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I've been playing this all week and have to say that it is indeed a terrific release. I must admit though, in all honesty, that I find some of the "creeping-about" music somewhat standard for the genre - I can't quite pick out an original voice in those sort of nondescript passages of music. Oh, and I still think that the swashbuckling cue is too corny (Dick Barton to the rescue is what I'm reminded of), a little too incongruously circus-like - although Daniel Schweiger, in his fine notes, tries to convince us that it was a deliberate "set-up" by David Lee to make the pay-off all the grimmer - well...yes, perhaps.
BUT... the good bits (I'd say about 90% of it - not bad going) are very good indeed, when not simply great. And so varied! We have the amazingly portentous dirge introduced in a more frenetic fashion at the start. We have the pounding "burning of the village" theme (some unfortunate wrong notes in the playing reminding me that this is the original soundtrack - I mean that in a good way!), we have some moments of swooning (doomed) romance, where the score verges on the Les Baxter HOUSE OF USHER territory, we have the soaring cue for the circling of the bird of prey... There's the absolutely delightful source music for the charming medieval dance performed by the little midget woman/child (I can't get the creepy image of Patrick Magee out my head as he ogles her) - the sudden rattle of the tambourine cutting things short in an unnerving fashion. The obligatory (being a Corman film) "dream/hallucination" sequence is a highlight - again, the music ventures into Les Baxter territory for the ghostly, distant atonal strains before bursting into a lengthy montage of different styles - Stravinsky dominates, but I could also hear Cleopatra coming up the Nile on her barge... this is great stuff. Some fairly typical horror-stingers punctuate the cue as the heavily-bosomed Hazel Court "screams" in silence - again we are back to what Baxter did for earlier Corman pictures with dream sequences.
And then the final 15 minutes or so of score... absolutely tremendous, from the increasingly deranged waltzes to the final, dirge-like "ballet" and final revelation. I've had this burned into my brain for the last forty years of watching the film that it was almost odd to hear it without dialogue. And then we get a tremendously potent reprise with the End Titles.
I've just realised that I seem to have written almost a sort of "review". I wanted it to be more kind of flowing and conversational, but what came out came out. So there you go.
Final thought - I can sometimes (not very often) divorce a score on CD from the film it was written for. In this case I find it impossible. Anyone got this CD but hasn't seen the movie? Your opinions would be interesting.
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Final thought - I can sometimes (not very often) divorce a score on CD from the film it was written for. In this case I find it impossible. Anyone got this CD but hasn't seen the movie? Your opinions would be interesting.
Thanks for your kind words Graham and above  If you're in the US and have Netflix, you can check out the film on instant play here.
http://movies.netflix.com/WiMovie/The_Masque_of_the_Red_Death/70147561?trkid=2361637
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What a great review! It's basically what I said above, but written better and with bigger words. And better ideas. But I agree with him.
Get your MASQUE OF THE RED DEATH now or be forever a nutmeg!
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This is an absolutely splendid score and while I can't even come close to Chris McEneany's level of insight, I've done my best with today's 13 Chills installment:
http://www.13chills.com/13chills2012_3masque.html
Please forgive the self-promotion, but this is really a marvelous production all the way around from Quartet, and Daniel Schweiger's notes are fantastic. This is by far one of my favorite purchases of the year and if you're into the classic sound of 60s horror/fantasy music, you're in for a real treat.
David Lee isn't a well-known name, and I guess that accounts for this not selling out immediately like it should have, but... copies are still available, so it's ripe for discovery.
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I think that's the same guy that did the music on my favorite 60's BBC radio comedy show, I'm Sorry I'll Read That Again. Referred to on the show as Dave Lee & the boys. Sorry, US readers won't know what I'm talking about, & nor will most UK readers.
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Little bit of trivia for Graham Watt (and any others interested).
David Lee can be glimpsed in several of the video-taped episodes of The Avengers.
I have been going through my DVDs on The Avengers and been watching the Cathy Gale (Honor Blackman) segments.
The other day, I re-watched a 2nd season story called "Box of Tricks" (which has singer Venus Smith instead of Cathy Gale) and ... within the end credits the Dave Lee Trio is listed!
I went back to the beginning of the story where Smith is singing in a club and there's David Lee at the piano.
Don't how many FSMers are fans of both Corman Poe and The Avengers, but I just wish to alert a few of you who may not be aware of this tidbit.
Mr. Lee is visible about 2:40 into the episode.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6izJ88YnDNE&feature=player_detailpage
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]
