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FMS released "Toys In The Attic" a few months ago... I'm not too familiar with his music. I'll have a listen to it today and I'll share my impressions...
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Posted: |
Nov 2, 2003 - 11:35 AM
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By: |
Bob Bryden
(Member)
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Strange for me to hear Duning written of as
being 'derivative' - especially since I just
made myself a comp of his stuff which includes
his scores from 'Salome', 'Picnic', 'Cowboy',
'3:10 to Yuma', 'Devil at 4 O'Clock', 'Any
Wednesday', TV's 'The Big Valley'- etc., etc.
and while making it I marvelled at how much
he obviously influenced John Williams, etc.
Duning is awesome, under-rated and worthy of
full-fledged discovery. 'Toys in the Attic'
is NOT representative of this man's true range.
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'Toys in the Attic'
is NOT representative of this man's true range.
which doesn't me it isn't good... very good in fact.
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Posted: |
Nov 2, 2003 - 12:58 PM
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By: |
dwayne 2
(Member)
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Strange for me to hear Duning written of as
being 'derivative' - especially since I just
made myself a comp of his stuff which includes
his scores from 'Salome', 'Picnic', 'Cowboy',
'3:10 to Yuma', 'Devil at 4 O'Clock', 'Any
Wednesday', TV's 'The Big Valley'- etc., etc.
and while making it I marvelled at how much
he obviously influenced John Williams, etc.
Duning is awesome, under-rated and worthy of
full-fledged discovery. 'Toys in the Attic'
is NOT representative of this man's true range.
You misread me; it may have helped if I supplied the date for Critic's Choice, which was 1963. If anything, it was Nino who was being derivative (probably)... I can't say for sure the piece didn't go back with Rota to before Critic's Choice? So I'm not making any judgements about either composer.
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Posted: |
Nov 5, 2003 - 1:05 AM
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By: |
Bill Finn
(Member)
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Strange for me to hear Duning written of as
being 'derivative' - especially since I just
made myself a comp of his stuff which includes
his scores from 'Salome', 'Picnic', 'Cowboy',
'3:10 to Yuma', 'Devil at 4 O'Clock', 'Any
Wednesday', TV's 'The Big Valley'- etc., etc.
and while making it I marvelled at how much
he obviously influenced John Williams, etc.
Duning is awesome, under-rated and worthy of
full-fledged discovery. 'Toys in the Attic'
is NOT representative of this man's true range.
I had not noted Dunings influence on Williams before, maybe I should listen again. I have previously given perhaps too much credit to Williams' friend, a certain Previn character.
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Duning was a superb composer and I would certainly agree that he influenced Williams very much. His work was very popular in the fifties and he shares a lot of stylistic touches with Les Baxter and Henry Mancini. His scores to THE WORLD OF SUSIE WONG and NIGHTFALL are splendid, and his television work was always of the highest order.
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Two other Duning scores not mentioned here that I recommend are 1001 ARABIAN NIGHTS and NO SAD SONGS FOR ME. NIGHTS was was an animated Mr.Magoo feature-length musical, with a fine score and songs. SAD SONGS was a weepie from 1950, starring Margaret Sullavan, as a woman diagnosed with a terminal illness, whose score was nominated for an Oscar.
NIGHTS was originally released as an lp on the Colpix label, then later rereleased as an lp on Varese. SAD SONGS came out on a b**t lp. Neither score has had any CD availability that I'm aware of.
I also love Duning's score to SALOME. There was a combined dialogue/music highlights 10" lp, which has never been available on CD that I'm aware of, thought Charles Gerhardt did re-record the Dance on his additional CD of outtakes from his scores series. The whole score is quite good, and would certainly be welcome in my collection.
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So nice to see a thread about one of my favorite composers. He has written so much wonderful music - Full of Life is gorgeous, as is The Devil at Four O'Clock - the FSM release of Toys in the Attic was an incredibly welcome surprise - sadly it's not a top seller, which figures given the age of most collectors today. They really should attempt to broaden their horizons once in a while. The Empath is stunning, and I adore Bell, Book, and Candle, 3:10 to Yuma, Cowboy (which I just watched last night), Picnic, Any Wednesday, and so many others.
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How could I have forgotten the EMPATH from ST? Wonderful stuff, deeply emotional, the last time I saw it, Duning's music broke my stoney little heart.
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COWBOY is one of the most exciting and invigorating main titles ever, hands down, bar none.
Delightful film and score: THE NOTORIOUS LANDLADY, in which Duning's spritely themes rub shoulders with Gershwin's "A Foggy Day" (in tribute to the locale and co-star Astaire, I've always felt), and G.D. makes perfect use of Gilbert and Sullivan source music in the climactic chase.
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Second the motion on PICNIC. Incidentally, the film and score are famous for the Holden/Novak dance to "Moonglow" combined with the PICNIC love theme. At a Tony Thomas-hosted Filmex event years ago, Duning related how the songwriter who wrote "Moonglow" took Duning to court claiming that the PICNIC theme was merely based on the harmonization of "Moonglow." But the case was thrown out when Duning was able to demonstrate how much sweat and stretching and twisting he'd had to go through to make the two tunes mesh so apparently effortlessly on screen.
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