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It's a marvelous score, one of his finest later efforts, and I agree about the overture and also the main title proper. It IS a bit of a stretch to take it all in in one listen, I general just skip around some of the folk source material. Thank God they didn't get Tiomkin as they wanted originally. (No desrespect meant, but I'm sure few will disagree.) I haven't played this in a while, so-
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You are talking to someone who saw this as a kid and became hooked on cinema, movie scores and Alfred Newman for the rest of his life. I still can't think of a more thunderous main title in the history of the cinema.
Reminds me, I saw it too, but later, in a theater in Tripoli, Libya in 1965. I was about 9 years old.
Addendum: It's a toss up as to which is Newman's greatest main title theme- this, or AIRPORT.
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So true. Airport sounds like the work of a composer 30 years younger than he was at the time he wrote it. It's arguably the greatest main title ever written! But then there's HOW THE WEST WAS WON...
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And thanks to your enthusiasm, Mr M, I discovered this one myself in May after running into you at the UCLU Newman concert! Really hope they bring this movie back to the Hollywood Arclight / Cinerama Dome. A superb, boisterous and multi-layered score, and I now sing along with Debbie Reynolds, et al.
You know, it was my third grade teacher who told us in class about same the time I saw the movie in 1965 that the song Debbie Reynolds sang was the melody of the English folksong Greensleaves.
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The overture is a mess - it was recorded in sections that needed to be overlapped and some sections are out of sync with the rest of the orchestra especially the opening of Shenandoah and Endless Prarie.
I've noticed this too, so I've edited together a composite of the Overture from the Rhino CD and from the DVD. But even in the original LP version of the Overture (it's also on the DVD), there is a sudden drop in ambience right in the middle of "Shenandoah," indicating a splice. The Rhino Overture extends the opening "I'm Bound For The Promised Land" and "The Ox Driver's Song," but according to some who had heard the original studio tapes, there were also extended versions of "Shenandoah" and "Endless Prairie." That could explain the obvious "Shenandoah" edit in the film version of the Overture.
Also "First Meeting" on the Rhino DVD comes in and overlaps on the heels of "Shenandoah" one bar too early.
Mind you, I'm merely making observations, not complaints. The Rhino CDs are a godsend.
Thor, the only way to have properly experienced this great score was in a Cinerama theatre in six-channel stereophonic sound. Unlike today's surround channels which only pump out sound effects, the surround speakers for HWTWW were used for orchestral imaging. When the chorus echoes "There's plenty of gold!" in the Entr'acte, each of these echoes came from different speakers around the audience. Ditto for the bugles at the end of "He's Linus' Boy." And as for the final choral version of the finale which begins with three statements of "The Promised Land!" the first statement came from the rear speakers, the second from the middle side speakers and the third from the front speakers -- absolute sonic magic.
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Posted: |
Dec 15, 2006 - 3:46 AM
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By: |
Rozsaphile
(Member)
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The "Overture" is probably my favourite Newman composition of all time (however, I actually prefer a recording that was made on one of those Silva Western compilations).
I'm guessing you actually mean the Prelude (or Main Title). I don't think the choral overture was included in the Christopher Palmer suite that was recorded on Silva. I certainly agree that the Prelude is one of the most inspiring short pieces in American music. All the more amazing, then, that somebody chose to abridge it on the OST album. They cut out the entire middle section!
For years, the only way to hear the full Prelude was on a Hollywood Bowl commemorative album that preserved a live concert from 1963. The sound was miserable and the performance wooly. So, yes, the Palmer suite recordng was a godsend. Curiously, there are two different versions of this -- one on a Western collection and the other on "The Essential Alfred Newman." The orchestral versions are, I believe, identical, but the latter album adds a choral track for the finale.
The great Prelude was, very fittingly, played by the L.A. Philharmonic at one of the inaugural concerts for the new Disney Hall. It had been a long struggle to build the new West Coast auditorium, and so when Esa Pekka Salonen turned to the audience to announce an encore, everybody must have smiled when he said, "It is called 'How the West Was Won.'"
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I've never seen this film, but there's plenty of good things to be found on the Rhino soundtrack. The "Overture" is probably my favourite Newman composition of all time (however, I actually prefer a recording that was made on one of those Silva Western compilations). The score is busy, direct and full of life. Also a nice version of the eternal "Greensleeves" in the "A Home in the Meadow" track with new lyrics by Sammy Cahn.
My only qualm is the usual one...it's too long. Alternate cuts could have been omitted along with some of the folksy songs (especially at the end of disc 2, such as that - if you'll excuse me - ANNOYING track "Waiting for the Hoedown") to make it a more fluid listening experience.
The Silva recording of selections from the score is dreadful. It's impossible to believe that those who made it had ever heard the original. And the Czech chorus sounds as though they're gargling with Scrabble tiles.
And it's too bad that you think that the OST Overture is too long, because what's on the Rhino disc is actually a cut-down version. The full piece runs about six-and-a-half minutes (I have a mono tape of it somewhere).
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