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Caldera Records is proud to present the original scores for the motion pictures “Flame in the Wind” and “Sheffey” from 1971 and 1977 respectively.
Both films were produced by Unusual Film, a division of Bob Jones University in Greenville, South Carolina. “Flame in the Wind” is set during the time of the Spanish Inquisition and follows a young man named Carlos who is faced with a conflict throughout the course of the motion picture: should he, horrified by the Inquisition, follow the Bible, or adhere to religious tradition?
“Sheffey” was an even bigger undertaking, a lavish and expensive production: Born in 1820, Robert Sheffey was a Methodist evangelist who spent his lifetime taking care of those in need, traveling through Virginia and Tennessee and preaching the word of God.
The music for both films was composed by Dwight Gustafson. Born in 1930, Gustafson was named acting dean of the School of Fine Arts at BJU at 24. He served as administrator, taught, composed, conducted and preached until his retirement in 1997.
The music for “Flame in the Wind” is based around three themes which recur throughout the score, which was issued on an LP by Unusual Films in 1971. Gustafson wrote a leitmotif for the film’s hero Carlos which is supposed to reveal the pathos and heroism of the young man as he tries to find his way. The second theme, a rather eerie, instrumental melody for the Inquisition expresses the repression and terror for which the inquisitors are responsible, while a triumphant chorale seeks to honor the true believers who have lost their lives due to their faith in Jesus Christ during the Spanish Inquisition.
“Sheffey” follows a different musical conception, although Gustafon’s style is unmistakable. Since the film, through the life of Robert Sheffey, tells the story of folk religion, Gustafson decided to employ various folk tunes as seemed appropriate to backbone for his score.
Both “Flame in the Wind” and “Sheffey” were composed, orchestrated and conducted by Dwight Gustafson and recorded with the Bob Jones University Symphony Orchestra, composed of students and faculty. LPs of both scores were made available by Unusual Films/BJU to coincide with the film releases.
The 35th Caldera CD features a detailed booklet-text by Stephan Eicke and elegant artwork by Luis Miguel Rojas. The CD was mastered by Richard Moore and produced by Stephan Eicke and John Elborg.
Music Composed by Dwight Gustafson
Album Produced by Stephan Eicke
Executive Producers for Caldera Records: John Elborg, Stephan Eicke
Flame in the Wind
1. Title Music (4:25)
2. The Journey of the Inquisitors (1:59)
3. The Birth of Carlos (2:38)
4. The Monks Escape (2:57)
5. The Dungeon (2:15)
6. The Capture of Carlos (2:38)
7. Processional for the Auto-Da-Fe (3:44)
8. The Tribunal Hall (1:59)
9. The Torture (3:43)
10. The Penitent Returns to Christ (2:47)
11. The Burning of the Martyrs (3:07)
Sheffey
12. Title Music (2:03)
13. Disturbance at Revival (1:26)
14. Salvation Hymn (1:35)
15. Young Sheffey in Hills (2:15)
16. Sheffey and Children (0:54)
17. Sheepskin (3:26)
18. Wabash (3:24)
19. Journey in Snow (1:45)
20. Engagement (1:16)
21. The Campground Returns (2:27)
22. Farewell to Gideon (3:54)
23. Tragedy in the Wilderness (2:18)
24. The Campground Burns (3:47)
25. Death of Elizah (2:05)
26. End of the Journey (3:42)
Listen to a 5 min clip here:
https://soundcloud.com/alderaecords/flame-in-the-wind-dwight-gustafson
For more information please visit:
http://caldera-records.com/portfolio/flame-in-the-windsheffey/gallery/soundtracks/
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It’s not often that a release surprises me as much as this one. I’d never heard of the composer or films, probably because they were religious films made on the other side of the country from Hollywood. Fascinating that LPs were still produced of the scores! Looking at sountrackcollector, it sounds like there was at least one more LP of a Gustafson score produced by Unusual:
http://www.soundtrackcollector.com/catalog/composerdiscography.php?composerid=3034
Looking up the film on IMDb, Red Runs the River appears to be a Civil War film! I wonder if Caldera has that in the works for a CD release too but figured given that genre it could more sustain sales on its own:
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0435318/
The dates are not consistent between the two websites — if IMDb is to be believed, Red Runs the River was Gustafson’s first score rather than his second. They also list two films scored by the composer which don’t have albums listed on soundtrackcollector: Beyond the Night (1983), and The Printing (1990) which both sound like they might have interesting scores as well.
Yavar
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I ordered this, mostly because of its origin. When I was living in San Diego, I discovered soundtracks and even musicals (!), written for Mormon productions, many of which are melodic for a full orchestra. Check out the composer Sam Cardon.
I look forward to hearing more from Mr. Gustafson!
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I had also never heard of these scores or this composer, but this is big, lush, epic Old Hollywood scoring clearly inspired by Ernest Gold (especially "Exodus," which the opening of the clip sounds like an homage to) and Miklos Rozsa. It's wonderful stuff and I'm happy it's been unearthed.
In former times for example during the 80s these two scores were insider tips among soundtrack collectors. Only few people knew about them, but it was an impressive experience if you got the chance to listen to them or to buy the odd LPs. I myself have both LPs for now almost 30 years.
FLAME IN THE WIND is probably the stronger score and throughout very much influenced by Miklós Rózsa so that you will often be reminded of his historical epics. The music is at times heraldic, sombre and then also hymn-like toward the end. If you like Rózsa´s historical scores, then you will certainly also like this very good symphonic score.
Even for SHEFFEY Gustafson had a 66-piece orchestra at his disposal which is quite remarkable if you consider that these two obscure films were just 16mm productions for that Christian Bob Jones University in South Carolina. SHEFFEY is a really nice and flavourful Americana score maybe with a few touches of Elmer Bernstein or the JEREMIAH JOHNSON score by Mc Intire/Rubinstein in it, but it also has its own voice.
That tapes of both scores have been preserved till now at the Bob Jones University is a small wonder. I would never have thought that these two scores would ever get a CD release.
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Lovely! Thanks for sharing, Caldera.
Yavar
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Listened to the whole of the disc today for the first time. It's excellent! After enjoying this hugely impressive music, I hope Caldera also gets to issue the second disc of two more Gustafson scores that are hinted at in the notes. Terrific release.
Thank you, we're glad you enjoy our release!
Convince some folks to support this album by purchasing it, and we will roll out Volume 2.
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Convince some folks to support this album by purchasing it, and we will roll out Volume 2.
I bought this CD from Intrada.
Only listened to these 2 soundtracks once thus far, so I need more helpings before issuing comments.
None of the tracks were skipped upon my first listen - a phenomena infrequent with me so this bodes well indeed.
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Convince some folks to support this album by purchasing it, and we will roll out Volume 2.
Question: Comparing the tracks with those of the original LPs, it seems one track (Carlos Returns) is missing from the CD version of Flame in the Wind, and two tracks (The Staffords and Coming Home) are absent from Shelley.
Are these pieces of music incorporated in the CD but perhaps combined with other cues, or something like that?
Also, a track entitled specifically "Wabash Campmeeting, 1869" is discussed in the CD notes and also appears as such on the LP track list, but does not appear with that title on the CD tracklist. Why the discrepancies?
In the meantime, further plays of Flame in the Wind confirm my initial impressions... terrific!
We regularly leave out cues that don't add anything to the listening experience or might even hurt it.
The "Wabash" matter is an unfortunate, stupid error. The master we were sent by BJU - which owns the rights - named the track "Wabash" but we looked at the original LP track list when writing the liner notes. We forgot to change it in the liner notes before sending the CD to the pressing plant. D'oh!
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Question: Comparing the tracks with those of the original LPs, it seems one track (Carlos Returns) is missing from the CD version of Flame in the Wind, and two tracks (The Staffords and Coming Home) are absent from Shelley.
Are these pieces of music incorporated in the CD but perhaps combined with other cues, or something like that?
I do not yet have the CD myself, but I have closely checked my two LPs of FLAME IN THE WIND and SHEFFEY and by comparing everything with the track timings of the CD I can now assure you that nothing is mIssing on the CD in comparison with the LPs.
"Carlos Returns" is not a separate track on the FLAME IN THE WIND LP, but is in fact the second part of track 1"Titles Music". Therefore track 1 is a rather long one with 4:25 minutes as it consists of two cues. Funnily, on the back cover of the LP the "Carlos Returns" cue is not even mentioned, only on the disc itself and there as second part of track 1.
With SHEFFEY it is quite similar. Side A of the LP has 9 tracks and the last track 9 consists of the two cues "The Engagement - Coming Home". The duration of the complete track on the LP is 1:16 minutes - so just the duration of track 20 "The Engagement" on the CD.
Track 6 on side A of the LP also consists of two cues with the titles "The Sheepskin - The Staffords". This track 6 has a duration of 3:26 minutes on the LP - which corresponds with the duration of track 17 "The Sheepskin" on the CD. You can hear a short pause after about 2:10 minutes in this track - this is the point at which the "Staffords" cue within that track begins.
So either Caldera forgot to add the titles of these three cues to the track listing or they were not mentioned on the tapes, but according to the track timings they must be on the CD.
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