INTRADA Announces:
ESCAPE FROM ALCATRAZ
Composed and Conducted by JERRY FIELDING
HELL IS FOR HEROES
Composed and Conducted by Leonard Rosenman
INTRADA Special Collection Vol. 236
From the pitted war zone of the Siegfried Line to the rough-hewn cliffs of Alcatraz Island, few directors equaled Don Siegel when it came to navigating the stark landscape of masculine cinema, frequently populated by tough men under extreme duress. This new release from Intrada features two such scores: Jerry Fielding's Escape from Alcatraz and Leonard Rosenman's Hell is for Heroes.
Hell is for Heroes was inspired by a true story from World War II about a small squad charged with holding an indefensible position along the Siegfried Line. The impressive ensemble cast included Bobby Darin, Fess Parker, Harry Guardino, James Coburn and Nick Adams, along with Bob Newhart as an out-of-his-depth private. But the star of the show was Steve McQueen as Reese, a rough outsider with a tarnished past who speaks bluntly and acts independently.
Leonard Rosenman was no stranger to war pictures, having previously scored such films as Pork Chop Hill (1959) and The Outsider (1961). Following Hell Is for Heroes, Pirosh would hire him to score the television series Combat! in much the same vein as his score for this feature. Rosenman’s sparsely spotted score makes the most of its relatively brief moments in the picture using skittering low strings and scattered piano figures to create a bleak portrait of war as a state of constant unease and agitation. The studio archived Hell Is for Heroes on three-track 35mm mag, allowing for a present-day true stereo mix.
Based on true events, Escape from Alcatraz focuses on the prison in June 1962, when three convicts managed to create dummies for their beds, dig through their cell walls and escape into San Francisco Bay. Unconfirmed sightings fostered rumors that they had survived the treacherous waters. Alcatraz prison closed less than a year later.
It immediately became apparent that the film required an unconventional, amelodic approach. Fielding opted for musique concrète, an electro-acoustic form, involving sonic manipulations beyond the normal spheres of melody, harmony and meter. Using techniques developed in his personal studio, Fielding dramatically altered the speed and pitch of individual instruments (as well as sound effects from the film) to achieve an intensely eerie atmosphere. A result of Fielding’s creative vision, however, is that the score only exists in the finished mixes, archived on three channels of 4-track ½˝ tape. Some cues are monaural, some are multiple monaural (grouping instrumental sections for dubbing purposes, but not reflecting the physical layout of an orchestra), and some are mostly monaural with isolated effects. This premiere CD presents the tracks in varying forms of stereo and artificial stereo for optimal listening purposes.
INTRADA Special Collection Vol. 236
Retail Price: $19.99
Available Now
For track listing and sound samples, please visit
http://store.intrada.com/s.nl/it.A/id.7970/.f
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