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Posted: |
Jul 16, 2021 - 4:44 AM
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By: |
Graham Watt
(Member)
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Down t'pub last night, here in Spain with some (other) ex-pat tax dodgers, I hit on the idea that Miklós Rózsa's Main Theme for A TIME TO LOVE AND A TIME TO DIE may have been conceived with a song in mind. I can find no evidence of there ever having been a vocal version, but the contours of the melody would fit some lyrics - and vice versa - to perfection.
I did an internet search and the only thing I came up with was a thread on this very board, from 2013, in which I asked the same question. I was also reminded by that old thread that I imagined the lyrics having been written by a Scotsman, perhaps along the following lines -
A time to love
And a time to die
A time to love and a time to die
Och aye
It was amusing (to me) when I sang that at the bar last night, unaware that I had had the same idea eight years ago.
So, although this post may seem jocular, it is deadly serious, I warn you. Does anyone know if Rózsa composed the theme with a song in mind (possibly under duress)? Was a vocal version ever actually recorded? The melody seems to by crying out for it.
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Ah, I see that the IMDb credits Charles Henderson as lyricist for "A Time to Love", sung by "an uncredited blonde in a cabaret scene". I can imagine that this might indeed be the melody heard as the Main Theme. Can anyone confirm that?
Yes, it is the melody of the main theme which can be heard. But the lyrics are only "A time to love" without the following "A time to die". It is an easy listening version of the main theme which is heard as background vocal of a rendezvous scene between Liselotte Pulver and John Gavin in a cabaret. I doubt that Rozsa himself did the arrangement for this - it was certainly the work of someone else - probably a musical assistant - at the studio.
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Posted: |
Jul 17, 2021 - 11:31 PM
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By: |
manderley
(Member)
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Charles Henderson was, of course, a major music director, music arranger, vocal arranger, and composer, from the 30s through the 50s, and particularly at Fox under Alfred Newman, in the 1940s. He has screen credits on many of the important Fox musicals.
I feel certain I've heard a recording of the song, but it was never anywhere near being a hit on the jukeboxes of the day, and it's more than 60 years ago so I have no memory of who recorded it. Sorry.
(Who was Northern Music publishing company???)
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The Youtube clip that Stefan posted has nothing to do with the "A Time to Love" song which appears in the movie iself.
However, there has apparently been an instrumental cover version of the song on a Decca LP in 1960 by Wayne King and His Orchestra:
https://www.discogs.com/de/Various-Invitation-To-Listening/release/5560562
Keep in mind that oddly enough Henderson didn´t fit the words to the contour of the film title at all as the words "And a time to die" are not included in the song. However, in the film the second line after "A time to love" is a bit hard to understand as it is heard far in the background and there is also some overlapping of dialogue in the foreground. Anyway, it is for sure that the line "And a time to die" is not part of the song itself.
In his autobiography Rózsa doesn´t write anything about the main theme of the score.
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https://www.discogs.com/es/Damita-Jo-If-You-Go-Away/release/3626059
Stefan, that's strange, because the above is what I got when I did a search.
Must really be just an editing error then. I'm sorry for the confusion. If you look at the label in the link I've provided Rozsa is credited there. It seems as if somebody (fortunately) noted that mistake and corrected it on later pressings.
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Posted: |
Jul 18, 2021 - 3:01 PM
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By: |
Rozsaphile
(Member)
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Rozsaphile's info is interesting, about a proposed song by Sammy Fain and Paul Francis Webster. I'm still wondering if it was a prerequisite for Rózsa to make the title of the film workable for a song (which, as we know, did appear in the film - at least partially). In fact, isn't that what you're saying, Rozsaphile?
It would seem like a reasonable request from the producers and one that Rozsa was able to fulfill without compromising his style. He had previously provided a (rather vapid) title song for GREEN FIRE. I'm sure he was glad that Universal didn't recruit some pop star to croon the tune over the main titles. This was, after all, the height of the "title song" era. I think Universal was nervous about the release. There were title changes at the last minute, and complaints about the grim ending as well as the portrayal of "good Germans." The picture was banned in Russia and Israel.
To the best of my knowledge, Rozsa's sole comment about the film concerned the question of directorial influence. He was often asked about working with Douglas Sirk, especially as the director's auteurist star began to rise in the 1960s, and had to reply that he had never even met the man. Here and elsewhere in the studio era, the producer and the studio music director usually had more influence on the score than the director -- who was likely off shooting another picture at the time of scoring.
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