Film Score Friday 5/21/99

by Lukas Kendall

We now have a sign-up page on the site for our Classics Charter Club, whereby you can get the first copies of each of our limited edition CDs as they are released. See the page for complete info!

Look for John Williams to be interviewed (by Jim Brown) on the weekend Today. Williams was honored with the Richard Kirk award for lifetime achievement at last Wednesday night's BMI awards. He spoke about the late Kirk and also about Stanley Wilson, the late head of the Universal music department in the 1950s and '60s who gave great opportunities to composers like Williams, Goldsmith, Grusin, Schifrin, and others.

John Williams will conduct A Place In The Sun Suite by Franz Waxman (Kenneth Radnofsky, soloist) with the Boston Pops in Symphony Hall on May 28th. He will conduct music from The Phantom Menace for the first time in concert on the same program.

Alternative Listening Possibilities

Assuming you want to pay attention to something besides Star Wars, here are some recent possibilities:

From: KUBRICK70@aol.com

Forget THE PHANTOM MENACE any one want to comment on TARZAN ... I found it to be very different.... Phil Collins songs are extreamly 80's but don't let fool anyone cause I miss the 80's.... It features Mark Mancina's best score to date .. but that is my opinion and the CD only contains 4 Score tracks.

From: dsscooter@webtv.net (david sorensen)

While everyone is "Star Wars" crazy , I have just received a wonderful treat; the import of "Playing By Heart". It is simply, quite sensational. Barry utilizes a variation of three major themes, all wonderfully executed. I highly recommend it. I received my copy from imvs.com in the uk. Now I am looking forward to your first Barry club release!

From: Pierre-Luc Morien <Pierre-Luc.Morien@modalx.u-paris10.fr>

I bought yesterday the CD "Amazing stories" and listening to it inspired me a few reflections, or dreams. The series was airing 14 years ago, and at that time there was no hope that any Cd would be released. And now there it is, the week following "The Phantom Menace" (which, in fact, looks quite pale in comparison)Š But there is more: I am quite interested in Japanese anime music, and I have noticed (how not to?) the immense amount of CDs released for every single series or motion picture. Sometimes the music is horrendous, sometimes (e.g. Escaflowne, by Yoko Kanno) it is so perfect that Hollywood's music looks amateurŠ But anyway you can HAVE the music, whatever its quality. Whereas in HollywoodŠ "Amazing Stories" was perhaps the series for which the greteast amount of fine composers were hired, amoung which J. Williams, J. Goldsmith, D. Shire, etcŠ And there was (so far) no CD. THAT is an amazing story.

By the way, concerning "Escaflowne", for which someone recently wanted a review, I can only advise anyone interested to look up the Yoko Kanno fan site www.kanno.simplenet.com All the reviews you can dream of can be found here, plus some news about Ms Kanno recent scoring assignments (e.g. "Gundam Turn A", which is cuirrently airing in Japan).

Finally, for anyone who likes symphonic anime music, I recommend the CD "Battle Athletess Daiundoukai Vol. 1", it is simply an amazing jewel.

From: BRADIGOU@aol.com

First of all, thanks for the GREAT Prince Valiant CD. As for the Star Wars movie...I've already seen so much stuff about it, I'm sick of it. I may wait until it comes to second-run theaters.

Anyway, I am writing to let people know that there is a nice film soundtrack to THE SOONG SISTERS. This movie was scored by Kitaro and Randy Miller. Some people may not care for Kitaro, but I do. Nevertheless, this is not all a synthesized score. Much of it is played by the Northwest Sinfonia, with a nice mix of Chinese instruments for the right ethnic flavor.The CD is about 40 minutes in length.

If you go to the store and look for it in soundtracks under Soong Sisters, you probably won't find it. It was in the New Age section under Kitaro, and is part of a 2-CD set titled BEST OF KITARO: Vol. 2. The copy I bought had a silver sticker on the front that states this is a Limited Edition Bonus CD. In other words, you get the Vol. 2 CD and the Soong Sisters CD as part of the set. It was priced at $17.99. The collection CD has cuts from Silk Road, Heaven and Earth, and Queen Millennia (among others), so there's a little sampling of Kitaro's film music, too.

I have not heard of the SOONG SISTERS, but I wanted to pass this information along. You'll probably know by reading this if it's something you'd like. The catalog number is DOMO 72438-47110-2-3. The website is www.domo.com.

...and a reading possibility:

From: Melvin I Matsil <Melvin.Matsil@worldnet.att.net>

I have been reading a fantastic book: The Invisible Art of Film Music by Laurence E. MacDonald. The book is arranged chronologically by decade. Excellent descriptions of the basic themes used in the various film scores are simply related in language easily understood even by those not versed in the intricacies and complexities of music. There is an extensive filmography at the end, listing scores, composers and CD or LP availability. Your website is teriffic. I look forward to it every couple of days. Keep up the good work with the magazine.

The Mummy

Regarding Jeff Bond's recent review:

From: "Mark" <mstefanini@sogei.it>

This is the very first time that I have to disagree with you! To me Maestro Jerrald chose the perfect approach for scoring the Mummy. My point is that the Mummy is a funny big budgeted B-movie and the music does reflect that. I'm talking about enjoyable, simple music both to compose and to listen to. The Mummy didn't deserve originality or avantgarde at all but a solid bombastic score even reminiscent of past Goldsmith's efforts - the Wind and the Lion just to cite one -.

FSM CDs on RealAudio Radio

From: "Woods, Erik" <erik.woods@hbc.com>

I would just like to let you folks know that CINEMATIC SOUND will be broadcasting Film Score Monthly's Silver Age Series CD PATTON/ FLIGHT OF THE PHEONIX and Film Score Monthly's Golden Age series CD PRINCE VALIENT. These two discs will be featured on this Saturday's (May 21) new releases boradacst on C101.5 FM and Real Audio from 12pm - 3pm (EST) . Also on the program we will be featuring music from THE MUMMY, THE MATRIX, RAMBO II (expanded), NOAH'S ARK, GOODBYE LOVER and many more.

For more information please visit the CINEMATIC SOUND HOME PAGE at http://www.geocities.com/vienna/7070

And to listen to the broadcast please visit C101.5 FM's home page at http://www,mohawkc.on.ca/msa/cioi

LK Gets in Trouble About Star Wars

From: "Shold, Kyle" <kyles@humongous.com>

Your 'editorial' in this Friday's column (5-14-99) concerning the upcoming Star Wars movie was, in a word, wrong. Why was it wrong? Because what it amounted too was nothing more than gossip. It wasn't news. It wasn't a review with spoilers. It was a blatant attack on a movie that you, and the majority of your readers, have not even seen yet. In my opinion it wasn't at all necessary for you to print it. It was blatant public slander of a movie that many of your readers look forward to seeing. Would you have printed such reckless statement if it was any other movie? You seem to enjoy alienating your readers. You could have waited until after you've seen the movie and printed an actual intelligent review. But by printing hearsay you only make yourself look less credible as a writer, reviewer and editor. I'm sure that next Friday you'll either apologize or say, "I told you so," depending on how good or bad the movie is. But either way you'll somehow justify your careless comments like you always do. I don't always disagree with you and sometimes I even agree. But in the two years or so that I've been reading your web site and magazine, this is the first time I've been disappointed in you.

From: "Erdy, Bryan (NBC)" <Bryan.Erdy@nbc.com>

Your comments about the Phantom Menace are sure to enrage the loyal that believe that the name Star Wars is synonymous with quality. Of course, I'm going to hold off judgment until I actually see the movie, but I do remember your predictions about Star Trek: Insurrection turning out to be pretty accurate. I know that I'm not the first to state this, but have you noticed how bad Lucus' movies actually are when there is no one around him to say "NO!, that's a stupid idea?". Star Wars and Empire had Gary Kurtz and the Raiders trilogy had Spielberg. Also, the money being generated (already) by The Phantom Menace is scary. When you have a two billion dollar soft drink/fast food/snack chip deal at stake, the quality of the movie itself is secondary compared to the importance of a marketable image on the outside of a Gorita wrapper.

By popular demand, I will now give my comments about The Phantom Menace. Skip this if you haven't seen the movie yet and don't want to read anything about it. Basically, I'm in trouble because last week I printed my predictions about how the movie would be received. Of course I was largely right, but people attacked me anyway.

I was watching MTV's Loveline when one of the hosts said something like, "People give us a hard time for giving advice to people, and ask us how we can presume to know these things. Well we talk to 100,000 idiots a year! That's how we know!"

Likewise, I do several hundred of these columns a year and I've published Film Score Monthly (in one form or another) -- constantly -- for this entire decade. So trust me that I can give a reasonably assessment of the fan mentality.

I had been advised of the problems with The Phantom Menace and so I actually enjoyed it quite a bit -- I saw the 12:01AM Wednesday morning in Westwood, and believe me, was THAT place packed. The movie has countless problems which over time will become common knowledge, most pertaining to its cutesy elements. But, it's still Star Wars and still fun. It will make a mint throughout the summer.

Let's see, last week I predicted that some people will hate it, and others would defend it. Hmm, exactly what is happening. By definition this means the movie has some problems and the detractors are fixated upon them, while the supporters are trying to make the movie live up to their expectations. Ultimately everybody just likes to be contrary (myself included), and this is not about the movie at all, but about human nature. I mean, why do people wait in line for two months to see a movie that may stink? It's not about the movie. It's about them asserting themselves and wanting the world to bend to their preferences and validate their at-heart juvenile interests. Which is perfectly understandable.

A lot of things in this world are as simple as they seem. The only hard part is accepting those things which reflect unfavorably upon yourself. (And Yoda didn't say that.) For example, the things Kyle Shold says about me above. Well, you know, sorry!

Go see the movie, it's fun!

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