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Posted: |
Oct 14, 2013 - 3:57 AM
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By: |
Jim Doherty
(Member)
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I was reflecting the other day on how few Bernard Herrmann original soundtrack LPs came out during his lifetime. Considering the great amount of soundtrack LPs that came out through major labels like RCA, Decca and Columbia of great scores and lesser scores (some to rather insignificant films), by Victor Young, Frank Skinner, Max Steiner, George Duning and many others, it always seemed odd to me that Herrmann received so few original soundtrack LPs during his lifetime. Basically he got:
7th VOYAGE OF SINBAD
VERTIGO
THE BRIDE WORE BLACK (a French four track EP)
TWISTED NERVE (only one side of an LP)
THE BATTLE OF NERETVA
SISTERS
OBSESSION
TAXI DRIVER (only one side of original tracks, with one of those cuts obscured by dialogue)
And if you want to stretch a point, there were the non-commercial, corporate-only releases of the TV productions of A CHRISTMAS CAROL and A CHILD IS BORN, basically grabbed from the completed telefilms. Also, there was the THREE WORLDS OF GULLIVER LP, but that too was taken right from the completed film, with dialogue and effects. The 20th-Fox LP of TENDER IS THE NIGHT contained absolutely no Herrmann scoring.
It just doesn't seem right that no label bothered with such classics as NORTH BY NORTHWEST, JOURNEY TO THE CENTER OF THE EARTH, PSYCHO, MYSTERIOUS ISLAND, JASON AND THE ARGONAUTS, MARNIE, or even the TWILIGHT ZONE scores at the time those films and TV shows came out.
Sure, there were scattered relatively-contemporary re-recordings of a few themes (a relatively-faithful mini-suite from SNOWS OF KILIMANJARO by Al Goodman on RCA, and a recording of the HANGOVER SQUARE concerto by Werner Janssen, also on RCA), but for the most part, Herrmann was overlooked as a candidate for original soundtrack LPs.
I am SO glad that this has been corrected in recent years, to the point where we have almost all of Herrmann's film work, and a fair percentage of his TV work available to us. But I am still perplexed as to why he was so under-represented on LP when the original films came out.
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Actually, both "Taxi Driver" and "Obsession" were released posthumously.
Of course, those Phase 4 rerecordings were nothing to sneeze at, and probably presented the music in Herrmann's preferred manner, for the most part.
Those Phase 4 recordings were the first time I ever heard pure Herrmann away from the films (most of which I'd seen only once in a theater). They were absolute JOYS.
I remember playing the main theme from NORTH BY NORTHWEST over and over....
Favorite was FANTASTY FILM WORLD OF BERNARD HERRMANN, especially the FAHRENHEIT 451 suite, whose finale I still think sounds better than the actual tracks...
Herrmann got some success out of these, enough to be asked to do more mainstream scores.
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Posted: |
Oct 14, 2013 - 12:34 PM
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By: |
manderley
(Member)
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I was reflecting the other day on how few Bernard Herrmann original soundtrack LPs came out during his lifetime. Considering the great amount of soundtrack LPs that came out through major labels like RCA, Decca and Columbia of great scores and lesser scores (some to rather insignificant films), by Victor Young, Frank Skinner, Max Steiner, George Duning and many others, it always seemed odd to me that Herrmann received so few original soundtrack LPs during his lifetime. Basically he got:
7th VOYAGE OF SINBAD
VERTIGO
THE BRIDE WORE BLACK (a French four track EP)
TWISTED NERVE (only one side of an LP)
THE BATTLE OF NERETVA
SISTERS
OBSESSION
TAXI DRIVER (only one side of original tracks, with one of those cuts obscured by dialogue)
And if you want to stretch a point, there were the non-commercial, corporate-only releases of the TV productions of A CHRISTMAS CAROL and A CHILD IS BORN, basically grabbed from the completed telefilms. Also, there was the THREE WORLDS OF GULLIVER LP, but that too was taken right from the completed film, with dialogue and effects. The 20th-Fox LP of TENDER IS THE NIGHT contained absolutely no Herrmann scoring.
It just doesn't seem right that no label bothered with such classics as NORTH BY NORTHWEST, JOURNEY TO THE CENTER OF THE EARTH, PSYCHO, MYSTERIOUS ISLAND, JASON AND THE ARGONAUTS, MARNIE, or even the TWILIGHT ZONE scores at the time those films and TV shows came out.
Sure, there were scattered relatively-contemporary re-recordings of a few themes (a relatively-faithful mini-suite from SNOWS OF KILIMANJARO by Al Goodman on RCA, and a recording of the HANGOVER SQUARE concerto by Werner Janssen, also on RCA), but for the most part, Herrmann was overlooked as a candidate for original soundtrack LPs.
I am SO glad that this has been corrected in recent years, to the point where we have almost all of Herrmann's film work, and a fair percentage of his TV work available to us. But I am still perplexed as to why he was so under-represented on LP when the original films came out.
Jim.....in your zeal to champion Herrmann, I think you've overlooked the point that though a number of film composers were represented by soundtrack lps during the 50s-60s period, individually most were like Herrmann and had very few official soundtrack LPs released.
Let's take your example of Max Steiner. Although there were certainly a number of compilations, the only (relatively) full-score soundtrack LPs I can think of for Steiner during this period are:
BAND OF ANGELS
GONE WITH THE WIND
JOHN PAUL JONES
MARJORIE MORNINGSTAR
PARRISH
ROME ADVENTURE
(Note also that several of these are cut-down re-recordings and not soundtracks.)
Perhaps we could throw in THIS IS CINERAMA (which is iffy---more like a slice-and-dice representation of Steiner---and others'---work), THE CAINE MUTINY (all 5 copies!!!  ), and DEATH OF A SCOUNDREL (45 ep).
And, considering Victor Young's career output, the number of Young's lp releases during the short period of the '50s in which he was still alive is shockingly small including SAMSON AND DELILAH, THE QUIET MAN. WRITTEN ON THE WIND (half-disc), and THE BRAVE ONE. (The Heindorf FOR WHOM THE BELL TOLLS, AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 DAYS, RUN OF THE ARROW and OMAR KHAYYAM (half-disc) were all released posthumously, I believe, and the Decca GOLDEN EARRINGS and FOR WHOM THE BELL TOLLS were 78 sets reissued on LP.) Was there anything more of length during his lifetime?
Of Stothart's (1888-1949) career of over 150+ scores and multiple Oscar nominations, there were NO soundtrack scores on 78rpm, and only ONE posthumous one (WIZARD OF OZ) on LP in the '50s and '60s until the issue of the Tony Thomas/LP boot of the cut-down ANNA KARENINA/MUTINY ON THE BOUNTY/DAVID COPPERFIELD/VIVA VILLA scores in the '70s, and then Lukas' CD release of RANDOM HARVEST/THE YEARLING, followed by several more in the 2000's. Whatever one thinks of Stothart's music, it can hardly be judged in depth by the few recordings of it.
I suspect you could go through ANY composer's recorded career during this period in time and find relatively few soundtrack lp recordings for them. My guess is that Rozsa would fare the best in total releases of the Golden Agers during this period. (Were there ANY David Raksin full scores released at all in the 1950s???)
Chalk all of this up to the AFM re-use fees and the lack of studio-owned record companies (other than MGM), until, essentially the late '50s and then into the '60s. It also turned out that the musician's strike of 1957-58 was a boon to the soundtrack industry (if not the musicians, who seriously miscalculated), because the record companies could then release foreign-recorded scores with less cost, leading, of course to the major push to disband the studio orchestras, and record offshore regularly. Nick Redman's initial negotiations with the AFM several decades ago also was vital to our getting the mass of soundtracks we have today.
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Please don't forget the incredible suite found on the "Welles Raises Kane" LP from the early seventies which, aside from Herrmann's own suite from Citizen Kane there's the suite from The Devil and Daniel Webster, an absolute favorite of mine and under the baton of Mr. Herrmann.
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