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Posted: |
Jan 5, 2002 - 11:05 PM
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By: |
John Prytz
(Member)
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Now here's another name you don't tend to associate with film scores, the American composer Ferde Grofe! While most famous for his Grand Canyon, Death Valley and Mississippi Suites, he did some film scores too, like "Knute Rockne, All American", "Thousands Cheers", "Time Out of Mind", "Return of Jesse James" and (the one score I do have by him) "Rocketship X-M" (on LP issued by Starlog Records and distributed by Varese Sarabande - albeit a long time ago!) Had he devoted more time and energy to film music he'd of been up there with the Golden Age greats like Rozsa, Herrmann, A. Newman, etc.
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Few will deny that ROCKETSHIP XM is a really cheesy movie...yet the scenes that take place on Mars, especially those with the buried artifact and blind woman, have a memorable eerieness that tend to stay with one -- due in no small measure to Grofe's score. I'd like to take this opportunity to recommend a budget-priced CD on the Naxos label (Naxos 8.559007): "American Classics -- Ferde Grofe -- Grand Canyon Suite/Mississippi Suite/Niagara Falls Suite" with the Bournemouth Symphony Orch. conducted by our old friend, William Stromberg.
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Time Out of Mind? I've heard of Rozsa's (apparently passive) association with that 1947 film. And M. Castelnuovo-Tedesco's. And somebody else as well (Balenkiroff? Spoliansky?). But Grofe's involvement is news to me. What do we know abuout this score? John
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Why do you THINK it's called "Time OUT OF MIND???" WOOOOOoooooOOOOOOoooooo (Theremin)!
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Cliff McCarty (who is the closest thing to an official scorekeeper of film music) told me that Rozsa composed nothing for this film. He simply let his LYDIA concerto be reworked (by whom?) into the "New England Symphonette." I assume that the version of that work heard on Varese was further reworked by Rozsa in the 1970s. I believe McCarty assigns the original TIME OUT OF MIND music to Amfitheatroff. So what did MCT do? And where does Grofe come in? I've never seen the picture myself and wonder what people have to say about it.
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Per Ferde Grofe, Jr. his father's TIME OUT OF MIND film score was rejected by the producers. The music Grofe scored for the picture was reworked and retitled NEW ENGLAND SUITE.
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I contacted him about that and the best thing I could get was the score was written. I still don't know if it was recorded. He was also to score the 1971 film "The Day of the Wolves" Mr. Grofe also served in other capacities on the film, including a producer; one can assume the schedule and multiple positions just proved to be too much to handle with the addition of a score.
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To quote the liner notes for the Starlog LP release of ROCKETSHIP X-M, "Ferde Grofe should have written more movie music." I certainly feel that way. RX-M was an "A" score for a "B" picture. Compare it to other sci-fi scores of the period. Do any of them really have the quality melodies and appropriate eeriness, while still maintaining solid musical values? THE RETURN OF JESSE JAMES, while not as profound as RX-M, is still a high class score--full of melody and excitement. So many westerns and sci-fi scores are full of musical effects without developing strong melodies and harmonies. There is a DVD release of this picture. I'd like to post some of the music score on You Tube, but I don't know how! It really is a shame that Grofe is almost unknown now. His major works are rarely performed, but there are, of course, recordings available. In his more ambitious works, there is much to be appreciated--on an equal with Copland, Morton Gould and others. ROCKETSHIP X-M is now available, by the way, on CD from Monstrous Movie Music.
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Irv: THE RETURN OF JESSE JAMES, while not as profound as RX-M, is still a high class score--full of melody and excitement. So many westerns and sci-fi scores are full of musical effects without developing strong melodies and harmonies. There is a DVD release of this picture. I'd like to post some of the music score on You Tube, but I don't know how! Do you already have the music ready to put up, or do you need guidance on the whole process? Step one, if you don't have a Youtube account, you'll need to create a Youtube account.
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