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Posted: |
Nov 17, 2012 - 10:30 PM
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By: |
pp312
(Member)
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Can't agree about the "dances" -- by which term I think you mean all the incidental source music. These pieces (some never heard before) form a fascinating cornucopia of antiquarian exotica that I could not do without. If I were making a condensed version, I think I would trim some instances of the Lygia theme. It's one of Rozsa's most beautiful melodies, which is saying a lot. And the theme is subject to interesting variation over the course of the whole. But there's just too much of it for one listening session. I feel the same way about the Tadlow EL CID and the love theme of that score. This is not a criticism of the modern recordings; they were designed to document the entire scores. Nor is it a criticism of MR's originals. In the films there are large swaths of dialogue and action between recurrences of these themes. But in some listening contexts, less may be more.
My thoughts exactly (gee, we don't often agree, John). When I made up my vase display (see above), the Lygia theme is one of those cuttings that got trimmed. It IS a great melody, but as with Rozsa's other epic scores I feel these themes become more interesting the further we get into the film, when he begins to expand and develop them. Their first statement is usually rather plain and simple, which is appropriate but doesn't always hold interest for home listening.
For the rest, I've found the dances amongst the more interesting parts of the score. But my favourite track is 7 on Disc 2. I love that march.
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Great recording, especially liked source cues and less often heard cues. I wonder if anyone knows how well it sold ?
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When did the "Dialogue Highlights" album first come out?
(Although, it's understandable that they would prepare it before trims had been made to the film.)
I also seem to remember a scene with Nero and Poppaea included in the sequence when he hears of Petronius's death. Poppea is combing her long hair. I seem to recall seeing this at the first screening I saw of QUO VADIS, in November of 1964, at, of all places, the Forum Theatre, in Times Square, as a sneak preview, accompanying, of all things, Elvis Presley in ROUSTABOUT....
What a contrast....
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BTW: I finally received the 2-CD set, and, so far, I think it's mostly splendid!
Love that same kind of blare they achieved in the "Triumphal March."
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"When did the 'Dialogue Highlights' album first come out?"
According to Schwann, the music only album was released in Oct.1951 - just one month
before the film's World Premiere. The "Dramatic Highlights" album came out in March 1952.
These are the dates for the LP versions, the 78 rpm sets may have come out even slightly earlier. Note, the editing of the "Dramatic Highlights" album was made to precisely fit 78 rpm records which never changed for the 2-10"LP album and later the 12"LP released in 1957.
MCA re-issued the dialogue album remastered in the 1980s. The music was shunted around, but contains nothing not on the FSM archive discs.
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I've finally picked this up, and listened just once so far.
It's a great recording for sure, and the sound ambience is different from other Tadlows, but in a good way. Rozsa's fetish about outdoor dynamics for certain pieces was always dubious, and when heard in this intriguing 4-Neumann sheen, the music really has a chance to live. The echo used in the Christian choral pieces, like some catacomb, is exactly what those pieces need.
This music covers the waterfront. You have really sensual and pagan alongside ethereal and mystic. Devoutness sits beside earthiness. Sensuality and precision. Intricate and big. Intimate and epic. Tad have captured a 'sacred space' here, it's ALL sacred, both the religious and the pagan.
So many really evocative passages that never saw the light of day. And a completely different aesthetic to 'Ben-Hur' or 'Julius Caesar', yet the same musical voice. .
This'll deserve a lot of listening and analysis. The solo voice pieces, especially those from source melodies of the period, add another level of beauty. Petronius would be polishing his urns.
Those of you who hanker to edit down to this or that: some want less dances, others less chorus, some no songs, others less love theme etc., etc.. NOTHING in this is redundant.... you can't make a home run until you've covered the bases, all of them. Every subtlety of spirituality is genuinely in this score, and we get to hear it all for the first time properly. Rozsa really made love to the scoresheets with this one. He woke up demons.
And Frank solves a lot of mysteries, such as where exactly Nero meant his House of Women to be!
This needs pushing. There are no lapses of taste in this score, and no lapses from Tad/Prom either.
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Posted: |
Dec 11, 2012 - 1:20 PM
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By: |
oyarsa
(Member)
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I've finally picked this up, and listened just once so far.
It's a great recording for sure, and the sound ambience is different from other Tadlows, but in a good way. Rozsa's fetish about outdoor dynamics for certain pieces was always dubious, and when heard in this intriguing 4-Neumann sheen, the music really has a chance to live. The echo used in the Christian choral pieces, like some catacomb, is exactly what those pieces need.
This music covers the waterfront. You have really sensual and pagan alongside ethereal and mystic. Devoutness sits beside earthiness. Sensuality and precision. Intricate and big. Intimate and epic. Tad have captured a 'sacred space' here, it's ALL sacred, both the religious and the pagan.
So many really evocative passages that never saw the light of day. And a completely different aesthetic to 'Ben-Hur' or 'Julius Caesar', yet the same musical voice. .
This'll deserve a lot of listening and analysis. The solo voice pieces, especially those from source melodies of the period, add another level of beauty. Petronius would be polishing his urns.
Those of you who hanker to edit down to this or that: some want less dances, others less chorus, some no songs, others less love theme etc., etc.. NOTHING in this is redundant.... you can't make a home run until you've covered the bases, all of them. Every subtlety of spirituality is genuinely in this score, and we get to hear it all for the first time properly. Rozsa really made love to the scoresheets with this one. He woke up demons.
And Frank solves a lot of mysteries, such as where exactly Nero meant his House of Women to be!
This needs pushing. There are no lapses of taste in this score, and no lapses from Tad/Prom either.
Amen!
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I'll buy this in time, but it looks like Nero's little songs are not represented here, correct?
The score doesn't seem too present in the final soundtrack mix of the movie, to my ears.
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I'll buy this in time, but it looks like Nero's little songs are not represented here, correct?
Two tricks:
(a) Read the track titles.
(b) Read the notes on the page.
(c) Just read.
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I'll buy this in time, but it looks like Nero's little songs are not represented here, correct?
Two tricks:
(a) Read the track titles.
(b) Read the notes on the page.
(c) Just read.
Well, It's Valentine's Day and I've been drinking champagne all morning and the title tracks weren't entirely clear to me, so I just asked...
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I have been planning to get this for some time...and after reading the thread, I can't wait!
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