One suspects there'd be more chance of finding byzanium in the wild than discovering the original session tapes of RTT
Such a shame that so many of Barry's scores were for small indie companies that went under (pun intended), leaving the tapes in either legal of physical limbo. Whereas John Williams, for example, was lucky enough to work almost exclusively for big studios which generally still have the tapes of even his most obscure scores.
I thought this score was one of a bunch of scores stored at a studio (Anvil or Olympic?) that shut and contacted people to pick up tapes, otherwise everything else went into the trash.
Went back and listened to the rerecording, in the wake (!) of this thread. I've never seen the movie, so never heard the original recordings; no grounds for comparison for me. That said, though, Raine's work with the Prague SO is delightful. If the original recording ARE found someday, that'll just be a bonus.
...Raine's work with the Prague SO is delightful. If the original recording ARE found someday, that'll just be a bonus.
That's how I feel too. If the sessions are truly lost, then the Prague is as close to a "rescue" as anybody could ask for. We should be so lucky every time an original soundtrack can't be released.
I thought this score was one of a bunch of scores stored at a studio (Anvil or Olympic?) that shut and contacted people to pick up tapes, otherwise everything else went into the trash.
The score was recorded in the United States, not England.
I have made a few enquiries on this front with my latest lead. Network released Raise the Titanic on DVD recently with a few "extra features", which comprised of mostly of photo galleries and the press pack in PDF format. I asked on their Facebook page (and regret not having copied their response!), if they were aware of any source for the original score ... their reply was they were planning to release a further version with whatever of the original score remains. There is some hope there, but I can only assume this means the complete score won't be available.
I sincerely love this score and while I have respect for the Raine score, it is not and will never be as close as it should be.
As one poster on here found from another person, who claimed to have had an "original score" which turned out to be a Nic Raine re-recording, I have had the same thing myself with Raise the Titanic. I thought I was going to receive an "original" score by John Barry but when I received it, it was the Raine version, extremely disappointed didn't cover it! I did a comparison between the End Credits I'd recovered from my old Laserdisc version and the version they'd sent me ... a clear difference. They claimed they knew someone who had the Japanese "laserdisc" version of the score. It appears they'd been duped too. I do feel the score has been long lost but I struggle to believe that it's impossible to recover this from a source. Surely a 35mm print can provide something? I know there will be differences but it was done from The Towering Inferno.
Here's hoping Network turn up more than they expect!
Geoff Leonard has a pretty close relationship with people at Network and generally knows what they are up to. They are score enthusiasts there and I'm sure they would love to do a RAISE THE TITANIC release with isolated music.
We know scraps exist from those M&E tapes, but I wouldn't have high hopes that Network have the 'pure music' sources.
My favorite Barry score hands down. Lush, romantic, brooding, haunting. It elevated the movie to a watchable state. Really hoping someone wanders across these tapes somewhere. And maybe Moonraker is with em!
