 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
Posted: |
Mar 15, 2017 - 4:23 PM
|
|
|
|
By: |
joan hue
(Member)
|
I read Mariana Whitmer’s score guide for THE BIG COUNTRY, and I really enjoyed it. James MacMillan just sent me the following announcement from Amazon. I’m cheap when it comes to buying books as I use my library all the time. However, I will buy this book and relish all the details. It looks like we will get a lot of details about Elmer Bernstein as well as this score. Hope some of you will join me. Below is what is posted at Amazon.
Elmer Bernstein's The Magnificent Seven: A Film Score Guide (Film Score Guides) Paperback – June 15, 2017
by Mariana Whitmer (Author)
________________________________________
Paperback, June 15, 2017 $35.00
—
Released in late 1960, The Magnificent Seven was a Western reimagining of the 1954 Japanese film The Seven Samurai. Despite such stars as Steve McQueen, Yul Brynner, and Charles Bronson, the film was not terribly successful when it premiered. However, in the years since, the film has become recognized as a classic of the genre. And though the movie received only one Academy Award nomination, that honor was bestowed upon Elmer Bernstein’s rousing score. Beyond the scope of the film, however, the score has permeated American culture, used in countless commercials and referenced on television shows like Cheers and The Simpsons. But what makes this score so memorable?
In Elmer Bernstein’s The Magnificent Seven: A Film Score Guide, Mariana Whitmer examines the creation and development of one of the most iconic soundtrack’s in the history of cinema.
The author explores the significance of its familiar score through a variety of lenses, first delving into the background of Elmer Bernstein and his emergence as one of the key composers of the Silver Age of film music. This book also traces Bernstein’s early musical endeavors and considers what led to his attraction to “Americana” music, which particularly influenced the music for The Magnificent Seven. The book also summarizes Bernstein’s early Westerns, noting that they are clearly in the mainstream of the genre’s musical style, but enhanced by Bernstein’s own distinctive touches.
Providing unique insights into the creation of this iconic score—which was deemed one of the 10 greatest film scores of all time by the American Film Institute—this book explains what makes the score so enduring. Elmer Bernstein’s The Magnificent Seven: A Film Score Guide will be of interest to cinema and music scholars in general, as well as to fans of film music and the work of one of Hollywood’s finest composers.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
That's a great item you dropped, Ms. Hue, and I wanted to thank you for the head's up! Since it'll be a couple of more months before it comes out, I'll keep myself busy by reading a book I missed in the series: The Conversation.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
I appreciate the announcement and hope you enjoy the book, Joan. But I have to admit I found the Big Country book a bit of a chore to get through, so it may just be that a book-length treatment focused on a single score is more than I need. (I didn't even pick up the Planet of the Apes book from a couple years ago, and that should have been a natural for my predilections.)
On the other hand, I got interested in reading the the Big Country book because of your thread, and especially your overview of the book in your initial posts. So I may well change my mind when you have read and discussed this one.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Actually, for me it wasn't the music section (though it was more detail than I needed), but I've been a musician since I was five so that interested me more anyway. I just found a lot of repetition and wasn't as impressed with some of the analysis of Moross and the other film Weterns. Still, as you say, a lot of interesting information. May be worth a library rental down the road (which is how I got Big Country, just like you).
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Book has been available from amazon.com for a couple of weeks now, at $35, or very slightly less on Kindle ebook. Only just getting into it (wish I had more time to devote to such things) but really enjoying it's opening chapters!
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
