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Kritzerland is proud to present a world premiere release – an important and great score that’s never been heard until now:
THE PANIC IN NEEDLE PARK
Composed and Conducted by Ned Rorem
Based on the novel by James Mills, which itself was inspired by the author’s pictorial essay published in two issues of Life magazine, The Panic in Needle Park was, at the time, one of the most shocking film portrayals of the New York drug subculture. The film was also notable for the star-making turn of a very young Al Pacino just a year prior to his great breakthrough in Francis Ford Coppola’s The Godfather. Also starring is Kitty Winn. The director was Jerry Schatzberg, who uses the precision of a documentarist to turn this fictional tale into a gritty depiction of reality. It was and remains an astonishing piece of filmmaking and a time capsule of what it was like in that location (Sheridan Square aka Needle Park) during that era.
Although the film plays entirely without music, The Panic in Needle Park did, in fact, have a score that had been recorded, provided by noted avant-garde composer Ned Rorem. The American-born Rorem was a versatile force in contemporary music: he wrote operas, symphonies, chamber music, many celebrated choral pieces and songs, as well as publishing his marvelously entertaining journal The Paris Diary of Ned Rorem (1966) which was followed by several other published journals that highlight the composer's day-to-day life and creative process.
But when Schatzberg heard the score, he made the decision to not use it, letting the film’s documentary-like reality play with only the sounds of the dialogue and the natural sounds of the streets and other locations. Very few people even knew about the existence of the Rorem score. Enter Gergely Hubai, who’d written a book on rejected scores called Torn Music. When he finally heard about The Panic in Needle Park, he went on the hunt and found that a copy of the tapes had been sent to the Library of Congress, and that a CD-R of those tapes was in New York. He managed to get it, and then worked with Twilight Time’s Nick Redman to include it on the Blu-ray release of the film.
It’s a short score, but a potent one. It is, at times, dissonant and jangling, like an exposed nerve, but it’s also lyrical and quite beautiful, and also has several really great dramatic cues. Watching it against the film, it gives everything a completely different feel – while one can understand why Schatzberg ended up going without it, it does add some unexpected layers, especially poignancy, to the scenes it accompanies. Hearing it apart from the film is a great listening experience and it’s a shame Rorem never did another film score.
The unused score to The Panic in Needle Park is a major discovery, of interest not only to fans of great film music and to fans of rejected scores, but to fans of Ned Rorem’s music and 20th Century classical music, as well. The sound is mono, as recorded, but we are here to tell you that it is one of the best-sounding mono recordings ever – crisp and clear with incredible dynamic range. It has been lovingly mastered by Mike Matessino.
The Panic in Needle Park is limited to 1000 copies only and is priced at $19.98, plus shipping.
CDs will ship by the first week of August, but we’ve actually been averaging three to five weeks early in terms of shipping ahead of the official ship date. To place an order, see the cover, or hear audio samples, just visit www.kritzerland.com.
ATTENTION INDIEGOGO CONTRIBUTORS: FOR THIS RELEASE – IF YOU WANT TO OPT-OUT OF RECEIVING IT YOU WILL NEED TO SEND US AN E-MAIL OPTING OUT PRIOR TO THE DATE IT SHIPS – SEND TO kritzerland@gmail.com. IF YOU WISH TO RECEIVE IT, YOU DON”T NEED TO DO ANYTHING. IF YOU ARE NOT AN INDIEGOGO CONTRIBUTOR, ORDER AS YOU NORMALLY WOULD. THANK YOU.
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Ned Rorem is a very fine composer (and raconteur - his published diaries are delicious). Great balance between difficult and beautiful music. I had no idea he had composed a film score, and I guess nobody much else did either.
Not to crow, but delighted to be getting these new Kritzerland releases automatically through my Indiegogo contribution - because this one would have been a must-purchase anyway.
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Posted: |
Jun 27, 2016 - 10:30 AM
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By: |
Morricone
(Member)
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I remember this well. When everybody was saying how knocked out they were by Al Pacino's "debut" in THE GODFATHER I was talking about about the true debut in this early Jerry Schatzberg directed (SCARECROW,SEDUCTION OF JOE TYNAN) intense drug drama. It was also the first time I encountered writer Joan Didion (PLAY IT AS IT LAYS, A STAR IS BORN), Raul Julia and Paul Sorvino. Look forward to hearing a score from a director whose choice of composers was as eclectic as it gets: Philippe Sarde, Bill Conti, Paul Chihara, Michael Small, Jan Hammer, Rupert Holmes, Fred Myrow, Richard Baskin and Michael Hoppe (the only LP I remember released).
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A very significant release this is!
I'll add Ned Rorem to the list of oldest living composers who've provided music for films & TV.
Here are contemporaries of Rorem's:
1922
Dudley Simpson
1923
William Kraft
Ned Rorem
1924
Gerard Schurmann
Kenneth V. Jones
[P.S. I wonder if Leonard Bernstein was aware of Rorem's music going unused?]
[P.P.S. the header (NEEDLE PARK! UNUSED!) might confuse a reader into thinking that the needle is unused - not the music score.  ]
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A very significant release this is!
I'll add Ned Rorem to the list of oldest living composers who've provided music for films & TV.
Here are contemporaries of Rorem's:
1922
Dudley Simpson
1923
William Kraft
Ned Rorem
1924
Gerard Schurmann
Kenneth V. Jones
[P.S. I wonder if Leonard Bernstein was aware of Rorem's music going unused?]
[P.P.S. the header (NEEDLE PARK! UNUSED!) might confuse a reader into thinking that the needle is unused - not the music score. ]
I agree about its significance. Of course it's a score that few will take a chance on because that's unfortunately the world in which we live, but some things are just worth doing. It's just wonderful music and I frankly probably would have liked the film a bit better with the score, because the sensitive bits really humanize the characters.
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I remember this well. When everybody was saying how knocked out they were by Al Pacino's "debut" in THE GODFATHER I was talking about about the true debut in this early Jerry Schatzberg directed (SCARECROW,SEDUCTION OF JOE TYNAN) intense drug drama.
THE PANIC IN NEEDLE PARK marked Al Pacino's first starring feature film role, although it was neither his nor Kitty Winn's feature film debut, as the studio notes and some reviews erroneously reported. Previously Pacino had appeared in a small part in 1969's ME, NATALIE and had won Obie and Tony awards for Broadway theater performances.
It's funny but the minute the film cuts to Pacino for the first time in Needle Park you know you're seeing the birth of a major star - he's just electrifying even walking.
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Very interesting. I'd slightly question whether Ned Rorem is "avant garde" as, from what I've heard (notably his three excellent symphonies and concertos) are very tuneful. Indeed, this score seems more modernistic than his concert works - which is quite unusual. Added to future SAE order though. His concert works are well worth checking out, start with the Three Symphonies in excellent performances on Naxos (and as it's Naxos, dirt cheap).
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Very interesting. I'd slightly question whether Ned Rorem is "avant garde" as, from what I've heard (notably his three excellent symphonies and concertos) are very tuneful. Indeed, this score seems more modernistic than his concert works - which is quite unusual. Added to future SAE order though. His concert works are well worth checking out, start with the Three Symphonies in excellent performances on Naxos (and as it's Naxos, dirt cheap).
Have to second you, enthusiastically, on your endorsement of Rorem's concert works. And agreed, they are quite thematic and tuneful. Can't wait to receive this via Bruce's Indiego campaign!
I agree but in his prime he was considered avant garde, strange as that may seem now. A lot of classical folks back then were considered atonal and dissonant when they were anything but.
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Just looking up who else was, at the time, considered avant garde in their day - quite an amusing list that includes:
Erik Satie, Philip Glass, Bartok, Steve Reisch, Schoenberg, Stravinsky, Webern, George Antheil, John Cage, Debussy, Charles Ives - all of whom today hardly seem avant garde and certainly brethren to Mr. Rorem.
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