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They weren't the only composers, though Schart did most of them. There's actually an episdoe where both he and Rosenman are credited for the score.
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Posted: |
Aug 17, 2014 - 3:46 AM
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By: |
finder4545
(Member)
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Documentary always was the right field for free composition and first rate film music. Jacques Cousteau gave us, along with scientific knowledge of the sea world, a true ocean of music for listening. What a pity it had so little release on record. I still hold in my collection two drops of that ocean, one being the masterful composition of Walter Scharf THE LEGEND OF THE LIVING SEA, about 40 min., made in the 70’s for an exhibition, issued on vinyl OR 7111, and another, a wonderful CD on JOS Records by John Scott, with episodes CAPE HORN (Waters of the Wind) and CHANNEL ISLANDS (Waters of Contention and Days of Future Past), with Scott conducting RPO and Berlin Radio Conc.Orch. JOS Records issued a lot of Cousteau’s CD. I remember handling more copies of LEGEND, at the time of exchanging albums around the World in the 80’s, and remember a guy named Paul Merritt who was highly helpful for my collection. Somebody knows of him?
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Scharf's wonderful main and end title music to the series (along with its other scores) have never been released, but the Spanish DVD release had the main and end titles nicely isolated on the menus. I wonder if the Rosenman/Scharf co-credit was just the result of tracking--the documentary series was running fairly regularly in the late 60s/early 70s and it's possible they didn't score every one with original music. But I would LOVE to see any of this show's music released--Scharf's TV theme is one of my all-time favorites.
It IS a marvelous theme, and just perfect for the subject. Circa 1989-90, Walter Scharf conducted some of his music with the University of Wyoming Symphony Orchestra; the pieces performed included a specially-arranged version of the "Cousteau" theme. The whole thing was issued on a videotape titled 'Stately Wyoming' and the footage of Scharf conducting is unique. The VHS tape is very rare these days, hard to find.
I was just getting into film music in the late sixties when the original Jacques Cousteau programmes were being aired on TV in the UK (in monochrome, then). I took to Scharf's music immediately and have been a great fan of his ever since. A true Hollywood work-horse, if ever there was one. He could do it all.
More recently, I discovered over here a box-set with ten of the original episodes of The Undersea World of Jacques Cousteau. It was great to hear that theme again, in it's original setting, and now to see the programmes in colour. I don't think the Rosenman-scored episode is included, but I have yet to see everything. Certainly I have already come across Bernardo Segall and Kenyon Hopkins as episode-scorers.
"Wilderness Trail" (much of which is included in the afore-mentioned 'Stately Wyoming' videotape) remains Scharf's magnum opus; followed closely by 'The Legend of the Living Sea', mentioned elsewhere in this thread. Walter Scharf remains the MOST under-rated and under-valued composer in the annals of Music from Hollywood. (IMHO).
- JMM.
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Cousteau had excellent taste in music (he was an amateur musician himself) and worked with some of the best. His collaboration with John Scott was his longest and best-known, but his TV productions also featured original work by Elmer Bernstein, Georges Delerue, Manos Hadjidakis and Vangelis.
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Walter Scharf's album "The Legend of the Living Sea" can now be heard on Youtube -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pnzk9f4f1yw
From Discogs:
1. A Man In The Sea 5:55
2. Propulsion 3:46
3. Water Planet 4:43
4. Procreation 4:32
5. Quest For Food 6:41
6. Chops From The Sea 4:25
7. Pollution 5:36
8. Man Re-Enters The Sea 5:22
(Total Time: 41:39)
Original soundtrack music composed for the exhibit onboard the Queen Mary in Long Beach, California. The LP was privately pressed in 1971 and sold exclusively at the exhibit.
Recorded in Munich since the series was co-produced by German production company Bavaria, the suite (with several variations on the classic introductory signature fanfare) contained here incorporates some music Scharf wrote for episodes of the first series "The Undersea World Of Jacques Cousteau" in previous years including one called "The Tragedy Of The Red Salmon" (1970) for which he won an Emmy. Segment pieces from other episodes are represented in this suite as well. Scharf is at his very best in these tracks as influences by Copland, Elgar, Hanson and William Walton can be heard - a great shame that almost none of the music of this long running series is available. Leonard Rosenman, William Goldstein, Lyn Murray, John Scott, Gerald Fried, Lalo Schifrin, Georges Delerue and Kenyon Hopkins are some of the composers who contributed to the music of Cousteau's TV series. Between all of them Walter Scharf was the establishing force who stood out and his title track was used exclusively throughout the first run of this groundbreaking diving series.
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Posted: |
Jan 15, 2018 - 2:28 PM
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By: |
Jörn
(Member)
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It`s time for a CD-Release of those wounderfull Costeau-scores by Scharf, Rosenman, Bernstein and all the others.
Maybe it`s something Intrada could do, as they did with their NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC series a few years before (wich sadly ended after two or three Volumes).
These old documentary-scores of the 60`s and 70`s are mostly so brilliant.....
It`s truly sad, that the most labels seems not so interested in releasing them anymore.
Maybe they fear, that there aren`t enough people who would buy such releases.
But if i remember correctly, the NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC cd`s did sell very well, aren`t they?
I`am sure, documentary scores by Bernstein, Rosenman or even Scharf would sell very well.
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It`s time for a CD-Release of those wounderfull Costeau-scores by Scharf, Rosenman, Bernstein and all the others.
I'd love to see a release of some of Bernstein's score from The Cousteau Odyssey. His title music for the series is one of my all-time favorite television themes.
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The video STATELY WYOMING, with Scharf conducting some of his music from COSTEAU and WILDERNESS TRAIL can be found here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NfM3-ITyyWc
Nice find, Jorn!
(Memo to Jeff Bond - Walter Scharf conducts his original "Undersea World" theme at approx 08:00 minutes in...)
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