Intrada Soundtrack Forum

November 7, 2000

My Name Is Nobody
Composed by Ennio Morricone
Conducted by Bruno Nicolai
Screen Trax CDST 330
Total Time = 74:33

Ask people to name their favorite western movie scores. Many times I have. I’ve asked our customers, from fans to composers and industry professionals. I wonder about the responses.

I always hear similar answers, across the board. The classics. HIGH NOON and RED RIVER and SHANE and BIG COUNTRY and MAGNIFICENT SEVEN. I hear HOW THE WEST WAS WON and WILD BUNCH. More recent? I’m given SILVERADO and LONESOME DOVE and TOMBSTONE and WYATT EARP. Goldsmith addicts tell me RIO CONCHOS and BANDOLERO and STAGECOACH. On and on. No arguments here so why wonder?

What about Ennio Morricone? I’ve asked. Everyone suddenly goes "O yea, of course. He just wasn’t on the tip of my tongue."

Maybe it’s because he turned traditional western movie music upside down, inside out, on its ear.

Westerns are America. The landscapes, the peoples that tamed them. Western movie scores once reflected it. All those open spaces. All those folk melodies, sparse harmonies, simple cadences.

Max Steiner doing all those Errol Flynn westerns. Tiomkin and HIGH NOON with that haunting ballad talking to the audience. This was important stuff. Then Jerome Moross came along in the late fifties and opened the frontier some. THE BIG COUNTRY. No longer music with roots in Europe, Russia, wherever. Westerns now had Americana. Broad, expansive melody and rock solid harmony. Aaron Copland ruled. Then Elmer Bernstein pushed it a bit more. Copland still, Americana to be sure. But rhythmic energy unlike anything before it. Sweeping melodies for both good guys and bad guys over relentless, unyielding rhythms. They started the score, nurtured it, finished it.

You could probably find a growth to all these scores, a progression. Until the mid-sixties. Then Ennio Morricone happened.

He was pretty obscure at the time. Early sixties. Not much available on record. After MONDO CANE there was an audience for international oddities in cinema, so Epic issued MALAMONDO. It probably wasn’t because of Morricone. But a couple of years later FISTFUL OF DOLLARS went around. And western movie music changed forever.

Gone were expansive melodies, rock solid harmonies, energetic rhythms. In their place? Snaps, whistles, bleats, groans. Wisps of melody twisting inside out, tiny motifs digging at you. Wordless cries, Spanish trumpet tunes, quirky fiddle stuff. Whatever Morricone dreamed up and found on his scoring stage was fair game.

Before Morricone, if you wanted to evoke western moods you used traditional western music. Think Marlboro cigarettes. After Morricone, it was all snaps and whistles. It still is.

MY NAME IS NOBODY is a pretty important score. Morricone had already contributed to the genre for a decade. Most of his famous ones had happened. Westerns for Leone, Eastwood, for other talents, for imitators.

Sergio Leone nurtured MY NAME IS NOBODY in 1973. Originally it was planned as an ambitious melding of traditional American westerns with innovative Italian westerns. Part serious, part not serious. John Ford meets the Good, the Bad and the Ugly. Italian Terence Hill opposite American Henry Fonda. Eventually it was helmed by Tonino Valerii, edited down from its original concept and released to minor recognition.

The music has stayed with us. Labels in Europe issued soundtracks, an American version came later from Cerberus. CDs eventually came out from Europe, from DRG in the U.S. The theme has been to the well many times.

Those previous releases have featured about 33 minutes of the score. All well and good. Now the Screen Trax label from Italy has come forth with the whole thing. Prepared by Claudio Fuiano, Gianni Dell’Orso and crew, the music gets microscopic treatment.

The humorous main theme, "My Name Is Nobody", instantly places tongue in cheek. Guitars and voices and ocarina. There’s bounce and pace and a catchy tune. Morricone winks at the genre.

But then there’s another side. "Good Luck, Jack" goes in the opposite direction. It’s sweet and simple, gently growing into one of Morricone’s richer melodies. This is the Morricone of ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST, the outdoor landscapes, the myth.

And there’s the Eastwood side. "The Wild Horde" has the riding and jumping and wailing voices that showcased all those movies with "the man with no name". By turns rousing and humorous (with nods to Wagner) it evokes the west with nary a Copland idea in sight.

The final important theme comes with "My Fault". It’s the Morricone cliché to beat. Ticking clocks, sinister melody (similar to Al Capone’s in UNTOUCHABLES), repeating figures, bells, agitated electric guitars. The stuff of duels, lingering Leone close-ups. The final showdown music.

It’s interesting to note that this music was inspiration for a particular sequence in THE ‘BURBS many years later. In fact, so much so that Jerry Goldsmith’s own cue was dropped in favor of the Morricone cliché. If one wonders about the effect Morricone had on the western here’s one pretty loud answer.

With a wealth of previously unreleased tracks following the original album tracks there’s much to go through. Some repetition occurs, some new tracks yield no stereo separation. But the recording is crisp, clean, the best it has sounded to date. With this release it’s apparent the original sessions were very well engineered with attention to instrumental details. The resulting music is colorful, enthusiastic, funny, rich... and cliched.

Pure Morricone.

November 14, 2000

Objective, Burma!
Composed by Franz Waxman
Conducted by William T. Stromberg
Moscow Symphony Orchestra
Marco Polo 8.225148
Total Time = 71:36

Errol Flynn's last really good movie. One of Franz Waxman's many really good scores.

Flynn's string of great movies lasted roughly one decade. People first noticed him play CAPTAIN BLOOD in 1935. They last paid attention in 1945, when he parachuted into the jungles of Burma. He had two dozen movies to come but never really hit the same plateau. Then again, few stars attain his legendary status. Robin Hood and the Sea Hawk and General Custer and Gentleman Jim Corbett and the Earl of Essex. Lots of history here.

Franz Waxman, on the other hand, played a leading role in his craft for several decades. His work flourished after 1935 and THE BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN. Great scores continued non-stop, flowering particularly strong during the late fifties and early sixties. Waxman maintained a lengthy, productive relationship with producer Jerry Wald. It began with DESTINATION TOKYO in 1943 and led to OBJECTIVE, BURMA. Later collaborations resulted in great music for DARK PASSAGE, PEYTON PLACE and HEMINGWAY'S ADVENTURES OF A YOUNG MAN.

Waxman stood out amongst his peers with an ability to write modern composition into his movie music. Dissonance and harmony were two sides of the same coin for him. Nowhere is there a better example than his opening for OBJECTIVE, BURMA.

Gong, strings and woodwinds immediately establish locale. Trumpet follows with an angular, widely-spaced theme. Dissonant chords and frenzied percussion propel the music into the primary theme of the paratroopers. The music suddenly erupts in a series of solid major chords, a triumphant, dramatically tonal marching idea. In a matter of seconds Waxman has covered an amazing array of harmonic territory.

Agitated music leads to a striking woodwind quote of the march in "Take Off - In The Plane". It's broadly developed, finally leading to muted trumpet figures merging with French horn. Waxman manages to accelerate the music into the take-off scene with trills, runs and an orchestral flourish. Waxman has established several important ideas in his score by this point. Widely-spaced motifs, a stirring march, dissonance, concrete harmony, a feeling of locale, of military mood. He's about to unleash a new direction.

"Jumping" is an extraordinary segment that combines a variant of the march theme with stirring harmonies, a fierce jagged figure for strings, and violent trills for French horn and trumpet. It closes with woodwind solos covered by remains of the jagged string figure.

"Stop Firing - No Landing" offers an astounding variety of material. Instrumental colors, performance techniques, virtuoso moments. All are prominent, but not just for effect. Reworking important thematic ideas is part of the scheme. At one point the dissonant opening chords with percussion return, as does a quote of the march.

Other neat ideas.

A rich, moving reprise of the main march theme provides the highlight of "Andante". An insistent throbbing in the orchestra permeates "Two Came Back-Hollis Is OK".

Quotes of the march theme minus harmony are heard to nice effect during "Burmese Village-Jacob's Death-Burial-Retreat". A lengthy ten-minute cue, it's filed with ideas. A rich chordal brass passage here, a bit of "Taps" there. Standing out are incomplete quotes of the march theme, piercing through the orchestra. Relentless rhythms persist and bring the cue to a crescendo.

An important development of the score happens with "Missing The Plane-Waiting-Up The Hill-Williams' Death". For thirteen minutes the music weaves between subtle quotes of the primary thematic ideas and long, sustained passages of suspense. Challenging harmonies mingle with a variety of instrumental colors. From full orchestral tuttis to solo bassoon, from delicate meandering strings to a solitary clarinet. The overall effect is one of immense depth. There's structure here. Waxman serves up suspense in multiple layers, building entire blocks of material one upon the other.

My favorite cue? The florid, exciting "Invasion-Landing" segment. Waxman builds to a powerful brass variant of his march theme. When it lands the theme explodes in the orchestra while trumpet alone carries a fanfare in counterpoint. The cue then races forward to a resplendant climax of brass. Upon conclusion everyone in the orchestra drops out save violins and violas. Finishing alone they simply play a brief quote of the main theme. From incredible power to quiet solemnity. Five of the richest minutes Waxman wrote. Applause to the Moscow players here. They nailed this one.

Waxman's "Finale" brings in a triumphant statement of the theme. When the score concludes you feel you've really been served music with depth, power.

Marco Polo has certainly hit a stride with this great series. Attention to instrumental color and detail has become the norm. The orchestra not only masters notes but gets down to making music. This is one of Waxman's most challenging movie scores, both for instrumental color and complexity of composition. It's a treasure trove of stuff that conductor William Stromberg and orchestral reconstructionist John Morgan have served to perfection. Miking of instruments is close, the array of colors richly captured.

OBJECTIVE, BURMA!

Mission accomplished!

November 21, 2000

Under Fire
Composed and Conducted by Jerry Goldsmith
Guest Soloist: Pat Metheny
Warner Bros. Records 759 923 965-2
Total Time = 44:54

Jerry Goldsmith has scored a lot of movies. Many good ones, a few great ones. Maybe the five greatest are LONELY ARE THE BRAVE, SEVEN DAYS IN MAY, PATTON, CHINATOWN and UNDER FIRE. Each movie stands up over time, tells a compelling story, has great music.

Four of those are highly regarded by most viewers. The fifth is... well, just plain underrated.

UNDER FIRE didn't seem to have many champions when it came out. Still doesn't have many.

It's a great picture though. Plays on many levels. It's a no-nonsense political thriller matching the best of them. It's as fascinating a newspaper/reporter movie as any Billy Wilder ever did. And it's a love story. A complex, realistic, involving kind of love story. It's the level I liked best.

It focuses on three characters. Two men, one woman, all journalists. The men are best friends, the woman in love with both. They compete, surrender, fight, make love. And they stay friends. They're people you care about. Watch Nick Nolte and Gene Hackman and Joanna Cassidy doing some of the best acting they ever did.

It's fascinating how involved Ron Shelton and Clayton Frohman let their script get. With war torn 1979 Nicaragua as background, they layer politics, intrigue, twists. They add action. The war gets viewed close-up. The lives of three journalists intertwine, make personal and political choices. Things get hot, people get hurt. Add a mercenary played by Ed Harris, a politician played by Jean-Louis Trintignant, and there's lots of story to tell.

Jerry Goldsmith had a challenge. His music needed to support a lot of drama, highlight several love scenes, suggest the dilemma of choosing sides vs. neutrality. And it needed to color and shape a tumultuous time and locale.

His solution was brilliant. It resulted in one of the truly great, lasting movie scores.

His cornerstone was a large symphony orchestra embellished with electronics. Then, digging into the heart of the movie, he created musical colors we could accept as South American. Pan flutes became the voice of a revolution, of Raphael. Then Goldsmith went farther. Having body and heart he now gave the music a face. Enter guitar soloist Pat Metheny. Recording in two studios in London with engineers John Richards and Bruce Botnick, Goldsmith conducted large forces with music of rare depth, emotion. Not just one but several diverse sounds, each holding its own during the movie. Edged, anxious guitar-driven orchestral music balanced with gentle, solitary guitar solos. Guitar and orchestra music contrasted with pan flutes and rhythms of the region. Many listeners are unaware of the plural layers of music. Taking notice of them increases the reward Goldsmith offers.

Thematically, Goldsmith fashioned several melodies. Heard separately and together he uses them to unify the work as a whole. Basically, there's material to flavor the region and material to identify the three people as a whole. Weaving in and about those ideas are the pan flutes and rhythms that keep the revolution alive throughout the drama. Goldsmith manages to integrate these diverse musical ideas into a cohesive, moving whole.

It's also interesting to note that thematic lines are given only to a select few instruments, primarily guitar, synthesizer or woodwinds. Goldsmith avoids solo strings or brass. In fact, the entire string and brass sections are reserved primarily for adding weight to particular moments. Percussion parts, trademarks of his rhythmic composition, are reserved for accompanying roles as well. Guitar and pan flute provide much of the rhythmic interest.

Selections are heard on the album in extended versions, more fragmented in the movie. The first five cues on the album introduce the bulk of Goldsmith's ideas, each getting spotlighted.

The love theme, functioning for all three people, is introduced during "House Of Hammocks". The tune associated with the political dilemma, and choices the journalists make, appears during "Betrayal". Colorful, rhythmic ideas underscoring much of the action are heard during the first cue, "Baja Fuego". The piping, rhythmic pan flute motif makes a debut in "Sniper". And the all-important revolution theme starts off "19 De Julio".

Strong moments occur throughout the album. A few highlights.

"Raphael" represents an important development in the story. Agreeing to doctor photographs of the slain leader, making him seem alive, draws one journalist into conflict on two fronts. The outer revolution around him, the inner conflict of losing his neutrality. Solo oboe against warm string harmonies launches the music. Soon synthesizers against pan flute set the revolution music into motion. As leaflets of the photo drop from the sky Goldsmith increases the texture, his music becoming the rousing voice of Raphael.

A particularly haunting use of the love theme is heard during "A New Love". Scored for solo guitar, synthesizer and strings, the music is incredibly transparent, even when it blossoms part way through. Interestingly, the melody is minor keyed, but Goldsmith spends most of the time using major chords as the tune develops before cadencing back to the minor.

"Sandino" allows the listener to hear the pan flute motif and revolution tune alternate with the guitar-driven ideas from the opening, all becoming one seamless piece.

"Alex's Theme" also combines numerous ideas into one piece, this one emotional, touching. His music, the love theme, a touch of the revolution, and his dilemma (choices he makes are crucial to the story) all combine in a gentle cue.

My favorite part? Ironically, it's a percussion part. Not melody or harmony, nor even something central to any architecture in the score. Just something neat going on during the finale.

Kicking the end title (Nicaragua) into gear is a fanfare, brass finally getting their big moment. It's a brief flourish, trumpets everywhere, topped off with the entire French horn section in unison cutting through with a flourish of their own. Following forty minutes of complex, involved material this triumphant moment is a splendid release.

The end title itself is structured in what was once Goldsmith's almost-exclusive domain. Rather than reprise themes from the score in medley form (typical for many composers) Goldsmith chose one idea and worked away at it. Here he uses his revolution music over the pan flutes. Starting small, with percussion, synthesizer and pan flutes, Goldsmith makes it grow, swelling deliberately, becoming a massive statement.

Under it all Goldsmith has deliberately worked his percussion into the music, bringing it to the fore during the final statement. I'm particularly fond of the bass drum part, a single voice refusing to conform to the rhythm. While snare drums hammer in perfect rhythm with the orchestra a single bass drum instead hits during spaces and gaps, off the beat. Coupled with jabs from the trombone, this exposed bass drum seems symbolic of preceding events. Musically it adds a powerful dynamic to the revolution theme.

Bringing everything to a close Goldsmith combines percussion and full orchestra into a powerful fortissimo.

This CD reissue from the German branch of Warner Brothers is identical to the original record album from 1983, and a subsequent CD issued in Japan some years back.

November 28, 2000

Twilight Zone: The Movie
Composed and Conducted by
Warner Bros. Records 759 923 887-2
Total Time = 45:24

Something kinda different. A Jerry Goldsmith album with a theme by someone else, a bit of dialog, a song, and only six tracks by Goldsmith. Yet it's one of the best-produced albums he's made.

The theme is familiar, famous. The "someone else" who wrote it is 20th-century French composer Marius Constant. He and Goldsmith are both linked with the original tv series "The Twilight Zone". The bit of dialog comes from Rod Serling, creator of the series. The song was arranged and produced by James Newton Howard long before he was known as a movie composer. And most of the few Goldsmith tracks are very long.

The movie became notorious during production due to a fatal accident and subsequent trial. Released in 1983 with four segments, plus bookends, the movie couldn't shake the stigma. Four directors contributed, Steven Spielberg amongst them. Only the last segment, helmed by George Miller, received praise. Some felt Joe Dante's part odd, the Spielberg tale too sweet. Nearly everyone found John Landis' contribution a mess. Hamstrung by tragedy, what remained of his story made little sense.

Jerry Goldsmith fared better. His score was applauded by most, overshadowed that year only by his own UNDER FIRE.

Goldsmith wrote separate scores for each story without attempting to link them musically. Each score received its own identity and color. The bookends went unscored. On album each section has been assembled into individual suites.

"Time Out" featured what footage of Vic Morrow was available. Having no finish the tale played neutral, unresolved. Goldsmith approached it with an appropriate neutrality, catching the bleak setting and time travel thread, avoiding characters altogether. In fact, the only warm tonality comes from a brief excerpt of "Nights Are Forever", composed by Goldsmith, arranged by Howard, sung by Jennifer Warnes. Heard early in the bar, Goldsmith saves his instrumental scoring for the grim story to come.

His orchestra here consists largely of percussion, melodic and non-melodic. Snares, bass drum and tympani bang away amongst piano, glockenspiel, xylophone and chimes. The combination of stark, unpitched drums against pitched tympani and piano is striking. Adding more color Goldsmith created multiple snare drum parts with snares tightened (or loosened) against each other. Resulting different timbres from them is a highlight of this first suite. Lean synthesizer tones add another layer.

Rhythm is primary. Even the piano avoids harmony, leaning towards staccato figures, racing patterns, hammering effects. Special mention here of a recording that captures crispness, allows subtleties, has power.

"Kick The Can" is Spielberg's sentimental tale of elderly people seeking a fountain of youth. Goldsmith introduces emotion, primarily from strings and particularly warm clarinet writing. A bright fanfare for synthesizers, woodwinds and horns highlights the segment, heralding a youthful transition one adventure-seeker makes.

"It's A Good Life" was brought to life by Joe Dante. A warped cartoon gone awry, the segment required the most diverse of the scores. Goldsmith uses an orchestra of strings and woodwinds, augmented with electronics, then adds whistle and car horn. When bizarre, frightening figures burst from Anthony's play world into reality Goldsmith unleashes screeches and honks galore. Contrasting with the chaos is a warm, magical line for synthesizer over shifting major chords, opening and closing the suite.

For sheer excitement, single-minded and unyielding, "Nightmare At 20,000 Feet" was the highlight. John Lithgow started over the top and went further. George Miller kept it moving. And Goldsmith unleashed the high point of his entire score.

Brass at last. It's a full orchestra now, strings churning and grinding, trumpets, French horns, trombones and tuba tearing collectively into the music. Aggressive rhythms hold everything together, tenor and bass trombones particularly crisp, to the fore. Mutes and flutter-tongue effects in trumpets add to the violence.

Goldsmith launches this final segment with a hammering four-note motif in low strings that digs, grinds, refuses to give way. As the suite progresses the motif comes in again and again, eventually becoming part of one long crescendo effect. When the music climaxes in an outburst from the full orchestra Goldsmith ingeniously winds everything to a halt with those four notes finally unraveling in trombones.

In the movie end credits rolled to a medley summarizing music from three of the segments. On album this cue becomes an "Overture" before individual segments are heard. The effect is stunning, allowing a rousing opener to the score proper. The fanfare idea from "Kick The Can" now becomes a brilliant, spectacular fortissimo from the brass. The warm melody from that segment crosses with the magical line from "It's A Good Life". And finally, the treatment of music from "Nightmare At 20,000 Feet" gives way to a resounding cadence.

The album is bookended with the theme by Marius Constant, concluding with Rod Serling's memorable narration. No better way to wrap things up.

An interesting anecdote. While working with legendary mastering engineer Bernie Grundman in 1987, I asked him what the best recording of all time was. Classical, rock, whatever. He'd cut some of the greatest. He'd know. My question came five minutes after Barbra Streisand entered the studio for her newest project. One of hers, perhaps?

Without prompting, Bernie stated without pause: "Jerry's Twilight Zone".