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February 2000 Film Music CD
Reviews |
Film Music Editor: Ian Lace |
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Part 2
Return to the February Index with thumbnails [Part 1] [ Part 2] [Part 3]
Album produced by George Korngold and Christopher Palmer. †Christopher Bowers-Broadbent (organ) Utah Symphony Orchestra conducted by Elmer Bernstein Royal Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Rainer Padberg
How nice to see the names George Korngold and Christopher Palmer associated with this album. It should be pointed out that these tracks were previously available on the Bay Cities and Varèse Sarabande labels and this Citadel recording has been available since 1997 (and can now be sourced through Hot Records).
Most of the material on this album is grand ceremonial music. There is heavy brass and percussion signalling approaching doom for Caesar's Procession before the grand march of the approaching legions which rivals Respighi's the celebrated crescendo that is the 'Pines of the Appian Way.'
Equally doomed is the Christ's struggle dragging his cross along the 'Via Dolorosa', the poignantly moving cue from King of Kings that is contrasted with the sparkle and colour of the 'Jugglers and Tumblers' that accords with the period and the locale. Ceremonial music that is hedonistic and opulently indulgent informs the 'Triumphal March' from Sodom and Gomorrah while the linked 'Wedding' music is unbridled sensuality. The most imposing part of this 'Suite from the Biblical Epics' is a stunning performance of the unforgettable 'Parade of the Charioteers' from Ben Hur with its proudly resounding, overlapping fanfares, and the subsequent swagger of the 'Victory Parade.'
The most substantial work on the album is Róza's regal 'Fantasy on Themes from Young Bess' scored for brass, organ, timpani and harp. {The film starred Jean Simmons and Stewart Grainger.) Besides music of ceremonial splendour, there is a sprightly rondo and a series of variations on the Dies Irae for the death of Henry VIII (Charles Laughton). The organ part s commandingly played by Christopher Bowers-Broadbent.
From The Story of Three Loves episode called "Equilibrium", with Kirk Douglas romancing Pier Angeli in Paris, comes 'Java de la Seine' a nice little atmospheric piece complete with the obligatory accordion. Apparently Rózsa had a great affection for this piece because it reminded him of his of struggle in the City of Light in the 1930s. Another beautiful little work is the 'Palace Music' from El Cid that has lute-like harp melodies and treble winds that seem to capture the sense of medieval life more completely than any fanfares.
The first two tracks are by the Utah Symphony Orchestra. The World, the Flesh and the Devil was science-fiction film set in a New York in the wake of an apocalyptic disaster. Rózsa's music is hard and stark yet it rises above itself in indomitable majesty. Because of Him which starred Deanna Durbin and Charles Laughton had a lush score more Viennese than its New York setting and Rozsa moves with ease from the broad romantic gesture to the closed and intimate.
The final track on the album is another ceremonial piece - the brief Festival Flourish written for the American Bicentennial as a tribute to Rózsa's adopted homeland.
Breathtaking
Reviewer
Ian Lace
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A relentless, emotionless killer crosses time and begins to slaughter young women in a West Coast American city. Our hero follows the killer across time, finding it much harder to fit into our present than his adversary. Nevertheless, our protagonist falls in love with a young woman, and when the police refuse to believe his story, preferring to accept that he may really be the killer, he must fight a desperate battle to save the love of his life. An ingenious mixture of relentless suspense, thrills and romance, centred on an intelligently constructed science fiction plot, the film is obviously The Terminator (1984). And it would be if it wasn't Nicholas Meyer's debut feature as writer and director: Time After Time (1979). For the T-800, read Jack the Ripper, for Kyle read H.G. Wells, and for Los Angeles, San Francisco.
Instead of going back in time to fight for the future, Jack the Ripper (David Warner), seen in the act of a murder in Victorian London, steals H.G. Well's newly developed time machine and travels forward to 1979. By now Wells time machine (yes, for the purposes of Time After Time, he really built one) has been discovered and is touring the world as part of an exhibition about the father of modern science fiction's life. As the story begins the exhibition is in San Francisco, thus giving Meyer a fairly acceptable excuse to locate the story in America. The machine travels not just through time, but necessarily to whatever location it has been moved to in the future. Wells (Malcolm McDowell) follows - the reason the modern discoverers of the time machine can't get it to work is that it requires a key, without which it will automatically return to it's base time. Having deposited The Ripper in 1979, the time machine returns to Victorian London, and Wells, sure that he has unleashed a monster into what he assumes will be a utopian future, gives chase. The film is therefore able to make some telling contrasts between what we know of the young H.G. Wells' hopeful vision of human progress with the violent reality of late 20th century America. The Ripper rightly tells Wells that in the past he was a freak, now he is in his element, serial killers are the norm and he is in his element. Wells had idealistic dreams of a better future, but it is the Ripper who was genuinely a 'Man Before his Time.'
The film is actually a skilful addition to a sub-genre of science fiction which weaves real historical characters into fictional narratives, and of a smaller sub-sub-genre which particularly builds stories around H.G. Wells himself. Of particular note are The Space Machine by Christopher Priest, which postulates the 'true' story behind the events of not just The Time Machine, but also The War of the Worlds, and the British Science Fiction Association Award-winning The Time Ships by Stephen Baxter, a wildly imaginative epic sequel to Wells' original novel.
Just as Brian De Palma (Sisters 1973, Obsession 1975) and Martin Scorsese (Taxi Driver 1975) turned to Bernard Herrmann to score their early features, and Seven Spielberg (Jaws 1975, Close Encounters of the Third Kind 1978) and George Lucas (Star Wars 1977) had recourse to John Williams for a revival of the orchestral sound of the Golden Age of Hollywood, so first time director secured the services of Miklos Rozsa, assisted by that indefatigable champion of film music, Christopher Palmer. Reading Nicholas Meyer's sleeve notes (retained from the original vinyl soundtrack album) his love of old time film scoring is apparent. His notes are no puff-piece from a man obliged to write something flattering about a subject of which he knows nothing, but an essay of genuine enthusiasm and affection, written by a film-maker with a real knowledge of the history and function of film music. It is a shame that such a talented writer-director has yet to make another film a tenth as good as Time After Time, which remains one of the best and most under-rated films of the 70's. To say nothing of being one of those extraordinarily rare science fiction films which, the basic time travel premise accepted, is logically and coherently plotted in a way which credits the audience with adult intelligence. Unfortunately, Time After Time was a box-office failure, and Meyer has since spent his time on such projects as the successful TV movie The Day After and in writing-and-or-directing duties on several of the better Star Trek movies.
By the late 70's, such was the sound and style of most studio pictures, that the old introductory fanfares had been largely dropped. Meyer gloriously revived the old Max Steiner Warner Brother's fanfare for the opening of Time After Time, Rozsa spinning his opening title directly out the fanfare (As Eliot Goldenthal would later do with the 20th Century Fox fanfare for Alien3 - 1992), such that the Steiner necessarily becomes part of the score and is therefore included on the soundtrack album. Thus musically the film immediately connects the past and present, Steiner's Viennese style, and the very foundation of film music, linking the movie back to the musical sound world of late 19th century romanticism and 1890's of the young H.G. Wells.
With this score Rozsa may not have added anything new to his canon, or to film composing in general, but that is not the point. As with Star Wars and Close Encounters, his music serves to anchor fantastical storytelling in a musically familiar world. Elements of the suspense and action writing echo any number of Rozsa's film noirs and biting urban thrillers of the 1940's, while the style of his richly-hued romantic music is instantly recognisable. However, Rozsa does not steal from himself, the themes are new, and what gorgeous themes they are. The central love music is as sweepingly romantic as anything Rozsa ever wrote, while a piano solo played by Eric Parkin, 'Time Machine Waltz' is elegiac and lovely beyond compare. At one point the film references Vertigo and the 'redwood's scene, though Rozsa approaches it very differently to Herrmann. His suspense music is powerfully brooding, while the action-chase cues are as exciting as anything ever written for the screen. Just try 'Dangerous Drive' (for a desperate pursuit through the streets of San Francisco liberally borrowed from in Highlander - 1986) for absolutely breathless and explosively tense thrills. Rozsa also incorporates a musical-box theme, an exquisite fairytale melody which besides marking the passage of time, takes on chilling resonance as the story unfolds. 'Journey's End & Finale' is one of the great romantic finishes to any Hollywood film - of course if you know anything about the H.G. Wells love life it is all nonsense - but still makes for satisfyingly superior film making.
Providence (1977) is generally acclaimed as Miklos Rozsa's last great film score. It is the sort of subdued, serious, 'classical' score which wins plaudits from critics who never normally notice film music - and of course Providence was hugely rewarded film from one of France's greatest directors. Time After Time is not just Rozsa's last great Hollywood score, but perhaps his best film work since El Cid (1961). It is simply one of the composer's great scores, and while not comparable to the vast majesty of his epic works from 1950's, is worthy to stand beside Spellbound (1945) and The Thief of Badgad (1940) as a film music masterpiece. Rozsa himself certainly thought highly of this music, reworking parts of it into his Concerto for Viola and Orchestra op.37 (1979), the premiere recording of which was made by Richard Kaufman and the Nurnberger Symphoniker on the album Symphonic Hollywood Volume 1 (Colosseum CST 34.8048).
I should add that the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Dr Rozsa himself, play with tremendous fiery intensity, and the twenty-year-old sound is absolutely superb. Quite simply, soundtrack albums rarely come any better than this.
Reviewer
Gary S. Dalkin
Gary S. Dalkin is Feature's Editor of Vector: The Critical Journal of the British Science Fiction Association and a judge of the Arthur C. Clarke Award (given for the Best Original SF novel published in the UK in the previous calendar year). He also writes about science fiction and fantasy for Amazon.co.uk and Amazon.com.
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According to Jack Smith, who writes in the CD booklet, Bite the Bullet is considered the last great feature western. Similarly, the music is considered Alex North's last great Hollywood score. This brilliant representation of the score on CD does justice, indeed, to those words. Bite the Bullet is a film about being and what it takes to be an American. Through this movie, avenues of gender, social groups even relationships with the environment and nature are explored.
Appropriately, North paints the music canvas with American colours, detailed orchestrations and textured motifs. The string and brass main title is the typical American muscular western theme albeit engraved with North's musical signature, sculptured with his unique music style. Vibrant, galloping music induces spontaneous images of sunny, desert landscapes, worn leather, larger-than-life characters. North's music always tested the limits of percussion and this is more than apparent in this score where a percussive undercurrent is almost constantly present, giving the score a hard edge. Atonality and even dissonance is not absent in several cues, like in 'Badlands', where a medley of strings and brass statements flood discomfort and suspense. Short romantic passages float through the score such as in 'Miss Jones', full of restrained sentimentality, yet not completely devoid of the score's hard-edged texture. Banjo and time for resting and contemplation in 'Night Pause', in the familiar American campfire mode.
Mexican influences are occasionally injected to provide an ethnic flavour -- one of North's specialities! As an additional treat, the CD contains delicious Mexican source music, some traditional, some written by North as well as pompous period marches, one again composed by North.
This is a worthy of attention for any western music aficionado -- it is not the typical Americana, but spiced with North's colourful strokes, refined orchestrations and intense motifs. The sound quality is not the best possible but is more than adequate to enjoy this different western score. Finally, the booklet contains detailed and very informative notes.
Reviewer
Kostas Anagnostou
Hit & Miss (Juke Box Jury), Beat Girl (Main Title), Beat for Beatniks (film - Never Let Go), The Challenge (album - Stringbeat), The Aggressor, Spinneree, Satin Smooth, The James Bond Theme (film - Dr. No), Human Jungle (TV theme - alternative version), Theme From The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone, Tears, The Party's Over (from the film of the same name), Cutty Sark (TV theme - Dateline), March of the Mandarins (single B side), Onward Christian Spaceman (single B side), Human Jungle (TV theme), Goldfinger (title song - Shirley Bassey), Qublie Ca (single B side), Seven Faces, Séance on a Wet Afternoon (alternative version of main theme to the film of the same name), Mr Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (song from Thunderball - Shirley Bassey), Born Free (title song - Matt Monro), Midnight Cowboy, Diamonds are Forever (title song - Shirley Bassey), That Fatal Kiss (film - A View to a Kill)
Along with John Williams and Ennio Morricone, John Barry must be the most currently anthologised film composer, so the question is, does this new collection have anything to particularly recommend it over the many other seemingly similar albums on the market. Well yes, it certainly does. The first thing one will notice is that this disc is very nicely packaged. The artwork is intelligently designed and particularly well printed, and the 12 page insert booklet comes with notes of a superior pedigree, being by Geoff Leonard and Pete Walker, co-authors of the excellent John Barry: A Life in Music. Additionally there are pristine reproductions of various photographs of Barry, and of several now rare original LP sleeves. Next comes a matter of the sound quality. It is generally superb, even on the earliest tracks, dating from 40 years ago. There is barely a hint of tape hiss, yet neither is there any sign of the top-end being 'rolled off' to clean-up the sound. The stereo images are strong, instruments richly detailed and clear with only the briefest most occasional hints of distortion. Ironically, 'Satin Smooth' sounds a little rough in comparison to the other tracks, but is still very good, while 'Qublie Ca' and 'Séance on a Wet Afternoon' are bold to the point of being harsh. 'Midnight Cowboy', one of the latest tracks, surprisingly has perhaps the poorest sound.
The music consists of 25 tracks, from 'Hit & Miss' (1960), Barry's first hit single, and the theme to the hugely popular BBC TV show, Juke Box Jury, through to 'That Fatal Kiss', the love theme from Roger Moore's final James Bond film, A View to a Kill (1985). That said, this last track is rather out on a limb from the later years of Barry's career, the most recent of the remaining tracks being the title song from Diamonds are Forever (1971), performed by Shirley Bassey.
For all but the most dedicated Barry fan, this disc will probably prove a mix of the familiar and unknown. Several of the usual compilation album suspects are present: 'The James Bond Theme', 'Goldfinger', 'Born Free' and 'Midnight Cowboy' being virtually guaranteed to appear on any Barry anthology. However, there are less of these famous standards than usual, much of the disc being devoted to John Barry Seven singles (A and B sides) and less familiar film tracks from such movies as Beat Girl (the first British film to have a soundtrack album release).
The lush romantic sound of later John Barry is absent. This is jazzy John Barry, with track after track of quirky tunefulness and idiosyncratically brilliant band or orchestral arrangements fusing pop, rock and roll, MOR, swing and an ear for instantly catchy melody into a revolutionary new music. Whether or not, as the booklet claims, John Barry is Britain's greatest film composer, the evidence is here to convincingly argue that he is true genius of popular music. While the 'main title' from Beat Girl would have been at home in the world of Gerry Anderson, 'Beat for Beatniks' with it's menacing brass, repeated piano riff and bold jazz swagger, could easily have laid a groove for 007. 'The Challenge' sounds (as the booklet points out) like a theme in search of a film, and the following single and album tracks all display the invention which so characterised Barry's writing in the 60's.
This is a vibrant, colourful album, full of fun, wit, and verve, just sometimes touched by the melancholy which would increasingly define Barry's later work. No matter how many times you have the more famous tracks, this disc is virtually essential for such striking rarities as 'Spinneree', 'The Party's Over' and 'Seven Faces'. This is Barry at his early best, and as good a Barry anthology as any currently available.
Reviewer
Gary S. Dalkin
Information on obtaining Promo discs here
After the false start of Goldeneye, Tomorrow Never Dies was the film to really re-establish James Bond as a viable action hero in a multiplex culture of Die Hard, Lethal Weapon and John Woo action movies. A large part of the success came from the appropriation of Woo-style hyper-kinetic action (something sadly lacking from The World is Not Enough), much of the rest from David Arnold's dynamic development of the classic John Barry style of Bond music.
Such was the production schedule of Tomorrow Never Dies that David Arnold was forced to score the film over a period of six months, working on early scenes before much of the complete picture had even been shot. The date the tracks for the soundtrack album had to be delivered was such that music from the final part of the film was not available, and with the exception of the end title song, no music was included following the scene in which Bond makes an 'Underwater Discovery'. In effect the original Tomorrow Never Dies CD was the soundtrack album to the first two-thirds of the film, so that when it was announced that Chapter III were to release a new Tomorrow Never Dies album many people assumed it would include all the missing music. This turns out not to be the case; this release, billed as 'The Original Motion Picture Score', might be termed 'The Composer's Cut'. The first 11 tracks were all on the original album, while the remaining 7 feature some, but not all, of the music from the latter part of the movie.
Omitted from the first release, such that this new disc is not a replacement for, but a compliment to the original album, are the title song by Sheryl Crow and the end title song by k.d. lang, together with the instrumental 'Station Break'. Added is 26 minutes of music from the end of the film. Yet a considerable amount is still missing. Buy both albums, and you will have a lot of music twice and some not at all.
It is not possible to fit all the music from Tomorrow Never Dies onto a single CD, as there is around 95 minutes of music in the film. However, it is certainly possible to fit it all onto two discs, which makes me question the thinking behind this release. Surely it will be mainly bought by those who already have the first disc, and so would serve better by providing all the unreleased cues. Still missing are several short and negligible cues, including various variations on the James Bond theme, which very few will miss. More noticeable is the continued absence of some of the music involving Bond and Paris, and Bond and Doctor Kaufman, the music for Carver's reception, some of Wai Lin's music, and about 7 minutes of action music from the final showdown on Carver's ship. For serious Bond and Arnold fans it seems a shame to lose this music, especially given that the disc certainly had space for another 15 minutes of score had the 11-minute interview with Arnold which concludes the disc been presented as text in the booklet.
This interview is interesting, but is not the sort of thing one would listen to nearly as often as some missing parts of the score would be. Nevertheless, the presentation here presents a more rounded, fuller version of Arnold's score that the previous album. After the extended, largely orchestral cues of 'White Knight' and 'The Sinking of the Devonshire', the original disc became rather fragmented through a diversity of styles, swinging wildly between orchestra and violence 'dance music' electronics. Here the balance is more in favour of epic orchestral scoring, albeit with copious amounts of percussion, of both acoustic and synthesised/sampled varieties. The electronics here seem better integrated with the orchestra than on the original album, so that this release has a much more coherent flow than the first version.
The ethnic flavoured 'Kowloon Bay' is hauntingly melodic and quite gorgeous, the 'Bike Chase' a splendid virtuoso set-piece, and what there is of the finale, bold and thrilling. If you are to have one Tomorrow Never Dies album, this is the one to chose, though so used are we to having songs on a Bond album that their omission does make the experience a little lacking. A Bond CD without at least one over-the-top ballad is like a Bond film without at least one impossibly beautiful girl on our hero's arm. However, if you already have the original soundtrack release, then buying this full priced disc will bring you just 26 minutes of new music of what, all things considered, no more than superior action scoring. This is certainly not one of those rare film music masterpieces, where every note is worth paying extra to own.
It's worth considering that the Region 1 DVD of Tomorrow Never Dies has an isolated music only soundtrack, so that if you have, or are considering buying a region free or 'chipped' DVD player, it may well be worth buying the American DVD of the film instead. A fair amount of work is involved, but if you have an appropriate soundcard and CD-R drive, it is perfectly possible (and legal if it is only for your own use) to make your own Tomorrow Never Dies score CD(s).
Reviewer
Gary S. Dalkin
- if you don't already have the original album); - if you do.
Information on obtaining Promo discs here
Released simultaneously with Chapter III's issue of David Arnold's expanded score album for the James Bond adventure Tomorrow Never Dies, this is fundamentally a techno album which, beyond constant quotes of the James Bond theme, has little to do with the traditional musical styles of the Bond films. The disc opens with a brief conventional statement of the Bond theme, after which the disc takes its direction from the dance orientated aspects of David Arnold's score for Tomorrow Never Dies.
The worst tracks, such as 'Confrontation', 'Convoy' and 'PPK' are an appalling noise, adding elements of thrash-metal to the mix, while 'Detonate' is a variation on 'Backseat Driver' from David Arnold's score for the film and 'Media Tower' drifts into 80's Jean-Michael Jarre territory. 'Arms Bazaar' is moody suspense underscore, 'Decoder', 'Pressing Engagement', 'A New Beginning' and 'Infrared' not so far from Arnold's own approach in fusing electronic beats with melody - though everything here is electronically generated and rather too mechanical. Presumably this is because the album was created as MIDI files written to accompany the game, such that the stilted, machine feel is all but unavoidable.
If you have any time for electronic music at all you may find this better than the thrash-metals cues would lead you to believe, though far too many of the tracks make use of the James Bond theme itself to sustain the interest for long. The final track marks a distinct change of mood. 'Letter to Paris' is a pop-rock ballad with a female vocal unaccredited on my promo copy of the album. Apparently it does not appear in the video game, though the words 'Tomorrow Never Dies' certainly dominate the lyrics. The histrionic guitar solo sounds very much a relic from 80's stadium rock, and the whole appears as a second-rate Bond song. A pale imitation of real James Bond music for Bond loving techno fans only.
Reviewer
Gary S. Dalkin
LEE HOLDRIDGE FEATURE
Lee Holdridge was born in Port-au-Prince, Haiti in 1944. He spent his early years in Costa Rica, and began his music studies on the violin when he was ten. By the time he was fifteen, he was determined to be a composer. Later, he moved to Boston; and, in 1962, he commenced his studies at the Manhattan School of Music. While in New York, he wrote chamber works, rock pieces, songs, theatre music, and scores for short films. In 1973 he moved to Los Angeles and began his film music career.
Lee Holdridge's work for TV and films embraces a wide range of styles and moods. His list of works includes: 16 Days of Glory; Old Gringo; Pastime; Mr Mom; Micki and Maude; The Other Side of the Mountain Pt. II; Jeremy; Sylvester; A Tiger's Tale; Winterhawk and 1994's The Giant of Thunder Mountain.
Holdridge has also composed music for the concert hall - e.g. Concerto for Viola and Chamber Orchestra, a Concerto for piano and Orchestra, a Concerto for Violin and Orchestra, No.2; an opera and suite. Lazarus and His Beloved, Scenes of Summer, Andante for Orchestra and Ballet for Harp and Strings.
************************************************************** EDITOR’S RECOMMENDATION February 2000
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This album is as much a tribute to the late Charles Gerhardt as to Lee Holdridge. The recording was made in 1985 with the late George Korngold as producer. Needless to say, Gerhardt elicits crack, full-blooded, heart-on-sleeve performances of this glorious music from the London Symphony Orchestra.
The concert opens with a suite of Holdridge's broad virile music from the 1982 MGM fantasy film, The Beastmaster replete with steely figures for the combat scenes, heroic fanfares and a scintillating 'Night Eagle' cue that sends the music soaring serenely, mystically aloft with celeste, harp strings and horns.
'Music for Strings' from the 1973 film Jonathan Livingston Seagull is an affecting, beautifully crafted work for multi-part strings. Again, it is splendidly romantic and melodic. 'The Journey' from the 1976 MGM film, Going Home is exuberant, high-spirited music of aspiration and adventure laced with humour, the occasional dark shadow and, perhaps, some romance.
Gerhardt pulls all the romantic stops out for his reading of the love theme from Splash (see below) and dons his 'swashbuckling robes' for his Overture to the 1983 Warner Bros TV series Wizards and Warriors. As he relates in his notes for this album, Lee wrote this score in tribute to his idols, Korngold, Waxman and Steiner. This is a fast paced ride with plenty of humour and a pause for the big romantic gesture.
Holdridge was asked to write the music for the 1981 ABC-Mini-series that presented the entire Steinbeck novel. Include here is a substantial 6-movement suite. It opens with the lovely, haunting Main Title music which contrasts strongly with the brooding, tense music for 'The Brothers - Cathy - leaving Connecticut' that grows ever more powerful so that it towers threateningly over the rest of the score. 'The Father' is conversely gentle and pastoral, recalling middle-western Copland. 'The Well' has a grandiose sweep about it suggesting broad vistas or unbridled ambition before the music calms for the rest of the cue as 'The Naming.' A stain creeps across the score as Holdridge adds a blighting dissonance for 'The Secret of Monterey' as the brother's mother is discovered to be the Madam of a brothel. But again the cue lightens in atmosphere and the music becomes tender for 'Abra's Theme' The 'Finale' returns to the sweeping music of the Main Title.
For The Hemingway Play a teleplay in the 1970s PBS, Hollywood Television Theatre series, Holdridge wrote his charming 'Parisian Sketch' which he later expanded to this concert version. It is glittering, nostalgic and romantic yet it has an air of valse triste too.
This most enjoyable concert closes with Holdridge's radiant and spectacular music for the stunning Emmy Award-winning 1977 documentary by the National Geographic Society, The Great Whales. As Lee says, "it contains one of my favourite themes for a film. The music for me, is about the elegance and almost too-human warmth of these magnificent creatures.
Heartily recommended.
Reviewer
Ian Lace
************************************************************** EDITOR’S Choice -Established Score February 2000
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Information on obtaining Promo discs here
This is a truly delightful album. I mean no disparagement when I say it sounds like a meeting of Debussy and easy listening. Splash! (1984), was of course the movie about the boy (Tom Hanks) who loves a mermaid (the lovely Daryl Hannah) who twice saves him from drowning off Cape Cod and pursues him to New York.
Holdridge's music is magical - particularly his sweeping romantic material. Of this, for instance, there is: the rather private and other-worldly 'Late at Night'; the delicacy and vulnerability of 'I Love You' that somehow suggests a concern about the 'impossible(?)' relationship; and the glorious full flowering of the romantic music in 'End Title.' Elsewhere, there are nicely evocative seascapes ('Underwater'), relaxed jazz treatments for 'In the bar' and lively upbeat material in 'Madison and Bloomingdales' as mermaid turned maiden discovers the delights of the New York shops. 'Watching TV' is a comfortable and dreamy guitar solo. Contrasting drama and excitement come with cues like 'Escape and Chase' written with equal skill and persuasion.
Rita Coolidge sings "Love Come For Me" the film's love theme and four bonus tracks including two of this song -- first with saxophone and then guitar soloists, and orchestra; plus an alternative take on another dreamily romantic cue, 'Rainy Night.'
A charming beautifully constructed score that makes ideal dinner party or late night listening or relaxing music for a long car ride.
Reviewer
Ian Lace
And Jeffrey Wheeler is equally enthusiastic:-
Easily dated (ahh, that 1980s sound serves as a personal, mental marker for my younger days), nevertheless timelessly sumptuous, Holdridge's Splash is too good for this promotional release. Everyone should have the opportunity to hear this. But, one takes what one can get.Holdridge's score for this fish... *mermaid*-out-of-water love story makes ample use of rolling strings and an ingenious main theme. The orchestrations are generally typical from this composer; pleasantly, liberally tuneful, intricately composed with a voluble emphasis on brief, easy solos backed by strings only. Holdridge swims straight (or strait, continuing with the puns) into these waters, setting the tone with the splendid 'Main Title.' The more intense cues, such as 'Escape and Chase,' are delightfully rousing and adventurous, and Holdridge paces the action-oriented tracks with exaggerated rhythms and artful flourishes. The love song by Lee Holdridge and Will Jennings, 'Love Came for Me,' garners a fair performance from singer Rita Coolidge, but the lyrics border on being trite schwarmerei (though surprisingly superior to Jennings' more recent output). What dates the soundtrack are cues like 'In the Bar,' which could readily play in elevators world-wide. The presence of Muzak in the score brings nothing joyful to the experience, but a human awareness quashes it swiftly.
The production is tolerable for a promotional release. The disc includes five bonus tracks: the film versions of 'Escape and Chase' & 'The Leap for Freedom,' two solo arrangements of 'Love Came for Me,' and another forgettable excursion into period scoring. The sound is sometimes grainy, a point that is especially obvious when Coolidge seems to be singing into a paper cup. The sleeve notes by Holdridge explain his approach in a thorough-though-casual manner, but I wonder what Ron Howard was attempting to do when he wrote his?
Reviewer
Jeffrey Wheeler
Information on obtaining Promo discs here
Here is another charming score from the abundantly melodic pen of Mr Holdridge who brilliantly captures the joy, delight and the darker side of childhood. Many, many children, especially little girls, all over the world will have read of the adventures of Heidi or seen or heard one of the innumerable radio or TV broadcasts of the story of the loveable orphan who delights enriches the life of everyone she meets. After charming her elusive grandfather and falling in love with the beautiful mountain he calls home, Heidi is uprooted and sent to Frankfurt where she befriends Klara, a young girl confined to a wheelchair. But Frankfurt drains Heidi's spirit and torn between her new friendship and the memory of her beloved Alps she faces a difficult decision.
For Heidi, Holdridge writes one of his most appealing and beautiful melodies full of pathos and compassion. A warm, sentimental sweet tune that accords perfectly with the character of the little girl. This main theme is treated to variations that are both sad and joyful. To underline a number of cues such as 'Peter Running to Heidi' and 'Running to the Church' the music takes on a distinctive classical quality rather like neo-Bach. 'Kittens on the Pillow' is one of Holdrige's exquisite vignettes, very evocative, cuddly, playful and perky. 'Grandmother's farewell' is suitably poignant and 'Lady of the Mountain' has an intriguing mystical quality. I was also drawn to the lovely intimate 'Heidi and Peter' cue for a reduced ensemble of flute, harp, piano and strings. Holdridge demonstrates his equal affinity for bleaker and more menacing, darker figures in 'Hanging on the Edge.
An entrancing score
Reviewer
Ian Lace
************************************************************** EDITOR’S RECOMMENDATION February 2000
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The colonated, state-the-obvious subtitle rather gives the game away that this is the score to a TV movie. Nothing else does. This is an immense score, and one which clearly reveals just how much, and for the better, TV scoring has become in recent years.
American TV movies love the immediacy of true stories, and this 1997 film is based on the stories of two fatal climbing expeditions to Everest in 1996. Given the subject matter, the fact that people really died just the year before in the events fictionalised in the film, the film-makers were faced with particularly difficult problems regarding tone, sensitivity and respect for the dead. From what I have been able to discover, they succeeded in making a realistic, honest and compelling film imbued with a palpable air of tragedy. Into Thin Air was very well received in America, though I have no idea whether or not it has appeared in the UK, either on television or video. It certainly seems to be well worth looking out for.
Composer Lee Holdridge obviously had to find just the right approach for his score, and while I can not comment on how his music works with the film, I would imagine two things. First, that the score on this disc could work very well indeed, and that to be able to support such powerful music the film must be a very strong piece of work. I say this because the sheer scale of Holdridge's music would overwhelm a lesser film. This is music with all the breadth of a major motion picture adventure score, a prime example of my opening reference to the development in television music. The score is fully orchestral, and performed by The Philharmonia Orchestra with augmented percussion (which includes an array of gongs and diako drums). The sound is breathtakingly powerful, and recorded, as Lee Holdridge accurately notes, with 'wonderful immediacy'.
Not so long ago there would have been very little purpose in going to the expense of recording the score to a television film on this scale, and with such a fine orchestra - though of course such things did happen - simply because the limited mono sound reproduction of most televisions would have been completely incapable of doing any sort of justice to the music. Now, with the rapid spread of NICAM stereo broadcasting and the acceptance of various surround sound systems for home viewing, an epic score can be viable on a TV movie. It is just one more example of the narrowing of the gap between the more ambitious television productions and much theatrical filmmaking.
Holdridge's score is very much of a piece, with 18 tracks running just over three-quarters of an hour maintaining moods of danger, suspense and lament. The writing is lean, craggy, immensely bold and forbiddingly intense as Everest itself. Here is the grandeur of the endless sky, the sheer physicality of the ancient mountains, the palpable cold, the raging storms, the knife-edge danger and unsentimental sorrow. Stern and implacable this music may be, but it is also thrillingly dynamic, with a chillingly rhythmic and compulsive main theme which by turns captures the absolute exhilaration of mountain climbing, and the ultimate price people sometimes pay for that priceless experience.
This may be an essentially monothematic score, interspersed with first class suspense and action music, but what a great theme it is, seemingly capable of every emotion from heroic victory to valedictory reflection. The forcefully driving 'Main Title', the triumphant 'The Summit' and the uncompromising 'Decision Time' are magnificent highlights, but quieter moments, such as the piano led 'Epilogue' have a power all their own. Play loud and passages here will send shivers down your spine and make the hairs on the back of you neck stand on end.
Into Thin Air is a superb score in its own right. It also makes a fine companion to another score, which quite possibly was being written at exactly the same time. Jerry Goldsmith's The Edge offers comparable and equal pleasures, but rather different music. The Edge was another 1997 production, this time a large-scale cinema release telling the fictional story of three men stranded in the snowbound Alaskan wilderness. Again the strength of the mountains, the endless blue skies, the beauty and the terror, are captured in music. If you already know the Goldsmith score, then be assured that you will enjoy Into Thin Air to approximately the same degree. If you don't know the Goldsmith, treat yourself and buy two great scores.
One final note. Lee Holdridge's music is fairly new to me, yet he has written music for at least 120 productions over the last 30 years. The reason I haven't encountered much of his music is that the vast majority has been written for American television films. Now at the risk of being accused of discriminating, I am going to suggest that his talent is being wasted to a certain degree, for here is a composer who has the compositional ability, dramatic sensitivity and sense of musical scale to be a cinema composer of the highest rank. On the evidence of Into Thin Air, plus the few other scores I have heard, Lee Holdridge should be an A List composer regularly scoring major theatrical releases. There was a period in the late 70's and early 80's when he scored several 'name' features, but none were particularly successful, and since then he has rarely ventured outside of TV movies. I hope that one day in the not to distant future Holdridge will have the opportunity to score a massive multiplex release, then the whole film music community will sit up and be amazed.
Reviewer
Gary S. Dalkin
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There's a "Main Theme" pleasantly introduced by "Prologue" that suggests a hero motif after a red herring harmonica and guitar introduction. The piece that will more likely stay with you though stems from "The Giant" himself. This is an almost clichéd 'dum dum DAH' theme of pantomime proportions. It no doubt mimics the beast's heavy footfalls, but moreover impresses with its seeming cheekiness. Is this spoofery or not? Some of the later light material seems to think so (e.g. "Members of the Club").
Neither grandly dramatic, nor romantically heartfelt, this music sits somewhere in-between.
Reviewer
Paul Tonks
In places ambient to the point of non-existence, Michael Brook's score for Paul Schrader's Affliction may be just what the director ordered, but offers little to hold the attention as an album. Paul Schrader provided the screenplays for the two last films scored by Bernard Herrmann Taxi Driver, and the vastly under-rated Vertigo homage, Obsession. Both benefited enormously from superb musical scores. Indeed, Obsession is graced by one of the finest film scores ever written. Yet while there was always an intensely human emotional fire at the heart of Herrmann's musical darkness, since Schrader has become a director he has sought the most minimally uninvolving of scores, from American Gigolo, through Blue Collar to Affliction. Such music may support the film, but fails to add the extra dimension a great score can, to the extend that Schrader's films so often seem lifeless, detached, clinical.
Affliction is a bleak character drama of a life unravelling against the snowbound landscape of rural New Hampshire, and the score reflects this stark drama in cold, emotionally drained soundscapes which are solemn, sober and unforgiving. Tempo and mood barely change, as Brook mixes string quartet, guitars, French horn, percussion, bass and electronics into a chill portrait of a disintegrating world. Melody is far away, and often little seems to be happening, for this is a score of minimal affect, where atmospheric textures are all. There are places where an electronic drone is all that is required, while elsewhere a steel guitar picks out the skeleton of a theme, the string quartet offer a chill lament, or sampled strings simply exist - a backdrop to the most pared-down of cinematic visions.
Michael Brook, perhaps most famed for inventing the 'infinite guitar' (which is featured here) is an acclaimed musician/composer in the territory between modern jazz and ambient/experimental music, and has worked with Brian Eno and The Pogues, as well as providing music for The Captive, Heat and Albino Alligator. He is obviously skilled at what he does, but this disc's rightful home is perhaps as post-modern elevator music for a company marketing itself at the cutting edge of contemporary culture.
Reviewer
Gary S. Dalkin
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The movies covered by this collection are undeniably classics. Without the cheesy yet straight-faced approach of the Roger Corman productions and Vincent Price's spot-on casting, the horror movie of today wouldn't know what to do with itself.
The late nights you may well have spent watching re-runs of them won't prepare you for the disc sadly. This is hard-edged stuff - often unpalatably so, as in the opening cue from "The Pit & The Pendulum". This begins the disc's bulk coverage of Les Baxter's material. A man who constantly pursued the exotica; as witness his theremin albums of the forties and fifties. "Pit" is followed by "The Sphinx" for the "The Edgar Allen Poe Suite", which at first seems as if it'll sustain some semblance of tonality, with piano stabs and stately strings but then devolves into a weird synth denouement.
This is the peaks and troughs experience of the album as a whole really. Just as your ears prick up to a moment of tenderness (e.g. the delicate and lovely "Cask of Amontillado"), it's followed hard upon by something that immediately breaks the spell (in this example, by some truly uncomfortable passages for high strings in "The Tell - Tale Heart"). This applies to the nth degree for the almost 20 minutes of "Cry of the Banshee", with plenty of aural discomfort to endure - although it ends on a nice beat from tambourine and percussion over string-led melody.
Sad to say, the most consistently enjoyable piece of the album is John Cacavas' "Horror Express" which fills out the running time at the end. Though slightly dated by the mores of seventies music (whistling, funky guitar, etc) it is nonetheless an engaging 20 minutes or so.
To those who really relish recalling late night horror specials, this will undoubtedly hold many memories. Otherwise it's all just a little too scary.
Reviewer
Paul Tonks
David Michael Frank, the composer of numerous TV movies composed the music for this kids' adventure movie, in which a kid, in trouble, is mistaken for the hero Aladdin, and magically transferred to Baghdad by a genie.
The first thing that struck me upon listening to this score for the first time was its resemblance to Star Trek music. To be more specific, the way 'Desert Opening' sounded suspiciously like James Horner's Star Trek II/III theme. I can't say whether this was intentional or not but it feels quite disturbing. The whole score sounds very familiar in places, which makes you wonder whether Franck has borrowed from, or was requested to model his music on the styles of various composers. If you can overlook this, you will probably find this Aladdin interesting and quite colourful, with lively, fast-paced action pieces like 'The Market Chase', which borrows from Indiana Jones' There are epic, driving marches rendered by percussion and brass in "The Guardians of the Key', suspenseful strings in 'Sandstorm' and mellow, sweet love themes over delicate layers of strings like in 'Love Blooms'. Actually the whole score revolves around 2-3 specific themes occasionally spiced by Arabic music, although not as much as one would expect for a movie taking place in Baghdad.
The fact that this score sounds like a reworking of existing themes beyond the point of calling it "paying tribute" does not necessarily hinder its enjoyment. Although, quite repetitive but never becomes really boring. Proceed with caution.
Reviewer
Kostas Anagnostou
Ernest TROOST One Man's Hero
It is with a heavy sigh that I present this dismissive review. In my year's round-up for 1998, I offered up a prayer that there wouldn't be too many Titanic wannabes. A minute into the "Main Titles", the Uilleann pipes are going to send an all too familiar shudder down your spine. Then there's the voices and whole melody of "Joining the Army" to get through too. And although this score to a tale from the Mexican-American war goes on to include Mexican colours (a prominent guitar naturally), it's very hard to get past the weak opening. The cues do little to offend other than often seem achingly pedestrian, but that's enough for this reviewer to begrudge an hour experiencing temp-track hell.
Reviewer
Paul Tonks
This is a typical case where a straight-to-video movie drags a remarkable score down to oblivion. The Paper Brigade, one among the countless movies never to reach the big screen, features a score by Ray Colcord whose credits include many TV shows and half a dozen films. The movie revolves around the battle between rival gangs of paper-boys --one with a crazed leader. 'Sounds like unexceptional and uninspiring stuff; nevertheless, Ray Colcord manages to pierce through the thick layer of clichés and recycled comic material to produce a score that is a well-balanced blend of musical styles including, but not limited to, military music, fanfares and the comic/grotesque.
Thrilling, pounding action music passes through the score in many instances, such as 'Operation H.A.D', 'The PaperMeister, and 'The Final Battle' where layers of beat, snare drums and synths led by an orchestra heavy with brass provide this kids' comedy with a distinct militaristic flavour. Fanfares such as in 'The Final Battle' and 'Jubilation', typical of epic pirate movies are certainly not expected in this kind of movies and are a treat! Even suspense music, craftily built with strings, reminiscent of Herrmann's Psycho, emerges in cues such as 'Human Dogbone' and 'First Morning'. This doesn't mean that the score is devoid of comic elements though!
Lovely and joyfully funny music such as at the end of 'The PaperMeister' or 'Man vs. Beast' can be relished while 'True Love', rendered by strings adds a short but delightful romantic touch that, unfortunately, never develops into a full blossomed love theme. Soothing guitar music is featured in 'Dad's Proud Lecture.'
The Paper Brigade is mostly light-hearted, occasionally bravado. The harmonies and orchestration are quite rich and colourful. Highly recommended!
Reviewer
Kostas Anagnostou
After this disc is done, it's very easy for the ear to group together all that was negative and miss what was positive. Towns' notes in the booklet his intention to compete / complete the film's other-wordly sound FX. While that blends nicely to lend the visuals an appropriate atmosphere, in our standalone listening experience these effects are highly distracting. Since most burst out of the middle of a nicely developed orchestral piece, the tendency is to forget what precedes and follows, and to instead be wringing out one's earlobe from an electronic crash or two.
There's an eerie piano line (best reprised in "A Million Voices"), and plenty of small moments. But ultimately a repeat listen yields the same results - too much disparity overpowering the subtler shading.
reviewer
Paul Tonks
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Following on from the Herrmann and North collections, Smeaton is a surprising but most welcome continuation in the series. Sadly, there is an immediate problem the listener is faced with by this disc. A Town Like Alice is the first of the two scores represented, but it is a generous 47 minutes bound together as two cues in a "Symphonic Suite of Themes from the TV Score". This makes it quite impossible to highlight the score's brightest moment (of which there are many). It's made more maddening by what are quite obvious pauses between tracks anyway.
The TV dramatisation was known in some territories as The Legacy. It tells a WWII tale of love between P.O.W.s. The tone is consistently light and playful, to depict the nobly struggling spirit indomitable to its oppressive circumstances. To say the music comes across as unmistakably Australian isn't to suggest native Aboriginal instrumentation. Instead there's a lyrical, almost waltz-like quality in the best tradition of the country's famously associated song. The main theme appears repeatedly in many subtle guises, but without identifying cue numbers or titles it's all but impossible to pinpoint the most lush or dramatic of the variations. There is more variety in the second of the lengthy cues, where there is the odd spot of more densely written drama, and also a back stoop hop that can be jigged along to.
Iceman is the second score and is perhaps ideally coupled with the former in an effort to demonstrate Smeaton's range. When you get to "Vivarium" which puts shakahuchi over keyboard icicle drips, you know you're a long way from the first score. There's a lot of experimental sound for this. Amongst the blowing icy landscapes from strings and woodwinds, there's plenty of skirmishes into atonality on exotic percussion.
The title music is the most memorable material - a use of the shakahuchi which far eclipses anything Horner has ever achieved.
Reviewer
Paul Tonks
This CD arrived too late to include in our special Lalo Schifrin feature on this site last month.
The Eagle Has Landed (1976) starred Michael Caine, Donald Sutherland and Robert Duvall. It was a World War II adventure caper about a Nazi attempt to kidnap Winston Churchill from an English country house. Schifrin created a powerful, tense score which considerably helped the rather plodding direction. His music is built around a one-note motif, always the same, repeated several times throughout most of the cues, sometimes, individually or together, by cymbalom, the drums, even the entire orchestra in a fortissimo statement. The Main Title introduces most of the material; swooping, oscillating high strings and woodwinds play against views of the Bavarian Alps and the one note obsession theme is pronounced against a military-style background. This is a richly textured cue that even accommodates some romantic material. 'Eagle Falls in Love' begins with a jaunty theme that is given to a whistler and proceeds to fresh out-of-doors, Irish folk-tune type music. There are one or two calmer episodes such as 'The Swan' in which the cymbalom plays the romantic theme and occasionally the music evokes, quite well, the English landscape. However, the music is predominantly Boys-Own-Paper adventure stuff: sinister, stealthy and tenser and tenser culminating in screaching, screaming strings in cues like 'Eagle versus Fox' in which the use of the snare drum echoes Ron Goodwin's even tenser music for Where Eagles Dare (1969).
The final cue is the End Credits March which has a determined tramp, tramp, tramp quality that can be quite catchy. An above-average score for an action thriller.
Reviewer
Ian Lace
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