Intrada Soundtrack Forum

INTRADA Announces:



SEBASTIAN
Music Composed and Conducted by JERRY GOLDSMITH
INTRADA Special Collection Vol. 250

For the 1968 film Sebastian, composer Jerry Goldsmith wrote one of his most charming and distinctive scores. Goldsmith was perhaps less known for comedies and while he had scored numerous films with romantic elements, Sebastian may have been his first out-and-out romance. Goldsmith responded to the challenge by creating a score that not only fully embraced the style of late 1960s pop music, but also reflected the mathematical sophistication of the character of Sebastian and his code-breaking work. Goldsmith took some inspiration from J.S. Bach and the Baroque musical era, an approach that was a perfect analogue to the intellectual exercise of translating coded language. As the film moves towards its suspense-driven climax, Goldsmith’s score leaves the romantic theme behind for moodier, more dramatic passages.

For 45 years the Dot Records LP has been the only way to hear this music. Although once thought lost, a lengthy search yielded the original three- and four-track session masters for the record album, which had been assembled in Hollywood in January 1968. While the Dot album was a brief 25 minutes in length, album producer Tom Mack managed to encapsulate all of Goldsmith’s thematic material. For this CD, a brand new two-track stereo mix was made, and the original album now appears complete—presented in crisp, beautiful audio (tracks 1–10). Premiering as tracks 11–32 is a program of Goldsmith’s chronological score as heard in the film itself, restored by from the monaural music stem. The last 12 tracks of this album present the entire 18-plus minutes of variations of Tristram Cary's Sputnik Code material that he created using different mixes and recording speeds.

Dirk Bogarde starred as Sebastian, a mildly eccentric but brilliant cryptographer working for Britain’s chief of intelligence (John Gielgud) in London at the height of the Cold War. Sebastian attracts and oversees an army of 100 analysts—all women—who work under his direction breaking down Chinese and Russian codes. Impetuous Rebecca Howard (Susannah York) nearly runs down Sebastian on the Oxford campus one day, and Sebastian quickly tests her on her ability to rearrange words and letters. He then invites her to apply for a job. Romantic sparks begin to fly between Sebastian and Becky. When one of Sebastian’s veteran code breakers lets her leftist politics flag her as a security risk, Sebastian resigns and pushes Becky away—but a year later he’s called back into service to decode a vital enemy satellite broadcast, and in the process reunites with Becky.

INTRADA Special Collection Vol. 250
Retail Price: $19.99
Available Now
For track listing and sound samples, please visit
http://store.intrada.com/s.nl/it.A/id.8268/.f

A wonderful moment in this collectors life, a dream come true after so many years, thanks Intrada folks. Ordered!

Just listening to the sound samples of the Original Dot Motion Picture Score Album and almost needless to say it has never sounded this good before, terrific work has been done, and the new Original Motion Picture Soundtrack tracks...oh heaven, I'm in heaven!!!

Thank you Intrada and staff. We waited, sometimes impatiently, for a very long time. I had the DOT LP "forever" - never subscribed to the "unmentionable item". Now - it's a wonderful Done Deal! It made me happy to hit that "order" button!!!

Sounds great. A very Rosemary's Baby-esque album presentation with an excellent sounding 25-minute Dot album followed by the film tracks. It is wonderful to have both highlights of 1968 film scoring definitively presented.

Fantastic achievement, once again team Intrada have pulled it out of the bag.
ORDERED

Great to see this one get the Intrada treatment and amazing to see the film soundtrack here too. Well done to all and thanks for getting us Goldsmith fans another rare title from those early days.

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Jason Needs
Webmaster, Jerry Goldsmith Online

This album is really a dream come true! I had hopes for the LP to come to CD one day but to also get the original score recordings is marvelous. And the clips sound great! No problems with mono here!

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My Intrada wish list:

The Outfit (Fielding)
The Other Side of the Mountain I (Charles Fox)


and extremely unlikely, but...
Junior Bonner
Thunderbolt and Lightfoot

Ordered so quickly. I used to love my DOT LP of this score until I accidentally placed it in the sale box. I was devastated, but now, my joy has been returned. Thank you, hamsters!!! Thank you, INTRADA!!

SheriffJoe

Fabulous samples. Many thanks for this one, Intrada.

A great score.

Ordered!!!

Thanks for this one - a "new" Goldsmith is always cause for celebration round my place.

I imagine you won't get many comments on the Tristram Cary tracks, but I appreciate you including those as well. In addition to Cloud Nine's fantastic compilation of a clutch of his film scores from many years ago and his score for "Blood From the Mummy's Tomb" (alas I've missed the "Doctor Who" CDs with his music, dammit) I've also been listening to a couple compilations of some of his pure electronic music. Obviously a taste that not many will feel inclined to go to the trouble of acquiring, but for those who are into this kind of thing the rewards are legion. It was wonderful hearing his voice slating the different mixes, calling out what each might be for and what was done to create them. Many many thanks indeed!

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Karl Morton IV

"Enjoy every sandwich."
-- Warren Zevon

My copy of Sebastian just arrived, listening now, wonderful, so great to have this! Thanks once again Intrada!

This is a fantastic release! What an inventive, groovy, baroque-inspired score. (Not a sentence I say very often.) I also admire the way that Goldsmith (or maybe producer Tom Mack) cleverly combined cues to make whole pieces for the original album.

I have a few questions that don't seem to be answered in the liner notes.

What is the song "Hey There! Who Are You?" by Goldsmith with (unheard) lyrics by Hal Shaper that's apparently the main theme for the film? It's noted on the back of the CD, but nowhere else.

The album version of the Main Title and the film version seem to be completely different pieces, but the notes suggest they're both the same piece (cue M3). What am I missing?

Also, what's the deal on "You Gotta Let Me Go"? The information that it's not a Goldsmith composition is buried in the tech notes. Is this an existing song that I've just never heard? Or was it composed for the film?

Anyway, I'm loving this disc. Great work!

"The album version of the Main Title and the film version seem to be completely different pieces, but the notes suggest they're both the same piece (cue M3). What am I missing?"
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Having seen the film, the titles feature lots of stops and starts, with Goldsmith's score cutting in and out of things, over about 8 minutes.
I think that one is a case of Goldsmith editing his music down (similar to what he did with The Swarm opening titles, LP vs film) to makes things tighter.
While I prefer the edit in The Swarm, I think the Sebastian titles from the film are better than the LP re-do.

It has been many years since I saw Sebastian. My recollection of the main title is that the sound bits from the last track of the new CD ("Assorted Sounds For Titles") were either overdubbed or cut into Goldsmith's title music, as the credits decoded themselves on-screen. Listening the film Main Title on the CD, there's is not much happening musically in the middle portion of the piece, suggesting that something is missing. It would have been nice to have to title music both ways, but I would not care to be the one tasked with figuring out the editing. As to whether Cary's sounds are music or sound effects, I'm not sure what I think.

I suggest that the album Main Title should have been designated as an album track, rather than M3.

I don't mean to sound critical; I am enjoying the music very much.