The Ceremony was the 9th episode of The Waltons TV series, for which Jerry Goldsmith wrote the famous main theme (in addition to scoring several episodes including the pilot episode, The Homecoming). I decided to watch this episode because I kept hearing other people recommend it as one of Goldsmith's best TV scores. People like zooba particularly calling attention to the fact that it fell under his "Jewish" output thanks to the subject matter of a Jewish family moving to America to flee the Nazis, and their fear of encountering the same racism in the U.S. that they suffered in Germany. I'm a big fan of Masada, QB VII (maybe my favorite all-around Goldsmith score), and even The Going Up of David Lev, so I had to give this a listen and found it at Dailymotion online:
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2f26x8It turns out that what I'd heard about this score was both right and wrong: the good news is that YES it is one of Goldsmith's loveliest scores for television, with several lengthier and more developed cues to showcase his talent for melody and development. What I found inaccurate was its characterization as a "Jewish" score. The vast majority of the music is in the Waltons Americana mode (and lovely stuff it is). I would estimate less than a third of the score to be Jewish sounding (though what is there is fantastic!)
Sadly I didn't have the time to do notes for this score, because it is almost up there with Crawlspace from the same year in terms of quality. I hope you'll follow the link above and hear for yourself, with the below Complete Score Breakdown as a cue guide if you're too short on time to actually watch the episode:
0:00 - 1:36 Main Title 1:36
1:37 - 2:16 1. A Family from Germany :49
6:07 - 7:13 2. A Lotta Changes 1:06
10:40 - 12:31 3. It Begins 1:51
12:31 - 13:14 4. Unanswered Knock :43
13:27 - 13:53 5. We’ll Come Back Later :26
20:13 - 24:03 6. It’s Important / Someone to Blame 3:50
25:44 - 26:03 7. Friends :19
26:03 - 26:25 8. Reckless :22
28:06 - 30:46 9. Trust 2:40
32:58 - 33:31 10. Respect :33
33:31 - 34:30 11. Be Sensible :59
35:30 - 38:15 12. Tired / A Visit 2:45
41:52 - 42:39 13. Heritage Returned :47
43:51 - 46:07 14. The Bar Mitzvah 2:16
48:50 - 48:58 15. No Time to Start That :08
48:59 - 49:52 End Credits :53
TOTAL TIME: 19:34
(I excluded the Main Title and End Credits music which were not specifically composed for this episode.)
Perhaps some day I'll come back to this post with my "Advanced Liner Notes" approach. I certainly hope tapes for this score and other Waltons episode scores turn up some day after all, even though Lukas Kendall has previously told us that only the pilot film The Homecoming survived. I'm very curious to hear what the rest of you think of this lovely music, in any case!
Yavar
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Other threads in this series:
FACE OF A FUGITIVE (1959) Advance Liner Notes:
viewtopic.php?f=4&t=6958TAKE HER, SHE'S MINE (1963) Complete Score Breakdown:
viewtopic.php?f=4&t=6966THE MAN (1972) Advance Liner Notes:
viewtopic.php?f=4&t=6967CRAWLSPACE (1972) Advance Liner Notes:
viewtopic.php?f=4&t=7213DO NOT FOLD, SPINDLE, OR MUTILATE (1971) Complete Score Breakdown:
viewtopic.php?f=4&t=7216The Waltons: THE CEREMONY (1972) Complete Score Breakdown:
viewtopic.php?f=4&t=7219DAMNATION ALLEY (1977) Advance Liner Notes:
viewtopic.php?f=4&t=7223PURSUIT (1972) Advance Liner Notes:
viewtopic.php?f=4&t=7236
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