Intrada Soundtrack Forum

September 04, 2001

Morituri
Composed by Jerry Goldsmith
Conducted by Lionel Newman
Film Score Monthly FSM Vol. 4 No. 12
Total Time = 57:46

Great period for Jerry Goldsmith.

He fought the great Hollywood WWII of 1965 on no less than three fronts: IN HARM'S WAY, VON RYAN'S EXPRESS and MORITURI.

MORITURI doesn't have many admirers but it's got credentials. Marlon Brando, Yul Brynner bring star appeal, Conrad Hall's the cameraman, director Bernhard Wicki adds interesting European touches. Jerry Goldsmith's music is a big plus.

It's a WWII movie about a German boat carrying rubber. Problems include muddled storytelling, a murky side plot about refugees, lots of people we don't care about. It's actually hard to figure out which characters we're supposed to like!

Fox's marketing takes some blame, too. It was first shown as MORITURI, with great color artwork on the posters. When nobody understood what the title meant Fox quickly renamed the movie THE SABOTEUR: CODE NAME MORITURI, cranking out hastily designed black & white (and red) posters with the new name. I attended a theater with the color poster over a "now-playing" banner, the black & white poster over a "coming soon" banner! Talk about confusion!

Jerry Goldsmith had the difficult job of creating mood from the very first frame. He was asked to do something "unusual", a keyword used in early promotions of the movie. Goldsmith chose zither. Interestingly, he avoided a musical introduction, instead plunging directly into his main theme. A European feel is established right off the bat while the tune plays like a folk song from distant worlds far removed from war.

In fact, Goldsmith mostly uses the tune for moments such as sailors working, listening to a radio, that kind of stuff. Like a folk tune they'd pass around. It's neat how Goldsmith has a broad three-beat structure but won't officially make the tune a waltz.

He keeps his triplet architecture pretty close at hand though.

A winding triplet figure in flute starts "Bon Voyage", establishing groundwork for much of the score. A striking version on bassoon launches "Nine Days Out".

In "Lost Cause", Goldsmith modifies his winding triplet figure, using electric bass to launch exciting action material. Even with odd meters Goldsmith emphasizes triplet portions of each measure.

"Abandoned Ship" is a highlight in the score. Here Goldsmith separates woodwinds, percussion and brass into individual groups. There's chaos on screen. A mutiny, the ship's burning, sinking. First alternating chords in woodwinds. Then low brass play a new figure, followed by a single hit on bass drum to punctuate. Everything grows denser, intensifies. Horns join low brass, snares add to bass drum. Then trumpets, soon the entire orchestra. Strings ultimately go berserk.

Brief footnote. Fox music editor Len Engel once said something interesting about this cue. He was working on a mid-seventies Charlton Heston western called THE LAST HARD MEN and was asked to track a brutal rape sequence with the "ugliest, nastiest" cue he could find. Digging into the vast library of music written by Goldsmith for the studio, Len said this was the first cue that came to mind!

Film Score Monthly provides a customary top-drawer production. Wide dynamics, great stereo, especially interesting liner notes. Terrific cover art reproduces the striking, colorful painting Fox originally used. One minor audio distraction: occasional wow resulting from deterioration in master elements.

Goldsmith's dramatic music easily compensates, however.

A major added-attraction: David Shire's Emmy-nominated 1977 television score for RAID ON ENTEBBE. Running just over fifteen minutes, the four tracks prepared by Shire cover half the score, nailing the major highlights.

Pretty neat bonus.

September 11, 2001

The Snows Of Kilimanjaro / 5 Fingers
Composed by Bernard Herrmann
Conducted by William Stromberg
Marco Polo 8.225168
Total Time = 66:25

Wow! What an album!

The Marco polo label has recorded a lot of movie music. This one may be their best yet. I'm particularly happy the recording goes for detail, stereo imaging, orchestral effect. As we found out when recording JASON AND THE ARGONAUTS, Herrmann's music simply requires examination up close. He may write separate tam-tam, gong and cymbal crashes. It's important to hear each. Microphone positioning, instrument seating, room size. These are important details!

With Herrmann, tiny "conversations" between instruments can become the main event. He can paint wonderful shades with simple ideas. A pair of woodwinds two octaves apart, basses on some fragment answered in violas a measure later, two shifting minor chords in muted brass.

Herrmann's focus is often on color, balances within instrumental families, figures tossed back and forth. To hear this stuff it helps to hear and "see" where the players are! If muted trumpets answer French horns then it's nice to hear horns in their proper left position, trumpets on the right.

Herrmann builds stereo into his music!

Orchestral reconstruction is by John Morgan. William Stromberg conducts the Moscow Symphony Orchestra. Profuse notes by Herrmann authority Christopher Husted, writer Joe Caporiccio complete a terrific package.

Morgan shows solid understanding of both works. Concerns for orchestral color, balance are evident. His talent gets the best of Herrmann down onto the printed page. Stromberg takes it from there, conducts with excitement, attention to detail, passion! He brings it alive. Moscow players shine.

THE SNOWS OF KILIMANJARO is a 1952 Hemingway tale mixing adventure with soap. Stars are Gregory Peck, Susan Hayward, Ava Gardner. The mood is brooding, the players sullen, cynical. It's staged in Africa sometimes, other times in the streets of Paris, bullrings of Spain. Flashbacks, romance, charging rhinos, a big mountain.

A tough musical nut to crack.

Herrmann solved the problem by tackling varied moods, settings and events rather than characters or plot as a whole. This gave him freedom to create an unusually wide tapestry.

Herrmann's wild main title ("Overture") launches immediately with a "moto perpetuo" figure in woodwinds and strings, hurling the pace forward. The figure's never heard from again. A two-note repeated motif in muted trumpet enters, suggesting a theme. It's not heard from again until the next to last cue ("Panic"), and just in subtler sounds of woodwind. An agitated French horn line follows. It's brought back only once, in nearly disguised form on muted brass during "The Fall".

It's interesting how many neat ideas get things going, yet are never developed.

Africa. Harry Street (Gregory Peck) is injured during a hunt. He rants and bellows to his wife Helen (Susan Hayward) whom nurses him. Flashbacks reveal his past, an array of romances both warm and cold.

A love theme for one such affair is introduced on oboe during "Nocturne". Strings swell, Herrmann at his richest. It's a languid melody, full of rising and falling motion.

One idea that does recur begins in "The Awakening". Heard in high strings, then woodwinds, it's a five-note motif heard over a quiet major chord. It's heard on oboe during "Interlude I", studied at length during "The Hyena" and "The Death-Watch". Heard under shots of the distant Kilimanjaro mountain, this motif becomes the peace Harry desperately seeks.

Surprise ending. The "Finale" may be familiar to listeners in not one but two later movies. The passionate first part also closed THE WRONG MAN. The brass fanfare ushered curtains on JOURNEY TO THE CENTER OF THE EARTH. You heard both climaxes first in THE SNOWS OF KILIMANJARO! This album does 37 minutes of the score.

FIVE FINGERS is a 1952 espionage tale with James Mason. Wartime setting, Turkey. Mason sells British secrets to Nazis. He's romantically involved but that's a dead end. Everything's dark, everyone's greedy.

Herrmann responded to it much like his later Hitchcock music. Stark ideas, fragments, lots of low woodwind. There's stuff for upper strings, high woodwinds, but bass clarinet and bassoon never seem far away, creating a much darker sound. This recording offers 29 minutes of the score.

Highlighting the score is "The Pursuit". Strings race, woodwinds chase, powerful lines for trombone and horn cut through. It's a virtuoso piece, superbly realized here by Stromberg and company.

Normally it's a treat examining just one great score by cinema's most inventive composer.

This time we examine two for the price of one!

September 18, 2001

Music For The Movies Of Clint Eastwood
Composed by Lennie Niehaus, Clint Eastwood and Others
Conducted by Lennie Niehaus (mostly)
Warner Sunset/Warner Bros. 9 48060-2
Total Time = 78:17

There are lots of compilations. Some are great concepts, turn out well. Others are a mess.

This one's both great concept and great album.

Clint Eastwood's the icon who became familiar in TV, made a name for himself as a movie star, started directing movies, became a politician, grew as actor, grew as director, won an Oscar. He listens to music, writes his own tunes.

He's an icon in not one but two roles. He's the "man with no name", he's "Dirty" Harry Callahan. He continues to act and direct. He makes something every year.

Music is a big part of his stuff. All styles, genres. Whatever's appropriate, Eastwood gets.

This new compilation highlights Eastwood the actor, director, composer. It also highlights Eastwood the man.

Happily it doesn't attempt to cram everything he ever did into one package. This album chooses highlights.

I'll mention my favorite highlight first, others at random.

PALE RIDER is by Lennie Niehaus. He's worked with Eastwood for years, knows him as far back as 1952. They did this one in 1985. Where many composers would've scored the action (there's lots of it) Niehaus goes for the dark, mythical story itself. His music features low brass, French horns in mid-register, low strings, small chorus. It's not just somber music, there are a pair important motifs. The first is a series of dark chords in trombone shaping a melody. The second is a descending scale-like figure. Both spell doom and gloom.

This is the first release of music from PALE RIDER. I hope we get the rest of it someday.

Niehaus has composed concert band music for many years. He champions music for younger players, for schools, and has some fabulous band recordings. Anyone interested in that part of his career just write me and ask. He's a master orchestrator, conductor too.

We also hear his work (orchestrator, conductor) on tunes Eastwood composed for A PERFECT WORLD, TIGHTROPE, TRUE CRIME, UNFORGIVEN, SPACE COWBOYS and others. I've said this before, and hear it comes again. UNFORGIVEN is one of the great examples of subtle movie scoring. Eastwood's "Claudia's Theme" for a pair of guitars over strings is one of the gentlest, quietly powerful movie themes of all time. How it serves the movie is profound.

Other familiar Eastwood movie music comes from original soundtrack versions of THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY by Ennio Morricone, DIRTY HARRY by Lalo Schifrin and the masterful opening title music for THE OUTLAW JOSEY WALES by Jerry Fielding.

What a treat it is to also get a major, extended composition by Niehaus on the album. In fact, 41 minutes are devoted to his impressive "Clint Eastwood: An American Filmmaker" suite. An original commission for the PBS documentary CLINT EASTWOOD: OUT OF THE SHADOWS, this stunning 10-part work covers a massive amount of material.

Composed as a portrait of Eastwood the man, Niehaus captures numerous shades, moods, Eastwood's past, the Army days, Aaron Copland, jazz and more. There's texture, inner thought, mood, melody, excitement. There's symphony, there's jazz.

Eastwood loves music, Niehaus shares his feelings about the man with us. It's moving to hear Niehaus talking to us through his language. Eastwood and Niehaus. Once you grasp the vernacular you'll be rewarded.

Little tidbit here. Part 2 (An American Landscape) gives you a glimpse of how Niehaus writes for concert band. Here he adds strings to a band-ish piece. It's great.

Jazz remains the heart of the suite. It's Eastwood's passion. Several styles of jazz are used, in fact. Saxophone leads, piano gets stuff to do. But not just jazz combo, symphony strings mix it up too.

In one highlight, Part 8 (Destiny), the entire orchestra takes over from jazzy material to become a massive, forward-moving idea suggesting triumph. Then jazz has final say.

One of the neatest things is how close Niehaus keeps jazz and symphony in blend. A robust sax solo is effortlessly followed by soaring strings. A loose jazz riff on piano is shortly followed by delicate Copland-esque touches. Wild and free thought mingles with genuine melody.

And jazz brings it to a close - almost.

Niehaus ends everything on a strong, unpredictable orchestral chord.

It's a fabulous recording. The variety of themes are captured in crisp, cleanly mastered stereo transfers from original recordings. The suite comes with spectacular sound. Packaging includes great shots of the star and informative liner notes.

Go ahead. Let Eastwood and Niehaus make your day!

September 25, 2001

The Last Valley
Composed by John Barry
City of Prague Philharmonic Conducted by Nic Raine
Crouch End Festival Chorus Conducted by David Temple
Silva Screen FILMCD 355
Total Time = 56:51

John Barry took a big departure from his Bond music, wrote music for four impressive historical movies in the short span of a decade. Less than a decade, in fact.

THE LION IN WINTER led the pack, won Barry a 1968 Oscar for "Best Music". Soon we had THE LAST VALLEY (1970), MARY, QUEEN OF SCOTS (1971), ROBIN AND MARIAN (1976).

The first three received commercial soundtrack albums. ROBIN AND MARIAN didn't. The score was promoted by Columbia at Oscar time, a private LP mailed to Academy members on the PRO label. Bootlegs followed.

Silva Screen is now releasing music from all four in brand new performances. Previously unreleased music, dynamic recordings highlight the series.

All four of these scores have Barry's blueprints, but their architecture is quite different.

THE LION IN WINTER is lean. The music is stark, rarely dense, the main tune incredibly symmetrical, sharply drawn. MARY, QUEEN OF SCOTS is lyrical. It's main themes are warm, gentle. ROBIN AND MARIAN is nostalgic. The theme literally glows.

THE LAST VALLEY is easily the darkest. Chorus plays a big part. It plays a big part in THE LION IN WINTER too, but there it's for recreating time and place (Chinon, France, 1183), using songs in authentic-ish manner. In THE LAST VALLEY chorus carries the heaviest burden. It relies on male voices, octaves, low ideas. No matter where Barry takes his orchestra, weighted chorus traps, envelopes, holds everything down. Not just obligatory choral chants, though there are a couple. It's 1641, late in the Thirty Years' War, a religious war between Catholics and Protestants now ravaging all Europe. Barry's vernacular: religion upside down, plagues, death.

Magnificent contrast is built into the story. Amidst the darkness lies a peaceful, unspoiled valley. Barry gets to turn 180 degrees and write a gentle melody in kind. Interestingly he usually avoids chorus when writing in this mode, emphasizing strings, woodwinds.

The crossing of two dramatically opposed musical ideas provides a great musical foundation. Upon it Barry then adds gentle material for innocent villagers, fierce material for soldiers. Balancing dark, choral material with warm, lyrical strings. Juxtaposing gentle woodwind solos and aggressive action music.

The variety is dramatic indeed!

Appropriately, Barry opens with chorus. Minor key. His "Main Titles" establish a dark mood from the outset. The theme is voiced low, both in male chorus and in trumpets that follow. Like THE LION IN WINTER, Barry's main theme is built out of two ideas, literally an "A" theme and a "B" theme. The former features low octaves, the latter features jabbing upper brass and other activity amidst the choral line.

The first three tracks are associated with war, plague. Chorus is heard throughout. Then the movie shifts to the hidden valley. Barry makes his 180 degree turn. It's "Entry Into the Last Valley". A neat idea. Barry removes his chorus while referencing the landscape, then brings in chorus as newcomers (and what they represent) wander in.

Omar Sharif carries the load as misfit Vogel, teacher, running from the war. Michael Caine plays the adversary, Captain of a large band of mercenaries. How the two manipulate, betray, ultimately ravage the village forms the drama. It's a sluggish movie at times. But it's given a sensational shot-in-the-arm by Caine in his intense, commanding role of a lifetime.

Percussion play a big role in Barry's score, too. Bass drum, tympani, chimes, snare drum. The epitome of militaries and war. They're highlighted in one of the cues previously unrecorded, "The Villagers Fight For The Shrine".

In a turning point of the score, Barry combines chorus with orchestra, not in darkness but in light. In rare use of chorus during warm material, "The Shrine" affords Barry room to combine two important building blocks of his score into one new color. This is followed by "Vogel's Dream", one of the richest readings of the valley theme.

In such an expressive score the highlights really are many. Ironically, high on the list is music not immediately linked to any major theme. It's "Mountain Skirmish - The Village Attack" and one of Barry's most intense action cues. What makes it unique is Barry's device of starting with a triplet figure in percussion. It's unrelenting. Over it is a new idea drawn from the early plague music, reaching upwards, becoming a new, important theme. The triplet returns, drives the music forward. When Barry's done, the entire orchestra simply becomes one massive triplet figure.

Everything about Silva Screen's new recording is splendid save one personal favorite moment. Not to dwell, I'll just point it out. Early in the "Main Titles", Barry's original version has tuba and bass trombone pounding through his musical transition from introduction to main theme. On screen it matches an animated cross splitting into opposing warriors wielding swords. It's simply powerful.

Silva Screen's interpretation reduces this exciting moment to a whisper in the background.

Everything else shines. Conductor Nic Raine draws unusually wide dynamics, nuance from the orchestra. His association with Barry over the years gives him an edge. He pulls off a very exciting performance. Choral sections done separately in London are crisp, full-bodied. Important percussion details are clean, intonation in brass unison/octave figures (Barry trademarks) excellent.

This is a fascinating period in Barry's career. Silva Screen is to be applauded for bringing the entire quartet to magnificent, vivid life!