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Posted: |
Sep 18, 2014 - 3:49 AM
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By: |
Wedge
(Member)
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This week, I decided to sit down with the film and attempt to cobble together a rough chronological score sequence. Many will be content with Maestro Delerue's album programs, of course, which are just fine! But for those who'd like an alternative way to experience the music, here's my list for Part I. Naturally, I make no claims as to its authority -- it's just what I've pieced together using my ears. Anyone who's familiar with the film, please feel free to offer corrections!
23. Les années lumière (Générique) [1]
02. Le lever du Roi [2]
03. Le hameau de la Reine
04. Ouverture des États généraux
24. Mort de Louis-Joseph [3]
05. Premier appel révolutionnaire
06. À la Bastille
07. Prise de la Bastille
25. Acclamations du peuple
08. Fête des barricades
26. Les festivités
09. Abolition des privilèges [4]
10. Déclaration des Droits de l'Homme
16. Fersen et Marie-Antoinette [5]
11. La marche des femmes
27. Le piège
12. La Fête
13. Appels et serment
29. Le serment du Jeu de paume [6]
14. Mort de Mirabeau
17. La Reine et ses enfants
28. Marat dénonce le Roi
15. Fête au Champ de Mars
30A. La Garde nationale [7]
18. L'ombre de la guerre
19. Défaite des régiments français
20. La Marseillaise [8]
21. Fin de la royauté
30B. Chute de la monarchie [9]
22. Hymne à la Liberté (Interprété par Jessye Norman)
[1] This is the actual main title for Part I, essentially an abridged version of the "Hymne à la Liberté" as heard in Track 1 (and the Track 32 alternate).
[2] Used for a scene cut from the French version, as George Komar observes later in this thread.
[3] Several score tracks are dialed out of the film in part or full. I haven't noted every example of this, but here the majority of the track (from 0:31 on) appears to be dialed out of the film.
[4] I believe this track is entirely unused. Fortunately, the title indicates its intended place.
[5] As George Komar points out later in this thread, this music, though titled as if for the Queen and Fersen, actually plays during the scene where Mirabeau visits his "confessor."
[6] The translation of this track title is "The Tennis Court Oath." I'm not sure why, since the actual music for the tennis court scene is rather different. This track would seem to be a Latin hymn of jubilation or praise, and appears in the film when the Champ de Mars assembly bursts into cheers following the queen's oath.
[7] The first cue in this track plays during the first 0:29.
[8] Track 31 in the bonus section, "Naissance d'un hymne," is the instrumental backing for this track.
[9] The second cue in this track plays from approximately 0:30 onward.
That's it for Part I. Hopefully, I'll get around to Part II at some point in the near future.
What a terrific score and release this is! I would advise anyone on the fence to act now and pick it up. At 1500 copies, I'll be surprised if it's still around come Christmas.
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You've accomplished a sizable task, Wedge. By coincidence last night I was watching the French DVD (with English subtiltles) on YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-SP4iii_THQ
I wonder if there are different versions of this film, since at 22:50 the music heard for the Tennis Court Oath is not, to my ears, the music from the last part of track 24 as you noted in footnote [3].
You are right about track 29, which begins with the fanfare for the King's Oath at 1:37:30 and follows with the celebratory music following the Queen's oath. So track 29 is misnamed -- not the Tennis Court Oath but the Royal Oath to uphold the Constitution.
BTW the titles of the two parts of the film should be "The Years of Light" (the DVD subtitle is "The Years of Hope") and "The Years of Terror." Literal translations from the French ("The Light Years" and "The Terrible Years") yield awkward results.
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Posted: |
Sep 19, 2014 - 4:20 AM
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By: |
Wedge
(Member)
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OK, here's Part II ... or at least, as much as I could make out! Some of this was difficult going, as Delerue wrote quite a bit of music that was not used in the film, and some tracks also join multiple cues (usually in sequential order, but not always). Again, this is not comprehensive in terms of unused bits, but I've tried to note the major cuts.
30. Les années terribles (Hymne à la Liberté) [1]
02. Départ de la famille royale
03. La Fayette
04. Les Prussiens [Unused]
13. Folie et massacres
05. Français contre Prussiens
06. Saint-Just
07. La tristesse du Roi
08. Le vote pour la mort du Roi
22A. Marie-Antoinette dans sa prison [0:00-0:36]
23. Condamnations à mort [Latter Portion Unused]
09. La mort de Gabrielle
10. Marat
22B. Marie-Antoinette dans sa prison [0:36-end]
11. Le destin de Marie-Antoinette
12A. Les exécutions [0:00-0:48]
24A. Danton est accusé [0:00-0:37]
14. Danton est de retour
24B. Danton est accusé [0:37-end]
15. Le complot
16. L'imprudence de Desmoulins
25. Robespierre et Saint-Just
26. Destins séparés
17. Exécution de Danton et Desmoulins
12B. Les exécutions [0:48-end]
29. Fête de l'Être suprême
18. La folie de Robespierre [Unused]
27. La Révolution dévore ses propres enfants [2]
28. Robespierre blessé [Unused]
19. Exécution de Robespierre [Unused]
20. Épilogue [3]
[1] As with Part I, this shorter "Hymn" statement is the film version of the main title.
[2] I'm not totally confident about this placement. I couldn't find this track in the film, so I believe it's unused. The track title is broad enough, however, that it could apply to any number of sequences. I tried it out in a few places, and it seems like it would play best at some point between Robespierre fleeing the assembly and the assault on the Hôtel de Ville. And although the bonus tracks aren't perfectly chronological, the fact that it occurs just before the similarly unused (but much easier to place) "Robespierre blessé" was additional weight in assigning it to this part of the film. But it remains a guess on my part.
[3] Following the epilogue comes an end credits medley of a couple of orchestral and vocal "Hymn To Liberty" recordings; I couldn't tell you precisely which ones, but it seems like it would probably be the main recordings.
As before, corrections welcome. And as before, I heartily recommend this set! Magnificent music.
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As before, corrections welcome. And as before, I heartily recommend this set! Magnificent music.
Thanks again for this.
This is one of those historical scores that I like to know something about the scenes being scored. It would have been nice if the liner notes gave a brief synopsis of the film referencing the track titles. The first part of the film is quite interesting but seems to assume that the general events and characters are well known to the viewer (certainly true for French citizens), and such a music-related synopsis would have been useful for non-French listeners. Delerue's titles contain multiple "fêtes" (which itself has multiple meanings) and "serments," and some of the cue titles are a little imprecise: "La Reine et ses enfants" is really a love scene between Marie Antoinette and the Count de Fersen; "La Garde nationale" underscores not the arrival of the National Guard but rather the aftermath of the massacre at Champ de Mars.
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I`m a huge history buff and the french revolution is one of the most important event in modern history. That`s why I always was interested in that 2 part movie. It certainly has its flaws. It is very episodic which obviously can`t be avoided when a film tries to depict the events from the calling of the Estates-General by Louis XVI to the execution of Robespierre in 6 hours. There were some fine performances. Especially by Klaus Maria Brandauer as Danton, Jean-François Balmer as Louis XVI, Jane Seymor as Marie-Antoinette (her transformation from an ignorant and spoiled queen to a responsible and brave woman) and especially the very convincing Andrzej Seweryn as Robespierre.
Delerue`s score is memorable and truly a highlight in the composer`s career. I can imagine that for the french composer this must have been a very special project. The only aspect of the music that I never liked was Jessye Norman`s singing. For me it always sounded too pathetic. But that`s just my opinion.
Anyway, can`t wait to get my copy.
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Anyone heard of The British Symphony Orchestra before?
I was wondering about this as well. Could this simply be studio/union players from around London a la the "Hollywood Symphony Orchestra"?
It was. An ensemble of some of the best freelance musicians of the greater London Area.
More importantly, it must have been somewhat of an embarrassment for Delerue to be conducting a British rather than a French orchestra, as well as a chorus contracted in London by (American jazz trombonist?) Nat Peck, and on the very bicentennial of the French Revolution! Would no French orchestra or chorus step up to the task?
Equally mystifying, Delerue never recorded the music again, not even for the London Sessions Varese Sarabande releases. The film seemed to have come and gone in France (I saw a televised broadcast back in 1989 or 1990), and was released and re-released only on a region 2 DVD. No one has ever bothered to remaster and release the film for Region 1 audiences, despite the fact that it had excellent production values, an international cast and a fabulous score, and was filmed at various historical sites. A perplexing mystery.
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I would make a few minor corrections:
"The King Gets Up" should be "The King's Levée" (or simply "The King's Levee")
"Opening of the General States" should be "Opening of the Estates-General"
"The Taking of the Bastille" - more commonly referred to as "The Storming of the Bastille"
"The Feast of the Barricades" should maybe be "Festivity at the Barricades"
"The Abolition of the Privileges" should be simply "The Abolition of Privileges"
"Declaration of Human Rights" is historically referred to as "Declaration of the Rights of Man"
"The March of Women" is historically referred to as the "Women's March (to Versailles)"
"Tennis Court Oath" is, as pointed out above, actually "The King's Oath (at Champ de Mars)"
"La Fayette" is rendered in English more commonly as "Lafayette"
"Cult of the Supreme Being" is historically referred to as the "Festival of the Supreme Being"
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Didn't do too bad.
Not all. I had drawn up a similar list a few nights ago, and your titles match up with mine. I'm still not to sure about "La Fête" (which I had titled "Celebration"). "La Fête" is one of those French umbrella words that covers a lot of nuanced meanings: a religious feast involving processions and services, a picnic-like feast, a outdoor festival or carnival, simple merry-making or revelry, a commemoration and celebration of a historical event. The cue "La Fête" refers to the celebratory preparation of the stadium by National Assembly volunteers at the Champ de Mars for the Fête (there's that word again) de la Fédération (Feast of the Federation, July 14, 1790, marking the first anniversary of the Storming of the Bastille). "The Oath" refers to Lafayette's oath of allegiance to the constitution at the Fête, and precedes "The King's Oath" at the same event.
I'm sure that the scoring of this film was for Delerue one big Fête.
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More importantly, it must have been somewhat of an embarrassment for Delerue to be conducting a British rather than a French orchestra, as well as a chorus contracted in London by (American jazz trombonist?) Nat Peck, and on the very bicentennial of the French Revolution! Would no French orchestra or chorus step up to the task?
For the record, Georges Delerue would have liked to record with French orchestra but as he was to record all the sessions in August, the French musicians were on holidays and didn't want to do it in summer break!
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