MUSIC FOR FILMED VERSIONS OF SHAKESPEARE’S “HAMLET"
I have seen some threads here on versions of Shakespeare’s “Hamlet” scores by Burwell and Doyle and Morricone, but thought I would start a discussion on all of them, although I have to say that I’ve never been a huge fan of “Hamlet,” much preferring the plays “MacBeth,” “The Tempest,” “King Lear,” and “Romeo and Juliet.”
Let me list just some of the films that are presently available on various forms of home video:
1948 starring Laurence Olivier, Anthony Quayle
1964 starring Richard Burton, Hume Cronyn, Alfred Drake
1964 starring Christopher Plummer, Robert Shaw, Michael Caine, music by Richard Rodney Bennett
1990 starring Mel Gibson and Alan Bates, music by Ennio Morricone
1996 starring Kenneth Branagh, music by Patric Doyle
2000 starring Ethan Hawke, Sam Shepard, Kyle MacLachlin, music by Carter Burwell
2009 starring David Tennant and Patrick Stewart, music by Paul Englishby
I have the CDs of the versions by Ennio Morricone, Patrick Doyle, and Carter Burwell, and found mostly small discussions on each of them, with the one thing that jumped out at me was when barryfan wrote this: "I have listened to this a hundred times and I have just never warmed to it. It lacks the power of Henry V and the melodies of most Doyle scores." It’s hard for me to play anything I haven't warmed to more than a couple of times, but a hundred? That was certainly more than just the old college try!
Any thoughts about any of these scores — or others not listed?
I like the William Walton score for the 1948 version. The only other score I have is the Morricone, which I have played maybe twice, and dont recollect. Never saw that film version.
Not actually a score, but Columbia released a four LP stereo cast recording for that 1964 Broadway production starring Richard Burton. Would love to have that on CD.
Thanks for the informative comments! It made me realize that in addition to the Burwell and Doyle and Morricone, I also have suites or excerpts from those by Walton and Shostakovich, but deleted them from my iTunes when I was running out of room. Now where ARE those CDs....
I particularly like both Herrmann's and Sinaisky's recordings of suites from Shostakovich's 1964 score, less so the full score by Yablonsky - perhaps time for another play - but then I much prefer the earlier scores by this giant.
I've owned the Morricone score for much longer and enjoy it very much and if I had to choose then this would be the one I'd take.
I have a cover version of Doyle's 1996 theme (Sweets to the Sweet - Farewell - Alwyn/CoPP) but it's so long since I last played that CD I can't recall what it sounds like.
Here's a recording of Hamlet that is not available on video or CD, only on a 2-LP set. It's Richard Chamberlain's television version, shown in 1970 on NBC as a "Hallmark Hall of Fame" broadcast, and later broadcast on Britain's "ITV Sunday Night Theatre". The score was by John Addison.
I particularly like both Herrmann's and Sinaisky's recordings of suites from Shostakovich's 1964 score, less so the full score by Yablonsky - perhaps time for another play - but then I much prefer the earlier scores by this giant.
Shostakovich considered it his own favorite, from what I've gathered (of course the majority of his film scores were done purely for money reasons and many of them were propaganda films....I still enjoy the music though)
I particularly like both Herrmann's and Sinaisky's recordings of suites from Shostakovich's 1964 score, less so the full score by Yablonsky - perhaps time for another play - but then I much prefer the earlier scores by this giant.
Shostakovich considered it his own favorite, from what I've gathered (of course the majority of his film scores were done purely for money reasons and many of them were propaganda films....I still enjoy the music though)
I've just purchased the Naxos recordings of two of his (much) earlier scores ... A Girl Alone (Odna) and The Girlfriends (Podrugi) each of which I like a lot more - on first play (though, again, I've had the wonderful suite by Sinaisky from the former for some time). Similarly the gorgeous score from The Gadfly (Ovod) ... his version of Hamlet - complete - hasn't quite clicked yet.
I’d also give a vote for the Shostakovich score to Grigori Kozintsev’s haunting 1964 film.
Also, I’d propose that we should list the score that Charles Fox provided for The Adventures of Bob & Doug McKenzie: Strange Brew (1983). It is based, in many ways, on Hamlet...
The thing I liked (or at least, found interesting) about Doyle's Hamlet was that it seemed to mesh well with Branagh's stated idea that Hamlet was a national tragedy for Denmark. Not just a family tragedy, but specifically a *national* (Danish) tragedy. The main theme of the Doyle score (expressed in the Placido Domingo song and the Go Bid the Soldiers Shoot) strongly resembles a national anthem of the sort that fits that time and place. In other words, it's supposed to be a bit bombastic.
It's not my favorite Doyle theme, but it fits the theme of the movie (even if some of the usage in some scenes came up for some criticism) And while the movie itself was a bit of a stunt, the time-and-place setting (sort of a Bismarckian Prussian Denmark) was brilliant.
Also, I’d propose that we should list the score that Charles Fox provided for The Adventures of Bob & Doug McKenzie: Strange Brew (1983). It is based, in many ways, on Hamlet...
