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Coming in July from Chandos is a new recording of The Film Music of Gerard Schurmann with selections personally chosen and supervised by the composer....95 years young! Samples up now on their website....
Good news.
Any disc of Schurmann music should be welcomed:
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Wasn't the CD of which Zardoz spoketh excerpts from the original recordings? That's one item I never got around to buying.
You only had 25 years, Graham, to get that Cloud Nine CD - it was released in 1993!
Yeah, the sources for that CD were culled from the composer's personal tape copies and acetates.
Imagine what wonders could be had if Chris Malone or Mike Matessino restored & re-mastered Schurmann's acetates & master tapes via current technology.
Would such a project cost less (or more) than the production of an album of new digital recordings?
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Zardoz - You may be surprised at the looooong list of purchases I never got around to making. I know it's hard to believe, but I actually have less things than I don't have.
The Chandos site clips are generous - One minute for every track means half an hour of listening, but what I dipped into sounds good.
Slightly off-topic (it's not on the new recording), but does THE LOST CONTINENT use an adaptation of the earlier THE CEREMONY for its End Titles? I was doing a lot of YouTubing and got mixed up regarding what I was listening to. I know that LOST CONTINENT shared a lot of material with the Francis Bacon sketches thing Schurmann did around the same time, but if it also re-used THE CEREMONY then it would seem that Benjamin Frankel's departure from the project made Schurmann's (excellent) rush-job a real exercise in bowel-constraint.
Whatever - This is on my radar, and may be even after the day I die. Now I'm actually interested in picking up the old Cloud Nine release. Still, everything in perspective. All in good time. There are happy moments to be shared with friends and family, walks to be taken amongst nature, and THE SENTINEL to listen to again.
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Slightly off-topic (it's not on the new recording), but does THE LOST CONTINENT use an adaptation of the earlier THE CEREMONY for its End Titles? I was doing a lot of YouTubing and got mixed up regarding what I was listening to. I know that LOST CONTINENT shared a lot of material with the Francis Bacon sketches thing Schurmann did around the same time, but if it also re-used THE CEREMONY then it would seem that Benjamin Frankel's departure from the project made Schurmann's (excellent) rush-job a real exercise in bowel-constraint.
The Ceremony's main musical material is written utilizing Iberian plus Arabic scales/intervals.
I don't recall any Spanish or ethnic-sounding music in The Lost Continent, but it's been a while since I listened to that Hammer score.
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Still no music from... The Headless Ghost or The Two-Headed Spy.
Did The Two-Headed Spy obtain his extra head from The Headless Ghost?
Well ... The Two-Headed Spy was directed by a man with one eye ...
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Here's my breakdown on the Cloud Nine CD in light of the upcoming album:
Horrors of the Black Museum is on tracks 1 through 4, totaling 8:04 minutes.
The Chandos CD will have only 5:18 on this. (the museum must have cut back their hours of operation)
Track # 5 = Cone of Silence = 4:08. This title will not be in the Chandos program (silence indeed)
Track # 6 = The Bedford Incident = 7:50. This is also getting blown out of the water by Chandos.
The 9:04 minutes on track 7 is "The Smugglers' Rhapsody", which shall be hauled into 20:49 minutes and referred to as "Dr. Syn, alias the scarecrow". (the smugglers are getting paid double time)
Cue 8 is Konga, whose 7:59 minutes will shribble on Chandos to 4:23.
9 & 10 = The Lost Continent = 6:28. Chandos told Hammer to get 'lost'.
11 through 13 is The Ceremony, totaling 8:11. Service time will elongate to 16:32 on Chandos.
Track # 14 = The Long Arm = 6:50. Chandos went out on a limb & amputated this down to 1:48.
15 through 17 is Attack on the Iron Coast, totaling 8:16. The Brass ordered a retreat down to 3:21.
18 through 20 is Claretta, totaling 11:25. She'll lose 2 minutes for Chandos.
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Slightly off-topic (it's not on the new recording), but does THE LOST CONTINENT use an adaptation of the earlier THE CEREMONY for its End Titles? I was doing a lot of YouTubing and got mixed up regarding what I was listening to. I know that LOST CONTINENT shared a lot of material with the Francis Bacon sketches thing Schurmann did around the same time, but if it also re-used THE CEREMONY then it would seem that Benjamin Frankel's departure from the project made Schurmann's (excellent) rush-job a real exercise in bowel-constraint.
The Ceremony's main musical material is written utilizing Iberian plus Arabic scales/intervals.
I don't recall any Spanish or ethnic-sounding music in The Lost Continent, but it's been a while since I listened to that Hammer score.
I hear the Iberian influences in the guitar etc in this clip, so I guess it must be THE CEREMONY after all. But it was also reworked as the End Titles for THE LOST CONTINENT, wasn't it?
https://youtu.be/XkVk1mr2dOM
ADDED A BIT LATER -
I do hate to be right all the time, but you can actually hear the thematic material which became the End Credits of THE LOST CONTINENT at the Chandos website, in tracks 15 and 18 (from THE CEREMONY). I suppose it's appropriate, seeing as THE LOST CONTINENT was an endearingly bonkers film about a ship that gets lost in the Sargossa Sea and the crew have to fight giant crab monsters, deadly seaweed, Dana Gillespie's bust, and the nutty descendents of some Spanish conquistadores who don't know that the Inquisition is over. The character played by Hildegard Knef was, I think, supposed to be from Andalusia or something, and on the globe of the world it's only about 1 cm from Tangiers, which is where THE CEREMONY takes place, I think.
But you can hear it even better in the YouTube clip I linked to. Listen to that, then play your GDI LOST CONTINENT "Finale and End Titles" (I'm sure you've all got that - I made a mistake by not getting the Cloud Nine compilation twenty-five years ago, but I've been scolded for it), then tell me I'm right. Thanks.
ADDED EVEN LATER -
A question - Did the Cloud Nine release carefully avoid any overlap in thematic material in its selections from CEREMONY and LOST CONTINENT?
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Schurmann is not even included in that error riddled "Encyclopedia Of Film Composers" by Thomas Hilshak. This C.D. should prove to be a testament to what an underrated composer he was.
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