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I have a small batch of GWTW CDs, since I enjoy the various rerecordings of the music as well as the original score. Great stuff.
I recently acquired and CBS Special Products label CD version of the socre, which are the original tracks (this was put out long before the Rhino set). The first track on this CD is for the Overture. This piece is not on the Rhino set. Judging by how it sounds, the Overture was probably just edited cues from the main score, but can anyone confirm?
Also, both albums have the Selznick Signature theme (the bells followed by the deep brass) which then segues into the Tara theme. First, the CBS version has a drum roll leading up to it. The Rhino just starts with the bells. Any idea why they are different?
Second, why is that theme attached to the Tara theme? It wasn't composed by Steiner. Could it be there are no surviving tracks of the Tara theme alone?
I guess I might have answered my own questions in here, but if anyone has any insight, please sound off.
Tx!
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It wasn't? Does the Gerhardt CD(s?) with that lie?
(or am I misremembering?)
-Joshua
The Gerhardt CD credits it to Alfred Newman.
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The theme was composed by Steiner, but the David Selznik Productions logo theme was compsed by Newman (like the Fox them, etc.). Both compositions are part of the theme cue on the original soundtracks.
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Posted: |
Oct 15, 2005 - 8:53 AM
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By: |
manderley
(Member)
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.....The Sony GONE WITH THE WIND "Overture" is an erzatz overture prepared in 1954. It was made from extant music tracks. Same for the Entr'acte and exit music. There originally was NO overture to GONE WITH THE WIND. The only extra music were the sparsley arranged Stephen Foster tunes played during intermission.....
I'm glad you pointed out that there was NO original orchestral overture to GWTW, Ray.
I'm not certain about the 1954 date, though. I don't recall this overture in the 1954 or 1961 reissues. It's always been my impression that the overture was put together for the 1967 roadshow reissue in 70mm when they really wanted to promote the "new look" of the film.
The original Stephen Foster music you pointed out appeared before the film and during the intermission and was not orchestra-based, but played on a theatre pipe organ and recorded. It sounds very bizarre today for a film of this type, but in those days the use of an organ for intermission interludes was still a very common thing of course. You can hear these organ pieces on one of the very early CD re-hashings of the original soundtrack score. I believe it was a Polydor CD from the early '80s.
The "drum roll" was, I believe, originally part of the opening of the film preceding the trademark, and also preceding the beginning of the second act. This followed the organ pieces by a few seconds, in each case.
The "drum roll" was used by Selznick as a cue timing device to the projectionist to dim the lights and open the travellers before the image hit the screen. Selznick was very meticulous about these first engagements and there is a whole booklet he had printed and sent to all theatre managers who booked the film to delineate very precisely how the film was to be cued and projected, right down to the brightness of the exit lights on each side of the screen, cautions on the use of flower arrangements on the stage area, and all other things he deemed necessary to the proper presentation of his baby. There are drawn illustrations of the film leaders, with particular emphasis on the opening of the film, and the intermission assembly.
It's a very interesting read.
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Wow, guys, thanks. You've cleared up a lot for me. Now, does anyone know why there seems to be no track with just the Main Title without the Selznick Productions theme attached? I guess I can safely assume none survive, but it's good to know for sure.
Anyway, thanks again!
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Posted: |
Oct 15, 2005 - 6:28 PM
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By: |
manderley
(Member)
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.....I'm beginning to notice that Golden Age threads are so much more interesting than everything else. So much rich history and storytelling.....
Oh you flatterer, Zelig!
I think you just want something from us old guys.....picking our brains before we die off! 
.....Wow, guys, thanks. You've cleared up a lot for me. Now, does anyone know why there seems to be no track with just the Main Title without the Selznick Productions theme attached? I guess I can safely assume none survive, but it's good to know for sure......
Oldsmith.....I have always assumed that the Selznick trademark music was recorded as part of the main title during the scoring sessions. It seems to me that way on some of the other Selznick productions as well. This was not an uncommon practice in the old days, I think. There seem to be good examples of it with the Warner Bros. shield trademark where the end notes of the trademark music are often keyed to, and part of, the opening bars of the main title. And the music under the MGM roaring Leo trademark was always written to fit between the "roars" and then segue into the main title. Paramount never much had trademark music until vistaVision and that VV music often segues into the main title.
I would say that Fox (and, of course, 20th Century Pictures) is the only studio which had real stand-alone trademark music.
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While MGM didn't sustain its usage, Franz Waxman's music that backed the roaring lion logo for "The Philadelphia Story" was heard in other films, too.
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