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I think we've had a few threads in the past which address the issue of the Hollywood Golden Age sound and how (and why) it differed from the sound of British film music. I don't mean to go over that ground again, so this post is just really an obsevation and a question based on a recent listening of Quartet's WAR GODS OF THE DEEP/ CROSSPLOT release (it's not really my opinion of those scores per se, so I'm not adding this to the other thread).
Having only been familiar with Stanley Black's Main Titles from WAR GODS (or CITY UNDER THE SEA as I know it), I was intrigued to see if the rest of the score would fit into the same mold as the Les Baxter/ Poe classics. I was even trying to imagine that it was a Les Baxter score, but something kept getting in the way and telling me that it was really very different from Baxter at AIP. Then I listened to CROSSPLOT, and both scores together were constantly putting me in mind of other things...
So the things that came to mind were (in no particular order) -
Brass outbursts - the SF scores of Malcolm Lockyer (eg NIGHT OF THE BIG HEAT)
Travelogue music - Laurie Johnson (eg WHICKER'S WORLD)
Suspense - Barry Gray (eg THUNDERBIRDS)
Chase scenes - Ken Thorne and Edwin Astley (eg THE SAINT and THE PERSUADERS)
Pastiche - Barry Gray again, and Ron Goodwin (in general)
Jazzy outbursts - Bill McGuffie (eg DALEKS INVASION EARTH 2150 AD)
Pure horror - Paul Ferris (eg THE CREEPING FLESH)
Now, is it strange or is it not strange that all those films and composers which I was reminded of are British? If it's not strange, could someone enlighten me as to how a "particularly British" score differs from its American counterpart? Bear in mind I'm not talking Max Steiner vs Vaughan Williams here, but more the '60s dramas/ horrors/ thrillers...
On a similar note, I'd never mistake a Johnny Dankworth jazz score for one from an American composer. Even Roy Budd, who was probably the closest Britain got to Lalo Schifrin, had a particular way with brass etc which placed him on this side (I'm in Europe) of the Atlantic. But I can't put it into words.
Would anyone care to flesh out my feather-brained ramblings with historical reasons and facts? Or just say "I agree" or "I disagree"? Thanks!
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British orchestras have long had a reputation for being "brass bands with strings attached", alluding to their lighter, sometimes thin string sound. But that's in comparison with continental European orchestras, not American. I've often listened to vastly different orchestra "timbres" at the PROMS from one day to the next. Generally, the continental orchestras did have a warmer, fuller sound in the strings. OTOH, the British brass were often more brilliant.
I find it altogether more difficult to identify orchestras used in film scores, as many of them were/are recorded by pick-up orchestras, session musicians. But the "old Hollywood" orchestras surely had an affinity for heavier-than-usual vibrato.
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Thanks for the input, OGM. I know that I deliberately left out other European countries (the jazz in German thrillers of the '60s could make for a thread on its own), but I didn't want to make things too cumbersome - and the thread was spurred by the Stanley Black CD.
//added a bit later via secretspyphone// -
Hmm, I've just been wondering how much The Shadows guitar sound made its way into British films of the '60s. And the guitar of Vic Flick (who also worked on Barry Gray's scores), plus the John Barry Seven... John Barry! He's a kind of strange case in a way, because when I listen to him I never find myself going "That sounds British" or "That sounds American", but rather "That sounds John Barry".
So we've got a couple of strands going on this topic. I'm still trying to get my head around it all, and I hope someone can wrap it all up neatly for me.
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I've always thought that there was a different sort of sound to the brass in British orchestras, and even in the rhythm sections too. There always seemed to me to be a bit more bite in the British brass. I still think American musicians have a special feel for jazzy music, possibly because that's where it originated?
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Not much of McGuffie's CORRUPTION on display in the Stanley Black scores, Tone. Just the occasional jazzy blast, which almost works as a horror stinger. Nothing really as developed as the extraordinary "live at Ronnie Scott's" cheerful swing numbers which accompanied Peter Cushing chasing young girls along chilly English beaches, snogging them (tongues and everything), then stabbing them to death with a scalpel.
Getting back to my original post, there's another sort of overly dramatic device heard on staccato brass which crops up in the Black scores. I couldn't put my finger on it until today... Was it something which reminded me of, curiously, a score from Hollywood? Would it be something quintessentially English? Then it came to me - Eric Rogers' "stalking" music from ASSAULT, which was basically a reworking of his "Oddbod" motif from CARRY ON SCREAMING. Can't get much more British than that, guv.
Oh, many thanks to all for the useful contributions. I'll try to comment on each one if my brain expands enough to be able to assimilate it all. Meanwhile, keep 'em coming.
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