My luck with the Colburn School of Music is incredible. Last time I went to a simple public concert of piano pieces with Gloria Cheng and had 6 major composers (from Randy Newman to John Williams) show up in an intimate setting. This time I was invited to a screening of
1M1: HOLLYWOOD HORNS OF THE GOLDEN YEARS
and it was incredible! Annie Bosler decided over 15 years ago she wanted to do a documentary on the Hollywood horn players who taught her at USC and their compadres who were, and are, still around (she herself has played on scores like PACIFIC RIM, THE LONE RANGER, JACK REACHER and WHITE HOUSE DOWN). The result of all these years of dedication is joyous to behold, as this trailer shows:
...and yet it isn't coming to anyplace near you. The film has been mired in rights issues for years because of the clips used in the film (and they ARE from a ton of the greatest scores ever composed) and can only be seen in educational contexts.
The good news is she is going to have another screening on Friday July 18th, and she has to do it for free because of those issues!
Again it is at Zipper Auditorium at the historic Colburn school (where she teaches French horn) 200 South Grand downtown Los Angeles (across from Disney Hall).
I implore anybody who cares about film music, it's history or even wants to learn more about it's past to see this wonderful film. I don't know when the next opportunity will come along.
A shame that "rights" stuff always messes great things like this up.
At the site, love the photo of the PLANET OF THE APES recording session. That one standing ape totally has Goldsmith's body language so I guess that's him. Didn't know all the players wore the masks. How cool.
Thanks for sharing Morricone.
I guess cause of the "rights" issues, hopes for a DVD release is not in the cards. Clips should be seen as great publicity for the studios, but compensating all the people that appear in those clips, I guess gets complicated. Don't understand it all.
Actually, Jerry was much slimmer than the person standing in the photo above. I'm thinking it's one of the musicians.
Looking at it again, I think your right Ron. He sort of has Jerry's stature when he was doing RIVER WILD much later in his career. The other photos of Jerry in the Ape mask always showed him in a dress shirt also I think. Yeah that standing ape is in the player area.
Just wondering Morricone, does the film feature any scoring stage footage or photos of our heroes like Jerry, Elmer and Johnny?
It's hard to remember everything because the film was rather dense but yes there was plenty of stills including all three of our heroes. And there was SOME scoring footage to illustrate what the interviewees were saying but unlabeled as from what film it came from. Of course what popped out is the color widescreen excerpts of John Green at MGM and Alfred Newman at Fox from those shorts and features. There was a complaint that composers are represented by John Williams alone but who else was around then, besides Previn, who has such vivid memories about the various hornplayers and what each one bought to the table? And he does have a lot to say in the film.
Oh yes, anything which champions the actual musicians playing the actual instruments on all those scores gets my full support. When I first started getting into film music as a child, I never even thought that real people wrote that music. Then I realised that, yes, there were composers behind all that great stuff - actual flesh n' blood people. But it was a few more years before I began to appreciate that in order to make those sounds, they needed a whole other bunch of real flesh n' blood people - the musicians.
Oh, I´d LOVE to see this! Hollywood horn players... THAT´s my kind of musicians. And with John Williams and Jon Burlingame involved... wow! Let´s hope it becomes available to the public in some format (online, DVD) at some time in the future.
I'll second that. Would love to see it, but I doubt I get the chance to because of its limited distribution.
Let me emphasize that it is not that it isn't coming out eventually. FSM member Clafong was with me at this screening and suggested to filmmaker Annie Bosler she could use a "For use" rule that can reduce the cost of using excerpts based on length, which she will take up with her lawyer. This will enable her to raise the money to pay these re-use fees sooner, and hence have it out faster. But my suggestion to go to next friday's screening, or the one apparently upcoming in England, is if you want to see it within the next couple of years (sometimes crucial to us oldsters).
...or look for it at a musical education institute near you!
Vincent DeRosa is THE most well-known Hollywood French horn player. When I was at USC I was amazed to discover an annual Vincent DeRosa concert featuring an ensemble of 24 (or maybe more) French horns. This student ensemble would get concert pieces regularly written for it by film composers, and the year I was there (2003-4) the concert featured works by John Debney, Aaron Zigman (his was the most ambitious), Michael Giacchino (his was the most fun, titled Bassoonus Interruptus), and his regular orchestrator Tim Simonec.
I'm just sorry I didn't get to go to more of those because hearing so many French horns together is just awesome.
Great story Yavar! Fellow FSM member Clafong (Marshall Harvey) attended this screening with me and told me when he was very young his mother sold Vincent DeRosa his first house. Marshall was a young French horn player and when he found out the guy who played on BREAKFAST AT TIFFANY'S and DAYS OF WINE AND ROSES was this fellow, he asked to meet him. Alas that didn't happen but DeRosa gave him a signed album he had just done "The Intimate Bach" with Laurindo Almeida. He brought it along just in case Vincent might show, alas another no.
A shame that "rights" stuff always messes great things like this up.
At the site, love the photo of the PLANET OF THE APES recording session. That one standing ape totally has Goldsmith's body language so I guess that's him. Didn't know all the players wore the masks. How cool.
Thanks for sharing Morricone.
I guess cause of the "rights" issues, hopes for a DVD release is not in the cards. Clips should be seen as great publicity for the studios, but compensating all the people that appear in those clips, I guess gets complicated. Don't understand it all.
Bummer.
There was another photo of Goldsmith with the ape mask in Tony Thomas' original edition of "Music For The Movies" but wasn't included in the 1998 revised edition.
Vincent DeRosa is THE most well-known Hollywood French horn player. When I was at USC I was amazed to discover an annual Vincent DeRosa concert featuring an ensemble of 24 (or maybe more) French horns. This student ensemble would get concert pieces regularly written for it by film composers, and the year I was there (2003-4) the concert featured works by John Debney, Aaron Zigman (his was the most ambitious), Michael Giacchino (his was the most fun, titled Bassoonus Interruptus), and his regular orchestrator Tim Simonec.
I'm just sorry I didn't get to go to more of those because hearing so many French horns together is just awesome.
Yavar
Yes! Then I took a look at the film musicals he played on:
OKLAHOMA! GUYS AND DOLLS CAROUSEL THE KING AND I SOUTH PACIFIC STATE FAIR THE MUSIC MAN MARY POPPINS MY FAIR LADY THE SOUND OF MUSIC THOROUGHLY MODERN MILLIE FUNNY GIRL HELLO DOLLY PAINT YOUR WAGON
Am I the only one totally blown away by this fellow?
He also has a book on him "Carved In stone" http://www.vincentderosabook.com/ ..according to it. Vincent played solo horn on EVERY Frank Sinatra record he did for Capitol Records.
I get a sense if they did a George Baily on him and Vincent DeRosa had never been born, there would be a hole in film music the size of the Arizona meteor crater.
