FILM SCORE FRIDAY 10/25/02

On November 19th, Walt Disney Records will release James Newton Howard's score to TREASURE PLANET. This is Howard's third score for a Disney animated feature in three years, following Dinosaur and Atlantis: The Lost Empire. Planet is a futuristic, space-set update of Robert Louis Stevenson's classic Treasure Island, and features the voices of Emma Thompson, Martin Short, David Hyde-Pierce, and Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Jim Hawkins. The directors are John Musker and Ron Clements, who together brought us some of Disney's best animated features of the last few decades -- The Little Mermaid, Aladdin, and The Great Mouse Detective.

On November 26th, Astralwerks will release the soundtrack to ADAPTATION, an offbeat comedy which reunites the writer and director of Being John Malkovich, Charlie Kaufman and Spike Jonze, and stars Nicolas Cage and Meryl Streep. No word yet on how much if any of Carter Burwell's score the disc will feature, but the same label did the score CD for Malkovich so we'd like to take that as a good sign.

Twenty-six songs from The Simpsons will be featured in the upcoming sheet music collection The Simpsons Songbook. FSM would like to thank Simpsons' composer Alf Clausen for alerting us to this development in what he himself terms "A little bit of shameless self-promotion!" More information on this talented composer can be found at http://alfclausen.com.

Below - Graeme Revell - Varese Sarabande
Frida - Elliot Goldenthal - UMG
Saint Sinner - Christopher Lennertz - LaLaLand
Uncorked - Jeff Danna - LaLaLand
Zulu Dawn - Elmer Bernstein - LaLaLand

October 29
Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever - Don Davis - Varese Sarabande
The Man From Elysian Fields - Anthony Marinelli - Varese Sarabande
White Oleander - Thomas Newman - Varese Sarabande
November 5
Ararat - Mychael Danna - Milan
Far From Heaven - Elmer Bernstein - Varese Sarabande
Ghost Ship - John Frizzell - Varese Sarabande
Punch-Drunk Love - Jon Brion - Nonsuch
Talk to Her - Alberto Iglesias - Milan
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
Treasure Planet - James Newton Howard - Disney
November 26
The Quiet American - Craig Armstrong - Varese Sarabande
Star Trek: Nemesis - Jerry Goldsmith - Varese Sarabande
Date Unknown
About Schmidt - Rolfe Kent - New Line
Alexander's Ragtime Band - Alfred Newman - Screen Archives
Blow Out - Pino Donaggio - Prometheus CD Club
The Busy Body/The Spirit is Willing - Vic Mizzy - Percepto
Catch Me If You Can - John Williams - Dreamworks
Children of the Century - Luis Bacalov - Decca
Dragonwyck - Alfred Newman - Screen Archives
The Hours - Philip Glass - Nonesuch
Ivanhoe - Miklos Rozsa - Rhino Handmade
Mussolini: The Untold Story - Laurence Rosenthal - Intrada Special Collection Series
The Swarm - Jerry Goldsmith - Prometheus CD Club
The Treasure of the Sierra Madre - Max Steiner - Rhino Handmade

All or Nothing - Andrew Dickson
All the Queen's Men - Uwe Fahrenkrog-Petersen
Frida - Elliot Goldenthal - Score Album on DG/UMG
Ghost Ship - John Frizzell - Score Album due Nov. 5 from Varese
Jackass: the Movie - Song Album on American Recordings
Looking Through Lillian - Stefan Schulzki
Paid in Full - Vernon Reid, Frank Fitzpatrick - Song Album on Universal
Roger Dodger - Craig Wedren
The Truth About Charlie - Rachel Portman - Song Album on Play-Tone with 1 Portman cue
Waking Up in Reno - Marty Stuart

ABANDON - Clint Mansell

"Most notable craft element is Clint Mansell's darkly supportive score, with subtly creates an ominously turbulent mood while intelligently avoiding the current cliches of mainstream soundtracks."

Todd McCarthy, Variety

AUTO FOCUS - Angelo Badalamenti

"Angelo Badalamenti's score throbs like elevator music on the slow ride down to hell."

A.O. Scott, New York Times

"The movie starts out in a breezy style with lounge-lizard music (by Angelo Badalamenti) and a palette like '50s dinnerware -- chartreuse, turquoise, dusty rose."

David Edelstein, Slate.com

"Musical contributions by Angelo Badalamenti and a host of pop tunes are tops."

Todd McCarthy, Variety

NAQOYQATSI - Philip Glass

"--a doodly-deedly score by Philip Glass--"

David Chute, L.A. Weekly

"Glass' patented minimalist style (which can range from hypnotic to maddeningly repetitive) is surprisingly effective. The choice to do this with an orchestra instead of synthesizers -- the latter a more obvious way to score a film about a frightening future -- was smart, and employing cellist Yo-Yo Ma as featured soloist was even smarter. He lends a refreshing human element to the enterprise. Glass' use of a wordless mezzo-soprano, the Australian didjeridoo and other offbeat sounds also helps to stave off the aural ennui that marked the music of the previous films."

Jon Burlingame, Los Angeles Times

"As in the earlier parts of the trilogy, Mr. Glass's score is the glue that holds "Naqoyqatsi" together. The composer's pulsating music of the spheres, which alternates between passages suggesting cosmic acceleration and detached meditation, couldn't be more perfectly synchronized to the rush of Mr. Reggio's montage. Some of those passages have a martial ring. In others, the cello of Yo-Yo Ma provides a tentative lyrical respite."

Stephen Holden, New York Times

"Possessed of another outstanding wall-to-wall score by Philip Glass--"

Todd McCarthy, Variety

PIPE DREAM - Alex Lasarenko

"Alexander Lasarenko's relentlessly retro, Mancini/Bacharach-derived 'bachelor pad' score tends to over-determine the imagery."

Ronnie Scheib, Variety

More harsh words from Pauline Kael on individual film scores by beloved composers:

THE GRIFTERS

The Elmer Bernstein score tries for a tart, sour Kurt Weill effect, and doesn't quite bring it off.

(from Movie Love, published by Plume)

The marlin's leaps out of the water are edited like travelogue footage, and the music -- Jerry Goldsmith's reject Delibes -- seems to be trying to evoke movie classics.

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

The Miklos Rozsa music provides horns and woodwinds for happy thoughts -- Disney-Debussy.

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

The idiot loves Rosy the way Quasimodo loved Esmerelda, and [screenwriter Robert] Bolt must be pleased with his creation, because he throws him into damned nearly every sequence in the movie, with Maurice Jarre providing a Felliniesque idiot-gambolling tune.

(from Deeper Into Movies, published by Warner Books)

The orchestral score of Silverado [by Bruce Broughton] is a mistake: it pounds you on the head trying to inflate the emotions that the movie intended to arouse, and so it makes you more aware of the hollowness of what you're experiencing.

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

But [director Brian DePalma] manages the thrills, and the audiences seem to be so turned on to the trashiness and so freaked out by Bernard Herrmann's music, with its old radio-play throb and zing, that they're happily crazy-scared.

(from Reeling, published by Warner Books)

The Greatest Show on Earth
Words by Ned Washington, Music by Victor Young

Come to the circus
And laugh your cares away
Come to the circus!
See the circus!
If we're not very careful
Life can overwork us
So take today
And make it gay
For there are too many tears along the way

Come to the circus
It's Circus Day today!
Come see the barkers
And the gawkers
The bareback riders
And the fearless tightrope walkers
The funny bears
Do their routine
The greatest extravaganza
The world has ever seen

(Originally published by Famous Music Corporation)

Filmmakers have apparently decided to give Samuel Barber's Adagio For Strings a rest. The new classical composer of choice is Estonian minimalist Arvo Part -- his distinctive Spiegel im Spiegal, prominently featured in Mother Night, has just been conspicuously used in both Heaven and the hate crime known as Swept Away.

And if any of you saw White Oleander and thought the end title song, "Safe and Sound" by Sheryl Crow, sounded familiar, it is -- last year it was used as the end title for K-PAX.

One of the best movie songs of the year, Aimee Mann's title song to Enough, has surfaced on her new CD Lost in Space but with a new title -- "Today's the Day." Maybe she's wisely trying to distance herself from the movie.

From "Carlos Camuñas"

Here are two more films without dramatic score or significant source music:
 
Fail Safe (U.S.-1964)
The Discreet Charm Of The Bourgeoisie(France-1972)

From: hal_jackson@speakeasy.net

Subject: TEN COMMANDMENTS overture - composer

I have studied a copy of the manuscript short score at the Library of Congress, in Washington D.C., and that particular cue is signed as composed by Elmer Bernstein, and orchestrated by Lucien Calliet.

Although I've heard the rumors that it was a Young composed piece, the score states it is Bernstein's piece.

Please excuse me for joining the debate late, as usual (I've been abroad in northern Greece -- found a wonderful music shop). To add my penny-worth to the Ten Commandments debate: a few years ago a 70-minute b**t CD was released of the original film tracks..

My point is this: before the Main Title music the CD kicks off with an Overture which does not share any of the themes from the rest of the film. The orchestra appears to be of the same forces and the recording balance is the same. I've always wondered about this piece with respect to the Victor Young / Elmer Bernstein mystery. Any thoughts? Please excuse me if this point has already been raised.

Continuing my bold trend of trying to predict this year's Best Score nominations before many of the films have even been released, here is my updated list of the scores most likely to be nominated:

1. Catch Me If You Can
2. The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
3. Road to Perdition
4. Signs
5. Far From Heaven
6. Minority Report
7. The Sum of All Fears
8. The Hours
9. Attack of the Clones
10. Spider-Man

From: James Lochner <jimnyc62@yahoo.com>

Since I spend most of my movie-going year predicting Oscars, I think about what scores may be nominated next year the full 365 days a year. Granted, I don't see and everything, I pretty much agree with most of your selections, though I will ashamedly admit that I forgot about Clones. I never discount a Williams double nomination though it seems like many people are "over" Star Wars.

One that didn't make your top five but stands a good chance is Spider-Man. It made a ton of money and now that Elfman has cracked into the good ol' boys club, he might stand a good chance again this year.

As I'm sure I'll obsess about this more and more as the year progresses, I will probably have more (unasked-for) opinions later. I'll send 'em along for you to do with as you will.

From one obsessive Oscar-listener to another,
Jim Lochner

After watching The Rookie again on DVD this week, I really hope Carter Burwell's score gets nominated, though it's probably a long shot. I also hope folks remember Insomnia from earlier this summer for a possible Best Picture, but more for Al Pacino and Hillary Swank's performances. And both of these pictures have to be in consideration for cinematography, along with Road to Perdition.

I'd like to thank our readers who supplied the following, the full list of the British radio station Classic FM's listeners' favorite scores of all time. As before, I am perturbed by the lack of any Jerry Goldsmith scores, but it is possible that he wasn't even eligible -- the website's page titled Masters of Movie Music lists nearly a hundred composers spanning the history of film music, with everyone from Hans Salter and Carl Stalling to Eric Serra, Giorgio Moroder, Stewart Copeland and Trevor Rabin -- but no Jerry Goldsmith. Or Bernard Herrmann. Or Georges Delerue, for that matter.

I know, I know, they can't include everyone, and they've clearly made an effort to make the list global (with entries like Brian May and Zbigniew Preisner) -- but to omit Herrmann, Goldsmith, and Delerue while including Beltrami, Conti, Edelman, Hamlisch, Mancina and Menken is inexplicable to say the least.

1 Howard Shore: Lord of the Rings - The Fellowship of the Ring
2 John Williams: Star Wars
3 John Williams: Schindler's List
4 John Williams: The Empire Strikes Back
5 Hans Zimmer: Gladiator
6 John Williams: ET
7 John Barry: Out of Africa
8 Maurice Jarre: Lawrence of Arabia
9 John Barry: Dances with Wolves
10 James Horner: Titanic
11 Maurice Jarre: Doctor Zhivago
12 John Williams: Raiders of the Lost Ark
13 Ennio Morricone: The Mission
14 John Williams: Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone
15 Elmer Bernstein: The Magnificent Seven
16 John Williams: Saving Private Ryan
17 John Williams: Jurassic Park
18 Brief Encounter - Rachmaninov Piano Concerto no.2
19 2001: A Space Odyssey - Richard Strauss Also Sprach Zarathustra
20 William Walton: Henry V
21 James Horner: Braveheart
22 Michael Nyman: The Piano
23 Vangelis: Chariots of Fire
24 Jerome Moross: Big Country
25 John Williams: Superman
26 Vangelis: Blade Runner
27 Max Steiner: Gone with the Wind
28 John Barry: The Lion in Winter
29 Gabriel Yared: The English Patient
30 James Horner: The Mask of Zorro

From: Steve Kilfoy <steve@bloodpage.com>

Your [recent] poll (re: favorite non-Rota, non-Morricone Italian film music composers) is a good one - quite interesting. You've done well in coming up with the list of composers to choose from, but-- (you knew this was coming, didn't you?) notable for his absence is Piero Umiliani. He likely wouldn't be among the top vote-getters, but still he was an accomplished composer with plenty of credits and deserves a spot if for no other reason than he was the composer of the instantly recognizable (and impossible to forget) "Mah-na-mah-na" song. Of course some may find that a reason to keep him off the list!

He also composed the music for the classic Italian comedy BIG DEAL ON
MADONNA STREET which should gain him some dispensation from those who can't stand "Mah-na-mah-na".

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