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Sorry, there is NO Samuel barber in this score.
Alfred only used a brief snippet from that piece (just enough where you can align the two compositions), as opposed to Platoon, which...I'm not sure the latter could have existed without that Adagio, where GSET obviously could.
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For what it's worth - I had the original score album before seeing the film in Cinerama in Toronto - and the print I saw had the Handel piece. It was another decade before I heard - or even knew about Newman's through the agency of a friend at university who had a 'collector's' tape of the Newman original.
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I have heard that there is a significant amount of music missing from the 3 disc set. If so, perhaps a complete recording might be released one day.
I had forgotten about the missing bits on the Ryko.( Also on the Varese?) Let's see:
The exalted bit for Jesus on the clifftop following the temptation.
The male chorus (O give thanks unto the Lord) at the start of Act 2 in the house of Martha and Mary
The festive hosanna for the entrance into Jerusalem
The climax of the Crucifixion scene
All these omissions are distinctive markers that would stand out from the meditative music that dominates the two-disc version. Their loss makes the score seem more somber and unvaried that it really is. What else is missing?
Fortunately the bits I've mentioned are on the original LP album version, which is reproduced as the first disc of the Ryko.
There's one cue that follows Jesus healing the leper played by Shelley Winters in Capernaum which I believe was titled "Cure Me Master" that was not included in the "full score" section of the album. However, this cue is included on the soundtrack album disc as track 6 (A Time of Wonders)
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The Varese has the superior remastering, with a noticeably greater clarity.
There are "highlights to hang on to," especially in the various variations on Newman's "Great Journey" processional, heard in "I Will Make You Fishers of Men," "Lilies of the Field," "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem," "Jesus on Lazarus’ Porch," "Matthew, the Tax Collector," "Misty Night," "Triumphant Return to Capernaum," "Who Do Men Say That I Am?" and, of course, "Lazarus, Come Forth." Of these, my favourite treatment is the gentle, contrapuntal rendition that starts about one minute and ten seconds into "Lilies of the Field," with its wondrous guitar countermelody that brightens the scene that it accompanies. Another highlight is the prayerful "Hosanna" early in Act I, that is echoed in the Palm Sunday Hosanna in Act II.
A solution to the listening experience that some find problematic is to dovetail the album cues with those preserved in the main programme on Ken Darby's 15ips tapes (I decide to do this years ago):
ACT I
1 Overture — Main Title 4:40
2 And the Word Was God —
Trumpets Announce the Dawn —
The Three Magi 3:14
3 Magi Leave Jerusalem —
Magi Reach Bethlehem —
The Nativity 5:06
4 The Infant Massacre 1:06
5 Flight Into Egypt 1:37
6 The Ophel Quarter 2:19
7 Hosanna 1:55
8 John the Baptist 2:42
9 The Highest Summit 2:19
[Tracks 8 and 9 are from "A Voice in the Wilderness" on CD1]
10 I Will Make You Fishers of Men 1:46
11 Lilies of the Field 2:29
12 O Jerusalem, Jerusalem 2:01
13 Jesus on Lazarus’ Porch 4:28
14 Matthew, the Tax Collector 1:36
15 Rise and You Shall Walk 5:23
16 Misty Night 3:28
17 Triumphant Return to Capernaum 3:18
18 Cure Me, Master 2:08
[Track 18 is called "A Time of Wonders" on CD1]
19 Who Do Men Say That I Am? 3:56
20 Jesus and His Mother 3:06
21 Jesus Leaves Nazareth 2:33
22 Prayer by the Jordan 2:30
23 Lazarus, Come Forth 4:54
ACT II
1 Entr’acte 2:45
2 Psalm 136 — Palm Sunday Hosanna 4:03
[Track 2 is called "There Shall Come a Time to Enter" on CD1]
3 Judas and Caiaphas 1:27
4 Judas Leaves Caiaphas 1:09
5 The Last Supper 2:55
[Track 5 is called "A New Commandment" on CD2]
6 Garden of Gethsemane 6:43
7 Aram, the First Witness 0:59
8 I Am the Son of God 1:11
9 Jesus Before Pilate 1:08
10 Crown of Thorns 1:36
11 Via Dolorosa 11:17
12 The Crucifixion 5:26
[Track 12 is "Into Thy Hands" on CD1, but I have removed the Verdi opening]
13 The Resurrection and Ascension 4:27
14 Exit Music 2:38
SUPPLEMENTAL MATERIAL
15 Overture — Main Title (Film Version) 4:44
[This is the second half of "Come Unto Me" followed by "Jesus of Nazareth" on CD1 -- this is the assembly that George Stevens used in the actual film, borrowing from the LP!!]
16 Magi Reach Bethlehem (Film Version) — The Nativity 3:19
[This is called "A Prophecy" on CD1]
17 Jesus and His Mother (Album Version) 3:18
[This is called "The Hour Has Come" on CD1]
18 Who Do Men Say That I Am? (Album Version) 2:08
[This is called "Come Unto Me" on CD1]
19 The Great Journey 2:22
[This was specifically recorded for the LP, its great theme echoed in Howard Shore's heroic Fellowship theme in "The Lord of the Rings." Ray Fiola patched a portion of this cue into "Triumphant Return to Capernaum" on CD2 as a replacement for the damaged tape on that cue.]
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I think the most glaring omission from the commercially available versions is Newman's own "Via Dolorosa", and it is annoying to have the exultant music for the death on the cross forever linked to the Verdi. As a listening experience, this score has some of the most spectacular highlights in all of film music history! It also has many variations of the Apostles' March, which DO become repetitious. I rarely listen to the whole recording from start to finish; I do listen to selected highlights frequently.
Yes, there is a vague structural similarity to Barber (it's only the first few notes, but in a different meter). The end result if quite different: Barber's "Adagio" concludes ecstatically, Newman's theme concludes very quietly.
To me the similarity ends one quarter through the main theme. And this isn't the thousandth time a composer borrowed something from others' works as a springboard to his/her own creativity (for example, Mozart unashamedly borrowed from both Haydn and Handel regularly, Beethoven was all about Haydn and Mozart in his early music, Bruckner literally worshipped Wagner, etc).
Finally, GSET is in my top three for film scores, while I find Barber's Adagio tedious.
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