INTRADA Announces:
A CHILD IS WAITING
Composed and Conducted by ERNEST GOLD
INTRADA Special Collection Volume 127
For the 1963 MGM drama A Child is Waiting, composer Ernest Gold composed a score that is both heartfelt and traditional, both sad and sympathetic. It is a strongly thematic score, mostly exercising a single, long theme. Gold employs his predominantly string-based orchestra to carry the theme associated with the caretaking hospital and staff. In “Opening,” the theme is stately and institutional, as the hospital appears on screen in action. Notably, there is a secondary oboe line, which captures the isolation and frequently out-of-sync character of the abandoned child Reuben. The theme takes on a joyous, playful mode to capture the warmth of families reuniting with their children, but then changes to a more uncertain mode when Reuben’s family fails to arrive. The theme gets a more ominous treatment in “The Leiter Test,” and is punctuated by sharper, dissonant chords in “He’s Defective” as Reuben’s fate is sealed. Intrada's premiere release presents the complete score in film order, punctuated by a source cue and a distinctive treatment for the “Main Title,” in which the real-life young patients sing a medley of “Old MacDonald Had A Farm” and “Ten Little Indians” over a coarse percussion track, reminiscent of child’s impromptu concert.
Producer Stanley Kramer and screenwriter Abby Mann imagined a traditional, star-driven drama about a would-be teacher Jean Hansen (Judy Garland) arriving at a New Jersey State hospital wishing to find work with mentally-retarded children. Although she has almost no experience or qualifications, her empathetic nature proves sufficient for the head of the institution, Dr. Clark (Burt Lancaster) to offer her a job. Jean befriends Reuben (Bruce Richey), who has been effectively abandoned by his parents.
The score is presented complete from the original mono elements and is limited to 1000 copies.
INTRADA Special Collection Vol. 127
Retail Price: $19.99
AVAILABLE 3/30/2010
For track listing and sound samples, please visit
http://store.intrada.com/s.nl/it.A/id.6553/.f
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