would like to know the title of the song that was sung by this lady in the Voyage of the Damned. It appeared to be German. Thanks.

Yo, does anybody know what or who SYMPHONY OF VOCIES are? Nicholas Pike used them recently on his FEARDOTCOM score, also John Debney in END OF DAYS and I am sure Hans Zimmer and friends also use them--

--but what is it? Surely no commercially available CDs, are they?

I have a question: As ALASKA - one of the few watchable kids-in-nature movies - has been finally released on DVD, the wonderful and bombastic score by Reg Powell came back to my mind. It's really one of the best scores of 1996. Sadly, the announced album by Varese Sarabande was cancelled shortly before release. It's even more a shame, as the score was recorded in London, therefore it would have been a quite long album. I was always hoping for a promo-release, but nothing happened and I have never heard of Reg Powell again.
 
So, does anybody know why Varese cancelled the score and who Reg Powell is and what he is doing now? It's such a great score, it's a shame that noboy heard it... the movie was a big bomb, but do yourself a favor and check it out on DVD, be it only for the score. (but the movie is also quite lovely and features stunning photography).

For any info about this I would be grateful.

My name is Duncan. I worked with Don Peake on a Fifth Dimension album as a writer. I am trying to contact him. Please forward this email to him for his reply.

From: "Peter Dishal" <pdishal@comcast.net>

In response to Jeff Heise's question about Victor Young having composed a short prelude for DeMille's THE TEN COMMANDMENTS -- I certainly can't absolutely rule that out as a possibility, but Katherine Orrison's book "Written in Stone," about the making of the movie, includes a fairly extensive interview with Bernstein, and he makes no mention of such a thing. He says that when DeMille started preproduction, he needed some music written for the actual shooting (such as dance music in Pharaoh's court), and Young, in declining health and too busy to work on those sequences, recommended Bernstein. Then:
 
"When it came time to actually score the finished picture, Victor Young again declined, saying I should do the entire film, since I'd started on it and was already 'up to speed,' so to speak. Actually, Young was very sick, and was simply trying to finish up his last committed movie work before his death, in late 1956, just after THE TEN COMMANDMENTS premiered.
 
"And Young told friends in private that he simply didn't feel up to working for DeMille again. It was just too hard with the state of his health."
 
I'd be interested to know who told Jeff about the Young-composed prelude, and what that person's source was.

I worked on the special edition laserdisc of Ten Commandments and have seen memos kept in the DeMille Collection at Brigham Young. The Overture is all Bernstein. Young only sketched one screen dance scene that was not used.

The story is that Young did not do the score as planned because he died. Young backed out in 1954. He was no longer a contract composer and he did not want to go through another DeMille film. De Mille rejected Herrmann because he thought his score for the Egyptian slowed the film down!