has been totally updated, and includes a revised pdf biography by the composer's grandson, Josh Tarjan.
The Buffalo Philharmonic performed Moross' Symphony No. 1 on Valentine's Day. Moross has found a champion in the BPO's musical director JoAnn Falletta.
Having been playing the City of Prague Philharmonic's fabuluous Moross recordings this past week or so, I accidentally came across a remastered recording of his theme from "The Cardinal," "Stay With Me" (lyrics by Carolyn Leigh), sung by none other than Frank Sinatra, in a reverential spiritual hymn setting.
I hope everyone enjoys his music as much I as do. After some other posts by you and Rozsaphile, I grabbed a copy of Symphony No. 1, and Frankie and Johnny, both of which were excellent.
It's ashame that Moross scored so few films, but I am glad to have the ones I do.
There needs to be more fuss about this: Moross is an unparalleled talent in film music history. But also, his concert works need spotlighting too.
As regards 'The War Lord', Moross's score is of a certain type, with a certain feel, and although Salter placed some fine passages in there, in the action music he's largely scoring a different film. When the whole thing is heard in sequence, which is possible with the Eureka DVD MFX track, then it becomes apparent that the Salter stuff shifts the balance away from Moross's score and sinks the ship when taken apart from visuals. In the film, the Salter is drowned by SFX, so doesn't swamp as it does when heard alone, and I don't think a straight A-Z presentation of all the music will work satisfactorily. The Salter would need presented, with all it's repetition mind you, as an appendix, but again, it'd be such a BIG appendix.
And as a representation of Moross for a centenary celebration, that would look very odd anyhow.
An interesting tidbit regarding the Symphony No. 1 & Frankie and Johnny recordings I mentioned is that both are conducted by Joann Falleta, a young female conductor from NYC. She started an annual classical guitar competition in Buffalo, where she is the resident conductor of the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra.
George, thank you for posting the theme from The Cardinal. It is a gorgeous score. "Attention, attention must be paid" to this composer. I wish he'd have score more movies. His music is wonderful. Anyone who claims to love film scores should become familiar with his scores, especially his amazing score for The Big Country.
Mariana Whitmer has written "Jerome Moross's THE BIG COUNTRY", a film score guide published by our friends at Scarecrow Press, Inc. In it she makes her case for the influence this score had on all subsequent Western film scores. Must reading for all fans of Benny's best friend.
Do the Forum Elders think The Big Country should have won the 1958 Best Dramatic Film Score Oscar, or was Tiomkin's score for The Old Man and the Sea the correct winner?
I'd certainly be excited for any further Moross releases we can get, hopefully this year!
Of course at the top of my list is a complete War Lord. Perhaps some of the Salter could be left in film sequence (the two cues out of 11 on the LP, at least!) and the rest presented as an appendix if necessary. Unless Moross wrote music for those scenes that wasn't used (or maybe even recorded). Then if we get a re-recording (James Fitzpatrick has mentioned interest in the past) I'd like the complete Moross score as intended presented first, followed by everything Salter wrote.
I love Tiomkin and own many of his scores, but I have never warmed up to The Old Man and the Sea. It doesn't resonate with me. That is just me. I always thought The Big Country was the superior score, but that is just my opinion.
Moross incredible. Just played his National Geographic score 'Grizzly' recently. Great stuff. Once exchanged frequent correspondence with Susanna Moross-Tarjan. A lovely lady. A real champion for his music - as we all should be. Would love to hear an expanded 'War Lord' plus a Blu-Ray of same!! Also Varese released a vinyl lp years ago of one his most dazzling pieces - a piece for flute and piano - I'd love to see them put that out on CD for his 100th!!! I also always wonder if there's a lot of unused score lying around for his sparsely scored 'Rachel Rachel'. What's there is lovely as well.
No bad feelings from me, Dan, but what's your point about that "difference"? In the first place, being prolific doesn't make you a better composer any more than being slim in your output makes you a worse one. More importantly, nobody was saying Moross was a better composer than Tiomkin, we were only saying that one particular Moross score in 1958 was better than one specific score by Tiomkin that same year.
I bow to no one in my love of Tiomkin, but THE BIG COUNTRY has it all over THE OLD MAN AND THE SEA. That's all we're saying.
I read the biography materials that Mr. K posted. Very insightful.
So, here is another question for the Forum Elders: Is it generally accepted amongst the most knowledgeable that Moross assisted Max Steiner with Since You Went Away, and assisted Hugo Friedhofer with The Best Years Of Our Lives, perhaps even serving as orchestrator in either case?
I don't ever recall you folks mentioning these tidbits, yet the information would seem very relevant considering the scores.
Also, a few months ago I appended a post to a thread about Cinerama, which was scored by Max Steiner and others; I had watched This Is Cinerama on TCM. During that same week I also watched The Seven Wonders of the World, which was scored by Moross, Sol Kaplan, and David Raksin. I thought it would be important to have the music from both "documentaries" released, and that notion seems even more appropriate now given the Moross centennial. Would the Forum Elders agree that Cinerama documentary score releases would be historically important?
