Intrada Soundtrack Forum

INTRADA Announces:



SOUNDER/DECISION FOR CHEMISTRY
Composed and Conducted by Alex North
INTRADA Special Collection Vol. 284

Alex North had a deep affinity for the music of the American South, and following his landmark 1951 score for A Streetcar Named Desire he’d been given frequent opportunities to harness this love. One such opportunity came in the form of 1972's Sounder, based on the beloved young adult novel by William H. Armstrong. It takes its name from a hunting dog belonging to an impoverished family of Southern black sharecroppers, telling the story of young David Lee Morgan and his quest to find the chain gang where his father is serving hard labor after stealing food. North’s empathy for the careworn Morgan family is apparent from the score’s opening bars. The main title begins with a haunting, gospel-tinged melody for flute and strings, backed by a soft guitar line. This is followed by a cheerful passage highlighting harmonica, before the piece concludes with an impassioned viola solo— a microcosm of the film’s hardships, joys and sorrows, all masterfully distilled into ninety seconds. Early in the production, producer Robert Radnitz had hired the prominent blues musician Taj Mahal to portray a minor character and perform on screen. Radnitz ultimately became so enamored of Mahal that he insisted the bluesman be commissioned to provide all-new background music, tossing North's score into obscurity. Until now.

The 1953 corporate short film Decision for Chemistry runs a little under an hour in length and was produced by Monsanto Chemical for screenings at schools and other assemblies across America. Its stated purpose was to intrigue boys and young men with exciting scenes from the world of cutting-edge chemical engineering, in the hope that they would choose chemistry as a career track (or at least gain a greater appreciation for the work of Monsanto). North’s score is robustly American through and through. In its grandest and most inspirational moments, it swells with broad, sweeping melodies that conjure the vast and limitless potential of the spirit of enterprise. This is counterbalanced by more intimate passages that sketch, with bucolic whimsy, the life of typical small-town lads. It is the lengthy industrial montages, however, where North is really able to cut loose, deploying kinetic jazz rhythms and lots of busy overlapping lines. Appropriately, North uses modernist touches for the more scienceoriented scenes. It all adds up to an energetic portrait of an artist in full command of his creative powers.

Both scores, taken from mono sources, premiere here and capture a slice of quintessential Americana.

INTRADA Special Collection Vol. 284
Retail Price: $19.99
Available NOW
For track listing and sound samples, please visit
http://store.intrada.com/s.nl/it.A/id.8873/.f

Fabulous looking release, ordered immediately, thanks Intrada!

Boy, was I honored to do the liner notes for this one! The music is gorgeous, and I've been awaiting release day with great excitement. Alex North fans (and fans of American film music in general) are in for a real treat -- as the generous sound clips will demonstrate!

This is my kind of release. One of the true greats, with two releases I had no clue even existed. Intrada, you make me happy.

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Randy Wilson
Dallas, TX

"Sounder" is a film that I'd never heard of (It must have a very limited release in my area or it came out when I was quite ill in 1972) so I've never seen it but reading the reviews of it on IMDB it seems to be a very impressive movie. Listening to the music samples the score sounds to be an outstanding one and could I venture to suggest that had Martin Ritt NOT opted to replace Mr. North's score with one by Taj Mahal (not having seen the film I can't comment on whether it was any good or not) this might have been the score that finally would have won Alex his long overdue Oscar without the Academy realising that he had lost out over the years and gave him one of their "whoops, sorry we forgot all about you!! Awards (they did the same to Alfred Hitchcock and upon accepting it merely said "thank you" and walked offstage thus expressing his opinion of the Academy!!) 1972 wasn't the best year for soundtracks as it was with Charles Chaplin was the Oscar winner for "Limelight", a film made 20 years previously, thus denying John Williams his first Academy Award for "The Poesidon Adventure". Such is showbusiness.

I'm very excited to hear this CD. Weirdly, almost too excited. Maybe after all the expanded reissues of late, I'm eager to hear some great music I've never heard a note of before (for this reason, I haven't even tried the samples). I haven't ordered yet, only because I'm going out of town for a week (come and take my stuff, everybody!) so I'll wait until I get back. But I know this is going to be a good one.

I remember seeing "Sounder" when it was first on cable, and liking it, though I remember next to nothing about it now. I do recall that the sequel was called "Part Two, Sounder," which even as twelve year olds, my friends and I thought was the most ridiculously pretentious title a film could have.

Alex North is the consummate composer, I find his music utterly brilliant. These two scores are absolutely first rate, just what I would expect from the great North. It is hard to believe that his score for "Sounder" was dumped to favor of a far lessor one.

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Robert M Eastman

I was away, and only yesterday finally had a chance to listen to this CD. What a wonderful release it is! I fear this may have gone under the radar for a lot of fans, which would not be surprising. After all, we can't count on "Decision for Chemistry" fans to discuss it on chemistry fan sites. But it's terrific early North, vital and exciting and musical. "Sounder" is solid and flavorful, a wonderful journey. I look forward to my second listen.

Let me assure anybody on the fence about this one, it is not hyperbole when I tell you this CD is a milliondy-jillion times better than most releases you'll see this year!

I couldn't find this topic over at FSM and didn't bother starting a new thread over there because if no one is interested in this, they're crazy. This has been a dull summer for me for releases, but this pair of film music by Alex North is just what I've been waiting for. Don't let the generic CD cover fool you! These are two wonderful scores and very accessible whether you've seen the films, or not. Courageous work releasing these titles Intrada, and my profound thanks as always.

The FSM search engine is wonky, so it's better to use Google! Here's the thread:

http://www.filmscoremonthly.com/board/p ... &archive=0

Feel free to resurrect it!