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Posted: |
May 17, 2001 - 10:55 AM
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By: |
joan hue
(Member)
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When I think of great western score composers, the first names that
jump into my mind are Elmer Bernstein, Goldsmith, and early Morricone.
(And others like Tiomkin, Poledouris, Broughton, some Steiner, etc.)
For me Alfred Newman’s name initially connotes sweeping epics and
lovely melodies. The Robe, Wuthering Heights, Anastasia, Hunchback,
Greatest Story Ever Told, etc. With the exception of the majestic and
beautiful How The West Was Won, I never really associated him with
fine western scores. Yesterday AMC showed The Gunfighter. The opening
titles sport a marvelous, rousing theme by Newman. His rhythms and percussion
sounded like precursors to Bernstein’s Magnificent Seven. (I mean as in
influence, not lifts.) IMDB shows that he wrote MANY western scores. I
have seen Drums Along the Mohawk, Fire Creek and both The Westerner
and The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance. For those last two, he is “uncredited.”Others I have NOT seen are Way of a Gaucho (uncredited), Yellow Sky,
Brigham Young, and The Cowboy and the Lady. I’ll also add Flicka and
Son of Fury, which I assume are westerns. Anyone know anything about
these scores? On my Newman compilation, the Bravados is credited to him, but on the IMDB,
the music is credited to Lionel Newman. ???? Anyway after scoring more than 10 westerns, it is time that I place this outstanding
and versatile composer into the western genre.
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Posted: |
May 17, 2001 - 1:32 AM
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By: |
PeterD
(Member)
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I've got the "Brigham Young March" on another Newman compilation disc -- very rousing (Newman re-used the theme for "Yellow Sky," a good western that's definitely worth seeing, although maybe not quite a classic)."My Friend Flicka," a classic boy-and-horse story, isn't really a western, although it takes place out west. Very nice melodic score, available only on a Soundtrack Library bootleg with middling sound quality, but better than nothing. Since it's a 20th Century Fox movie, it would be nice if Lukas & Co. got around to this one eventually.
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Posted: |
May 19, 2001 - 7:56 AM
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By: |
PeterD
(Member)
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Joe,Any tips on where to find the "Son of Fury" bootleg? I didn't see it listed at Intrada, Screen Archives, or S.T.A.R.
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Posted: |
May 19, 2001 - 12:44 AM
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By: |
Graham Watt
(Member)
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Yes, Joan, Alfred Newman's few western scores (apart from How The West Was Won) have been a bit overlooked. By the way, I could be wrong (and usually am), but did The Gunfighter have any music in it apart from the credits? I'm going back donkey's years, but something tells me it had no underscore as such.Alf Newman! He did ALL genres with consumate skill and taste. I say "all" genres, but did he ever do a horror or science fiction movie? I can't think of any off-hand (Hunchback Of Notre Dame doesn't count).
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Posted: |
May 19, 2001 - 8:25 AM
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By: |
joan hue
(Member)
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I appreciate all of these comments and suggestions (on this board and
via several e mails) for both westerns and other movies scored by Newman.
Need to rent more videos and follow AMC. Graham, I only got to watch
the first part of The Gunfighter. After the main titles, I didn’t hear underscore.
Not sure about later in the film. Horror or science fiction? Don't know. One western by Newman that I forgot to mention was Nevada Smith, which
I rented about 6 months ago. Really fine, exciting score. I’ve read on Boards several times that a book about the Newmans (The Newmans
of Hollywood??) was to be published. Anyone know if this is out yet? Thanks.
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Posted: |
May 19, 2001 - 9:44 AM
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By: |
Ron Pulliam
(Member)
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quote:
Originally posted by joan hue:
I’ve read on Boards several times that a book about the Newmans (The Newmans
of Hollywood??) was to be published. Anyone know if this is out yet? Thanks.
Joan, I traded some e-mails with Marilee Bradford, wife of Jon Burlingame who is writing "The Newmans of Hollywood." This was in late summer 1999, or so. Marilee produced many of the first Rhino-MGM soundtrack titles, including the 2-CD "Ben-Hur." I asked her when Jon's book would be published, since I had seen on Amazon.com that it was projected to be out in 1999. She told me then that they anticipated Spring 2000. As with all works-in-progress, delays can mean many things. I'm hoping Jon found new source material, photos, etc. But the delay could also be due to getting clearances on photos or other things in the book. I'll send Marilee another post next week and ask if there's a projected publication date she can announce. Daniel2: I am utterly AMAZED. I had NO IDEA you were a Newman man. That makes ALL the difference to me. Newman is my main film music man!
[This message has been edited by Ron Pulliam (edited 19 May 2001).]
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For the record, Tsunami also came out with a cd of NEVADA SMITH. Nothing that wasn't on the LP, but a marvelous score, showing late Newman still at the height of his powers. (It'll probably be hard to locate a copy of the Tsunami by now, however.)
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Posted: |
May 23, 2001 - 6:18 AM
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By: |
Ron Pulliam
(Member)
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Marilee Bradford got back to me last night re: status of "The Newmans of Hollywood" and asked that I share with all of you the following:"Jon is hard at work on 'The Newmans of Hollywood' and expects it to be
completed by autumn. This project was momentarily set aside while he was
forced to switch publishers due to Schirmer's financial dilemmas and
subsequent restructuring, and it was further delayed when he was hired
to write "Sound and Vision" for Billboard Books. Believe me, it will be
worth the wait." For me, this is my all-time most eagerly awaited book!
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I didn't know there were more Westerns by Alfred aside from the high bar HTWWW (I know, I know, pretty lame considering he's my favorite film composer). I'm currently looking for the above, plus I'm wondering if Firecreek ever did get a CD release?
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One might include THE PRESIDENT'S LADY, since Tennessee qualifies as "the West" at the time of the story (1820s). The Varese album is OOP but worth looking for.
Thanks! As you might already know, it's super easy for me to have faith in the reccomendations of a person with "rozsaphile" as a handle 
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Firecreek is an excellent score (film's pretty good too, with real-life friends James Stewart and Henry Fonda having excellent onscreen chemistry). Sadly it's never been released in any way outside of the film, not even on a compilation. Nevada Smith is another great 60s western besides HTWWW which you already know about of course. Sadly it's still awaiting a (legal) CD release of the LP recording, and the film recording has never been released which makes me worry it is lost. Hopefully it can be included from mono stems at least, like other Paramount scores from that era.
I have some hopes that we might get some of Newman's earlier Fox western scores, including the brief score for The Gunfighter, on an upcoming Kritzerland release. The President's Lady is a superb score and great Varese disc, but doesn't sound like a western much to me.
One western recommendation that I think is still available: The Bravados, which Alfred co-composed with his friend and colleague Hugo Friedhofer, though in the film the music was credited to his brother Lionel Newman who supervised the recording in Europe conducted by Bernard Kaun due to a 1958 musician's strike in Hollywood (the reason for this crediting has long been a bit of a mystery repeatedly debated over, but the excellent FSM CD credits things correctly from the cue sheets). IMO it's not a *great* score like they each achieved separately in the genre (Friedhofer's excellent scores to the westerns Broken Arrow and One Eyed Jacks are both available, though some of his other Fox western scores like White Feather and Vera Cruz sadly appear to be lost). But it's still a good score, and has a pretty fantastic dark and driving main theme by Newman -- try out the sound clips:
http://filmscoremonthly.com/cds/detail.cfm/CDID/209/Bravados-The/
Yavar
P.S. Some scores listed earlier in this thread were not written by Newman but rather conducted by him (Way of a Gaucho by Sol Kaplan was recently released by Counterpoint of course, and Cyril Mockridge's The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance was released by Kritzerland).
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