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| CD Reviews: Jarre and Buttolph |
| Posted By: Steven A. Kennedy, Darren MacDonald on August 28, 2005 - 10:00 PM |
CD Reviews: Jarre and Buttolph
Maurice Jarre: Ma Periode Francaise
****
MAURICE JARRE
Play Time 864 599 2 - PL 05 02 87 - PM 520
28 tracks - 74:35
This French import is a must-have for fans of Maurice Jarre. It's a
collection of music from 12 of Jarre's scores for French cinema
covering the years 1954 to 1964. That includes music from his first
full-length feature, Le Tete contre
les Murs, directed by Georges Franju. Even if you only have a
cursory familiarity with Jarre, you should still find it interesting to
brave these early works and listen along as Jarre discovers his melodic
style that would appear full blown in some of his greatest film music
for David Lean.
Jarre's score for Franju's Les Yeux
sans Visage bears a slight resemblance to Alex North's intimate,
jazz-influenced dramatic writing, and is among this album's many
highlights. The simple piano writing of Therese Desqueyroux, with its
delicate arpeggios, shows the debt that several more currently active
composers like Jan A.P. Kaczmarek owe their own stylistic development.
The disc also serves as an overview of some of the common scoring
techniques from other French cinema composers (including Delerue),
providing a window into the period. The music ranges from pure thematic
writing to the experimental, comedy (with Les Drageurs owing a little
something to Shostakovich), dramatic, ethnic (L'Oiseus de Paradis), rock (Les Animaux), and a variety of jazz
samples from piano combos to big band (Les
Drageurs) -- all with a decidedly French feel. There is a lot of
excellent music to discover here, but most fascinating of all is
hearing Jarre's themes first emerge in each score. They seemingly rise
up out of nowhere, catching you off guard before quickly captivating
you.
This is music for a new generation to discover, or for fans to
rediscover. If you can track down this fine sounding album, it's well
worth the effort. -- Steven A. Kennedy
The Foxes of Harrow *** 1/2
DAVID BUTTOLPH
Screen Archives Entertainment SAE-CRS-012
26 tracks - 53:44
Screen Archives' latest album is, I believe, the first ever disc
devoted entirely to the work of David Buttolph, who has previously only
had a track here and a suite there on a couple of past CDs. He is
unfortunately one of those composers who will always remain relatively
obscure compared with his contemporaries like Alfred Newman and Max
Steiner. The Foxes of Harrow
proves to be a fine score, ranking amongst the solid dramatic works of
said contemporaries.
This is a strong score, with a couple of primary themes and few
secondary themes interlaced throughout. Even though Rex Harrison's
Stephen Fox is more or less a rogue and a brigand (what in today's
terms we would call an abusive spouse and a racist) he is still
essentially the hero of the film, and gets an appropriately adventurous
main theme, almost swashbuckling in nature, for his many mishaps and
adventures. The varied score includes a short but exciting scherzo,
"Riding After Lily." "My Son No Slave" continues the intensity as one
of Foxes' slaves runs to the river to drown herself and her newborn
child, thus gaining freedom.
A ball sequence utilizes several Viennese-styled waltzes as source
cues, deftly conducted by Alfred Newman. Violent percussion
occasionally interrupts the idyllic proceedings, representing the
Voodoo religion of the slaves living on the Harrow estate, erupting
into full Voodoo ceremonial chant in "Erzilee." There are also a couple
of Creole spirituals sung by the slaves, and we are even treated to a
song sung by Maureen O'Hara, who has an impressive voice that would
shame many of today's actress-singers.
This is a typically well-produced release from Screen Archives,
recommended for fans of golden age scores. Here's hoping we see more
David Buttolph releases in the future. --
Darren MacDonald
MailBag@filmscoremonthly.com
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Today in Film Score History:
April 16 |
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| Alex North begins recording his score for Cheyenne Autumn (1964) |
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| Basil Poledouris begins recording his score to Quigley Down Under (1990) |
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| Charles Chaplin born (1889) |
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| Chaz Jankel born (1952) |
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| David Raksin records his score for Pat and Mike (1952) |
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| Henry Mancini born (1924) |
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| Jay Chattaway records his score for the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode “Frame of Mind” (1993) |
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| Jerry Goldsmith begins recording his score for The Detective (1968) |
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| Perry Botkin Jr. born (1933) |
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| Warren Barker born (1923) |
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