INTRADA Announces
THE GOLDEN SEAL
Music by JOHN BARRY and DANA KAPROFF
INTRADA Special Collection Volume 89
The 1983 film The Golden Seal features an unusual collaboration between composers John Barry and Dana Kaproff. The film stars Steve Railsback as Jim Lee, a fisherman who lives on an Aleutian island with his wife Tania (Penelope Milford) and their lonely, headstrong son Eric (Torquil Campbell), who, as the film begins, is despondent over the death of a litter of puppies. When Eric sights a mysterious animal in the waters off the island, an indigenous Aleutian called Semeyon relates the legend of the golden seal, an enchanted denizen of the ocean that is actually highly coveted by the hunters and trappers of the region for its fantastically valuable pelt. The only other person who has seen the golden seal is Eric’s father, and Lee is haunted (and teased by the locals) over the lost opportunity the animal represents for his destitute family. For Eric, the animal represents the opportunity for companionship on his lonely island.
John Barry was hired to contribute music to The Golden Seal, but with pressing work on blockbusters like the James Bond film Octopussy and the Tom Selleck adventure High Road to China, Barry was not able to score all of the movie. Barry tackled some of the film’s key sequences and Kaproff collaborated with Barry on several other cues and completed the film’s score on his own using themes provided by Barry. Some of the score's highlights include Kaproff’s "Main Title," which opens with the sounds of a solo wooden flute over high-sustained strings, with eventual support from low brass and strings—music that reflects the sensibility of the native Aleutians and characterizes the vast, lonely landscape of the islands as the story begins. Barry himself provides the blind Aleutian Semeyon with an important theme in “Semeyon and Voyage”—a rich melody played by cellos. In “Williwa” Barry provides a melancholy tune for harmonica, recorded with maximum reverb to give it a lonely, ghostly quality, adding horns and woodwinds for a more epic feel. One of the score’s highlights is Barry’s “Frolic,” which accompanies Eric playing in the ocean with the two golden seals. Barry’s mellow theme rolls through this lyrical sequence intact for the first minute or so, voiced by strings and reeds with a particularly sweet and reflective bridge. As the lengthy scene progresses Barry adds a six-note rhythmic flourish for strings, and Barry’s score becomes increasingly majestic, with oboes and high strings handing off the rhythmic figure against swelling French horns and a proud new figure for brass, all climaxing in a section for pounding percussion before the final bars of keening, high pitched strings in classic Barry manner. Barry’s flowing, mellifluous underscoring is perfect for the balletic imagery and the cue is a highlight of his output, not only looking back to the grandeur of his Born Free score but also anticipating the powerful feeling he would bring to his Oscar-winning score to Dances With Wolves in 1990. The film’s end credits feature a charming song version of Barry’s golden seal theme called “Letting Go,” performed by Glen Campbell with lyrics by frequent Barry collaborator Don Black. Barry also wrote a full end title treatment of his golden seal theme, adding a glittering counterpoint of strings and chimes to bring the score to a rousing conclusion.
This premiere CD release of The Golden Seal was remixed and mastered from the original 1/2" three-track session masters at MGM, featuring the complete score and is limited to 2000 units.
INTRADA Special Collection - Volume 89
Retail Price: 19.99
AVAILABLE NOW
For track listing and sound samples, please visit
http://store.intrada.com/s.nl/it.A/id.6007/.f
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