I read somewhere that Jimmy Webb wrote the original score for 'Love Story' and that it was "rejected" The task went instead to Francis Lai (who won the Oscar)......is there any truth in this ?
Yes, he was on of two composers (as I recall, but I can't find the other at the moment; perhaps I am confusing it with another film) to have a score tossed on the film.
From my currently defunct Rejected Film Scores website:
LOVE STORY -- Jimmy Webb. Indeed he did a score and when it was going to be tossed, he was offered a chance to do another one. Apparently back then it was common knowledge that Webb sued over the replacement of his score. Notably, Webb was the second composer on the film, with Burt Bacharach being hired first (I don't know if he recorded). Lai didn't even want to do the movie. [Francis Lai; with classical music from: Johann Sebastian Bach, Georg Friedrich Handel, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.]
I don't have the album here right now but I think on the recent complete release of Love Story there is one one piece by Webb included which was used in the picture. It was more something like musique concrete.
Said the director in a book: "On 'Love Story' I threw out Jimmy Webb's score, and I went over to Europe and spent the entire summer with Francis Lai working on a new score."
Yes, he was on of two composers (as I recall, but I can't find the other at the moment; perhaps I am confusing it with another film) to have a score tossed on the film.
From my currently defunct Rejected Film Scores website:
LOVE STORY -- Jimmy Webb. Indeed he did a score and when it was going to be tossed, he was offered a chance to do another one. Apparently back then it was common knowledge that Webb sued over the replacement of his score. Notably, Webb was the second composer on the film, with Burt Bacharach being hired first (I don't know if he recorded). Lai didn't even want to do the movie. [Francis Lai; with classical music from: Johann Sebastian Bach, Georg Friedrich Handel, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.]
Hi Justin, I also read that John Barry was considered for the film - I think he passed
Barry has said in interviews that he was going to score Love Story when Anthony Harvey was the director. Harvey left the project so Barry left as well.
I don't have the album here right now but I think on the recent complete release of Love Story there is one one piece by Webb included which was used in the picture. It was more something like musique concrete.
From the booklet, p. 7 "Webb choose to experiment with the music, in one case recording car horns and processing them through a variable speed oscilator to create "car-horn-organ" for a scene in which Oliver wanders dumbly past traffic... Webb recorded car-horn sounds, tuned to various pitches, emerge out of the natural sounds of traffic to create an eerie, unsettling effect, perfectly in tune (or out of tune) with the character's state of shock."
I don't have the album here right now but I think on the recent complete release of Love Story there is one one piece by Webb included which was used in the picture. It was more something like musique concrete.
From the booklet, p. 7 "Webb choose to experiment with the music, in one case recording car horns and processing them through a variable speed oscilator to create "car-horn-organ" for a scene in which Oliver wanders dumbly past traffic... Webb recorded car-horn sounds, tuned to various pitches, emerge out of the natural sounds of traffic to create an eerie, unsettling effect, perfectly in tune (or out of tune) with the character's state of shock."
It's track 22 on the Quartet release.
Chriss, Thanks for the info, I'll try to seek out the Quartet release.
