The first in the (proposed) line of mini kickstarters is now live
Complete with self-conscious promo video (in fairness, I'm a musician, not Richard Burton!), the aim of this initial project is to raise funds to record Jerry Goldsmith's complete 8-min score for the GE Theater episode "The Bar Mitzvah of Major Orlovsky").
If this is successful, the idea is to move straight on to raising funds for the next score in the series (using any additional monies from Orlovsky against the cost of the 2nd recording), and simply keep going until the series either stalls, or we capture all of the scores available/known (a stretch goal would be introduced, after score no.4, to cover the costs of a physical CD)...the actual page and video explains things far better than this!
So, if you'd like to be part of this (hopefully) ongoing project, to preserve some really wonderful TV music, please feel free to share and/or contribute on the kickstarter page!
Whatever contribution level is chosen, all help is hugely appreciated!!
This is great! I pledged a little, but I'm starting a new job in a month and will gladly offer more support for more scores if the opportunity arises. These old Goldsmith anthology series scores are some of my favorites, and I hope others share my feelings!
This is great! I pledged a little, but I'm starting a new job in a month and will gladly offer more support for more scores if the opportunity arises. These old Goldsmith anthology series scores are some of my favorites, and I hope others share my feelings!
That's much appreciated!!
I realise the staggered/ongoing mini-KS format might seem a bit weird, but I honestly feel it's the easiest way of giving folks a chance to contribute to the project...and the music is great!
This is great! I pledged a little, but I'm starting a new job in a month and will gladly offer more support for more scores if the opportunity arises. These old Goldsmith anthology series scores are some of my favorites, and I hope others share my feelings!
Well apparently Tadlow's Thriller (a cult classic anthology series, perhaps, but still fairly under-the-radar... and short-lived at only two seasons compared to GE Theater's ten!) was popular enough sales-wise to lead to work on a second volume being started mere weeks after the initial volume was released.
I'll be perfectly honest: as much as I adore many Thriller scores of Goldsmith's (especially "Hay-Fork and Bill-Hook" and "God Grante That She Lye Stille"), I think "The Bar Mitzvah of Major Orlovsky" is even greater TV scoring -- absolutely as good as the greatest Elmer Bernstein work on the series -- and it's one of the last things he did for TV before Lonely Are the Brave was released in theaters, truly jump-starting his film career again!
In its short eight minute length (General Electric Theater episodes aired in a half hour time slot, with commercials), there is a surprising amount of variety and a surprising number of different but lovely melodic ideas at play. All in Jerry's wonderful style channelling his Jewish heritage, familiar from the Emmy-winning scores to QBVII and Masada. This is to date the earliest example of it we at The Goldsmith Odyssey have been able to find, and I was beyond ecstatic when Leigh contacted me months ago with the news that he loved it too, and wanted it to be his first solo Kickstarter project.
Considering a lossless download of the complete eight minute score only costs £3 (or $3.84 at the current exchange rate), I can't fathom why any Goldsmith fan would fail to back this important premiere. And for the "CD only" crowd -- if at least four Goldsmith scores for this series can be funded (which would mean about half an hour of music), the possibility of a CD is unlocked! Let's make this happen, everyone!
This is great! I pledged a little, but I'm starting a new job in a month and will gladly offer more support for more scores if the opportunity arises. These old Goldsmith anthology series scores are some of my favorites, and I hope others share my feelings!
If this becomes a successful series, The Goldsmith Anthology isn't a half bad name for it!
If this becomes a successful series, The Goldsmith Anthology isn't a half bad name for it!
I LOVE it, David! There are at least nine Goldsmith GE Theater scores I've been able to confirm and which could make up a packed CD dedicated to his music on that show... at least nine Studio Ones (which would not be able to fit on one disc if recorded complete, because that was an hourlong anthology instead of half hour)... and if we come to the feature-length Playhouse 90 episodes (which also had a minimum of 18 musicians each), there are even more that survive, in written form in the CBS collection at UCLA! Plus other short-lived early TV scores Goldsmith worked on like the CBS anthology series Pursuit (only around for a few months). To say nothing of his extensive work in CBS radio with fine anthology series scores like "The Station Agent", "The Prophecy of Bertha Abbott", "Storm", and of course his very first masterpiece, "1489 Words"!
The possibilities are (almost) endless and the sky's the limit!
But first let's all make "The Bar Mitzvah of Major Orlovsky" happen, folks... this is some of Goldsmith's VERY best work in episodic television!
Wait until you hear the whole score, rjc — there’s more wonderful variety than you might expect for such a brief work. We’ll be sharing our full music rip of the episode, shortly…
If you want a preview, here is the music taken from the film. Sound is okay, and of course there is dialogue and such over it. I can't wait to hear it sounding more like Leigh's Thrillers.
If you want a preview, here is the music taken from the film. Sound is okay, and of course there is dialogue and such over it. I can't wait to hear it sounding more like Leigh's Thrillers.
That is very beautiful. I’ve never heard this before and I love Goldsmith’s Jewish scores (The Going Up of David Lev is one of my absolute favorites of his). I’m with you, David, I can’t wait to hear these rich strings in a new recording.
That is very beautiful. I’ve never heard this before
Few people have! It was very (VERY) difficult for me to dig up for the podcast, even as an audio-only copy, and Jens ended up paying a pretty penny for it despite there being no video. But I think it's some of Goldsmith's most wonderful scoring for episodic television, so it was worth all of that -- especially since Leigh was so inspired by it that he decided to run this Kickstarter for a new reconstruction and recording of it!
Unfortunately, during Covid, UCLA only allows people with a Bruin Card to access their library holdings. Does anyone here reading this thread happen to be associated with UCLA/have a Bruin Card? If so, please reach out to me through mail(at)goldsmithodyssey(dot)com, as it would be really helpful for me to actually *view* the performances in the episode and see what's happening on screen, before I write the liner notes for this.
And if anyone happens to know the whereabouts of the written music for this, please also reach out -- it would be wonderful to be able to reconstruct the music from the original written score (as happened with Black Patch). It's possible there might even be a bit of music Goldsmith wrote for this which didn't make it into the episode. (Remember the surprise discovery of the glorious full Warner Bros. logo piece for Black Patch, which didn't make it into the film?) So if anyone has leads on this before Leigh painstakingly reconstructs by ear, please get in touch! We've so far managed to find five additional GE Theater scores (in complete written form) by Goldsmith in the CBS Collection at UCLA... alas, "The Bar Mitzvah of Major Orlovsky" is not among them.
The Kickstarter is almost at 59% now, only a little more than 24 hours after it went live!
