Intrada Soundtrack Forum

July 06, 1999

The Hi-Lo Country
Composed and Conducted by Carter Burwell
TVT Soundtrax TVT 8290-2
16 Tracks (10-16 by Carter Burwell)
Total Time = 53:35
Carter Burwell = 24:27

Note the genre - a western. Kind of, anyway, set in a region known as Hi-Lo in New Mexico after World War II. Many composers are suited to write for westerns. But Carter Burwell isn’t one I’d have thought of. He’s indelibly linked to Joel and Ethan Coen pictures, to music with thick low chords. He has done other things - The Jackal comes quickly to mind. (He didn’t make it to the album though - just another bunch of unrelated vocals hiding behind movie artwork.) There’s Rob Roy. And Conspiracy Theory too. Plus he’s done projects where "alternative" music was sought, something a little out of the mainstream.

No matter what, there’s that trademark of his: those low chords. I admire composers who manage signatures. A voice. Burwell’s got one of those.

Anyway, the album for The Hi-Lo Country. Yes, of course, it has some vocals. They’re relevant though, heard in numerous bar scenes. But the score gets nearly half of the album. And it’s the better half naturally.

Westerns seem tricky to score - at least in some unorthodox way. Audiences have expectations coming in. They’re used to expansive themes, to Copland, Bernstein, Broughton, Moross. It’s probably pretty hard to do things differently.

Burwell did.

It helped that Stephen Frears made more than a western. It’s set in the west, it’s got cattle, plus it’s got more. Two cowboys (Woody Harrelson and Billy Crudup) refuse to join a bullying corporate rancher consuming all the land. Standard western stuff. But the story gets complicated. Anger, divided loyalty, brothers, assorted passions, a triangle. Eventually a showdown.

Burwell wisely fashioned an expansive theme, one of those broad outdoor types. He even quotes it over a robust syncopated rhythm in true western form. But he takes it somewhere else too.

Opening with a guitar line, soon followed by solo trumpet, Burwell sets his music in motion with instruments ranging from strings to harmonica. The trademarks, the ones he gives the Coen brothers, those dark thick chords on lower instruments - they’re all here too. This initial track ("To Kill A Man") introduces the harmonic language of the score too. It also reveals the scale of Burwell’s orchestra (large and powerful). Yet it holds things back too. The primary theme is touched upon, quietly, at the close.

"The Cattle Drive" goes right where you hope it will - into that theme - broad and masculine, rich and imposing. It’s also fresh, thanks to Burwell’s unique harmonic voice. Musically it gets a generous quote but Burwell won’t dwell on it, saving that most rewarding moment for later on.

Introduced in "Josepha’s Cabin" is sensitive material related to a tender (and more tragic) love story, one outside of the triangle. Sort of. Burwell keeps the theme tender, adds haunting solo woodwind colors, always dipping into his harmonic vocabulary for continuity. He developes his opening material (really a tragedy theme) more fully with "Meesa The Witch", staying dark, then generates passionate intensity throughout "Silver Springs". That too ends darkly, in grim foreboding.

Spoiler alert here, a cue title that kinda gives something away.

Okay. It’s called "Big Boy’s Death", but maybe at least you don’t know whom Big Boy is.

Anyway, it’s a musical highlight. A powerhouse piece of composing to both overall mood and to a specific scene. It’s a dramatic sequence, and a long (seven and a half minute) cue covering a lot of territory.

During the sequence Burwell brings back his solo trumpet, here in a masterful use of the familiar "taps" for a funeral, yet layered with those unique harmonies. As "taps" comes to a cadence Burwell lets his orchestra swell with two incredibly powerful chords, then quickly withdraws to his tragic material - always that solo trumpet hovering above. It’s a perfect voice for the idealistic cowboy out of his element, the cowboy meeting fate-turned-civilization. It’s a tragic moment of mythical proportions seen in celebrated movies from Lonely Are The Brave (a triumph of the contemporary western) to The Wild Bunch. Musically it’s what I like to refer to as "nailing the moment" in a picture.

"On To California" brings back the primary theme in guitar. It begins delicate, gentle. Then, in another masterful stroke (that’s two in a row) Burwell finally opens up. The main theme, at last given a fully triumphant statement, takes over the score. The music derives power from a realization that, though the melody has recurred throughout, a fortissimo statement has been held largely in reserve for this moment. And true to the spirit of things, trumpets carry the lead on top of the orchestra.

As can be deduced from this, I may have found my favorite Burwell score.

At least until he does another western.

July 13, 1999

The Wild Geese
Composed and Conducted by Roy Budd
National Philharmonic Orchestra
Cinephile CIN CD 014
16 Tracks Total Time = 35:47

There’s been a lot of Roy Budd lately. He first had movie scores showing up in the early seventies. It was the period of Soldier Blue, Catlow, Kidnapped, Fear Is The Key, The Stone Killer, Paper Tiger, lots of others. I don’t recall him ever being a household name but he had lot’s of albums, collectors were happy, and he worked steadily.

Articles get written about him, his jazz, numerous band arrangements, fancy keyboard playing. As a composer he nailed that unique movie sound of the seventies, the Jerry Goldsmith-Lalo Schifrin-Quincy Jones urban police action thriller music thing. And he had his own voice too! Be it a thriller, western, what-have-you, he had a sound.

And now he’s gone. Kinda sad that so much of this attention came afterwards.

The Cinephile label is a driving force recently in keeping his music in the fore. They’ve done a lot of titles, some reissues of the LP days, some debuts. They’re all worthwhile - like The Wild Geese.

It made my top ten for 1978, along with The Swarm, Capricorn One, The Fury, The Big Sleep, others. The movie was about mercenaries in Africa, had a great British cast, graphic action. Budd gave it a big symphonic score, almost like a concert band work. Lots of brass, marching figures, woodwind solos, rhythmic energy everywhere.

Two themes dominate - a third fanfare motif is never far behind. They’re all in the "Overture". The fanfare hits immediately, trumpets in front. Half a minute later the primary theme takes over. It’s a lean melody, soaring, unison strings enhanced by strong major chords in the orchestra. A neat effect: the fanfare motif stays close to this theme, plays behind it a couple of times, never really goes away. A brief drum cadence ushers in the secondary theme, a marching song. Spirited, tongue-close-to-cheek, this march rarely appears in the score proper, and then only fragmented. It’s later vocalized on the album as "Dogs Of War" and therein gets attention for itself.

Budd manages to do an extraordinary thing with this overture. The fanfare motif is rapid, staccato. The theme is smooth, uncluttered, built from long soaring notes. With a rhythmic energy under it all Budd creates a lively opener be the lines fast or slow. It stays exciting to the end.

I’m fond of the main theme. There’s a great use of it in the third track, aptly titled "The Wild Geese". Over a simple percussion figure it emerges in upper strings - the flowing melody from the overture, now gently harmonized. The fanfare motif haunts somewhere in there, reminding. Programming note: there is a Joan Armatrading song, unrelated to Budd’s score, sandwiched between the overture and this track. Interesting maybe on its own, it does interrupt here. Program through it - the effect of Budd’s rapid Overture leading to his deliberate Wild Geese music is rewarding. Normally I’m okay with songs, this one just doesn’t do anything for me.

On the topic of re-sequencing, I was never excited about the close of this album - that march set to words, here titled "Left, Right". Unless you’re glued to it, try programming track seven ("Wild Geese Theme") into this closing spot instead. It’s a terrific variant on the main theme with a strong finish in the brass. Used as the ending to the score it works wonders.

There is other material too. A sad clarinet line (based on music by Alexander Borodin) contrasts with the other music - gentle, minor-keyed. Used several times it relates to a character (Rafer) played by Richard Harris.

Throughout this action score Budd uses numerous variations of his main ideas plus, on occasion, a flexible arpeggio-like motif. With percussion keeping the military in focus, his theme and fanfare move about, separate and together, keeping a relatively small amount of thematic material fresh and welcome.

A discordant note here - on disc quality. The Cinephile disc has vibrant sound but track six ("Reunion") is plagued with tape wow. These anomalies aren’t on the original LP nor the later Masters Film Music CD produced by Robert Townson of Varese Sarabande. It’s possible compounds in the magnetic tape stock broke down (common with tape from the seventies) and weren’t compensated for. But why the earlier CD wasn’t referenced here I can’t imagine. When added to the problems plaguing Cinephile’s CD to Kidnapped (another Roy Budd score) with a clipping of track beginnings, I’m growing cautious at their overall product.

The music is, however, a treasure chest of the richest kind.

July 20, 1999

A Boy Named Charlie Brown
A Charlie Brown Christmas
Charlie Brown’s Holiday Hits
Composed by VINCE GUARALDI
Vince Guaraldi Trio
Fantasy FCD-8430-2, FCD-8431-2, FCD-9682-2

Fantasy Studios is a pretty neat place to master an album at. You never know what you’ll learn there. On my latest visit I found out someone I thought obscure wasn’t. I discovered our own engineer had mastered some Peanuts cartoon music. And I also learned more about Fantasy.

Somehow these odd lessons are all related so here goes.

A little while ago I talked about scores rarely mentioned, composers in obscurity - like David Benoit. Just more stuff I didn’t know. Then I mentioned running into a pile of his jazz albums. He wasn’t obscure - I just needed potty training. So this week I’m at Fantasy for the 4,753rd time and I find out just how small the world is.

David Benoit was just finishing a project for Fantasy. That was a discovery. I learn he works with Dave Grusin. And he’s played some of Vince Guaraldi’s famous jazz under those familiar Peanuts cartoons. Benoit and Grusin were both featured, in fact, during This Is America, Charlie Brown. Fantasy, for those of you unfamiliar with this well-known and everyday fact, is behind all that Vince Guaraldi music in the first place. So I’m learning about Benoit - and Guaraldi – at the same time. I knew the name Guaraldi since I had the Peanuts albums from way back, though I knew little more about him.

So from Benoit, whom I know longer feel ignorant about, to Guaraldi.

Vince Guaraldi was one of the pioneer artists at Fantasy - he helped put them on the map. Then came Creedence Clearwater Revival, Fantasy expanded horizons, the film center emerged, One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest built them a bigger building, Amadeus came along, etc. (Just something about Fantasy for those trying to follow this.) Anyway, Guaraldi was a top jazz pianist in the San Francisco area - for life. He had a Grammy-winner with his 1962 "Cast Your Fate To The Wind" for the small but growing Fantasy label. Soon he was linked until death with the musical soul of Peanuts, scoring A Charlie Brown Christmas, the 1964 television special that launched half a hundred Peanuts shows.

Visions of the Schulz clan can be summed up in a single tune - the "Linus And Lucy" theme. If you’ve seen any of the cartoons, you’ll recognize it. A rolling left hand piano figure, a two-part figure in the right. It’s classic.

Guaraldi favored a breezy trio of piano, bass and drums. Often he’d put down his tracks freely and scenes would be edited to fit what he recorded. Melodic music, deceptively simple music, music for all the white keys. Linus and Lucy and Schroeder and Charlie Brown and Snoopy weren’t complicated. Just kids with solutions to any problems.

A Boy Named Charlie Brown and A Charlie Brown Christmas both have separate soundtrack albums. The discs, mastered at Fantasy, are clean, crisp, relaxing. There’s another disc too, newer, from 1998 - Charlie Brown’s Holiday Hits. Drawn from a number of cartoons it features a generous amount of music not available on the other two soundtracks. The source material for the first two albums are actual session masters. Music from the third album comes from various original mono tapes, covering a period of time. Even those are pretty clean, certainly easy to listen to.

That’s probably all I’m really saying here. This music is easy to listen to. Try sandwiching one of these albums between Morricone’s Wolf and Goldenthal’s Interview With A Vampire. Or something like that. I did. It’s a neat sensation. Such is the wonder of this stuff called movie music.

July 27, 1999

Wild Wild West
Composed and Conducted by Elmer Bernstein
Additional Music by Peter Bernstein
Varese Sarabande VSD-6042
10 Tracks Total Time = 30:12

Elmer Bernstein is probably hearing people refer to this score as being a throwback to his western music, a look back at The Magnificent Seven and The Sons Of Katie Elder and those many horse operas with John Wayne in his last decade or so of saddling up.

It’s not. In fact, it really isn’t all that much like his westerns. It’s much more in common with Spacehunter and Slipstream and Heavy Metal. And it has some Stripes. But Wild Wild West rarely sounds like a Bernstein "western".

Bernstein aimed his sights at other targets in the movie. Like the fantasy (that huge metal spider) and the comedy (the stars are in funny form). And obviously the action.

The movie has moments. Maybe its not sure what it wants to be. It’s "high tech" enough to hide the western trappings. Sometimes. It’s got a pretty look to it (the stars are certainly gorgeous) but someone forgot about plot. There’s a bad guy taking over, I think, and all the James Bond-like stuff. Kenneth Branagh is in it - part of him anyway. I can’t recall a whole lot more.

But Varese Sarabande’s album is about music. Not the rap, the real music. The part actually having something to do with the movie no matter what it’s trying to be. Having Varese and producer Robert Townson around is a comfort. Again and again they hand us score albums otherwise lost in a world of rock and talk.

So a look at this gem.

When Bernstein fashioned western themes they often featured strings soaring on outdoor melodies over signature rhythms in brass. His fantasy scores, however, featured angled melodies in unison brass over jagged rhythmic figures in the strings. Such are the ingredients of the Wild Wild West theme. It’s a masterful piece, rousing and energetic and complete. It tells you excitement is coming from the start. It gets hip in the middle, like the movie wants to be. Then it wraps up in grand style.

There are nods to the comedy in tracks like "West Fights". Not slapstick music, Bernstein keeps his brass punctuating the material with energy and rhythm. But it’s bright and alive and dissonant chord clusters are not on the agenda.

The theme stays welcome through sparse use in the movie. Reduced to a half-hour of music here the melody gets more familiar. Happily it’s a good one. Other highlights:

"Trains, Tanks and Frayed Ropes" gets dynamic. It’s co-composed with son Peter and includes rousing snippets of the theme. "Loveless’ Plan" generates a mood akin to some of Bernstein’s bigger comedy work - those post Animal House movies. A neat dance-like melody swaggers into the climax (with intentionally detuned woodwinds) and really opens up. Not your usual western music here either.

"Goodbye Loveless" stirs seriousness to the mix. The theme emerges again, welcome after having been abandoned for a few moments, leading to rousing new ideas in the score. It’s also co-composed with son Peter. Their collaboration is seamless. Sprinkle in daughter Emilie as orchestrator and you’ve got one terrific family portrait.

And finally, keeping with my favorite device, the album finishes. The last track brings everything home with that great theme, replete with a couple of terrific key changes. Here’s an album that starts and ends. That alone makes it worth my time. The rousing, energetic, spunky and tuneful music included in between just makes it all the more rewarding.