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@ Mr. Ford A. Thaxton: Is there a chance of an eventual re-issue of Invasion of the Body Snatchers?
Which one?
if you are talking about the 1978 version, there isn't anything beyond the soundtrack album master that has been released.
Ford A. Thaxton
Yes. I'd be quite happy with a remastered edition, along with an expertly written booklet by, say, Mr. Randall D. Larson (who's woefully underutilized IMNSHO).
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Oh my gosh, I just learned about this cd. And what a handsome set it is. Wow, oh, wowee, WOW!!!
I always loved THE LIVING WORD.
And there's only 500. I'm buying mine N.O.W.!
We've been sending this out, just wondering if anyone has taken the time to play it yet?
Ford A. Thaxton
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BEYOND THE NEXT MOUNTAIN
Anyone who like solos (french horn, woodwinds) sounding "searching" and "noble" will like this score. I hear some of the versatility of Goldsmith, a lot of the lyricism I associate with Holdridge and Bennett (FAR FROM THE MADDING CROWD), and with some of the exotic sounds of Kaper.
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UNDER FIRE
I hear a lot more Elmer Bernstein-ish and Basil Poledouris-ish sounds in this score.
Plus a great jazz cut that reminds me of Herrmann's transformation of his TAXI DRIVER theme. Interesting.
https://www.edwardzeliff.com/film-music
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UNDER FIRE
I hear a lot more Elmer Bernstein-ish and Basil Poledouris-ish sounds in this score.
Plus a great jazz cut that reminds me of Herrmann's transformation of his TAXI DRIVER theme. Interesting.
https://www.edwardzeliff.com/film-music
we're working on more of Ed's work for release.
he's a very talented guy who deserves far more attraction then he has received.
Ford A. Thaxton
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This is great music. Owned the LP of THE LIVING WORD for years. Look forward to more Zeliff, Ford.
I also discovered Page Cook and Films In Review in my college library (way, way long before the internet). Still have his compiled yearly lists of favorites. Seems like he might have had THE LIVING WORD ranked, too, at one point. This was during the vocal soundtrack onslaught of the 70's and 80's when a good orchestral score was hard to find.
Cook was a strange guy. Invented words for his reviews that did not exist. Seems like he also ranked a phantom composer one year that never lived, too! As I recall, Rozsa was his favorite composer, but he was big on Morris, Shire, Scott and Sarde late in his reviewing career. Also liked Goldsmith up through UNDER FIRE and TWILIGHT ZONE, then not so much. And Williams up until THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK and RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK, both of which he hated. He also despised Maurice Jarre and, disturbingly, John Barry. Hated Mancini, but did vote LIFEFORCE as the top score that year....
Cook was a Golden Age guy, and I mostly agreed with his top picks and discography choices from the late 50's and 60's. Too bad he did not live to see all the FSM Golden Age stuff. Often thought of him as I enjoyed all these CDs back in the early 2000's.
Here's an old thread on Cook and Zelff from the past:
https://www.filmscoremonthly.com/board/posts.cfm?threadID=47637&forumID=1&archive=0
SCOTT
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EZEKIEL FILE
Somebody listen to cut #13 "From the Beginning of Time," and dare tell me, TELL ME, it doesn't bowl you over with its Herrmann-grade suspense. Awesome!
In more of the cuts, I hear more Elmer Bernstein lyricism, in his Judaica writing mode. In fact, I'll make an obvious comparison: if you like Goldsmith's MASADA, you'll find a good deal to like here.
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I don't have much to say other than I highly recommend this.
But I do hope his demos for "Making the Grade" (two or three piano demos) show up on a future volume.
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Posted: |
May 15, 2021 - 12:44 PM
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By: |
bobbengan
(Member)
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For me, this album (and composer) was my favorite new discovery of the past year.
I've listened to both discs endlessly during what shaped up to be an extremely difficult 2020 - for reasons scarcely related to Covid at all - and found Zeliff's music to soars with inspiration, creativity and technical excellence at every turn in such a manner that greatly affected and helped me through that rough time.
I barely know where to begin in assessing the relative merits of each score, but I'll try.
BEYOND THE NEXT MOUNTAIN is the best-presented and preserved recording here, with that amazingly spacious Abbey Road sound supporting Zeliff's exotic-tinged music brilliantly (listen to the expansive outburst of horns near the beginning of "The Journey Continues"). At times the music here evokes Hovhaness at his most mystical and 'Eastern'-sounding, such as in the mysterious bassoon motif heard in "Nehru's Gardens". There's a gorgeous love theme both here and in UNDER FIRE that sounds very much like something Joe Hisaishi might have penned; my favorite rendition of it pops up in Zeliff's original UNDER FIRE score, where its end title interlude on high strings just makes me melt. And then of course between the two scores you also get achingly beautiful woodwind solos of Elmer Bernstein-esque delicacy, violent/dense or adventurous action or suspense interludes of great technical dexterity (The short "Jungles of Manipur" is brilliantly exciting and involving), rich harmonies galore and even some jazzy interludes. Brilliant.
THE LIVING WORLD is maybe my favorite score on the album. It's filled with deeply reverent, colorful, thoughtful music richly depicting and supporting (or so I imagine) the arcane religious artwork described in the booklet. The music is constantly modulating and changing, filled with engaging orchestrations that really put the 45 orchestral players and 8-voice female choir through their paces. I have to call attention to a moment that singularly took my breath away: 1:45 into "David/Solomon/Babylon" the choir, strings, horns and timpani dramatically voice a soaring declaration of the incredibly beautiful theme first heard on harp and flute in "The People Israel". I think I could listen to this one minute of deeply dramatic, ecstatic music a thousand times and never grow tired of it. What a melody! This might be one of the finest documentary scores I know.
So far, any one of the aforementioned three scores alone would warrant a purchase. Together, they solidify Zeliff as the Real Deal beyond any doubt in my mind. And yet we're still not done yet!
THE EZEKIEL FILES is an amazing study in contrasts, with a unique architecture to the score - from a primordial depiction of an apocalyptic landscape at the outset (indeed reminiscent of Herrmann's TWILIGHT ZONE sound-world as others noted, though colored by the prickly touches of modernism one might associate more with Varese or Bartok than Herrmann), the score then surges into a series of MASADA-esque Jewish folk-like melodic variations - at once tragic and fateful and sometime joyous - building inexorably toward darker war-like material until Zeliff finally unleashes one of my favorite action cuts I've heard in a while, "Atomic War", where he finally rips loose with an octave-leaping, anvil-slamming motif to musically seal the coffin-lid of humanity (you can hear the modest-yet-ambitious group of orchestral players pushed to their absolute limit here, in the best way possible). Zeliff then closes this epic journey the way he started it, with the whispering and groaning low winds and percussion figures bookending us in a primordial apocalyptic tableaux of nothingness, gradually dying away into eerie silence.
Finally, we close with a short but highly enjoyable PILATE'S EASTER. At under 14 minutes, Zeliff manages to cover a lot of ground musically, from a nifty horn-led bookending fanfare (more Superman than Biblical, but whatever), to touches of exotic percussion and woodwind writing a la Rozsa's 'feast/banquet scene' style, to a tense suspense cue and most rewardingly to me, an achingly tender love theme heard in the duo of "Procula and Pilate" and "Doubt and Understanding" - touching, gorgeous, deeply expressive music that recalls the most delicate and sensitive style of Poledouris' early efforts a la BLUE LAGOON or CONAN's thematic material. Wonderful music.
Five scores (well, 4.5 anyway) across two CDs - filled with two-plus hours of imaginative, original, memorable and superbly-crafted orchestral music by a composer with true-blue CHOPS to spare. I can't understand why anyone wouldn't want this in their collection and 'musical life'. We lost a real treasure when Zeliff stepped away from film scoring, even if his corpus of work was confined almost entirely to religious propaganda films.
Get this one, people. Worth every penny.
Huge thanks to Ford for bringing this brilliant and otherwise totally obscure musical voice out to the world. Bring on volume two ASAP please.
- BB
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Yet another bump in the hopes people will discover this marvelous set. Reverent, exotic, beautiful, exciting, varied and tremendously well-crafted musicianship on display throughout this generous portfolio of work. The rough patches of sound quality do nothing to tarnish the goods on display.
Still one of my favorite "blind discoveries" of the last few years.
Whole thing is on Youtube, Spotify, etc. Go get it people. Better yet, buy the download or CD like I did so we can support the release of more hidden gems like this.
- BB
If you enjoyed the Zeliff 2 CD Set, I'd strongly you check out another one we did for our good friend DAN REDFELD, it also has a ton of great music on it and should be available on Youtube, Spotify, etc
Clcik here to hear audio samples and go to the product page: https://tinyurl.com/5p34x4tr
Ford Al Thaxton
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