Film Score Monthly has just released two Western soundtracks on CD.
JEREMIAH JOHNSON cast Robert Redford in the title role in a fact-based adventure about a mountain man who wages war against the Indian warriors who killed his family. The film was the second of seven films in which Redford was directed by his former co-star, Sydney Pollack (the others include Three Days of the Condor and Out of Africa), and the original score was a collaboration between two composers better known for their acting roles - John Rubinstein (son of pianist Artur Rubinstein, father of actor Michael Easton, and a familiar face from such films as The Boys from Brazil and Someone to Watch Over Me), and Tim McIntire (who co-wrote the score to A Boy and His Dog as well as providing the voice of Blood the dog). The FSM CD features the complete original score plus the dialogue cues that were included on the original soundtrack LP as well as alternate cues and demo material.
The other new CD features the first release of Ennio Morricone's complete score to THE FIVE MAN ARMY, the 1969 Italian Western from director Don Taylor (Escape from the Planet of the Apes, The Island of Dr. Moreau) starring Peter Graves and James Daly.
La-La Land continues their greatly appreciated excavation of the Paramount music vaults with their latest release, limited to 3000 units and scheduled to begin shipping next week, which pairs two previously unreleased scores by Jerry Goldsmith.
1994's I.Q. was the fourth of five films that Goldsmith scored for director Fred Schepisi, a charming period comedy with Tim Robbins as a garage mechanic who is helped in his wooing of a young woman (Meg Ryan) by the woman's uncle, none other than Albert Einstein (Walter Matthau). Goldsmith's unusual and lighthearted score features 50s pastiche as well as variations on "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star."
The I.Q. score is paired with a Goldsmith work that couldn't be more different, his music for the 1966 science-fiction drama SECONDS. Seconds was the second of three films that Goldsmith scored for director John Frakenheimer, and told the story of an ordinary man (John Randolph) who goes through a radical procedure to become a new person (Rock Hudson) and discovers that his new life is no more satisfying than his old one. The chilling score was one of Goldsmith's most memorable of the decade, and the La-La Land CD features the score taken from the film's music stems and restored, with the handful of cues that feature slight bleed-through of the film's dialogue included as bonus material.
Marvin Hamlisch has had an unexpected but welcome resurgence with his well-reviewed score for Steven Soderbergh's The Informant, so it should be only fitting that the score that got the composer the job, his zany music for Woody Allen's 1971 comedy BANANAS, should now get its first soundtrack release, courtesy of Kritzerland. The CD, limited to 1000 units and available now for pre-order, pairs the Bananas score with Mundell Lowe's score for another of Allen's "early, funny films," the raunchy anthology comedy EVERYTHING YOU ALWAYS WANTED TO KNOW ABOUT SEX* BUT WERE AFRAID TO ASK. The disc also features the jazzy main title from Allen's Sleeper.
The science-fiction horror film PANDORUM, currently in theaters, will have its soundtrack released at the end of this month by MovieScore Media. The score is by Michl Britsch, who previously worked with Pandorum director Christian Alvart on the thrillers Antibodies and Case 37 (starring Renee Zellweger).
Next week Intrada plans to release one Special Collection CD (1500 units) and one Signature Edition (1000 units).
On Saturday, October 24th, the Golden State Pops Orchestra will pay tribute to composer Stu Phillips and his 80th birthday in a concert at the Warner Grand Theatre as part of their "Halloween Fright Night 7," featuring his music from Battlestar Galactica and Buck Rogers and a performance of his "Variations for Piano and Orchestra" played by pianist Robert Theis. The concert will also feature a suite from John Ottman's score for Astro Boy.
The Manhattan School of Music will honor Oscar-winning composer Elliot Goldenthal, along with three others, as a Distinguished Alumni at an awards ceremony at the school's Alan M. and Joan Taub Ades Performance Space on Friday, October 16th at 5:00 p.m.
IN THEATERS TODAY
Couples Retreat - A.R. Rahman - Score CD due Oct 13 from Relativity Media
The Damned United - Rob Lane
An Education - Paul Englishby - Soundtrack CD with 5 score cues on Decca
Free Style - Stephen Endelman
From Mexico with Love - John Frizzell
Good Hair - Marcus Miller
35 Shots of Rum - Tindersticks
COMING SOON
October 13
Bright Star - Mark Bradshaw - Lakeshore
Children of the Corn [1984] - Jonathan Elias - Varese Sarabande CD Club
Collectors Edition Vol. 1 - Howard Shore - Howe
Couples Retreat - A.R. Rahman - Relativity Media
Crime in the Streets - Franz Waxman - Varese Sarabande CD Club
Escape from the Planet of the Apes - Jerry Goldsmith - Varese Sarabande CD Club
Ghosts of Girlfriends Past - Rolfe Kent - Silva
I.Q./Seconds - Jerry Goldsmith - La-La Land
Knife Edge - Guy Farley - MovieScore Media
17 Again - Rolfe Kent - Silva
Toxic - Scott Glasgow - MovieScore Media
A Walk in the Spring Rain - Elmer Bernstein - Varese Sarabande CD Club
October 20
Astro Boy - John Ottman - Varese Sarabande
Black Dynamite - Adrian Younge - Wax Poetics
Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant - Stephen Trask - Varese Sarabande
Triangle - Christian Henson - MovieScore Media
October 27
Cold Souls - Dickon Hinchliffe - Koch
Pandorum - Michl Britsch - MovieScore Media
November 3
Fantastic Mr. Fox - Alexandre Desplat - Abcko
A Serious Man - Carter Burwell - Lakeshore
November 24
New Moon - Alexandre Desplat - E1
The Princess and the Frog - Randy Newman - Disney
Date Unknown
Bananas/Everything You Always Wanted To Know About Sex* But Were Afraid to Ask - Marvin Hamlisch/Mundell Lowe - Kritzerland
Space 1999: Year Two - Derek Wadsworth - Silva
THIS WEEK IN FILM MUSIC HISTORY
October 9 - Camille Saint-Saens born (1835)
October 10 - John Green born (1908)
October 10 - Giant opens in New York (1956)
October 10 - Hawaii opens in New York (1966)
October 10 - Ennio Morricone born (1928)
October 11 - Laura opens in New York (1944)
October 11 - Michel Legrand begins recording his score for The Happy Ending (1968)
October 11 - Neal Hefti died (2008)
October 12 - Ralph Vaughan Williams born (1872)
October 12 - Joseph Kosma born (1905)
October 12 - Franz Waxman begins recording his score to The Silver Chalice (1954)
October 13 - Raoul Kraushaar died (2001)
October 13 - Paul Simon born (1941)
October 13 - Miklos Rozsa begins recording his score to Knights of the Round Table (1953)
October 13 - Lud Gluskin died (1989)
October 13 - David Newman begins recording his score for Jingle All the Way (1996)
October 14 - Bill Justis born (1926)
October 14 - Thomas Dolby born (1958)
October 14 - Leonard Bernstein died (1990)
October 15 - Fumio Hayasaka died (1955)
October 15 - Bronislau Kaper begins recording his score to Home From the Hill (1959)
October 15 - Lalo Schifrin begins recording his score to THX 1138 (1970)
DID THEY MENTION THE MUSIC?
A SERIOUS MAN - Carter Burwell
"The philosophical conundrums in 'A Serious Man' can be posed only in jest -- or, at least, in the cultural tradition of Ashkenazic Judaism that stretches from the shtetls of Poland to the comedy clubs of the Catskills, that is how they tend to be posed. But a deep anxiety lurks beneath the jokes, and though 'A Serious Man' is written and structured like a farce, it is shot (by Roger Deakins), scored (by Carter Burwell) and edited (by the Coens' pseudonymous golem Roderick Jaynes) like a horror movie."
A.O. Scott, New York Times | 
