dan: It's probably on the SACD/CD hybrid "Rozsa: 3 Choral Suites - Ben-Hur, Quo Vadis, King Of Kings" with Erich Kunzel and Cincinnati Pops Orchestrta and the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. Let me sample some of it, which I have in my iTunes.
I see they have choral versions of most of these cues:
Herod's Feast Miracle of Christ Overture [mostly at the beginning and end] Pietà [instrumental only] Resurrection & Finale Roman Legions [instrumental only] The Feast of Passover The Lord's Prayer The Nativity
Replaying it, I'd say you might find what you want in the Overture. Would you like me to email that 4 minute cue to you? Incidentally, as you can tell from the title of the disc, the recording has choral versions of selections from "Ben-Hur," "Quo Vadis, and, of course, "King Of Kings," all by Miklos Rosza. (On second thought, I think the melody you want is in the cue "Resurrection & Finale.")
One more follow-up: dan! I see that my 2-CD set of the entire "King of Kings" soundtrack also has a chorus in those same cues!!!!
dan: It's probably on the SACD/CD hybrid "Rozsa: 3 Choral Suites - Ben-Hur, Quo Vadis, King Of Kings" with Erich Kunzel and Cincinnati and the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. Let me sample some of it, which I have in my iTunes.
I see they have choral versions of most of these cues:
Herod's Feast [instrumental only] Miracles of Christ Overture [mostly at the beginning and end] Pietà [instrumental only] Resurrection & Finale Roman Legions [instrumental only] The Feast of Passover The Lord's Prayer The Nativity
Replaying it, I'd say you might find what you want in the Overture. Would you like me to email that 4 minute cue to you? Incidentally, the recording has choral versions of "Ben-Hur," "Quo Vadis, and, of course, "King Of Kings," all by Miklos Rosza.
No, it's not in that suite. God knows why not. The Overture is based on the Overture, not the title music. It begins and ends with the 'Mount Galilee/Multitudes' theme which had been used before in 'Quo Vadis?' in the 'Ecce Homo Petrus' cue, and contains midsection material from the Virgin Mary's theme and John the Baptist's.
If you have the FSM Teasury box set, there's the alternative version of the title where the chorus sings 'Hosanna' as opposed to a wordless chorus. There's also a version for church choir and organ that Rozsa arranged available on a Prometheus CD, where 'Hosanna' is used.
The performances of the King of Kings Prelude are to date:
1. The MGM Studio SO and Choir, on the Rhino 2CD 2. The MGM Studio SO and Choir (alternative) in the FSM Rozsa Treasury Box 3. The National Academy of St. Cecilia and the Singers of the Roman Basilicas (Vatican?) on the MGM album, now also in the FSM Treasury box. 4. The Hamburg Concert Orchestra and Chorus in the Varese Sarabande Centenary 3CD and the Rozsa EC, B-H & KoKs CD (slower, conducted by Eichard Muller Lampertz) 5. The City of Prague Philharmonic and the Crouch End Festival Chorus on Silva Screen 'Essential Miklos Rozsa' 2CD (Kenneth Alwyn conducting) 6. The City of Prague Philharmonic alone on Silva Screen in their 'Epic Film Music of MR' CD.
1 and 2 have the film descent and segue meant to link to 'Roman Legions'. The others have a concert coda, except 4 which has a reworked and edited coda by a chap called Cascarino. Some sing wordless, some sing 'Hosanna!'
The performance for church choir is on Prometheus's release of the old album of 'Twelve Short Choruses from 'King of Kings' and 'Ben-Hur' for Churches of All Denominations', with the Brigham Young University A Cappella Choir (Provo, Utah, Philip Woodward conducting). A light orchestral version of that was also arranged by Rozsa for the two narrated albums and is available with the Nuremberg SO on Angel and DRG.
There's also a strange version as part of a short suite with an Eastern Eusopean orchestra, but with no chorus, available for download somewhere.
If you want the barrel well and truly scraped, Henri Rene and David Rose did smoochy dance versions. Oh, I kid you not. Cyril Ornadel and Frank Chacksfield did their own brand of desecration too.
A light orchestral version of that was also arranged by Rozsa for the two narrated albums and is available with the Nuremberg SO on Angel and DRG.
That Rozsa-conducted version ("King of Kings Theme") was recorded in 1967 in Germany, with the Nuremburg Symphony Orchestra. It originally appeared on the Capitol LP Miklos Rozsa Conducts His Great Themes (ST2837), and later appeared on the 1973 EMI Angel LP Miklos Rozsa Conducts His Great Film Music (S-36063 ) and the Angel CD Film Scores of Miklos Rozsa (CD 7243 5 65993 2 1). That same performance reappeared on the 1987 Cloud Nine Records LP Miklos Rozsa: Epic Film Scores (CN 7013) and the 2004 DRG CD Miklos Rozsa Conducts His Epic Film Scores (19060). Finally, the King of King tracks also appear on the 1990 EMI CD The Movies Go To the Hollywood Bowl" (CDM 7 63735 2), but despite the CD's title, the performance is not with The Hollywood Bowl Symphony Orchestra, but dates back to that 1967 original.
That Rozsa-conducted version ("King of Kings Theme") was recorded in 1967 in Germany, with the Nuremburg Symphony Orchestra. It originally appeared on the Capitol LP Miklos Rozsa Conducts His Great Themes (ST2837), and later appeared on the 1973 EMI Angel LP Miklos Rozsa Conducts His Great Film Music (S-36063 ) and the Angel CD Film Scores of Miklos Rozsa (CD 7243 5 65993 2 1). That same performance reappeared on the 1987 Cloud Nine Records LP Miklos Rozsa: Epic Film Scores (CN 7013) and the 2004 DRG CD Miklos Rozsa Conducts His Epic Film Scores (19060). Finally, the King of King tracks also appear on the 1990 EMI CD The Movies Go To the Hollywood Bowl" (CDM 7 63735 2), but despite the CD's title, the performance is not with The Hollywood Bowl Symphony Orchestra, but dates back to that 1967 original.
True, but the old narrated albums had it too, and that was back in 1961, so there was another recording somewhere, either with the Rome people, or the Culver City folk, though it may no longer exist. I imagine FSM or Rhino would have found it.
There's also a more recent recording of that with the 'Prague Philharmonic Chamber Orchestra' on a 2CD called 'Hollywood's Greatest Hits: Classic Music from the Movies'.
Cyril Ornadel and Frank Chacksfield did their own brand of desecration too.
Here's Cyril Ornadel's brass-heavy version. I don't think it's all that bad.
But I grant, you the Chacksfield version has a background rhythm that grates. It also interpolates the Lord's Prayer theme into the middle of the piece.
The above shot of Jeffrey Hunter reminds me of the large envelope with several almost 8x10 photographs from the film that came with the large blue box for the LP of the "King of Kings" soundtrack, including that shot. In the multiple CD set, there's smaller versions of those photographs so they can fit into the case. But just 2 lousy, mostly sepia, pics on the outside of the Blu-ray case.
