Intrada Soundtrack Forum

I have to admit that I've never really been big on source cues with soundtracks. Most of the time they're all at the end of the CD so you don't really have to listen. It's my opinion in most cases that just a strong, organized presentation of the score suffices just fine without them.

Then again, as long as they're put at the end they don't bother me really. I may listen to them once but that's it. Anyone have thoughts on soundtracks with souce cues they really like? Dislike?

Matt

I cannont imagine listening to one of Miklos Rozsa's epic or historical romance scores without the source music. Think of what we would lose: waltzes, marches, gavottes, and so on. In other words many of the scenes where Rozsa's 'musical archaeology' was most prominently on display.

If I had a very minor quibble with Bruce Broughton's excellent re-recording of IVANHOE it was that a favourite source cue I associated with Rotherwood wasn't included. Probably worth repeating that this is a very minor, and friendly, quibble not intended to cast aspersions on the overall quality of that project.

Bob

It depends on the style of the score versus the style of the source music.

If the source music is written by the film composer, sometimes it will be integrated into the action similar to straight scoring. Films scored by Rózsa usually had original source music in them that are part of the scores proper.

Sometimes a catchy source cue can break up an album as a listening experience as well. Goldsmith's Chinatown LP had one source cue per side. It works because it grounds the album in the era of the film (which musically it doesn't relate to as much).

Sometimes exotic source cues written by the film's composer can be interesting. John Barry's pieces for High Road to China come to mind. Also, Trevor Jones' source tracks from The Dark Crystal.

I also didn't mind either of the non-Howard Shore source tracks by Plan 9 that were included on The Fellowship of the Ring complete recordings.

Daniel Amfitheatrof's source music for Salome's dance in George Duning's score for the Columbia film SALOME (re-recorded by Charles Gerhardt and also available on an old Decca 10" vinyl recording (also as a 45 rpm set) is another example of non-composer source music blending well with another composer's dramatic score. Speaking of Bernstein, he had a similar relationship with TEN COMMANDMENTS (contracted to write the source cues for the Egyptian and Hebrew dances), with Victor Young doing the score, but not able to do the job because of health difficulties, thus Bernstein doing the score.

I prefer a composer writing the source music and dramatic score, probably because I value cohesion and it can sometimes register subtle dramatic relationships when transposed to the score proper. Barry, Bernstein, Newman, Rozsa, Steiner and Williams,among others, could certainly pull it off. But they are old school examples. We see it less frequently in contemporary scoring. Anyone have a theory on why this is the case - strategic marketing on the part of studios, scores being composed and recorded in shorter time periods, composer limitations?

Bob

I think that a certain amount of it can be attributed to the fact that movies in a contemporary setting would by nature feature pop music of a type that no longer blends as well into a dramatic score. This doesn't effect period pieces or fantastic cinema as much, of course; one of the most obvious examples of a scoring composer creating unforgettable source music is the Cantina Band sequences from Star Wars, let us not forget, and that in the very era that redefined how pop music could work in a cinematic context. The other huge selling Polydor double LP soundtrack from then was Saturday Night Fever.