This News Friday 5/1/98
And Happy Birthday to Us!
by Lukas Kendall
I can't remember exactly when www.filmscoremonthly.com first went up,
but the first installment happened exactly one year ago this day: May
1(Mayday!), the columnist being Andy Dursin. I haven't counted the
columns now archived in our FSD section, but it stands to reason that,
having not missed one weekday all year, we have a good 260 of them. If
you missed any, dig in!
Fittingly, this was the week we were written up in Entertainment Weekly,
by Ty Burr on pg 77 of the Multimedia section. We got a B+! I don't think
it's currently up at EW's website;
it's definitely on stands now.
John Barry Concert
Here's some coverage of John Barry's concert last Saturday in London--we'll
have much more next week and in the print version of FILM SCORE MONTHLY
(which is almost completely different from this site, by the way).
Go here
for a photo from the backstage party with, from left to right, agents
Lyn Benjamin and Richard Kraft, Laurie and John Barry, Basil and Bobbie
Poledouris. Photo courtesy Paul Tonks.
From: Ben Underwood <firefly@dircon.co.uk>
I was lucky enough to attend John Barry's concert at the Royal Albert
Hall on Saturday and it was fantastic. Michael Caine introduced the concert
telling a story about how when in 1963/4 he was down on his luck and needed
a place to spend the night. He thought of going to see his friend John
Barry who gracefully put him up. Unfortunately he did not realise that
Barry composed and night and was subjected to endless hours of thrashing
on the piano. In the morning, he said, restless after no sleep he met Barry
exhausted at the piano. Barry told Caine that he had finally finished.
Finished what Caine asked? 'Goldfinger'!
As for the concert it was pretty special starting with Goldfinger
and covering all decades of Barry's work. Particularly impressive were
the renditions, played by the English Chamber Orchestra, of 'We Have All
the Time in the World', 'Midnight Cowboy', 'Born Free', 'Out of Africa',
while 'Space March' was truly amazing. There were also impressive suites
from 'Dances With Wolves' and 'Swept From the Sea'. We also heard from
Barry's first non-soundtrack work 'The Beyondness of Things'. Now this
seemed a little disappointing lacking focus but I'll wait until I hear
the whole Album.
The concert rounded off with a vigorous James Bond suite including
the appropriately brash James Bond Theme and 007 theme, while From Russia
With Love and Thunderball were given the softer treatment.
The packed Albert Hall was ecstatic and Barry gave an encore performance
of 'The Girl with the sun in her hair'.
Overall it is was a very special evening and a real honour to see
a master at work.
From: Arthur Tarnowski <frederik@total.net>
I just came back from London where I attended the John Barry concert
at Royal Albert Hall. Needless to say it was quite a treat. I'm sure many
will write in with their in depth analysis on the subject, I'll just stick
to a few highlights. The concert got under way with an introduction by
Michael Caine who told an amusing tale of his sleepless night at Barry's
flat when he was kept up by the composer creating one of his most memorable
pieces, the Goldfinger theme. Barry then came out to conduct the piece.
For those intrigued by "The Beyondness of Things", several
tracks were played, it sounds like the music you'd hear if James Bond finaly
retired and moved out to the country on a farm, with the occasional bad
guy making an appearance. It's really good and one gets the impression
that Barry enjoyed the creative freedom of this non-filmic work. Another
highlight was Tommy Morgan, the harmonica soloist who came out for "Dances
with Wolves", "Midnight Cowboy" and the fore mentionned
"Beyondness". After witnessing him play I have a newfound respect
for the harmonica. Many tracks present on the "Themology" cd
were also on the program thus giving a well rounded sweep of Barry's extensive
body of work.
Lastly, the Bond suite (which was the reason I spent a fortune to
fly out to England) was no disapointment and during "On her majesty's"
I thought Barry was going to fly off the podium (he was really cutting
loose!). He introduced the suite by thanking his many lyricists on the
Bond themes; Don Black, Leslie Bricusse, Tim Rice... as well as Duran Duran
and ... A-Ha. The audience laughed at the last two giving Barry, in a dark
brooding voice, his best line of the night:" You can see why I left!"
There was an encore followed by a neverending standing ovation.
Barry came out and left, he probably hadn't expected so much enthousiasm.
A great night even though I missed the train back to the outskirts of London
where I was staying. This obliged me to share an expensive cab with a couple
of drunken Brits who enquired:" John who?"
Aliens Web Site
Being that it's our one-year anniversary and all, let's give it up for
our webmaster, Bill Smith, who has done the actual labor of programming
almost all of this site. He's the guy who convinced me to create a site
and helped me through every step of the way. None of it would be here if
not for Bill.
So, check out Bill's Aliens site (http://www.LV-426.org),
which is quite good, and through which he is now selling all four of the
Alien movie soundtracks, plus the Varese Alien Trilogy CD, with the help
of CDNow.com. The URL for the music page on the site is: http://www.LV-426.org/merchandising/music.html
Still More Composers as Actors
Okay, following up on our recent
columns, the final word on composers who have gone in front of the
cameras as well:
From: Ian Robinson <IRobiUK@aol.com>
The British composer Howard Goodall (who scored "Bean"
amongst others) actually has his own series on British TV. It's called
"Howard Goodall's Organ Works"...
From: Sergio Hardasmal <sergio@ingenia.pta.es>
Marc Shaiman had some roles:
North (1994) .... Piano Player
Heart and Souls (1993) .... Piano Accompanist
Mr. Saturday Night (1992) .... Lucky Zindberg
Addams Family, The (1991) .... Conductor
Hot Shots! (1991) .... Piano Player
Scenes from a Mall (1991) .... Pianist
Broadcast News (1987) .... News Theme Writer
Burt Bacharach appears at "Austin Powers" as himself...
From: Tom DeMary <demary@arlut.utexas.edu>
From: GIZELT JOSH <AM0QC@qcvaxa.acc.qc.edu>
I'm surprised no one else mentioned this but Ryuichi Sakamoto has
not only appeared in films that he has scored, but played pivotal roles
in them.
He not only scored "Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence," he
was one of the stars of the film.
He also played a major role in "The Last Emperor" as Pu
Yi's driver (he impregnates the Emperor's wife and is gorily shot in the
head), a film for which he won an Oscar for Best Original Score.
Sakamoto is an actor and composer/conductor/orchestrator, and occasional
rock star. His film career has included collaborations with some very important
filmmakers, such as "Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence" for Nagisa
Oshima, "The Handmaid's Tale" for Volkor Schlondoff, "High
Heels" for Pedro Almodovar and "The Sheltering Sky," "The
Last Emperor" and "Little Buddha" for Bernardo Bertolucci.
The Truman Show
From: Topher Yorks <cay112@psu.edu>
I attended a test screening of The Truman Show last night in State
College, Pennsylvania (of all places). I thoroughly enjoyed what I saw
and heard, with a few exceptions. I really think that the film is making
use of groundbreaking camera work with an incredibly intriguing and fresh
plot. Since this was only a test screening, there were some exposed seems
that were left in. One particular shot towards the end featured he back
of a cremember's head passing through the bottom of the frame. As for the
music, most of what I heard was classic Phillip Glass, they did use some
uneffective rhythm tracks for the faster paced chased scenes that I suspect
were not Glass'. Mr. Glass' score added an interesting touch to the film.
His music stayed away from manipulation of the audience, providing a rich
bed of sound for the film to play over.
From: Matthew Larkin Bradford <m-bradford@nwu.edu>
Phillip Glass appears in The Truman Show as the keyboardist playing
music for the TV show's soundtrack. He's credited in the cast. Great movie,
by the way, with a great score. Oh, and as for that question last week
about Glass being credited with "Additional Music," it's true;
his credit does read like that, but he DID score the film. I think the
only reason the credit goes like that is because there are a lot of classical
pieces in the movie, too.
People asked in recent weeks if Glass has been replaced on this film...
I don't know what actually went down, but the movie as it will be released
credits Australian composer Burkhard Dallwitz for the score, with Glass
for additional music. So I would assume that Weir decided in part to remove
some of Glass's work; whether it was in favor of his temporary music or
original music by Dallwitz, I don't know yet.
Deep Impact Preview
From: Romandeppe <Romandeppe@aol.com>
I saw DEEP IMPACT at a press-showing today. A really impressive
movie. Not an ordinary "We blow up everything we can"-desaster-movie,
but a beautiful drama, with good dialogue and touching scenes. It has almost
no special effects, except the landing on the comet and the final tidal
wave (3500 feet high, faster than the sound... really scary!), the rest
is more kind of TITANIC... not as good as TITANIC, but certainly the most
intelligent and touching desaster-movie I have ever seen (TITANIC is not
a desaster-movie in my opinion). Thanks for that go among many other people
to James Horner, it seems like since TITANIC I can listen to his music
again. This time he came up with a very simple, beautiful score, that never
gets very loud or schmalzy or something... it is very quiet in the background.
There is only one huge actionpiece (certainly 10 minutes long), but it
was buried under the impressive sound-effects (they really shake the seats),
so I can hardly tell whether that was a rehash of something (but it probably
was)... he used some of the suspense music of TITANIC in the beginning,
that was the only I noticed, later it is just slow, bittersweet music...
yes, he is an emotionalist... The end title features a women's choir dominantly..
well, it is not that good that I would run into a shop and buy it, but
it means something if I can watch a movie without getting sick by hearing
James Horner's music to it (I am in the front row of any Anti-Horner- Demonstrations),
I even liked the score. Horner-buffs probably will love it and at least
I can say it seems like he is not ripping off a lot of his music.
Trailer Question
From: Larry Jenkins <LarryJenkins@RHTC.Net>
I enjoyed very much your
interview [with John Beal] on trailer music. I would be greatly in
your debt if you knew what the trailer music for Les Miserables, currently
on TV. It is the same tune that USA Network used to promote their showing
of Tom Cruise in Far and Away (I went through that each track of that soundtrack
only to be disappointed!); I hope it is not Come See the Paradise!
From: cooling <cooling@usc.edu>
Do you know what the music in the first half of the trailers for
the new Les Miserables is? I know the second half is from Empire of the
Sun; is the first?
Two questions about the same trailer! Must be important. Does anyone
know what this is?
Time Bandits Info
From: Paul MacLean <skye@lightlink.com>
In response to the query on Time Bandits, the actual score for the
film was not composed by George Harrison (who produced the film and wrote
and performed the end title song) but by Mike Moran, while the Greek Dance
source music (heard during Agememnon's party) was composed by Trevor Jones.
I do not know of any other composing credits for Moran, although he has
worked as a London session keyboardist (on For Your Eyes Only for instance).
The posters for the film credited "Songs by George Harrison"
but no mention was made of Moran, which is probably why Harrison is sometimes
thought to have scored the film.
Pino Donaggio Comments
In response to John
Maher's recent column:
From: ADoughty1 <ADoughty1@aol.com>
When I look at De Palma's early, hyper-stylized thrillers, I'm just
as awed with the architecture of their scores as I am in their look. Beyond
what's already been said, what really sets these films apart--Carrie, Dressed
to Kill, Blow Out, Body Double, Raising Cain--is that they're viciously
distinctive works. In an age when Hollywood filmmaking seems to be watering
down films to dilute their potency or blunt their edges to save against
"offending the meek," thereby enlisting the greatest number of
viewers--kiddies included--these Donaggio scored De Palma thrillers stand
as razor edged--sometimes literally--titillation machines, real "audience
punishers" for those filmgoers who dare to surrender themselves to
master stylists and be played like a piano. Just as De Palma's exacting
visuals reveal his films to be "self-aware," Donaggio's scores
demonstrate an "in- your-ear" willingness to announce: "This
is Film Music people, listen up!," without undercutting/undermining
the power of the film. Ranging from the boldly, sweetly melodic--though
not saccharine nor conjuring up images of Celine Dion belting out that
Titanic ditty--to the fiercely savage, Donaggio's De Palma music emerges
as rare, highly effective "forefront scoring" which, to my mind,
puts to death the notion that film music should be seen, not heard (though
that argument was probably killed off for most FSM readers long ago).
Ultimately, the Donaggio/De Palma collaboration produces a powerful
defense for "self-conscious surrealism" in contemporary cinema:
it's ok for the filmmakers to let the audience know that they know what
they're doing, as long as they do it well. In the past, De Palma has been
criticized for "manipulating" his audience. To that I'd counter:
What real film audience doesn't have an interest in being manipulated?
For those "cinematic- submissives" out there, the films of the
Donaggio/De Palma collaboration merit another look, especially Body Double,
which is like a master's thesis for both of them. Lastly, for those disappointed
with Donaggio's post De Palma output, I recommend his '91 score for "Merdian"--possibly
out of print--which features some exceptionally taut string work and some
sweeping, ultra-lush electronic soundscapes, the best of which tracks the
seduction scene in which Twin Peaks' Sherilyn Fenn is groped in the buff
by a big monkey. No one could have scored this scene any better.
Visit ScoreLogue
ScoreLogue is a new film music
site we plugged last week, and will plug again, as they are now offering
a weekly free e-mail news column. Check out their site for more info.
One Last Message...
We'll show how objective we are by printing this letter from one of
Jeff Bond's Ohio buddies:
From: "Kyle Beatty" <saracen_cabana@email.msn.com>
Holy cats! filmscoremonthly.com has been up for a year! This is
the only site that I go to every day (honest!) and I'd like to say thanks
to all the contributors.
High points were the timely Danny
Elfman interview and the articles by Doug Adams. The first time I saw
the "Voice of Reason" sobriquet, I was sure that I was going
to have to complain, but it turns out that I agree with everything he says,
so I guess he must be the V o' R. I'd praise Jeff Bond too, but I would
be guilty of overt favoritism, so to defuse that accusation: Jeff Bond
is a bum and he's welcome to show up at my door at any time to tell me
otherwise, the bum.
Well done, filmscoremonthly.com!
Thanks Kyle! Back Monday for what will probably be a lot of CD reviews
next week--tune in. And send your comments and questions to MailBag@filmscoremonthly.com
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