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Those familiar with Bernard Herrmann folklore will remember the story of how Herrmann, so impressed with the magnificent viola d’amore performance of Virginia Majewski during the recording of his score for ON DANGEROUS GROUND, requested that she be given her own “card” in the credits for that film. When told that this was not possible, he arranged to have her name appear on his own card, a stunning and virtually unprecedented salute to the contribution of a “mere” instrumentalist to the quality of a film.
Majewski’s virtuoso string playing graced many of the film scores we all know and love, though she is not often mentioned or discussed here. The following filmography details her numerous contributions to the art of film music:
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0538112/filmoyear
Parenthetically, Majewski also played on an amazingly wide variety of popular recordings, from jazz to pop to big band and more, as we see from a list of many of the recordings on which she played:
http://www.allmusic.com/artist/virginia-majewski-mn0000019509/credits
Not sure why this popped into my brain just now, but I think it’s important to acknowledge the players and their amazing contributions, which we usually take for granted. Certainly there are others who deserve mention, but Ms. Majewski unquestionably deserves to be honored for her body of work.
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Dana, I absolutely agree. I often forget that there are real people playing all those instruments, which is why I think it's important to acknowledge their contributions. I vaguely recall contributing to a few threads about this very subject... Hmm, no time to look at the moment... Maybe one of the appropriate old threads was started by LK when he first announced how we could access the AFM lists of the musicians heard on the FSM releases (?), but there have been more. Will try to do a search when I get a minute - or someone else can do it for us (please).
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It's a pity this is getting so little response. Anyway, I found Lukas' original thread about the AFM musicians, and will give it a bump. There are other good ones somewhere around about Tommy Tedesco etc, and I think we went into musician territory on one of the PELHAM 1-2-3 thread (Artie Kane discussions etc - they all kind of get lost in the middle), if anyone is interested in having a look.
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It's a pity this is getting so little response. Anyway, I found Lukas' original thread about the AFM musicians, and will give it a bump. There are other good ones somewhere around about Tommy Tedesco etc, and I think we went into musician territory on one of the PELHAM 1-2-3 thread (Artie Kane discussions etc - they all kind of get lost in the middle), if anyone is interested in having a look.
Graham, thank you for hanging in on this! I also think it's a pity that no one (besides us) seems interested in the musicians who make this music happen. I'll check out the thread.
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Majewski's IMDb credits (I couldn't get the link above to work):
Music department (104 credits)
1981 Outland (musician: viola - uncredited)
1979 Time After Time (musician: viola - uncredited)
1978 Big Wednesday (musician: viola - uncredited)
1978 Coma (musician: viola - uncredited)
1977 Telefon (musician: viola - uncredited)
1977 Black Sunday (musician: viola - uncredited)
1976 Logan's Run (musician: viola - uncredited)
1976 The Big Bus (musician: viola - uncredited)
1976 All the President's Men (musician: viola - uncredited)
1974 The Towering Inferno (musician: viola - uncredited)
1974 Conrack (musician: viola - uncredited)
1973 The Paper Chase (musician: viola - uncredited)
1972 The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean (musician: viola - uncredited)
1972 The Wrath of God (musician: viola - uncredited)
1971 The Omega Man (musician: viola - uncredited)
1971 Pretty Maids All in a Row (musician: viola - uncredited)
1971 THX 1138 (musician: viola - uncredited)
1970 Tora! Tora! Tora! (musician: viola - uncredited)
1970 Kelly's Heroes (musician: viola - uncredited)
1970 Beneath the Planet of the Apes (musician: viola - uncredited)
1970 A Man Called Horse (musician: viola - uncredited)
1970 Patton (musician: viola - uncredited)
1969 The Illustrated Man (musician: viola - uncredited)
1968/I The Shoes of the Fisherman (musician: viola - uncredited)
1968 Ice Station Zebra (musician: viola - uncredited)
1968 Bullitt (musician: viola - uncredited)
1968 The Split (musician: viola - uncredited)
1968 The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter (musician: viola - uncredited)
1968 The Green Berets (musician: viola - uncredited)
1968 The Power (musician: viola - uncredited)
1968 Sol Madrid (musician: viola - uncredited)
1967 Wait Until Dark (musician: viola - uncredited)
1967 Point Blank (musician: viola - uncredited)
1967 The Dirty Dozen (musician: viola - uncredited)
1966 Grand Prix (musician: viola - uncredited)
1966 Penelope (musician: viola - uncredited)
1965 Inside Daisy Clover (musician: viola - uncredited)
1965 The Cincinnati Kid (musician: viola - uncredited)
1965 Morituri (musician: viola - uncredited)
1965 Joy in the Morning (musician: viola - uncredited)
1965 None But the Brave (musician: viola - uncredited)
1964 The Americanization of Emily (musician: viola - uncredited)
1964 The Outrage (musician: viola - uncredited)
1964 Rhino! (musician: viola - uncredited)
1964 7 Faces of Dr. Lao (musician: viola - uncredited)
1964 Dead Ringer (musician: viola - uncredited)
1963 The Prize (musician: viola - uncredited)
1962 Pressure Point (musician: viola - uncredited)
1962 Mutiny on the Bounty (musician: viola - uncredited)
1962 Two Weeks in Another Town (musician: viola - uncredited)
1962 The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm (musician: viola - uncredited)
1962 The Cabinet of Caligari (musician: viola - uncredited)
1962 All Fall Down (musician: viola - uncredited)
1961 Bachelor in Paradise (musician: viola - uncredited)
1961 Ada (musician: viola - uncredited)
1961 The Honeymoon Machine (musician: viola - uncredited)
1961 Two Loves (musician: viola - uncredited)
1961 Atlantis, the Lost Continent (musician: viola - uncredited)
1960 Cimarron (musician: viola - uncredited)
1960 BUtterfield 8 (musician: viola - uncredited)
1960 The Time Machine (musician: viola - uncredited)
1960 The Subterraneans (musician: viola - uncredited)
1960 The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (musician: viola - uncredited)
1960 Home from the Hill (musician: viola - uncredited)
1959 The World, the Flesh and the Devil (musician: viola - uncredited)
1959 Green Mansions (musician: viola - uncredited)
1958 The Brothers Karamazov (musician: viola - uncredited)
1957 Until They Sail (musician: viola - uncredited)
1957 Raintree County (musician: viola - uncredited)
1957 House of Numbers (musician: viola - uncredited)
1957 The Seventh Sin (musician: viola - uncredited)
1957 The Vintage (musician: viola - uncredited)
1956 Lust for Life (musician: viola - uncredited)
1956 The Fastest Gun Alive (musician: viola - uncredited)
1956 Somebody Up There Likes Me (musician: viola - uncredited)
1956 Bhowani Junction (musician: viola - uncredited)
1956 The Swan (musician: cello - uncredited)
1956 Diane (musician: viola - uncredited)
1955 I'll Cry Tomorrow (musician: viola - uncredited)
1955 Quentin Durward (musician: viola - uncredited)
1955 The King's Thief (musician: viola - uncredited)
1955 Moonfleet (musician: viola - uncredited)
1955 The Glass Slipper (musician: viola - uncredited)
1955 The Prodigal (musician: viola - uncredited)
1954 Green Fire (musician: viola - uncredited)
1954 Valley of the Kings (musician: viola - uncredited)
1954 Men of the Fighting Lady (musician: viola - uncredited)
1953 Knights of the Round Table (musician: viola - uncredited)
1953 Take the High Ground! (musician: viola - uncredited)
1953 Ride, Vaquero! (musician: viola - uncredited)
1953 Julius Caesar (musician: viola - uncredited)
1952 Above and Beyond (musician: viola - uncredited)
1952 Plymouth Adventure (musician: viola - uncredited)
1952 The Prisoner of Zenda (musician: viola - uncredited)
1952 Pat and Mike (musician: viola - uncredited)
1952 The Girl in White (musician: viola - uncredited)
1952 Scaramouche (musician: viola - uncredited)
1952 Invitation (musician: viola - uncredited)
1951 On Dangerous Ground (musician: viola d'amour)
1951 Grounds for Marriage (musician: viola - uncredited)
1950 A Life of Her Own (musician: viola - uncredited)
1950 The Next Voice You Hear... (musician: viola - uncredited)
1950 The Reformer and the Redhead (musician: viola - uncredited)
1950 The Outriders (musician: viola - uncredited) -
Oddly, she didn't perform on "Ben-Hur" or "North by Northwest" (both 1959).
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I couldn't find a date of birth or death for her.
If she is still alive, you'd think FSM could do quite an interview with her...especially since she performed in a significant number of FSM score releases.
Think of how fascinating her remembrances might be about working with Herrmann and Green and Rozsa, et. al.
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Actually Ron, she apparently DID work on BEN-HUR. Her name isn't on the imdb list, but it's on the AFM list which you can get to via the "FSM CDs" link (see Lukas' thread which I bumped). It was probably just an oversight on someone's part that she isn't credited on the imdb for BEN-HUR. It looks like some kind soul has gone through all the AFM musicians listed via the FSM releases and uploaded them on the imdb. Almost all (if not all) her credits listed there have been released as FSM soundtracks, so that's where I imagine they got their info from. And I suppose there must be a million more soundtracks she's on which were never released by FSM (or recorded in L.A.)
(By the way, she died in 1995, aged 88)
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As I mentioned, Dana, it appears that the imdb list ONLY includes her credits for films released on the FSM label, which would explain the omission of RAIDERS and possibly a million other things...
By the way, on the other thread (the AFM thingy I bumped), your (Dana's) contribution isn't showing as the "last post". It's mine that's showing, although you posted hours later, and that thread should be therefore much nearer the top. Is that just me? Did anyone have a clue what I was talking about there?
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Posted: |
Nov 8, 2013 - 12:04 PM
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By: |
Dana Wilcox
(Member)
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As I mentioned, Dana, it appears that the imdb list ONLY includes her credits for films released on the FSM label, which would explain the omission of RAIDERS and possibly a million other things...
By the way, on the other thread (the AFM thingy I bumped), your (Dana's) contribution isn't showing as the "last post". It's mine that's showing, although you posted hours later, and that thread should be therefore much nearer the top. Is that just me? Did anyone have a clue what I was talking about there?
The board has been playing games with me today. There was a board "hiccup" just as I was trying to post to your bump thread, and while it did accept my post, it didn't actually bump the thread and my posting does not appear as the most recent entry. Also, I had attempted to edit my most recent post here (before this one), as follows:
The listing of released albums on which Majewski played (see second reference, AllMusic) also includes the Indiana Jones Complete Soundtracks set (2008) so she apparently performed on one or more of these soundtracks -- not cited in the IMDB list. IMDB seems to end her credits in 1981, the year RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK was released. I haven't compared the two lists rigorously, but there may be other significant omissions as well. I'm not criticizing IMDB, just saying... I have a suspicion she played on NORTH BY NORTHWEST as well but can't prove it, yet. I'm looking for other sources.
Majewski is briefly interviewed on the "Music for the Movies: Bernard Herrmann" DVD, which is noted on the IMDB credits for her.
EDIT: Majewski played on INDIANA JONES AND THE TEMPLE OF DOOM (1984), per the CD Universe website.
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Yeah, it's all a bit odd, Dana... Anyway, I looked at Artie Kane's credits on the imdb, not as composer or conductor, but as "uncredited soundtrack performer" and sure enough, all his contributions are the ones which have been released by FSM and listed online at the AFM clickety bit. His other billion soundtracks aren't mentioned (BROTHERHOOD OF THE BELL - released by Intrada), so someone is going through that FSM AFM list and uploading it on the imdb! A daunting but worthy task. I wonder if he'll get fed up when he comes to Edgar Lustgarten (so far ignored on the imdb, as a cellist at least - see the other thread to "get" the joke).
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OK Dana, we're quits, because it seems that YOU'RE the last poster on this thread, not me. But I'll have a look to check...
(EDIT - Ah! Now it's me again!)
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Wrong, Graham...
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Wrong, Graham...
Ron - Not quite sure what I'm "wrong" about on this... I think we're misunderstanding each other. I was talking about the Majewski credits as musician on the imdb, which seem to have been taken from the AFM link to the FSM releases alone. Over to you...
//editado por satelite espía topsecret shhhh.españa/nasa// graham s. watt ha añadido-
"Ah Ron! Perhaps you're just saying that YOU'RE now top o' the pops" (?)
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