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EDITOR’s RECOMMENDATION July 2000
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Roy WEBB
Music for the films of Val Lewton:
Cat People; The Seventh Victim; The Body Snatcher; I Walked With A Zombie
Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra (Bratislava) William T. Stromberg
Marco Polo 8.225125
[69:53]
Crotchet
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Of all the film music discs produced by Marco Polo and conducted by William
Stromberg, this is, in my opinion, the most important. I am aware of only
one other disc devoted to the music of Roy Webb and that was a release of
original soundtracks on the Silva Screen label (CNS 5008). It is an essential
buy but it contains only one extended suite (the marvelous Curse of the Cat
People). Most of the cues last only a couple of minutes and offer a mere
sampling of the work Webb was doing at RKO during the 1940s. The sound of
these recordings is in mono but is excellent nonetheless. Aside from the
Silva disc and a couple of re-recorded suites (Notorious on Varese Sarabande
and The Seventh Victim on a long-out-of-print Decca album entitled Satan
Superstar!), Webb's music has been largely ignored. Why this is may have
to do with the nature of Webb's scoring which is unusually restrained when
compared with that of his contemporaries. I've often noticed how a Webb score
lurks in the background--an ominous presence more felt than heard.
What happens when you pull this music away from its source and bring it out
into the light? To me the result is a revelation. Far from being just a series
of chromatic chords and orchestral effects, Webb's music is multi-layered;
relying on complex counterpoint, impressionist-like harmonies and
thoroughly-worked thematic development for its effect. He's been described
as a composer ahead of his time and I can understand why. His methods of
scoring resemble those more commonly used in the 1950s and 60s when composers
such as North, Friedhofer, Bernstein and Goldsmith were paring down the rhetoric
and bombast that had afflicted so many scores during Hollywood's "Golden
Age". Webb seems to have led the way in this regard and its sad that he has
lingered in near obscurity for so long.
I should have known that John Morgan and Bill Stromberg would come to the
rescue. They have similarly served other underrated composers such as H.J.
Salter, Frank Skinner and Hugo Friedhofer and their discs devoted to these
composers have been the highlights of the Marco Polo series. This new Webb
disc is now my absolute favorite. Aside from the fact that the music is
extraordinarily good, I also feel this disc features Bill Stromberg's very
best and most sensitive conducting captured in sound that is superior to
other issues in this series. That may be the result of a change of recording
venues for this disc, along with the brilliant new recording of mystery and
horror scores by Salter and Skinner, was recorded using the Slovak Radio
Symphony Orchestra rather than the usual Moscow Symphony Orchestra. The war
in Serbia evidently made it impossible for Morgan and Stromberg to get to
Moscow at the time these recordings were made. I was initially disappointed
when I learned that Marco Polo had chosen Bratislava and the Slovak Radio
Symphony Orchestra because I haven't been too impressed with that orchestra's
playing on other Marco Polo discs - especially those conducted by Adriano.
Here they sound completely in sync with Webb's idiom. I can only guess that
the combination of the music and Stromberg's inspired musical leadership
drew from them their very best playing.
As is usually the case with these old scores, Morgan had to rely on piano
reductions and his extraordinary ears to reconstruct the music. Webb's scoring
is much more subtle and chamber-like and Morgan has resisted the temptation
to beef it up. There were only a few places where I felt a fuller string
sound would have helped such as in the main titles for Bedlam and The Seventh
Victim, otherwise the reconstructions sound note perfect to my ears. Morgan
had literally hundreds of Webb scores to chose from when compiling this disc
but he selected a few that Webb wrote for RKO producer Val Lewton. It was
the perfect choice. The Lewton/Webb partnership is one of the less lauded
but most significant in the history of film. Lewton's films are frequently
described as psychological horror films and almost all contain a "walk" or
long stretch during which one of the characters travels through some ominous
landscape to escape danger or resolve a conflict. The most famous example
may be the walk through the sugar canes in I Walked With A Zombie or little
Teresa's evening journey to buy flour in The Leopard Man. These segments
are devoid of dialogue. A less sophisticated composer may have papered such
delicate scenes with layers of music but not Roy Webb. His scoring, when
it's used, is subtly integrated into all the other elements of the scene
in a way uncommon with film scoring during that time. Lewton was extremely
fortunate to have had access to a composer whose understated style so beautifully
reflected his own.
This disc contains extended suites from Cat People and The Seventh Victim
and shorter suites from Bedlam, The Body Snatcher and I Walked With A Zombie.
It's a generously filled disc (70 minutes) and Morgan has done his usual
masterful job in putting the suites together. I'm especially pleased that
he has given us so much of the score for The Seventh Victim. It is an absolute
masterpiece and the highlight of this disc. The film itself is Lewton's darkest
and Webb's score is mesmerizing in the way that it is manages to be both
eerily beautiful and deeply unsettling. Listen to the cues "The Palladists'
Trial", "The Chase" and "Desirous of Death" and you'll hear Webb's art at
its absolute zenith. His use of instrumental color is as original as Bernard
Herrmann's but a good deal more subtle. His use of whirling counterpoint
disturbed by occasional flashes of harsh dissonance is typical as is the
emphasis on harmony and instrumental sonority. In this regard, Webb's music
sounds very impressionistic but he is more of the English than French school,
I believe.
Webb's music does at times remind me of the music of Arnold Bax, Frank Bridge
and John Ireland and I like to think that hearing these scores gives us some
idea of what those masters might have written if they had ever composed music
for a horror film.
My only complaint about this Seventh Victim suite is that it omits the tender
music for the scene where Jason and Mary view the search light outside his
apartment window. It was included in Christopher Palmer's much briefer suite
recorded by Stanley Black but that recording is long out of print. I suspect
there was not enough time available to include it here but its absence is
sorely felt.
We do get a lengthy suite from Cat People and that music has its moments
of menace but the overall tone is tragic for it expresses the conflicted
emotions of the film's protagonist, the haunted Irena, so beautifully played
by the great Simone Simon. Also beautiful is the score for I Walked With
A Zombie.
Morgan assembled a small chorus of basses for the "Zombie Chant" and their
inclusion is indicative of the care and attention given to recreating these
scores for recording. They've also included the street beggar's ballad from
The Body Snatcher sung by Maria Knapkova. Her diction is a little awkward
but she captures the spirit of the song and it adds immensely to the suite.
I hope Morgan and Stromberg can be convinced to give us the complete score
to The Body Snatcher for it is another masterwork and there is much great
music not included in this suite. I would recommend Webb's score for Curse
of The Cat
People as a companion. I'd love to hear what Morgan and Stromberg would do
with that gorgeous music. The Slovak orchestra plays these scores with tremendous
sensitivity. Bill Stromberg captures the atmosphere and mood of the music
without allowing it to become staid or monotonous. He has really developed
into a fine conductor and I'm delighted to see him branching out into recording
concert music as well. I can't imagine his performances of this music ever
being bettered and I suspect Roy Webb would have been thrilled if he had
lived long enough to hear it. I hope having more of his music available will
bring about a renewed interest in his music for he was one of the greatest
and most original practitioners in his field. This disc receives my highest
possible recommendation.
Reviewer
Richard R. Adams
Ian Lace adds:-
I heartily endorse everything Richard has said in his fine perceptive review
above. Roy Web has always been underrated. This important release confirms
what we have long suspected from listening to the SILVA SCREEN OST release,
and the scores while watching Lewton's superior horror films (better classified
as psychological thrillers), that Webb should be celebrated with Korngold,
Steiner and Waxman et al, as another important pioneer of original film music.
Listening to the Cat People Suite I was conscious of a marked similarity
to Max Steiner's music especially in the warmer romantic, more compassionate
music but there is an added subtlety too that is entirely Webb's own to portray
the complex and tormented character that is Irena. But then Webb follows
Lewton's intent to make his characters seem real and three-dimensional rather
than the stock 'cut-outs' of the Universal and Hammer horrors. Webb's restraint
and sympathy impresses just as much as the music that makes us shudder -
and he certainly does this especially his jagged unsettling Cat theme
particularly when it is given to the high woodwinds - it makes the flesh
creep.
Webb's ability to seamlessly mix 18th century elegance with modern
dissonance for the more terrifying sequences in Bedlam impresses as
does his brooding 'Scottish' music for The Body Snatcher. I agree
with everything Richard says about The Seventh Victim - a marvellous
score but I am equally impressed with the shimmering beauty and infinite
sadness of Webb's music for I Walked with a Zombie.
It is also good to hear the RKO Studio Fanfare prefacing the three major
scores on this album and the booklet notes as is usual for this series are
very full and instructive
Ian Lace
