Intrada Soundtrack Forum

What is your favorite score from a documentary film? National geographic, Imax, and others etc.......


I only own a handful of documentary film scores. I really enjoy "Yellowstone" by Bill Conti.

I can't think of all of the ones I like offhand to declare a favorite, but I really like Lalo Schifrin's score for The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich.

As an aside, I remember Lukas Kendall saying that at least the tapes for the MGM Records album arrangement of this score exist, without the narration.

My two favorites are Jerry Goldsmith's energetic, charming score for a 20-minute 1961 short about the construction industry, THE GENERAL WITH THE COCKEYED ID; and Carl Davis' varied and sublime work for Brownlow & Gill's 13-part series about the silent era, HOLLYWOOD (1979). In addition to a gorgeous and truly haunting main theme, Davis wrote other themes and cues within this documentary for specific performers, genres, and film excerpts, which he later expanded into complete scores for later restorations of different features (such as BEN-HUR, Abel Gance's NAPOLEON, Sjostrom's THE WIND, and Keaton's THE GENERAL).

HOLLYWOOD saw an LP issued at the time, so I'm glad that any of it was available. But since neither of these documentaries is on DVD to the best of my knowledge (and of course the film COCKEYED ID is completely obscure today), I maintain no illusions about CD releases.

Golly! Just saw this thread. Anyone interested in chatting about this on FB, try the following link to another thread that I just posted.

DOCUMENTING THE SCORE • Documentary scores & their Soundtracks
viewtopic.php?f=4&t=5514

Best,

Oz

I guess it would be that old Disney True-life Adventure film "Secrets Of Life" by Paul J. Smith.

A soundtrack was available at least twice that I know of. Once in the vinyl era on a 10-inch LP,
and much more recently as a CD/R at a kiosk in WDW (where I had a copy burned). It's a 30 minute
presentation of a Disney nature film score, that I still enjoy very much.

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