the other night I watched on turner movie classics. the movie "the naked city" reading the credits I watched Roza's name come across the screen. the music had a familiar sound to it. my feeling is that it was reused in Ben Hur. the opening 10 minutes in that film. I find that Roza did this often.
Rozsa only scored the last 10 minutes or so. The rest wasn't his.
He was pulled in at the last moment by his producer friend Mark Hellinger to 'fix up' the last reel. He agreed. Hellinger died shortly after. Rozsa took the two main movements and included them in his 'Mark Hellinger Suite' aka 'Background to Violence' as a tribute.
Rozsa only scored the last 10 minutes or so. The rest wasn't his.
He was pulled in at the last moment by his producer friend Mark Hellinger to 'fix up' the last reel. He agreed. Hellinger died shortly after. Rozsa took the two main movements and included them in his 'Mark Hellinger Suite' aka 'Background to Violence' as a tribute.
According to Rozsa's autobiography, he was attached to score the film from the beginning, but he couldn't write all the music in time to make the film's release date, so Mark Hellinger asked him if he'd be willing to accept Frank Skinner as co-composer who'd write underscore for dialogue scenes while Rozsa wrote music for the big set pieces (which actually do occur at several points in the film).
Rozsa didn't work that way, and had never before acceded to such a request, but because of his respect and affection for Hellinger he agreed.
The greatest, the absolute "chase-music" in the whole history of cinema. Every time I see this sequence, my breath stops. The first time I encountered this piece was in the short & rearranged version of the "Backgroung to Violence" album, made for home listening purpose, but the longer film version, beginning with De Corsia-to-Don Taylor attack and continuing until De Corsia's death, is anthological and remains unsurpassed. Strange that nobody cared for a complete reconstruction & re-recording. The only quasi-adherent film version is an old acetate made in the past by Tony Thomas, paired with acetates of BRUTE FORCE.
the other night I watched on turner movie classics. the movie "the naked city"
I've never seen the film but have known the pursuit music for ever, having had it on LP in the 1970s on one of those excellent compilations. It helped cement my love of the fugue (go on, someone tell me that it isn't a fugue but a passacaglia or something).
Now I'm older and have heard much more 20th century concert hall music I don't quite have the same awe for it as I used to, but it's still a stirring piece of work. And it does sound as if it could be dropped into Ben-Hur pretty seamlessly.
Frank Skinner as co-composer who'd write underscore for dialogue scenes while Rozsa wrote music for the big set pieces (which actually do occur at several points in the film).
I'm pretty sure that Rozsa's music begins with a late dialogue scene (the exposure of the murderer in an office) and then goes to the final chase. Nothing in the main narrative that I'm aware of.
The greatest, the absolute "chase-music" in the whole history of cinema. . . The first time I encountered this piece was in the short & rearranged version of the "Background to Violence" album, made for home listening purpose, but the longer film . . . is anthological and remains unsurpassed. Strange that nobody cared for a complete reconstruction & re-recording.
Anthological?
Rozsa clearly had to work around the bits of narration and dialogue by means of relatively neutral "placeholder" music in spots. Any composer would want to tighten things up for his official version. But would it be fun to hear the whole passage at full volume sometime? Sure! The most remarkable thing about THE NAKED CITY, of course, is the amount of location filming, extraordinary for its time. (And exceptionally fascinating for one who grew up in some of those neighborhoods.) How strange to hear Rozsa scoring your own streetscape! Especially when he briefly slips into his full Hungarian dance mode (at the foot of the tower). Well, the Lower East Side was an immigrant neighborhood in those days.
According to Rozsa's autobiography, he was attached to score the film from the beginning, but he couldn't write all the music in time to make the film's release date, so Mark Hellinger asked him if he'd be willing to accept Frank Skinner as co-composer who'd write underscore for dialogue scenes while Rozsa wrote music for the big set pieces (which actually do occur at several points in the film).
Rozsa didn't work that way, and had never before acceded to such a request, but because of his respect and affection for Hellinger he agreed.
Rozsa only accepted after Hellinger found the chosen composer's material wasn't working. Jules Dassin wanted his own composer, a friend who had been politically blacklisted (as had Dassin himself, and identified with). Rozsa was ruled out right from the start. But the music didn't work.
Rozsa received a phone call one night asking 'Would you?' Being a close friend of Hellinger (who clearly felt apprehensive about Rozsa's possible reply given the situation), Rozsa replied, 'You know I would'. The very next morning Hellinger was dead from a coronary. So he never got to hear Rozsa's work.
Skinner was also brought in because of lack of time, but neither was in 'from the start'. Rozsa was particularly moved by Hellinger's voice in the closing narration of the Epilogue. He wrote an apotheosis for the anonymous yearnings of the millions of people and victims of NY, whose stories Hellinger had reported on poetically and compassionately in his paper columns for years.
Funny that the length of the big chase music is mentioned here, because when Bruce Broughton participated in an event at the Academy theater wherein that last reel was screened, he said something in his remarks to the effect that this was an example of the cinema necessitating a composer stretching out the tension/action/fortissimo music much longer than he would in a purely concert piece.
Funny that the length of the big chase music is mentioned here, because when Bruce Broughton participated in an event at the Academy theater wherein that last reel was screened, he said something in his remarks to the effect that this was an example of the cinema necessitating a composer stretching out the tension/action/fortissimo music much longer than he would in a purely concert piece.
Yes, and sometimes Rozsa made late cut revisions to some of his purely concert pieces, and worsened them in the name of 'tightening up'. It all has to do with a listener's attention span really, what a composer thinks that listener is likely to remember of previous structure in a line, and frankly why should you lose great tension, emotion and construction just for that?
There are three concert performances of the Pursuit and Epilogue on album, the Frankenland performance, the RPO, and the old acetate release of the Hellinger suite on an album by Tony Thomas, WRONGLY titled 'Two Classic Film Scores'. Side 1 of that album was 'Brute Force', side 2 the Hellinger suite. On that album, a much longer 'Pursuit' exists still not complete, but with much more included. That was a separate performance and the sheets must be somewhere.
If Chandos are listening, what about the longer Hellinger suite, the 'Double Life' suite, and some short suite from 'Lydia' or a Spellbound Concerto?
So you prefer to see recorded a new performance of OVERTURE only for the "stereo", rather than the complete version of the PURSUIT sequence?
You act like wanting good quality sound is somehow a bad thing. I find that attitude bizzare every time I see it.
Please look at the context. As the full length Concert Overture already exists, even if in mono (the 1957 Frankenland rec.), and William was referring to a possible Chandos re-release of the famous Mark Hellinger suite (Brute Force - The Killers - Naked City, this last with the two movements of "Pursuit" and "Song of a City"), I would prefer something never released and that is for many a Holy Grail (the final sequence of Naked City in its entirety). Obviously having both them would be better! Nothing against good and stereo quality of sound.
Finder, I don't know why it has to be an either-or. I never said once that I'd prefer the Overture to the NAKED CITY material. If you'll pardon the cliche, please don't put words in my mouth. It leaves a bad taste.
I very much doubt that a new Rozsa concert work recording would preclude a film music premiere or vice-versa. Chandos is the only current label which has done both, and they don't cross-pollinate (their Rozsa Orchestral Works series does not include film music).
Sign me up for any/all, but of course I too would be most excited about any Rozsa premiere (concert or film) which has *never* been commercially released before (even in mono), over something that has been. I think there are still a handful of concert works which have never seen release (I think a ballet is currently lost, as well as his symphony, which previously was only missing a single movement, but subsequent to the Koch recording I think the entire thing has gone missing!) But there are tons of great film scores which remain unreleased, and several of them are noirs -- it would be so great if some label tackled an album of previously unreleased Rozsa Noir, including The Naked City!
Finder, I don't know why it has to be an either-or. I never said once that I'd prefer the Overture to the NAKED CITY material. If you'll pardon the cliche, please don't put words in my mouth. It leaves a bad taste.
My apologies, Preston. I took the liberty of interpreting your words, as we were talking of the Hellinger Suite. Excuse me. Anyway, you could have all the same good reasons to prefer a Concert Overture release to another, and I hope labels will pay good attention to our discussions.
Your gracious apology welcomed and accepted, finder. We can't afford dissent in the ranks, when we're all pursuing the same Hungarian/Hollywood dreams, can we?
