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This is a comments thread about FSM CD: Ben-Hur |
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THEY asking 15$ at SAE Yes, although that doesn't include the optional registered shipping fee options, without which your order wouldn't be guaranteed if it got lost. For instance, in the case of Canada (even though I don't personally believe Canada is a trouble country at all, and Canada Post works very well with USPS in my experience), even though the quoted shipping price for the Ben-Hur set is less than a dollar more than the US shipping fee, you're later asked to tack on either $15 or $25 in order to guarantee the package. Intrada is much more reasonable, IMO; and that's where I've ordered this particular set from. When I want to order something from SAE, I usually wait to do so for very large orders over which the extremely high shipping fee can be distributed so as not to seem like that much. But now that I've caught up on most of the older specialty label releases I'm interested in (those still available, anyway), which involved several large SAE orders over the past 6 months, I tend to just order directly from Intrada or LLL these days.
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First of all, kudos again to Mr. Frank DeWald for the exemplary liner notes for the new "Ben Hur" release. I read them last night with great interest, but they prompt a question: 1. There were a number of "Ben-Hur" cues which did not get recorded. Does the sheet music for these exist and, if they were all recorded, what would the duration be in minutes? (approximately) This would be quite an interesting recording project for Tadlow , Prometheus, or Tribute, coupled with another Rozsa score! We who love Rozsa anticipate the "Ben-Hur" release with great excitement!! I hope Mr. DeWald will write the liner notes for the upcoming "Quo Vadis" from Tadlow! Good question, and it made me curious myself, so I checked. The Library of Congress score includes the following cues which were not recorded: "His Father's Business (Versions A and B),"" Behind Grills," "Silent Farewell," "Judea [first version]," "The Dungeon," "Lepers - New," "Calvary" and "Afterthoughts." They add up to about 7 1/2 minutes of music. For more information, readers should check out Ralph Erkelenz's extensive article published in PRO MUSICA SANA (the first installment of which is posted on the Rozsa Society website - and we hope to have the entire essay up eventually). Synthesized mock-ups of some of these cues have been posted by William McCrum on the Rozsa Forum. The answer to your second question (even though it wasn't really a question) is yes. And thank you.
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I believe the Rhino contains *some* alternate versions just not many. Marilee Bradford told me she wanted to do three CDs, but she lost that battle and had to stop at two, so she probably crammed as much as she could on the two CDs. By contrast, the FSM probably kept discs 1 and 2 to just what's in the film, and put all the alternates elsewhere. Another thing Marilee told me is that in the Rhino edition, she wanted the 'white space' between tracks to be the ambient sound of the studio rather than pure digital silence, as she felt that would be more pleasing to the ear. I don't know if FSM went for a similar decision or not. Cheers
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I believe the Rhino contains *some* alternate versions..... It tends to be Rhino's philosophy to use longer, more complete cues where they exist, rather than shorter cues in the OST. And some cues were inserted in two forms such as 'Prince of Peace', which is two versions back to back, two versions that don't correspond to cue points. Other tracks like 'Search' are again two versions back to back, and of course there's an 'appendix' cue, a choral version of 'Star of Bethlehem'. FSM has placed these on the alternatives discs. FSM is more complete by far, no disrespect to Ms Bradford intended, she had limitations placed upon her and had to make choices.
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Synthesized mock-ups of some of these cues have been posted by William McCrum on the Rozsa Forum. You're very kind to draw attention to my grim efforts, Frank, but Gaetano Malaponti and Joe Brausam and yourself also did mock-ups on that thread. Gaetano has a mock-up page in preparation where he uses decent synths for the reconstructions. I'm stunned as to how you found all the stuff for this release!
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I believe the Rhino contains *some* alternate versions..... It tends to be Rhino's philosophy to use longer, more complete cues where they exist, rather than shorter cues in the OST. And some cues were inserted in two forms such as 'Prince of Peace', which is two versions back to back, two versions that don't correspond to cue points. Other tracks like 'Search' are again two versions back to back, and of course there's an 'appendix' cue, a choral version of 'Star of Bethlehem'. FSM has placed these on the alternatives discs. FSM is more complete by far, no disrespect to Ms Bradford intended, she had limitations placed upon her and had to make choices. Marilee absolutely blazed the trail on this title and the 2-disc Rhino release with its beautiful book and presentation. It was produced when the CD soundtrack market peaked in the brick-and-mortar world and some tough decisions were made in order to accommodate 2-discs. It's a trade-off: the FSM release afforded more freedom to include everything but that could only happen in a world with only 2000 potential buyers for this specialty item. Mike
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A superflous release. All relevant bases covered already.
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Another thing Marilee told me is that in the Rhino edition, she wanted the 'white space' between tracks to be the ambient sound of the studio rather than pure digital silence, as she felt that would be more pleasing to the ear. Her innovative decision to do this was dead on. It turned the release into a true concert listening experience.
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A superflous release. All relevant bases covered already. I imagine we're going to wait in vain for an explanation of this choice insight. I love Jerry Goldsmith. But he doesn't rule. To play your own game.
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Another thing Marilee told me is that in the Rhino edition, she wanted the 'white space' between tracks to be the ambient sound of the studio rather than pure digital silence, as she felt that would be more pleasing to the ear. Her innovative decision to do this was dead on. It turned the release into a true concert listening experience. Yes, but the benefit was diluted by putting the (sometimes repetitive) alternates within the main program, which meant the welcome illusion of background continuity would be broken anyway due to having to program them out. Agreed, but I wanted to accentuate the positive first. The inter-track studio ambience was and is a novel idea. The fact that you could not program out the alternates on the Rhino set makes the FSM release so very welcome.
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