INTRADA Announces:
THE MIRACLE WORKER
Composed and Conducted by LAURENCE ROSENTHAL
INTRADA Special Collection Volume 130
The whole score came to me almost effortlessly. The images were so profoundly moving to me, a father of two little girls, that they seemed to translate themselves unbidden into musical colors, shapes, and harmonies. I have never since had a comparable experience.
—Laurence Rosenthal, March 2010
When the opening titles to The Miracle Worker appear on screen, Helen Keller is wandering in a fog of darkness and silence, with only music defining Helen’s experience of the world. The tone is melancholic and alienated, with uncomfortable harmonic intervals, spooky vibraphone, and a melody that floats airily over a restless orchestral bed. The opening measures introduce composer Laurence Rosenthal’s poignant theme for Helen. The melodic line eventually turns upward into a more hopeful shape—but that hope is still masked. There is always hope the music says, but the challenges facing this young girl seem insurmountable. When choosing his approach to the music, Rosenthal said, “The material is so high-powered, so intense and emotional, we had to keep the music kind of reserved, dignified, and not just go into great washes of sentimentality. At the same time, it should be full of feeling.”
Rosenthal’s music for The Miracle Worker was not heard in its fullness in the final version of the film. Portions of major cues were dialed out, and the overall music mix was low. For this premiere release of the complete score, Intrada has restored and remastered the original mono elements to present the score in the best possible light. The score itself was written to a moviola in the rustic setting of Rosenthal’s barn studio, and recorded in the ballroom of the Great Northern Hotel in New York. “After all these years,” he recalls today, “I really can’t think of any score that I’ve written that I like better than this one. I think this score has my voice more than any other.”
Helen Keller (played here by Patty Duke) was born in 1880 on an Alabama plantation, the granddaughter of a Confederate general. When only nineteen months old, she was struck by an illness that left her both deaf and blind. As a young girl, she became spoiled and uncontrollable, until her despairing parents, faced with the horrible prospect of committing their daughter to an asylum, were persuaded to reach out to the Perkins Institute for the Blind. In response the school sent Annie Sullivan (Anne Bancroft), a young graduate who was herself visually impaired, and whose subsequent involvement with Keller as a teacher, governess and lifetime companion became one of the most celebrated relationships of their time.
This release is limited to 1000 units.
INTRADA Special Collection Vol. 130
Retail Price: $19.99
AVAILABLE 4/27/2010
For track listing and sound samples, please visit
http://store.intrada.com/s.nl/it.A/id.6574/.f
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