Intrada Soundtrack Forum

September 07, 1999

The Cardinal
Composed And Conducted By Jerome Moross
Preamble/Hot Records PRCD1778
Total Time = 36:24

This is a film score for people who love harmony. A Moross trademark. Chords play as big a role as melody. The Cardinal has some of the richest.

New York-born Moross had at least one major success in film. His fifties landmark The Big Country was a yardstick for the genre (until Morricone broke all the rules and cut a new yardstick with Italian westerns.)

Yet Moross had few soundtrack albums. Readily available during his lifetime were The Big Country, The War Lord andThe Cardinal - with one more done privately much later - The Proud Rebel. That was about it.

The Cardinal has been around in some format for decades. RCA issued an LP in 1963, complete with striking Saul Bass artwork. John Lasher produced an LP reissue followed by a CD premiere in the eighties. Now that CD is again making the rounds. Hot Records presens it with the same packaging, albeit now stickered with their logo. The sound is mildly shrill and distorted - like the previous disc. But the music is the thing - and wow.

From the opening churchbells it’s a regal score, dignified, expressive. The opening motif, a series of major chords, swells into the main theme. Soaring strings play against further major chords. The harmony is prominent, thick - the melody lean, often simply outlining the chords. Transitional material leads to a secondary theme, a descending figure alternating between brass and strings. Yet a third important theme enters on strings, previous ideas recur, and the opening chords bring all to a close.

The story (the rise of a Catholic priest to cardinal) begins in flashback (to 1917) with Moross setting the tone via a lively allegro in the orchestra - "Stonebury". As young Father Fermoyle rides to his first assignment the third theme rises.

Some of the richest music appears during "The Cardinal’s Faith", assembled from sequences that stir Fermoyle’s beliefs. As he begins the journey away from pride Moross reveals new material amidst the earlier themes. Warm solos for clarinet and flute are prominent.

Moving into 1924, on leave of absence, Fermoyle enters Vienna to a superb, dynamic waltz. A new theme emerges, melting from the waltz music, used for scoring a love story now blossoming. It’s a six-minute musical episode - quite moving, and in contrast with the main themes, European in flavor. There’s a broad statement of this new music during "Annemarie" as well.

Fermoyle ends the romance - Moross follows the challenge with "The Cardinal’s Decision". Material from throughout the score appears, with that ever-important harmonic material always at hand. The range of expression is wide, from a stylish, dramatic muted trumpet opening, through a delicate reading of the main theme, to a somewhat relieved mood towards the close.

"Way Down South" brings Fermoyle (now Bishop) to the American south, a burned-out church, a black parish. Moross weaves a swagger in the music via relaxed clarinet and flute over sturdy string accompaniment. Amidst the somber and expressive previous material this cue provides a most welcome tone.

The final track, titled "The Cardinal Themes", is simply that. The flashbacks are over, Fermoyle has risen to cardinal. Developed is the main theme, including a haunting variant later in the cue. At this point the rich chordal material that opened the score emerges, the main theme rises, and chords draw the score to a powerful close.

Random (but important) source music turns up in a couple of sequences also. Included are a number sung by Bobby Morse titled "They Haven’t Got The Girls In The U.S.A." and a Moross-penned tango. (A Mozart choral work from the original RCA album doesn’t appear on the CD.)

For any listener the overall mood of this score is instantly accessible. The language isn’t complex. Nor is the form. But the incredibly rich harmony and a memorable Americana theme (in fact all of the themes are memorable) make this score one of the most expressive - and best - of the sixties.

September 14, 1999

Vacation - Sort Of
Laurence Rosenthal to Receive the
1999 Career Achievement Award
from the Film Music Society

This week my column takes a break - but not a vacation. On September 18 the Film Music Society presents Laurence Rosenthal with their 1999 Career Achievement Award at a gala dinner in Hollywood. Intrada is assisting as co-sponsor, with activities including a panel discussion, career retrospective, and production of a 25-minute video montage of classic Rosenthal moments.

I’ll be back next week. Take care, and play something by Larry this week just for fun.

September 21, 1999

Bernard Herrmann At Fox Volume 1
Composed And Conducted by Bernard Herrmann
Varese Sarabande 302 066 052 2
Tender Is The Night (17 Tracks = 34:43)
The Man In The Gray Flannel Suite (8 Tracks = 23:29)
A Hatful Of Rain (1 Track = 16:10)

Incredible value here. The duration of Tender Is The Night alone makes a full album yet there are forty more minutes of classic Herrmann. Hard to beat. Ditto the caliber of music.

Start with Tender Is The Night from 1962. Herrmann’s last picture for Fox was bloated, sullen. But he was up for it. What I like most is his approach. Downplaying any romance, it’s instead darker, angled, twisting slowly under unstable Nicole (Jennifer Jones). Which allows room for those Hitchcock strings.

Take "Breakdown" and "The Mirror". Both feature complex, descending chords that typify Psycho. It isn’t until "The Dawn" that Herrmann warms a little. Yet even here he’s somewhat somber. Throughout he depends on strings, on slowly ascending/descending lines in violin, dark shifting harmonies in violas, cellos, basses.

"The Walk" covers a lot of ground. Shifting minor thirds in woodwinds that suggest Herrmann doing thrillers. A wistful manner bringing out his tender, most nostalgic side. Even a lively burst of French horn. But always the strings.

In a couple of moments Herrmann quotes the Sammy Fain/Paul Francis Webster title tune. But mostly he creates his own moody vision of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s 1920’s European setting.

Following an incredible pounding, dramatic ascending series of octaves, The Man In The Gray Flannel Suit immediately launches a sumptuous Herrmann melody, sunny harmonies, soaring strings to the fore. It’s a stunning "Prelude" ending in a burst of brassy energy as on-screen commuters arrive from suburb to workplace.

The movie was reasonably engrossing. Gregory Peck, an executive working up the ladder. Jennifer Jones (again) as wife. Kids too. Interesting subplot with Keenan Wynn, Marisa Pavan and a wartime affair, told in flashback. Those sequences gave Herrmann room to score the cold wartime setting with an unusually dry, sparse rhythm on tympani under low woodwinds, as in "The Coat". They also afforded moments for warm string music, major-keyed, as in "Maria". Herrmann loved the clarinet, so find it featured during passages in "Maria’s Room", and getting a solo spotlight during "The Farewell".

A Hatful Of Rain explodes in a different direction, bursting with nervous energy, pulsating string figures, savage muted-trumpet trills. The primary ideas are heard in the opening segment, jabbed at again, now with trilling woodwinds, now with pulsating horn figures. Written in 1957, this score anticipates the later Ray Harryhausen period, particularly 7th Voyage Of Sinbad.

Harmonically, A Hatful Of Rain is the most static, primarily two alternating chords, rarely changing key. There are few soaring themes. Motifs and orchestral colors predominate. Rather than limitations, however, these are actually assets. The score grinds, digs, works at you - as the drugs that tormented Don Murray’s character in the drama. Relentless. Powerful. No letting up until a final resplendent major key emerges, ringing in conclusion.

Production quality on this release is superb. Aside from a generous playing time, notes by Jon Burlingame are (typical with this writer) well-informed and make for fine reading. Producer Nick Redman, and executive producer Bruce Kimmel, have again presented a stunning souvenir of the magnificent musical legacy seeping from the vaults at Fox. Captured just before it’s lost for good. Sadly, other studios (Paramount, Columbia, Universal, Warner Bros.) continue to watch their masters deteriorate.

While working with 35mm mag tracks and multi-track elements on other projects, I had occasion to engineer the mixes on A Hatful Of Rain. Redman tied them into a stunning suite. If I boast on the sound quality so be it. Here’s masterful music. Three magnificent scores in dynamic stereo. Three facets of Herrmann, as gifted a composer as this century ever had.

Here’s hoping Bernard Herrmann At Fox, Vol. 2 comes hot on the heels.

September 28, 1999

One Man's Hero
Composed And Conducted By Ernest Troost
Citadel STC 77126
17 Tracks Total Time = 55:59

Ernest Troost has been writing fine music for years. Albums of Dead Heat and Tiger Warsaw came at the close of the LP reign. Neither are yet on CD. I’m still hoping.

His music to the fun/horror movieTremors gave it life. It’s hard to imagine any other music coloring the duo antics of Kevin Bacon and Fred Ward than the twang and slide of Troost’s hip-flavored music. Robert Folk created several action cues but Troost also wrote his own action music. (Watch for his complete score in an upcoming authorized promotional disc we’re collaborating on.)

He’s found success scoring children’s stories with several CDs being released over the years. And he’s had promotional discs to Canterville Ghost (an Emmy winner), Calm At Sunset, A Lesson Before Dying and (a favorite) Saint Maybe.

Now he’s got a CD with real profile. Citadel (a label always championing great music) presents a lengthy album to One Man’s Hero, superbly recorded, with a terrific stereo mix.

The movie traces the plight of Irish Catholics, loyal to the Mexican cause during the Mexican-American war, and their eventual demise. Musically it’s a neat trick, capturing the Irish background, mingling it with the American setting, sliding into the Mexican idiom. The ever-present mood is dark, somber, elegaic. It’s scored for large orchestra with chorus.

Starting with a cadence for multiple snare drums, Uilleann pipes soon mingle with a somber adagio for strings. According to the liner notes Troost created a basic "suite" of thematic material, scoring the picture as a whole rather than identifying specific moments. This allowed Troost to fashion music for individual characters as needed, score geographical boundaries, religion, conflict, whatever. Some of his themes brilliantly evolve from a single motif, spreading into distinct lines. Troost allows several themes to play primary roles, giving the score an unusual depth of material.

One such theme is introduced during "Joining the Army", chorus and orchestra combining in a major-keyed moment of exaltation. It’s followed by "A Thousand Years", a warmly melodic summary of Mexican history. Featured throughout are strings, later doubled with flute.

Piccolo and strings launch "The Flag/First Battle", the longest segment. Rich with new themes, it’s distinguished by two-part harmony. In a stunning highlight, a recurring rhythmic figure in trombone brings all melodic warmth to a close. Percussion and trumpets enter the fray, combined with chorus and strings. Rather than create musical chaos, Troost keeps the material tragic, dark. There’s motion with repeated percussion and choral figures but the mood remains grim rather than violent. Finally the rhythmic figure passes to trumpets and the cue comes to a close.

Aggressive, busier writing identifies "Night Battle". A pair of French horns announce the "Defeated March", appropriately dark, but also moving, emotional. And guitars make an appearance, as accompaniment to strings during "The Kiss".

Other highlights: "Pesadumbre" features rapid French horn/trumpet rhythms punctuated by bass trombone. Spotlighted throughout are seconds (two simultaneous notes one step apart) in the brass rhythms, bringing a dense texture to the tempo. It’s a style continued in the "Final Battle/Final Stand", though other dissonant material also plays a key role. The return of Uilleann pipes against a faint trumpet line suggests tragedy. One theme, suggested throughout, now emerges in full, on pipes against orchestra. Associated with young soldier Paddy, it’s a theme, once gentle, now soaring.

A rich, straight-forward presentation of primary thematic material comes with "Final Choice". Amongst other important ideas this cue also allows solo trumpet to assume importance.

As the score concludes with "Closing", several earlier melodic ideas enter. The solitary trumpet reappears, fades. In a masterful completion of his composition Troost quietly brings the orchestra to a simple - and distinct - unison.

It’s difficult to sustain somber, lengthy scores - to keep them welcome throughout. A handful have done it. Son Of The Morning Star (Craig Safan), Born On The Fourth Of July (John Williams), a few others.

And One Man’s Hero.