Intrada Soundtrack Forum

February 06, 2001

The Stripper
Composed and conducted by Jerry Goldsmith
Film Score Monthly FSM Vol 3. No. 9
Total Time = 73:30

1963. Jerry Goldsmith was finishing a five-picture run with Universal. He composed A GATHERING OF EAGLES for the studio and headed over to 20th Century Fox.

1963. The year TAKE HER, SHE'S MINE and THE STRIPPER happened.

THE STRIPPER was a troubled Jerry Wald production, based on an unsuccessful 1959 play by William Inge called A LOSS OF ROSES. Franklin Schaffner came over from TV to debut as a movie director. Complications arose when Wald died in 1962. Darryl F. Zanuck took over cutting, making changes in Schaffner's version. CLEOPATRA was sucking the life out of Fox.

Somehow, Jerry Goldsmith came up to bat and delivered a perceptive, incredibly sensitive score.

The Depression. Lila (Joanne Woodward) couldn't make it in Hollywood. She's back in her hometown, victimized by rotten manager Ricky (Robert Webber). She lives with aging friend Helen (Claire Trevor) and relates to Kenny (Richard Beymer). Eventually she sheds her innocence, accepts fate, moves out into the world alone.

Goldsmith, already the dramatic genius, split his score into two levels. Tarnished people, Hollywood nobodies, Depression-era blues. The world Lila inhabited. Goldsmith played that part with jazzy, minor-keyed sensibilities. Lila is introduced as "nobody". The "Main Title" music reflects it.

Suddenly Goldsmith drops the swagger, turns 180 degrees, uses strings. Gentle, arpeggiated figures turn the music inward. Goldsmith's aiming deeper already.

Goldsmith introduces Lila's theme early in "Sunday Dinner". Heard on two oboes, harmonized in beautiful thirds, it's dramatically profound. Though reflective, the melody's hopeful. Characterized by a yearning leap in the line, Goldsmith here plays to character. To what Lila is feeling inside.

By balancing between Lila's outer and inner world, Goldsmith gives the score remarkable dimension.

In "The Empty Room" Goldsmith draws upon Lila's most inner world by using solo ocarina. Perhaps due to difficulties in keeping it in tune Goldsmith recorded the cue with flute as well, in tune. Both takes are included on this album.

A nice highlight occurs during "Lila and Helen". The overall mood uses jazz, though only touching on main ideas. Prevailing colors shift between moody strings, somber lines for muted trumpet, and transparent woodwind figures. Then, near the close, solo oboe introduces a new idea based on Lila's theme. Over it violins actually play Lila's theme. It's warm, optimistic, beautifully orchestrated (by Goldsmith).

Easily the movie's strongest scene has Lila taking Kenny to a deserted classroom. She recalls childhood memories. Her theme plays briefly, emphasizing major chords. Then Goldsmith brings ocarina into the music, plus strings with new material emphasizing alternating minor and major chords.

There are moments where the two worlds do collide though.

In a mood of violence, Ricky pushes Lila towards stripping, intimidating her, beating back her rejections. Goldsmith moves "The New Job" in the outer direction, unwinding flute, muted trumpet and drums with teasing material. The density increases with dissonant strings, culminating in violent orchestral outbursts. Lila refuses to hit bottom, and chimes add to her resolve.

Interesting note. Alex North worked extensively at Fox. He obviously had an impact on Goldsmith's early writing. Nowhere is it more evident than in THE STRIPPER. Oboe solos, muted trumpets, violins often way above the other strings, certain harmonic progressions. It's definately stuff common to both composers.

This is a premier release of the score, heard in stereo. And it's all here. Dynamic range, channel separation are terrific. Liner notes by Jonathan Kaplan and Lukas Kendall are generous, chronicling the movie, the troubled production, every piece of music and more. Color stills, terrific album graphics too.

If that's not enough, there's an extra. A genuine bonus.

For a 15-minute test reel on a proposed 1968 action series called NICK QUARRY, Goldsmith supplied ten minutes of wild music in his most "Flint-flavored" style. The show never happened and the music is heard here for the first time. Expert TV authority Jon Burlingame provides detailed notes about the program and just what occurred. Fortunately the music survived.

That's one heck of a bonus.

February 13, 2001

Africa
Conducted by Alex North and Henry Brant
Played by the Symphony Orchestra Graunke
Prometheus PCR 509
Total Time = 50:04

Like the French horn? This one's music to your ears. Read on.

AFRICA was an ABC TV program in 1967. Really more of an event, actually. Four hours, an entire evening. Long before mini-series or novels for television there was AFRICA. Its beginning, its history, its animals, its people. Africa wild, Africa civilized..

I watched all of it.

MGM issued an album to it that year. It wasn't a soundtrack really. North worked much of his music into a half-hour symphony he was doing at the time and recorded the four untitled movements in Munich. He also recorded four shorter pieces and grouped them into his "Africa Suite". The symphony was freely based on various ideas, the suite closer to the actual score for AFRICA.

Even if you never had the record you probably know some of this music. If you like North you have his score for 2001 courtesy of Varese Sarabande. But here's the rub. Varese Sarabande recorded the entire "Main Title Theme" from AFRICA and labeled it as an "Entr'acte" version of the main theme for 2001. It had nothing to do with 2001, musically or otherwise. AFRICA, with it's wildly energetic, jazzy pulse climaxing dense, often cerebral music for 2001. Whoa! Didn't anyone notice? Liner notes on this new CD from Prometheus illuminate the error. Parts for AFRICA were filed in boxes of parts for 2001. It's surprising no one noticed the unrelated thematic material or different orchestrations.

Or hadn't heard the AFRICA album.

I was frustrated that 2001 got so much attention while this earlier masterpiece went without a champion. Now Prometheus has taken up the gauntlet. AFRICA it is.

And those French horns! Throughout, they're in the spotlight. You like 'em, you get 'em.

The "Main Title Theme" boasts the most incredible challenges for the horn you'll find. Demanding intervals, extreme upper register. And it's nonstop for nearly three minutes. It's enough of a challenge that North incorporates strings in unison with the horns to ease the load. But there's no respite. It's the piercing sound of the horn, loud and high, that cuts through.

Thematically, the music focuses on a short motif in unison rather than any extended line. It's given added color by syncopated trumpet figures and punctuation in percussion. But mostly what stands out is the unusual demand it places on players. Often without harmony, this figure drives the work. Everything else is secondary.

North's original release of the suite slowly developed material, using the energetic main theme to take the suite somewhere, bringing it to a rousing conclusion. For this CD the piece is used to both open it (in a newly discovered longer take) and close it. Okay idea, but both takes are so conclusive that the first one removes any architecture originally created in favor of providing two climaxes.

The second section, "Main In Africa" (the original suite opener) uses bass clarinet and alto flute to initiate unusual color. Light percussion and subdued strings blend. While not related to the main theme the idiom isn't distant. Alto flute plays a long line built from pieces much like the horn motifs from the main theme. Accompanying figures create rhythm, texture.

"The Joyful Days" draws upon lighter material. Bubbling woodwinds, agitated figures for bassoon, trumpet, all mingle in a slow-ish scherzo for orchestra. A middle section develops a descending three-note idea, adds to it. Eventually it becomes a winding line for oboe and english horn. Strings guide it back on path to a reprise of the bubbly mood.

"Victoria Falls/Progress" is new to this CD. Previously unheard, it pulls the suite deeper into a bubbly, agitated mood, but much denser in color. It also introduces full brass into the suite, unique fortissimo chords and trilling woodwinds providing genuine power.

"Kilimanjaro" showcases warm harmonies in strings and lines for oboe and flute. Reflective in mood, woodwinds weave in and about, never lingering long, always spiraling upwards and about.

The main theme becomes the sixth section, a closing bookend.

The symphony is much weightier, both in development and idea. Though not unrelated to AFRICA the music is substantially new. Similarities exist more in textures, colors rather than motifs or themes.

The opening movement slowly weaves string and woodwind figures much like the (original) opening of the suite. Harpsichord adds color, as do muted brass. A rousing middle section of xylophone and tuned percussion leads to long, dark material for cello. Intense French horns, in that demanding high register, jockey with similarly forced trombones. Strings draw things to a subdued finish.

The shorter second movement links in style with bubbly material used in the middle of the AFRICA suite. An array of keyboard sounds, pizzicato strings and percussive effects keep the mood light. The long third movement develops the widest variety of sound. Flute and clarinet families are heard, as well as a vast array of tuned percussion. Low brass, muted trumpets, a choir of double reeds. It's an amazing picture of changing color, texture.

In rousing fashion, North employs those piercing, challenged French horns for the finale.

The original MGM record revealed thin, harsh sound and an odd mix often placing brass dead center. Pressings were incredibly noisy, disturbing quiet passages. Distortion plagued piercing brass climaxes.

You name a vinyl flaw, this particular record will raise it's hand.

Prometheus couldn't do anything about the mix, having identical two-track elements to work with. But the flaws are gone. Happily they also avoided attempts to remove all tape hiss. The symphony in particular relies heavily on high strings playing harmonics, high-pitched percussion and so forth. Removing all tape noise would diminish the array of treble effects North incorporated into his music. So producers Ford Thaxton and Luc Van de Ven allowed the spectacular variety of colors to prevail.

Still, there's one thing this 1967 recording can't do. It can't compare with Jerry Goldsmith conducting the National Philharmonic in a state-of-the-art digital recreation. With part of AFRICA, that's just what happened.

For the rest of this genuine masterpiece, the Prometheus CD will do.

February 20, 2001

Beneath The 12 Mile Reef
Composed and Conducted by Bernard Herrmann
Film Score Monthly FSM Vol. 3 No. 10
Total Time = 55:02

Important music from an irreplaceable composer. We've got Bernard Herrmann, 20th Century Fox, a really colorful movie, and stereo. Real early stereo. Herrmann's first stereo movie, in fact.

It was 1953.

Herrmann had already begun altering the standard orchestra for his movie music, removing strings from THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL (1951), increasing low brass, adding electric keyboards, theremin. But with BENEATH THE 12-MILE REEF he went off the deep end.

He had nine harps on this one!

His orchestra was expanded too. To a full array of woodwinds he added piccolos at one end, contrabass clarinets at the other. Brass played open, muted. Ranges were extreme. And always, those nine harps!

The movie featured young Robert Wagner, a favorite at Fox. He starred in several early CinemaScope pictures for the studio. PRINCE VALIANT, BROKEN LANCE, BENEATH THE 12-MILE REEF.

Here he played a Greek sponge diver. His family gathered sponges, fought with a rival English family. A love story had him romancing one of the rivals. Brawls, kisses, and lots of water. There was an octopus too.

Herrmann went for color. Neither the Greek family nor their rivals had themes per se. The music represented adventure and water. Mostly water. Think harps.

His main title ("The Sea") establishes the primary motif immediately, on French horns, over a literal wall of harp glissandi. Herrmann's already staked out his territory. The motif is interesting because it's heard both as a fanfare idea throughout the score, and with changes in style, as a lyrical theme as well. As a fanfare it usually accompanies outdoor shots of the Greek sponge boat against spectacular widescreen vistas. As a lyrical idea it's usually heard underwater, or inside the story line.

The harps convey water. They're given rushes of glissando effects one moment, delicate arpeggio figures another. They rip, swish and ripple.

Another major musical device is established early on. The main melodic line dwells on the "tritone", that most unstable of intervals. Herrmann's resolution is almost always to raise the accompanying major chord up a whole step. It's ripe with impressionism, wisps of Debussy.

Tritones figure prominently in the harmonic structure of the whole score. Those nine harps often pluck and gliss within chords moving by intervals of - you guessed it - a tritone.

Within these guidelines Herrmann creates tremendous variety throughout. It's done by drawing attention to different moods, style.

There's warmth with the romance, especially during a rich underwater sequence titled "The Lagoon". Harps keep water in view while a steady stream of sunny major chords light up the music.

There's suspense. Tangles with an octopus, other dangers of the deep, become vivid by an emphasis of instruments in lower registers against jabbing harp effects. Harmonies are less defined, sometimes nonexistent. It's interesting to note how frequently instruments play in unison, or octaves, during some of these passages. The density comes not from thick, dissonant chords, but blocks of deep, low sound. In fact, most of the underwater scenes use instruments in very low registers against ripplings in harp.

The key action set-piece ("The Fire") is almost free of chords entirely. Virtually everything comes from either rapid descending triplets in woodwinds and brass, or blocks of unison notes going the other way. It's a striking feature Herrmann further developed in his numerous fantasy scores, notably JASON AND THE ARGONAUTS.

My favorite cue doesn't mirror fantasy, action, suspense or romance. It's about sorrow.

After a Greek diver dies Herrmann colors the event with particularly effective music. ""Elegy" dwells on minor chords, to be sure. Sticking out, however, are rich major chords, often in low brass. Even as strings swell with a sad melody, strong major chords alternate with minor ones. Harmonically it's a high point of the entire score. Though a sad piece, interestingly it ends in the major.

Great news. Liner notes call attention to defects in the source material. Integrity on the label's part. But they're pretty minor. The master elements were complete, revealing good stereo spread across three channels of sound (left, center, right) and clarity in instrumental colors. Not just harps, but woodwinds (especially bass clarinet and piccolo) have clean, crisp presence. Producer Lukas Kendall wisely avoided tampering heavily with the dynamic range. Herrmann's use of low instruments, especially woodwinds, provides ample bottom for a recording made nearly half a century ago.

Customary for Film Score Monthly, notes are profuse but never wordy. Jeff Bond provides a wealth of movie facts, details on the music. Jason Foster gives terrific individual cue analysis. Everything's interesting to read, never taxing. Rich, colorful artwork completes the package.

Of all composers, Herrmann is unique. His fans are too. Where virtually all other composers fall into categories, "Golden Age", newcomers, so forth, Herrmann crosses all borders. Whether collectors of Korngold, collectors of Zimmer. Both sides like Herrmann.

What an irreplaceable composer.

February 27, 2001

The Cardinal
Conducted by Paul Bateman
City Of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra
Silva Classics SILKD 6030 (2 CD Set)
Total Time = 84:37

A mammoth collection. Not snippets from a gazillion scores for a change either. Just a half dozen given close attention. My kind of collection.

Most of the movies are minor. One is virtually unknown. The featured title didn't even make much noise. It's music alone that carries things this time.

I'll fast forward to my favorite.

THE JAYHAWKERS hit screens in 1959. Fess Parker was a good guy, Jeff Chandler was a bad guy. Sort of, anyway. Chandler caused the death of Parker's wife during vigilante raids into pre-Civil War Kansas. Parker plans revenge but later warms up to the outlaw. Most of the movie follows Parker's crisis. He's got orders to bring Chandler to justice but his growing respect for the guy gets in the way.

It's one of those movies I discovered on TV. I didn't have any feelings about it really. Chandler was big, Parker was bland. I rooted for Chandler. I'm not sure the makers intended this. But what music they got from Moross!

What immediately sticks out is how Moross gets started. It's a western, yea, but that's not what Moross says first. For some twenty seconds he's in his own world with these magnificent, regal, overpowering major chords. Nothing but major chords. No minor chords, no dissonance, no melody, no swirling strings, no fanfares, no rhythms. I mean nothing but major chords. Never did a western score start so majestically, so triumphantly, so un-westernly. Wow!

Eventually Moross shakes free, goes off and running with his "Main Titles".

Structurally, Moross has actually laid down important groundwork. Major chords color everything. Themes use them, rhythms are built around them. Sometimes chords just play without any help at all.

Moross wrote a lot like Copland. They both nourished from the roots of American folk song, simple harmonies, basic melodies. But this time Moross gave his Americana an incredible, resplendent "major" shine. Certainly optimistic, considering the grim period on view. Take the opening scenes for example. Parker, a prison escapee, returns after his wife's death, wounded no less. Moross still scores it mostly for warm major chords. A melody emerges but moves within the established colors.

But there's more. The music is robust, energetic. It's what Moross brought to his westerns. It highlighted THE BIG COUNTRY, THE PROUD REBEL. It highlights THE JAYHAWKERS.

The main theme is a spirited line for unison French horns, then trumpets, over sturdy rhythms in low brass. Whenever the gang of Jayhawkers rides across the screen Moross gallops right along. In a major key, of course. Whether they're bad guys or not, Moross isn't focusing. It's energy and exuberance he rides after.

The album devotes nearly seventeen minutes to this one, catches all of the major parts. Spectacular stuff.

But, of course, there's more here. Adding enormous value, Silva has recorded five other lengthy suites. THE CARDINAL has been to the well before, but a rich twenty-three minute suite paints a picture of religious warmth, turmoil, passion. THE PROUD REBEL is Moross' other western from 1958, a "little" one. Darker than THE BIG COUNTRY and JAYHAWKERS, it features muted brass, minor chords, intense upper string lines. The nineteen minutes here cover the highlights well.

THE CAPTIVE CITY is early Robert Wise, early Jerome Moross. A 1952 newspaper drama about "the Mob" in small town America, Moross provides both nervous edges to the drama and typically big outdoor themes in his Americana style. SEVEN WONDERS OF THE WORLD features Moross writing in a minor key (!) during much of "The Holy Land" suite, then switching back to major for "The Mediterranean" section with a vivid depiction of rolling water.

CLOSE-UP introduced Moross music to movie-goers in 1948. An atmospheric murder movie set in New York, Moross (big surprise) paints in skyscraper colors of Gershwin, Copland. Lots of piano, swelling tunes. Particularly interesting is an agitated chase sequence which bends and twists through the orchestra before a climax in (big surprise) sturdy major chords and a return to the city skyline.

Sound on the entire album is crisp, dynamic. The orchestra has some difficulties, unison horn figures in THE JAYHAWKERS, trombone rhythms, so forth. But there's energy, vitality that makes Moross come alive.

I recall something Bruce Broughton told me after we recorded a particularly gargantuan cue for JASON AND THE ARGONAUTS. We had world class players from London, a "clean" take with no mistakes. We also had no pizzazz. Bruce turned and said, "This is the kind of cue where you don't want anything held back. You just want to make music. You want the players to really go for it, over the top, warts and all."

We made another take and shook the walls.

That's what Silva went for with this album. And they made music.