CD Reviews: Dragonwyck and Two Weeks Notice
Dragonwyck ****
ALFRED NEWMAN
Screen Archives Entertainment SAE-CRS-0006
28 tracks - 79:53
Screen Archives' Craig Spaulding has done it again with another fine
Alfred Newman release. Now that FSM is concentrating on MGM
releases it's nice to have a dedicated producer still working on Fox's
plentiful catalogue. The newest title is Dragonwyck, a gothic melodrama
featuring Vincent Price and Gene Tierney, one of Hollywood's all time most
beautiful leading ladies.
Dragonwyck is not as melodically accessible as say The Song
of Bernadette or Wuthering Heights. Instead it's almost like
an Alex North score, where multiple listenings will reward you with more
and more subtle variations on the many motifs.
The lengthy score contains several elements, including a number of lovely
pastoral passages reminiscent of Newman's earlier work on How Green
Was My Valley; intense melodrama; and moody suspense. There are also
several fine waltzes, wonderfully evocative of the period, some of them
anachronistically written by the Strauss family several years after the
movie takes place!
The best part of the score is the theme for Azilde, great-grandmother
of Price's Van Ryn (she's represented in the film simply by an old portrait
-- she had died long ago under mysterious circumstances and may or may
not be still haunting the estate). Her theme is particularly creepy and
haunting. In two cues it's performed by harpsichord and a ghostly female
vocalist on a lullaby tune, accompanied by frightening orchestral stingers.
Newman was way ahead of his time with this music, which would be at home
in any modern horror movie.
Sound quality is excellent on this disc -- you'd never know it was recorded
nearly 60 years ago. This is just enough to keep us Newman junkies satisfied
until Captain from Castille arrives later this year. -- Darren
MacDonald
Two Weeks Notice *
JOHN POWELL
Varèse Sarabande 302 066 434 2
15 tracks - 30:27
The album opens promisingly with a Chopinesque love theme on solo piano.
But whatever mood this manages to create is instantly shattered by the
following "Divorce," a country-bluegrass-meets-smooth jazz track. Take
Away" then begins with a solo guitar, backed by strings, on the main theme.
Three tracks in, you'll quickly notice a difficulty in grabbing hold of
anything -- the score's quick eclecticism has it jumping from one style
to another, without a cohesive idea to make the shifts seem natural. Plus,
the musical ideas in and of themselves simply repeat without moving anywhere
satisfying. They are generally small motivic cells kept with in a very
restrictive musical realm.
The variety of musical styles John Powell employs extends all the way
into a classic Hoagy Carmichael-ish piano jazz in tracks like "Bobcat Pretzel."
There's also a guitar-driven soft rock-styled track that expands on the
earlier guitar work. But there still isn't enough to sustain interest.
If anything, Two Weeks Notice is proof of Powell's dexterity and
chameleonic musical abilities. You'd probably never know he wrote any of
this. It doesn't bear any real fingerprints. But you might want to give
Powell some credit for trying to make something out of nothing. Of course,
when you try to hit everything at once, you sometimes miss all the marks.
-- Steven A. Kennedy
MailBag@filmscoremonthly.com
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