Intrada Soundtrack Forum

INTRADA Announces:



THE TEN COMMANDMENTS
Composed and Conducted by ELMER BERNSTEIN
INTRADA INT 7147

I would say that the work on The Ten Commandments was singularly the most exciting project of my entire life.
-- Elmer Bernstein, 2002

The value of Elmer Bernstein’s score is almost impossible to measure. It’s absolutely perfect for the film,
guiding and shaping the emotional weight of each scene with mature mastery.
-- Charlton Heston


The 1956 Paramount biblical epic The Ten Commandments is one of those rare films to become an annual event in homes around the world. It is one of the few films left that network television (at least in the United States) continues to air annually, in spring around the Passover holiday. Its crisp, colorful retelling of the Jewish story of Exodus remains compelling to this day, portraying the escape from slavery in Egypt, the relentless obstinance of and doomed pursuit by Pharaoh, and Moses' eventual receipt of the Ten Commandments.

Cecil B. DeMille chose a fresh voice to score his spectacle -- Elmer Bernstein. Bernstein's score is pure epic and a thrilling experience whether in film or on its own. Bernstein's score itself has an interesting history on record. It was first issued in 1957 on DOT records as a 2-LP set in mono from the film's soundtrack recording. With home stereo recordings increasing in popularity, Bernstein rerecorded those same selections in stereo also for DOT records three years later in 1960, although with some alterations to enhance the stand-alone listening experience. On the film's 10th anniversary Bernstein rerecorded selections again for the United Artists label. Discs 4 through 6 of this 6-CD set contain these recordings, each in packaging that recreates their original LP packaging. And yet with all these recordings, the original stereo sessions from the original soundtrack had yet to be released. Until now.

Discs 1 through 3 contain every single orchestral cue, in their complete versions, plus all of the myriad fanfares, court pieces, dances, processions, Egyptian and Hebrew source music, shofar cues and various Novachord and Theremin overlays, all assembled and sequenced as Elmer Bernstein intended. Most of the massive two-and-a-half hour score appears in stereo, meticulously compiled and restored by Chris Malone from all available Paramount vault source elements including the three-channel scoring session masters, mono safeties, a variety of 35mm elements, DAT audio transfers made by the studio for their internal digital storage purposes, music stems and the composer’s personal ¼″ tape copies. In addition to the entire score as heard in the film, this presentation includes over a half hour of never-before-heard alternates and unused cues as well as another nine minutes of various scoring session outtakes and early, unused versions. Crowning this mountain-top experience is over twelve minutes of original piano demos made by the composer, including his voice and piano playing all the themes in his home studio for DeMille to audition prior to scoring. These are an incredibly rare pre-record treat that amazingly survived these 60 years.

This presentation of Elmer Bernstein's score to The Ten Commandments is an epic unto itself, providing the last word on one of his most significant and enduring works.

INTRADA INT 7147
Retail Price: $69.99
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For track listing and sound samples, please visit:
http://store.intrada.com/s.nl/it.A/id.10415/.f

Ordered! Thank you Intrada!

Ordered along with FSMs BenHur and the Wild Bunch. Although I was kind of thinking I shouldn't have ordered extra titles afraid that those hard cases coild mess up that gorgeous box set!

And thanks can't wait till this arrives!

Ordered !!

Glad to see this is INT series; it deserves to be around for a good long while. Amazing release of an amazing score. Should add a mention of the 60 page booklet that comes with it!

Yavar

Just ordered it!

Thanks to Doug, Roger and the entire Intrada gang!

Ordered! - Great Job Intrada

Great release.

On the downloadable artwork, is it possible to get downloadable 600x600s of each album cover?

Cheers!

As for the conductor of the 1960 Dot recording, the official AFM contracts for both sessions, created on the days the recording took place, list Elmer Bernstein as leader (i.e. conductor). Not only that, but his signature appears on both as well in the space provided for the conductor's signature. There is no mention of Irvin Talbot or any other conductor on either contract. To me, at least, this strongly suggests that Elmer was mis-remembering if he later denied he had anything to do with the sessions.

I usually don't bother making an "Ordered!" post in the announcement thread (despite having placed my order last night). However, as I also had the enthusiasm to do with the release of MASADA years ago, I went over to IMDb to post about the TEN COMMANDMENTS box in their message boards. Someone else was already ahead of me with a bare-bones mention of the release, along with a link to the forum discussion -- so I added description of contents to let those browsers appreciate what the hamsters had scratched together.

In appreciation, that was the least I could do (apart from having purchased the set for myself). By the way, Doug, I put my MCA copy of COMMANDMENTS on eBay a couple of years after your forum hint that this project was in the works. I got $35 for it -- and then had nothing but my Dot LPs available for the past few years, for not having suspected the release would take this long! But the promise has been fulfilled. Thank you, team!