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Here's a look back at Miklos Rozsa's wonderful score for Nicholas' Meyer's science fiction fantasy "Time After Time," as released by Lukas Kendall for his Film Score Monthly label, and presented by Roger Hall at Film Music Review.
http://www.americanmusicpreservation.com/TimeAfterTime.htm
Steve
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Lovely score. I'm not sure what version I have except it's not FSM.
Is the picture in the article the current DVD cover? That's dreadful!
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The other version is Rózsa's 1979 recording with the Royal Philharmonic. It's a good representation of the score, and I was very happy with that album, but I feel the original soundtrack recrding on FSM sounds better and has a more energetic performance. Others may disagree.
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In listening to this recently, I realized that not only was Rosza at the time the last working Golden Age composer, but that the score itself -- irrespective of the year in which it was written and recorded -- was the last Golden Age score.
Truly this music and recording has all of the tropes, orchestrations, mood and so on of a Rosza score from the Golden Age. If you laid this score into a film from the 1950s, it would feel very at home. And it further occurs to me just how right a Golden Age score is for a film like Time After Time about a man from the past brought into the modern era and ultimately returning to the past where he is more at home.
And then two films later Rosza retired.
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In listening to this recently, I realized that not only was Rosza at the time the last working Golden Age composer, but that the score itself -- irrespective of the year in which it was written and recorded -- was the last Golden Age score.
Truly this music and recording has all of the tropes, orchestrations, mood and so on of a Rosza score from the Golden Age. If you laid this score into a film from the 1950s, it would feel very at home. And it further occurs to me just how right a Golden Age score is for a film like Time After Time about a man from the past brought into the modern era and ultimately returning to the past where he is more at home.
And then two films later Rosza retired.
Very well stated, especially suggesting this as the last Golden Age score!
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Hey, I love this score too but calling it "the last Golden Age score" is a little bit funny because Dr. Rozsa's final score, Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid, was also a conscious homage to the Golden Age in style. And there have certainly been scores written since then in a Golden Age style, though they're rarer and rarer any more...
Yavar
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In my view TIME AFTER TIME is a Silver Age score through and through, and that's one of the things I love about it. The Silver Age is the best age.
For one thing, the Silver Age had a stunning diversity of musical styles; it was a time more than a sound.
And to the extent that the (post-STAR WARS, newly traditional) Silver Age did kind of have a sound, Rozsa was "with it." TIME AFTER TIME sounded new and cool to contemporary audiences. It has modern energy, originality, variety, and kick-ass melodies, rather than what I perceive as the "musty, old Golden Age stuff" with bland or elusive melodies and a sameness throughout the score (your mileage may vary).
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Proof that some styles of composition never went out-of-style. Superb.
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Re: In listening to this recently, I realized that not only was Rosza at the time the last working Golden Age composer, but that the score itself -- irrespective of the year in which it was written and recorded -- was the last Golden Age score.
Which is probably why, despite buying the movie on both VHS and DVD and the soundtrack on CD, I've never gotten into the music. These days I seem to have an indifference to and impatience with most soundtracks for films considered from the "Golden Age." I just went to my iTunes and began listening to the soundtrack and, after the 3rd cue started, couldn't wait to switch to something else. But do love the movie!
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Well, yeah, I was referring primarily to the performance as being open for discussion. The sound quality is noticeably better on the FSM edition.
On the whole, I prefer the film performance of the score (and I do appreciate the additional music — it's all really good stuff), but I think that the album version of “The Time Machine Waltz” with the Eric Larkin performance is prettier. And I do love the Royal Philharmonic's reading of “Redwoods,” one of my favorite Rózsa cues.
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