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Actually, the year after next, 2013, would be the most pertinent time for any new releases or concert performances of Moross' music as it will be the 100th anniversary of his birth. Hopefully something will be "in the works" by now...
- James.
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Personally, I think it's long past time for more Moross. You'd think they could at least put on CD some of that delightful chamber music the family recorded on LP years ago.
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There was a time when people spoke Moross' name in the same breath as Copland's.
I have a feeling they'll do so again in future generations, when it all settles.
He may have been of the Copland 'school' but he's unique and distinctive, and no matter how forceful, or menacing, or dark a dramatic situation may be, his music always has that quality of hopefuleness and emotional uplift. He can describe the tortured without torturing the listener.
If Tadlow do decide to record more ... or if Tribute feel like expanding their composer inventory ... every score he wrote is worthy of a full release.
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I didn't see the film for years, but maybe someone knows: Is the original LP (or the Varese CD) a re-recording (it was in those times, that composers re-recorded thire scores for an soundtrack-release) ?
And how many music is actual in the film? It runs 122 min, so there should be much more music as on the ost LP/CD.
The original album ran only about 25 minutes, quite short. A very fine listen, but some very key cues missing. One cue is mistitled, 'The Ascent to the Tower and Frustrated Love' is actually only 'Frustrated Love'. Passages are run together, as in 'The Reckoning' and the Finale.
When the film 'needed' re-editing, and Moross had theatrical commitments, he had to turn his leitmotives over to Hans J. Salter. Salter's music is good in the more intimate passages, but wrong for that kind of film in the battle scenes. If you count both composers' work together, the whole score runs to about 75 minutes, but that includes the ambient tinkly passages for the Druid grove, which don't need represented in full. The album has a few bars of that at the beginning of 'Forsaken Village'.
Salter's pieces overwhelm the score and change its nature though, and any reconstruction needs to trim them.
The score was clearly recorded at the same time as the album, by Gershenson, but it's edited differently, and not always the same performance. The Prelude has the pastorale placed before the processional love-theme instead of after, and there is no prologue music. Some cues, like 'Forsaken Village' are clearly different cuts, with extra bars here, deleted bars there.
It's important to pick up Silva Screen's Moross compilation CD 'Valley of the Gwangi' where Chris Palmer and James Fitzpatrick arranged another suite, including several passages not included on the album, such as the evocative 'What of the Future?'
A couple of rock bands have issued an electric guitar version of the main love theme, arranged by 'The Shadows'.
If you pick up the European 'Eureka' DVD, a stand-alone MFX track is included.
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The War Lord is one that James Fitzpatrick talked about wanting to tackle in complete form...that is before he recently announced that Quo Vadis would probably be his last Tadlow re-recording.
Maybe Luc at Prometheus could finance this one? It sounds like it might actually fit on one disc...
Yavar
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well, WAR LORD just showed up in the used bin.....
hmmmmmmmmmmmm
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TO JORN- Yeah, i remember that LP of The proud rebel, sounds lousy, being a good businessman i warned my customers about that one.
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Comparisons, as they say, are odious, and I prefer to think of composers of the caliber of Salter or Moross as each being suis generis. I bow to no one in my love and admiration for THE BIG COUNTRY, but I'd hate to have to live in a world that didn't also include BEND OF THE RIVER. And no one ever topped Salter and Skinner at bringing all those Universal B-horrors up to a higher level.
That said. permit me to put my oral historian hat on and share what little I can of Hans Salter's memories of THE WAR LORD. If the tone of the battle scenes' music seems not of-a-piece with the rest of the score, that is deliberate, and due to explicit instructions from the studio. At least, that's the way Hans remembered it. He told me that the executives were concerned that their film was not shaping up to be quite the Heston epic they were expecting, and they found the Moross score to be just a little too "soft" for the kind of picture they had in mind. (Never mind, of course, what Mr. Schaffner may have had in mind.)
As difficult as it may be to imagine in retrospect, Universal actually contracted to have Hans on hand while Alex North was scoring SPARTACUS, as a precaution in case North fell behind schedule. As we know, of course, this rescue never became necessary, and thank God for that. Similarly, Hans was brought in on THE WAR LORD. The schedule was getting tight, as I recall Hans telling me, and they assigned him to score the battle scenes. They definitely shared with him their concerns about the "soft" Moross score, and they gave Hans the prime directive to beef up the score with the battle scenes, to give the score "more balls" -- you should excuse the expression. Assessing the final result, Hans did feel that the battle scenes, with his music, gave the film somethying of a lift that it didn't have before.
Others may now differ, of course. But that's Hans's version of those events, for what it's worth.
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Salter's music is different, but cannot possibly "overwhelm" Moross' superb music. I totally disagree that the Salter pieces should not be represented in any reconstruction. They are a part of the final score and use Moross' themes. They don't deserve to be dismissed.
There are many ways to overwhelm, not just quality. You can overwhelm in terms of dead weight and amplitude. I did not say they should not be represented. I said they need trimmed.
I'm basing this on the fact that I tried, in hyper-nerdsville mode, to 'reconstruct' the score for my own listening by splicing the Varese album, the Silva suite, and the MFX tracks from the DVD.
It didn't work, because the Salter battle music goes on too long, is very repetitive, and changes the whole nature of the score. I used to think as you do, because I ASSUMED what you're assuming, but this is a very delicate and precise feel that is required for that film, and though Salter's passages work well in the intimate scenes like Draco's death, overall, taking the battle scenes into account, as a listening stand-alone experience they capsize the ship. It's different when you hear the whole thing AS AN ALBUM. Remember too that Salter was a great orchestrator, but he's arranging Moross' own thematic material here for the most part.
Remember too that some battle scenes were added by the studio to make the thing more 'action-packed', and that those scenes needed music. The presence of that music then has the effect of padding out the thing with excess baggage from scenes that are themselves excess baggage from the 'concept' of the film, which is otherwise a very haunting one.
Try it and see. Simple Soundforge or Cool Edit Pro will suffice for the experiment.
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Comparisons, as they say, are odious, and I prefer to think of composers of the caliber of Salter or Moross as each being suis generis. I bow to no one in my love and admiration for THE BIG COUNTRY, but I'd hate to have to live in a world that didn't also include BEND OF THE RIVER. And no one ever topped Salter and Skinner at bringing all those Universal B-horrors up to a higher level.
That said. permit me to put my oral historian hat on and share what little I can of Hans Salter's memories of THE WAR LORD. If the tone of the battle scenes' music seems not of-a-piece with the rest of the score, that is deliberate, and due to explicit instructions from the studio. At least, that's the way Hans remembered it. He told me that the executives were concerned that their film was not shaping up to be quite the Heston epic they were expecting, and they found the Moross score to be just a little too "soft" for the kind of picture they had in mind. (Never mind, of course, what Mr. Schaffner may have had in mind.)
As difficult as it may be to imagine in retrospect, Universal actually contracted to have Hans on hand while Alex North was scoring SPARTACUS, as a precaution in case North fell behind schedule. As we know, of course, this rescue never became necessary, and thank God for that. Similarly, Hans was brought in on THE WAR LORD. The schedule was getting tight, as I recall Hans telling me, and they assigned him to score the battle scenes. They definitely shared with him their concerns about the "soft" Moross score, and they gave Hans the prime directive to beef up the score with the battle scenes, to give the score "more balls" -- you should excuse the expression. Assessing the final result, Hans did feel that the battle scenes, with his music, gave the film somethying of a lift that it didn't have before.
Others may now differ, of course. But that's Hans's version of those events, for what it's worth.
Gosh, great anecdotes, Preston.
What he's saying is that the studio wanted a macho thing, whilst the art people didn't. Isn't that as true today as ever?!
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Posted: |
Dec 2, 2011 - 5:22 PM
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By: |
Ray Worley
(Member)
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Comparisons, as they say, are odious, and I prefer to think of composers of the caliber of Salter or Moross as each being suis generis. I bow to no one in my love and admiration for THE BIG COUNTRY, but I'd hate to have to live in a world that didn't also include BEND OF THE RIVER. And no one ever topped Salter and Skinner at bringing all those Universal B-horrors up to a higher level.
My choice or words regarding Salter probably dissed him more than I intended, as he is indeed a top-notch composer who definitely brought more class to many pictures than they had inherently. Let's just say I prefer Moross' style.
And, of course, I had forgotten about BEND OF THE RIVER...a great movie with an excellent score. Too bad we have to live in a world with no CD representation of that score.
There are many ways to overwhelm, not just quality. You can overwhelm in terms of dead weight and amplitude. I did not say they should not be represented. I said they need trimmed.
I stand corrected. I read "trimmed" as "eliminated". I agree that there is no need to present ALL of Salter's music and that would probably throw the presentation off balance.
As is apparent to anyone who owns the early Intrada release "CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON: A Symphony of Film Music by Hans J. Salter", some of THE WAR LORD'S action music was adapted from Salter's 1954 score to THE BLACK SHIELD OF FALWORTH. I don't remember that film well at all, but the music works in THE WAR LORD.
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I could not live without my copies (CD & LP) of The Golden Apple by Jerome Moross. If you're needin' a fix of Moross, then, please, by all means, get familiar with this masterpiece. It's not a film score, it's something greater than a film score.
Just saying. It's a matter of taste. It's a musical he wrote with John Latouche that transplants Homer's Ulysses to a time in America just after the Spanish-American War, circa 1901. I hope Bruce will chime in here and give his opinion on this show and why it never made it to Broadway.
When I say each musical cue is a priceless gem, my favorite being "It's The Going Home Together", that I doubt anyone in this thread would disagree. I think you'll be hooked right from the Overture. So much music was left off of the old album (which the CD is a remaster of) that there are spoken passages recorded just for the album to try and bridge the jumps in its musical narrative.
Anyway, all of the music is Moross, and by that I mean "Americana". It's made even more lovely by the lyrics and the performances of Priscilla Gillette, Stephen Douglass, Kaye Ballard, Jack Whiting, Bibi Osterwald, Jonathan Lucas and especially Portia Nelson.
You made me want to go put it on now.
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I still hope for a complete recording, such as has been done for such other unorthodox musical plays as ALLEGRO by Rodgers and Hammerstein and the Gershwins' STRIKE UP THE BAND. At the very least somebody should put the other LP recording of GOLDEN APPLE on CD.
One standard emerged from this score, "Lazy Afternoon."
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