LISTEN TO A SOUND CLIP FROM the score for WINDWALKER is a limited edition release of 1000 units. WINDWALKER will begin shipping on the week of May 7, 2018 https://tinyurl.com/ya6vyv5f
WINDWALKER is a limited edition release of 1000 units.
WINDWALKER will begin shipping on the week of May 7, 2018
He conquered love and death...now he walks the winds of eternity!
Dragon’s Domain Records, to be distributed through buysoundtrax.com, presents the soundtrack release of WINDWALKER, featuring music composed and orchestrated by Merrill Jenson, conducting the National Philharmonic Orchestra, for the 1980 Western directed by Kieth Merrill, starring Nick Ramus, Serene Hedin, Dusty McCrea, Silvana Gallardo, Emerson John, Jason Stevens, Roberta Deherrera, Ivan Naranjo, Billy Drago, James Remar and Trevor Howard as Windwalker.
Released in 1981, WINDWALKER tells the story of an old Cheyenne warrior and his family as they travel through what will become the state of Utah during the Winter months of 1797. When he was younger, Windwalker (Howard) was witness to the death of his wife, Tashina, and the kidnapping of one of his sons during a raid by rival Crow warriors. After years of searching for his missing son, Windwalker dies, leaving the fate of his family in the hands of his remaining son, Smiling Wolf (Ramus). After Windwalker’s funeral, Smiling Wolf leads his family south to rejoin the rest of the tribe. During an attack by Crow warriors, Smiling Wolf is badly injured and the family is forced to hide. The Great Spirit reawakens Windwalker and he rejoins his family. Windwalker leads the family to a sacred Cheyenne cave, where he uses Cheyenne medicine to heal Smiling Wolf’s wounds. Windwalker and his sons prepare some traps for the Crow warriors and are able to whittle them down to two. One of the warriors is revealed to be Windwalker’s long-lost son. With his family safe and his son returned to him, Windwalker confronts the remaining Crow warrior and offers him peace. The Crow refuses him and forces a final confrontation. His son fights the Crow in his father’s place and defeats him, making it possible for Windwalker to return to the afterlife and his beloved Tashina.
Almost a forgotten film now, WINDWALKER was a refreshingly different film for its time. All the dialogue in the film, except for the opening narration, is spoken in authentic Cheyenne and Crow dialects, with subtitles where necessary to aid the storytelling. Also, unlike other Westerns of the day, there are no cowboys, ranchers or other characters one would expect to find in an American made Western.
Merrill Boyd Jenson was born in Richfield, Utah on January 20, 1947. He was introduced to music at an early age with his mother teaching him how to conduct music in front of a mirror while listening to recordings of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. She also taught him to play the piano while his father taught him the trumpet. He attended Brigham Young University where he directed the BYU Cougar Marching Band and graduated with a degree in Music Composition. Soon after graduating, Jenson took on odd jobs at the film studios in Los Angeles in order to be near the industry. While there he was able to meet and associate with some of the great film composers of the day.
Jenson eventually landed a few tiny composing projects at the LDS Motion Picture Studios. His big break came when he met director Kieth Merrill. Merrill hired Jenson to compose the score to the sequel of his Academy Award winning documentary THE GREAT AMERICAN COWBOY. Jenson’s score to THE GREAT AMERICAN INDIAN was recorded with him conducting the London Philharmonic Orchestra. This was the first of many collaborations between Jenson and Merrill including WINDWALKER, HARRY'S WAR, and TAKE DOWN.
Jenson worked for many years with Bonneville Communications writing music for films and commercials for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints including The Phone Call (1977). During this time Jenson composed music for the award-winning Homefront commercials and films such as HOW RARE A POSSESSION: THE BOOK OF MORMON. Later he also wrote the music for the three films that have played in the Legacy Theater in the Joseph Smith Memorial Building on Temple Square in Salt Lake City, UTAH: LEGACY, THE TESTAMENTS OF ONE FOLD AND ONE SHEPHERD, and JOSEPH SMITH: PROPHET OF THE RESTORATION.
Jenson collaborated with award-winning composer Sam Cardon to compose the music for three PBS documentaries by producer and director Lee Groberg: TRAIL OF HOPE: THE STORY OF THE MORMON TRAIL, AMERICAN PROPHET: THE STORY OF JOSEPH SMITH, and SACRED STONE: TEMPLE ON THE MISSISSIPPI. A recent career highlight for him was composing the score for the critically acclaimed film EMMA SMITH: MY STORY which played in theaters across the country.
Merrill Jenson has composed film scores for over thirty films including EMMA SMITH: MY STORY, JOSEPH SMITH: PROPHET OF THE RESTORATION, THE TESTAMENTS OF ONE FOLD and ONE SHEPHERD, LEGACY, HARRY'S WAR, and WINDWALKER. Jenson has also composed several concert productions including a symphony that premiered at Carnegie Hall. Additionally, he has composed music for many television commercials including the acclaimed Homefront ads, music for three outdoor pageants, and several albums. He currently lives in Provo, Utah with his wife Betsy Lee Jenson.
Previously released on vinyl by Cerberus Records at the time of the film’s release, Dragon’s Domain Records is excited to bring WINDWALKER to compact disc, newly remastered by Digital Outland. The booklet includes liner notes written by composer Merrill Jenson. .
1. WINDWALKER (Main Title) (1:52) 2. Love Flute and Birth (3:50) 3. Tashina’s Death and Search (3:27) 4. Crow Village (2:49) 5. Burial Ground (3:53) 6. Resurrection (4:11) 7. Little Warriors (2:40) 8. Bear Kill (3:53) 9. Return of Grandfather (3:10) 10. Final Battle (2:47) 11. Walk in the Wind of Eternity (5:21) 12. End Titles (2:03)
BONUS TRACK 13. Windwalker Suite (4:23) Total Time: 44:53
I've been waiting to see this amazing score see the light of day on CD for ages now, and I'm thrilled it's been released - and also supremely bummed to see it's not complete, as the album, while a very good listening experience unto itself, doesn't fully convey the scope of how cleverly Jenson weaves, reprises and varies his many themes in the score. Bummer that the full tapes weren't made available.
Nonetheless, thrilled to see this gorgeous, unique work being given the CD treatment!
I've been waiting to see this amazing score see the light of day on CD for ages now, and I'm thrilled it's been released - and also supremely bummed to see it's not complete, as the album, while a very good listening experience unto itself, doesn't fully convey the scope of how cleverly Jenson weaves, reprises and varies his many themes in the score. Bummer that the full tapes weren't made available.
Nonetheless, thrilled to see this gorgeous, unique work being given the CD treatment!
It's a great album as is and we hope to present more of his work in the future.
A very underrated artist.
Ford A. Thaxton
ps: Now if we can get the score to HARRY'S WAR out there...
Ford, I'm THRILLED to hear you enjoy, and want to help release, Jenson's work. He's really a fantastic talent. In particular his stuff throughout the 80's and 90's is great, and usually recorded in London with big orchestras to boot.
You should look into SOLO and RED FURY, big orchestral works in the grand Americana tradition. The latter reminds me uncannily of Goldsmith's own Americana style.
It'd be so cool to see more of his music released and I'm really glad to see you're gunning for him. Thank you for that. Though I already own a scary-good sounding LP transfer of WINDWALKER I will happily be ordering this to help support releases of his music.
Out of curiosity, did you look into tapes for the score? Does it exist in full, perhaps at BYU (where I imagine a lot of Jenson's stuff is archived)?
Well, you've gotten me interested in Solo and Red Fury now, obviously.
Yavar
Yavar, Jenson did an album called "ENCORE" in the 90's with suites/cues/main/end titles etc. from a lot of his work throughout that era, including these two. I still have it on hand somewhere, I'll see if I can upload those cues at some point soon for you.
Though WINDWALKER is my personal favorite Jenson score, I think his "best" is 2008's EMMA SMITH: MY STORY. It's easily one of the five best scores of the best ten years in my opinion, gloriously performed by the Mormon Tabernacle Orchestra & Choir (a group that, based on this recording, REALLY ought to be doing more film work). Imagine Chris Young's MURDER IN THE FIRST combined with a bit of Vaughn Williams and John Williams' post-90's Americana tendencies, and you'll get a picture of what the music's like.
I'm absolutely dying to hear more of one of his earliest, 1977's THREE WARRIORS, w/ the National Philharmonic Orchestra. I love the fanfare heard around 2:15 in the below clip. The musical language is so wonderfully 70's with that electric piano playing counterpoint to the brass:
His "film score-like" concept albums, BEYOND and PIONEER PORTRAIT, both with the London Philharmonic, are basically Bruce Broughton-esque western scores... Written without picture.
Odd that religious propaganda films seem to be one of the few remaining champions of "traditional" film music. Mark Mckenzie, anyone...?
The sound sample is very nice. Interested in hearing more.
You'll love it, Solium. This is a score (and composer) I stumbled on by total chance one day. The film started on AMC or some such channel and immediately I was blown away by the music and how transportive, spiritual and evocative it is. There really is no other "Western" score quite like it out there, it almost plays more as a "Native American Fantasy" score. Very unique and intoxicating music.
The LP's a great listen but does fail to do justice to how complexly the themes interweave with one another, and there's one gorgeous motif used a few times that is barely heard at all on album.
The film, by the way, is a fascinating watch - Entirely in Cheyenne and Crow languages notwithstanding and opening/closing narration by Trevor Howard, and the costumes and production design were executed with a close attention paid to authenticity (shy of the fantasy "resurrection" element). A very well-done and evocative film actually, feeling like it could have itself been culled from an existing Native American myth. Jenson's score elevates the drama and modest scope of the film substantially.
Here's an 8-minute suite I uploaded a while back, from a pristine LP transfer a friend made for me:
Hope this sells well for you guys, Ford. It's a truly great, unique score. Reminds me more of Joe Hisaishi's PRINCESS MONONOKE than it does anything else produced in the western genre. Very unique!
Saw the film several times and had the LP once upon a time. Though I've not heard the music in more than 30 years, I remember it vividly. It's that good. I'd love to see the movie again.
I pre-ordered this and can't wait to hear this soaring, colorful score again!
Saw the film several times and had the LP once upon a time. Though I've not heard the music in more than 30 years, I remember it vividly. It's that good. I'd love to see the movie again.
I pre-ordered this and can't wait to hear this soaring, colorful score again!
I'm bumping this in the hopes that some members took a chance on it, or will. It doesn't deserve to be forgotten this quickly.
We're working on some more releases of his work, I'll be the first one to admit that his score to HARRY'S WAR is high on my personal list of scores I want out in the market.
Look into SOLO while you're at it. It's a great score form 1984 w/ the National Philharmonic for a film about a female pilot stranded in the Utah wilderness after a plane crash, and the search & rescue efforts to rescue her (including that of her loving husband and family).
Great main theme adapted wonderfully into several flying cues, a compelling search/rescue motif, delicate family theme - lots of great stuff in that one of the Broughton-esque dramatic vein. The main theme is even turned into a ballad for the main and end title, a bit sappy, but backed wonderfully w/ Jenson's orchestral arrangement. I think this one would appeal very well to collectors on the strength of the writing alone.
