Intrada Soundtrack Forum

June 6, 2000

Cat People
Composed By Roy Webb
Conducted By William T. Stromberg
Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra
Marco Polo 8.225125
36 Tracks Total Time 69:51

My first comment. What’s the title of this disc? Everything else about this one is pretty good, but I do get grumpy about albums without titles. Or too many titles.

My cover says in big letters "Roy Webb" and under it the generic "Music For The Films Of Val Lewton" and under that numerous titles like "Cat People", "The Body Snatcher" and so on. Sorta okay so far. The back cover gives the title "Classic Music For The Val Lewton Films". The spine simply says "Webb: Cat People". That’s at least three titles.

Albums need titles, like books. People have libraries, they set up databases, they file things. Consistent titles are appreciated.

Well, it’s really about music so onward.

Roy Webb was prolific. Watch old RKO movies and see. He’s got some good ones. The Fighting Seabees stands out. Blood Alley, for Warner Bros., is another good one. So’s Track Of The Cat.

He’s been neglected though. It’s shameful. A peer of Max Steiner, and Steiner got all the attention. This anomaly has been addressed by Marco Polo in a fine collection of titles from his Val Lewton period. Some of them I knew. Some I just discovered. They’re all memorable.

The biggest discovery. The Body Snatcher. A fabulous main title begins with an introduction, minor-keyed, briefly turning dissonant. Soon the main theme emerges, also minor-keyed, richly Scottish. A dramatic snare drum plays under it all. The theme and somber style receive lengthier treatment during "The First Body". Note some great woodwind colors. Webb’s advanced harmonic vocabulary shows up during the storm sequence of the "Finale", then cadences on a resounding major chord. The Body Snatcher was a fabulous discovery.

Cat People anchors the album. It’s a famous thriller from 1942 and a score I know pretty well. From the beginning Roy Webb’s mature style shows up. So does something else. A rich lyrical style. Music for "Irena" is both gentle and romantic, but never thick. In fact, that’s a common thread throughout the album. Economical scoring, rarely over the top. Witness the transparent strings during "The Cat People" and again during "Irena And Oliver". A real standout of this score is a shifting between tonality and dissonance, even bitonality. A fabulous example: the final portion of "Need For Help". A sustained major chord on the bottom and unrelated shifting chords in strings above it. It’s a fabulous, complex sound, the musical language of Hugo Friedhofer and later Alex North.

There’s more. Suites from Bedlam, The Seventh Victim and I Walked With A Zombie. The latter was another discovery for me. Another neat main title, certainly in Friedhofer territory. It’s worth noting how much Webb’s music parallels Friedhofer’s. Much of it came first. The "End Title" to Zombie dates from 1943 but evokes a number of the fifties Fox Cinemascope pictures Friedhofer did. To be sure, Friedhofer was in his own league. I’ve never found any composer way back when to be his equal. But I hadn’t realized how mature and interesting Roy Webb’s music was before. So this made for quite a discovery.

Marco Polo does a customary fine job. The sound is superb, doing justice to numerous details in the often subtle scoring. Playing is great. Packaging is above and beyond the call of duty. While it’s hard to knock generous liner notes be warned there are some 34 pages here! That’s gettin’ up there.

This collection wisely targeted just one facet of Webb’s career. There’s an incredible variety of music here alone! I’m pretty anxious now for conductor Stromberg and orchestrator John Morgan to tackle all the other sides to this guy. That’ll keep ‘em busy.

June 13, 2000

Nailing The Moment
- Part 3
Various Composers

More moments when composers not only carry the ball but score touchdowns. Many movies have good music. Supportive. Appropriate. When the composer really figures it out, lifts a scene somewhere it couldn’t get without that music, he’s "nailed the moment".

John Wayne finally meets his kidnapped grandson. Trades with baddie Richard Boone for his return. Suspenseful music plays as the boy is brought out, bag over his head. The bag comes off and eyes meet. It’s an unforgettable scene during Big Jake. Do we have a gush from Elmer Bernstein’s orchestra? Not hardly. Just piano and solo violin. The power of understatement from a pioneer of such stuff.

It’s been a grueling fight and most of the cast is dead. Now it’s Sonny Landham’s turn. He drops back, draws his knife, faces death. The movie is Predator and for a moment it’s Alan Silvestri’s show. His approach? Nothing but low horns. No chords, just four notes that repeat. Mano e mano. The ultimate macho in one single phrase.

This next one’s a mystery. The U.S. gunboat San Pablo, pronounced The Sand Pebbles by the Chinese, inches towards a river blockade. Lengthy and detailed preparations for battle. As combat approaches the American flag is raised. One by one the crew observes, respects the show of colors. Finally as Steve McQueen’s eyes gaze upwards at the colors Jerry Goldsmith raises his percussion and brass to a climax. What a magnificent, splendid moment. And the mystery? There’s been an original album, a reissue from Japan, yet another reissue from the U.K., a bootleg from Germany, a totally new recording done in Scotland. And yet this most impressive of cues still hasn’t been recorded!!

Paul Newman races over to a stranger’s house, a cheap boyfriend of his alcoholic mother. He beats him up, then threatens: "You go near my mother again... and I’ll kill you." How serious is he? A single fortissimo chord makes it clear. Newman is deadly serious. What makes this tiny piece during From The Terrace so powerful? No music precedes it, the fight is unscored, and only upon Newman’s threat does Elmer Bernstein react. The placement of music is often crucial. Bernstein nailed it.

Jerome Moross this time, or more accurately, Hans J. Salter. It’s the opening battle and Charlton Heston, an aging Norman knight dubbed The War Lord, gallops into combat. His fierce Frisian opponent comes into view, protecting a small boy. Salter gives the enemy a proud theme for French horns in a major key. No typical bad guy stuff here. Salter tells us the barbarian is proud, protecting his son, a warrior with nobility. No matter where the picture goes Salter insures we care about these adversaries. Both of them.

World War II. The Train is wrecked. The magnificent paintings lay destroyed. The story’s over and everything has come down to two men standing in the debris. Burt Lancaster’s the good guy, kind of, and Paul Scofield’s the bad guy, kind of. There’s some machine gun fire and one of them goes down. A lot of excitement in this scene and a lot of drama to it. Maurice Jarre goes elsewhere though, bringing the movie to a close with a subtle nod. Hear nothing but a gentle French melody and follow the scene to a fadeout. The paintings, after all, belonged to France.

And on the subject of simple closings nothing will top Mancini. The unforgettable shot? Jack Lemmon watching in pain as Lee Remick walks out of his life, out of the apartment, away from their child, away from everything. The music? Nothing more than a solitary French horn, just the first seven notes of the theme. Then fade to black. That’s it. The movie? Days Of Wine And Roses. An incredible summary of a movie’s plot and a sobering use of music. Just as incredible - no soundtrack album has ever been issued! Nothing. Nada. What’s up with that?

Movies continue to offer opportunities for composers to "nail the moment". I saw Dinosaur and thought James Newton Howard nailed the moment when the dinosaurs broke through huge rocks to freedom. And it’s on the album.

Director’s often rely on composers for such important moments. They always have. I hope they always will.

June 20, 2000

Frankenstein Film Music Collection
Music By James Bernards, Leonard Salzedo, Don Banks &
Malcolm Williamson
GDI Records GDICD011
45 Tracks Total Time = 70:52

Music from Frankenstein films made by Hammer Film Productions. Excellent music, like most Hammer scores. That’s the center of attention with this new album from GDI Records.

Hammer was a studio of sorts since the early thirties. Low budget movies, distribution. They finally reached a loyal audience in the fifties with adult-oriented product. Some comedies, a few costume movies. And horror. Horror unlike anything done before. Horror that reigned for twenty-plus years. Horror with gore in new doses. With sex in new doses. And a shot in the arm for those titans of movie lore - Dracula and Frankenstein.

Their stride began in the mid-fifties with The Quatermass Experiment. Distinguished British conductor John Hollingsworth became the first Hammer music supervisor. He quickly sought the talents of fellow Britisher James Bernard. Thus began a lengthy, important stage in British music for movies.

Bernard brought to movies what Hammer brought to movies. Maturity. His expertise with strings and percussion played a role. He wrote music that was complex, harsh, advanced. In a short time Hammer Productions had a sound of their own.

Frankenstein movies afforded Bernard ample room for aggressive music. This album covers two of them significantly and five of them in brief.

Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed plays for just under a half hour. Bernard scored it in 1969 using full orchestra, emphasis on brass, woodwinds and percussion. Strings are saved for tremolos, runs, other flurries of activity.

Two important ideas surface with the "Opening Credits". A primary figure for low brass and French horns establishes the harmonic language while an agitated motif repeats rhythmic interest. The primary idea recurs in "Liberating Brandt", the agitated motif appears in "Death Of A Nightwatchman", again during the close of "Liberating Brandt", and so on.

Tympani figure prominently, especially during "The Death Of Anna". They, in fact, open the score. And in a rare moment, upper strings provide melodic relief during "The Brandts Reunited". It’s a brief respite as they resume a strident role during the following "Finale". Highlighting the ending are trumpets combining melody and the agitated figure into a single line. It’s striking.

Much of the picture is set in an asylum, a story about freezing human brains. A chilly locale. Bernard keeps the temperature low, avoids warmth. The results? A cold, aggressive, truly scary work.

Frankenstein And The Monster From Hell consumes just over half an hour. Launching it are low woodwinds on a staccato figure. Soon dissonant harmonies prevail.

One interesting feature of the score are frequent uses of various instrumental colors in unison. Ideas come and go quickly and the overall mood is clipped, rushed. Distinguished from the other major score on this disc this score relies heavily on strings. Solo violin occurs often. Hear it during "Professor Durendel" and extensively during "Helder Meets The Other Patients".

Frankenstein sees creation of course. An asylum roots the story again. But warmer plot devices occur and Bernard took advantage of them. His aloof, austere music is balanced with mystery, even beauty. Highlighting this anomaly is "The Monster Recovers". Bernard blends his mysterious idiom with dashes of dissonance, then splashes it with warmth. All within a single cue.

Another highlight. "The Monster Is Poisoned" and a return of the low woodwinds from the opening.

To end everything Bernard uses dissonance, but this time closes tragically in the minor. A perfect finish to a darker, somber, somewhat reflective Frankenstein opus.

The other scores receive such brief representation that discussion is unwarranted. Don Banks contributed what appears to be a melodic score for Evil Of Frankenstein but there’s little over a minute here. Leonard Salzedo’s score for Revenge Of Frankenstein is heard via three tiny snippets each about a half minute long. Malcolm Williamson gets a minute and a half for his Horror Of Frankenstein. The remaining short suite is from Bernard’s Frankenstein Created Woman. It runs two minutes.

The brevity of the above five matters little. The two substantial suites by James Bernard make for intense, serious listening.

Typical for this label, notes accompanying the album are lengthy, informative, heavily illustrated. Mono sound is clean, quiet. In fact it’s quite good.

This important series continues to showcase the complex, advanced music Hammer created. Like their movies it’s pretty amazing stuff.

June 27, 2000

The Perfect Storm
Composed And Conducted By James Horner
Sony Classical / Sony Music Soundtrax SK 89282
10 Tracks Total Time = 79:08

This one’s long enough for two symphonies. Not just a long disc though. It feels, plays like a symphony. There are only ten tracks. But what great timings. Many over nine minutes, several others pass seven minutes. One runs ten minutes! Critics of movie music often point to short cues, undeveloped material, generic ideas. Let them check this one out.

The Perfect Storm is real symphonic writing. Music with architecture. There’s a primary theme. There are little motifs. Everything’s cohesive, connected, developed.

And it’s big. What we’d probably get were Mahler, Hindemith and Copland alive and working today.

An interesting feature. Much of the music is thick. Orchestrations are dense. Chords aren’t just implied, they’re fully drawn, weighted. What emerges is clearly focused music, logically drawn, massive in presentation. Lot’s of composers have written loud scores. Few have written massive ones.

For all this weight and structure, Horner launches his boat with a simple, lean French horn line over guitars. Strings soon broaden the melody. Horner’s working out a main theme. But he’s doing more. A new line, upper voices descending, lower voices ascending, comes up. Coplandesque, important throughout the score. But Horner still has places he’s going. A sense of urgency, thick chords in the lower brass. Clarinet reminds us of the theme. Then he unloads a brilliant fanfare of brass triplets over a flourish of guitars. His theme takes command, the triplets continue. The Coplandesque idea comes back. All this in the first five minutes. It’s an amazing amount of material to introduce. And Horner does it with a feeling of structure.

So where does he take this opening? After seven minutes he introduces one of his most important motifs. Six repeating notes, a little idea. But under it four thick, powerful chords. After all that has happened this motif has genuine power. That Horner can introduce so many ideas and let each say something is impressive. "Coming Home From The Sea" unwinds for nine minutes.

Horner has now built a massive foundation. "The Fog’s Just Lifting..." allows him a few minutes to work with a couple of ideas started in the opening music.

One of many highlights. The nine minute "Let’s Go, Boys". After a brief introduction the repeating figure over thick chords comes in, surges. Quieter material is developed. The main theme shows up on clarinet. Both themes are worked with. But it’s the secondary, repeating figure that takes control. I’m a fan of music where two ideas are developed, each retaining an identity. And so this cue goes, the theme, then the repeating motif. And the winner? The opening notes of the main theme have the last say.

"To The Flemish Cap" brings in a brand new theme. Yet it’s related masterfully to previous ideas. Repeating notes, a chord pattern. Horner has increased the density of his melodic material but kept it relative to other ideas. He brings back the triplet fanfare music. The sense of urgency returns, so does the repeating motif over chords. Then near the close - another new idea!

It’s "The Decision To Turn Around" and Horner draws another card from his sleeve. Familiar motifs come about, but so does an aggressive, dissonant slant. And another theme! Again, it has identity, yet it’s related, in this case to the melodic shape of the main theme. It’s heard first on French horn, but note a particularly rich version for solo trumpet. This one’s another long trip. And it’s bumpy. Percussion, dissonant clusters, that sort of thing.

Then a genuine high point of the whole massive work happens.

We’re still working through the "decision" cue when the entire orchestra drops out, except brass. A dissonant swell and then suddenly just brass. On what? Not the theme. Just brass declaring a motif vaguely familiar from earlier in the score, never given such prominence. It’s apparent Horner has a wealth of material, yet brings in new ideas at whim. Tunes appear, disappear, reappear. They grow naturally from each other. Melodies, chord progressions. They’re all unified.

Amongst other highlights, a track for action fans. It’s a challenging cue titled "Coast Guard Rescue". Everyone has some exposed riff, rapid figure or other tricky spot to maneuver. It’s nearly a ten minute voyage this time, unified by repeating rhythmic figures or variants of the themes. Each time things climax, Horner finds new, more energetic ideas to toss about.

"Rogue Wave" plays longer than ten minutes. Numerous melodies are heard in dramatic fashion. When Horner finally touches on his main theme it’s a welcome moment. So’s a return to his Coplandesque figure, never so gently heard as here.

There’s a lot more music too. "Small Victories" runs over eight minutes. "There’s No Goodbye... Only Love" plays almost as long. "The Fog’s Just Lifting" is the only featherweight - at four minutes.

Horner’s way of ending the whole score? Bring it all back to solo French horn over guitars. Pure class.

It’s all a long voyage to be sure. There’s even a vocal by John Mellencamp, composed by Horner. But it’s rare that long scores cover as much territory, have so many ideas, unfold as powerfully.

Yea, this one’s a symphony.