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This is a comments thread about FSM CD: THX 1138
 
 Posted:   Aug 15, 2014 - 12:48 PM   
 By:   Rollin Hand   (Member)

¶ Here is Lalo Schifrin's avant garde masterpiece of the Seventies along with The Hellstrom Chronicle.

¶ THX 1138 is extremely versatile like many scores of Schifrin (Cf. Coogan's Bluff, Bullitt, Dirty Harry, Pretty Maids All in a Row). The common denominator is unconventional rendition of Baroque Church choir and abstract ambient music (mixing folkloric instruments from Brazil, Africa, Eastern Europe) combined with such hard counterpoints as an African ethnic cue ("Primitive Dance"), a light little ladies song ("Be Happy Again")—that I adore—, smooth latin tunes a la Cool Hand Luke ("Source #1", "Source #2", "Source #3"), intimistic music ("Love Dream"), a rock spaghetti western tune ("Source #4").

¶ THX 1138 features many of Schifrin's gritty Seventies devices: dissonant buzzing organ or synthesizer, scrapped cymbals, tablas or cimbalom tapestry or punctuations, instruments distorted with echo, weird and swift cue transition inside a track.

¶ THX 1138 has got two tracks that got me hooked up on the spot: the pair of dissonant tracks entitled "Escape" (First is track #12 and Second is track #14) because of the Dirty Harry connection. Think Scorpio and the money delivery at night!

First http://www.filmscoremonthly.com/store/MP3/0604/12_FIRST_ESCAPE.MP3 Escape

¶ Anyway, I love the Baroque and solemn finalé dominated by a harpsichord entitled "The Hologram".


••• For those happy few listeners who own the score: why do you like it?

 
 
 Posted:   Aug 16, 2014 - 3:29 AM   
 By:   Rollin Hand   (Member)

THX 1138 Trailer

 
 
 Posted:   Aug 16, 2014 - 3:38 AM   
 By:   Rollin Hand   (Member)

¶ In the previous decade (2000's), two experimental scores fascinated me:
THX 1138 by Lalo Schifrin (Film Score Monthly)
The Conversation by David Shire (Intrada)

¶ Both were part of the American Zoetrope company.

¶ Both integrate daring sound design.

 
 Posted:   Aug 16, 2014 - 3:44 AM   
 By:   chriss   (Member)

This has always been one of my favorite Schifrin scores. It's a high point in his film scoring, not only simply a film score but also a piece of art with its masterful mixture of avantgardistic, baroque and popular idioms. It tells much about the composer that this works so effortlessly and naturally.

 
 
 Posted:   Aug 16, 2014 - 8:45 AM   
 By:   jpteacher568   (Member)

Many of Schifrin's avant garde scores are worth listening to away from the film for its experimental tone and orchestrations. Another score I would love to have released if the rights issue is ever resolved is John Boorman's HELL IN THE PACIFIC with Lee Marvin and Toshiro Mifune. There is little dialogue so Schifrin's modernistic approach works well with the visuals.


http://youtu.be/dTPd3eOPPNQ?list=PL1BPrVOMOxxLSzP8LRE-7II0aHEUhKadL


Due to the minimalism of dialogue and music, the overall sound design plays an important role in each of the character's psyche.


JP

 
 
 Posted:   Aug 16, 2014 - 9:11 AM   
 By:   Rollin Hand   (Member)

Many of Schifrin's avant garde scores are worth listening to away from the film for its experimental tone and orchestrations. Another score I would love to have released if the rights issue is ever resolved is John Boorman's HELL IN THE PACIFIC with Lee Marvin and Toshiro Mifune.


¶ What musical connection do you spot between Hell in the Pacific and THX 1138?
¶ Can you elaborate on the rights issue for Hell in the Pacific, please?

 
 
 Posted:   Aug 16, 2014 - 9:44 AM   
 By:   jpteacher568   (Member)

Many of Schifrin's avant garde scores are worth listening to away from the film for its experimental tone and orchestrations. Another score I would love to have released if the rights issue is ever resolved is John Boorman's HELL IN THE PACIFIC with Lee Marvin and Toshiro Mifune.


¶ What musical connection do you spot between Hell in the Pacific and THX 1138?
¶ Can you elaborate on the rights issue for Hell in the Pacific, please?



1. THX 1138 and HELL IN THE PACIFIC are modernistic due to Schifrin's orchestration and use of instrumentation and coloristic tonalities. Both scores deeply reflect psychological and physical trauma while the sound design reflects natural and artificial settings within the film.

2. I am not the one to discuss the rights issue, but if you think about the person who has championed many of Schifrin's scores, from DIRTY HARRY to THE HELLSTROM CHRONICLE, he would be the better person to ask.

 
 
 Posted:   Aug 16, 2014 - 11:01 AM   
 By:   OnyaBirri   (Member)

I avoided this for a long time because I live in a Star-Wars-free zone, but I eventually got beyond any potential embarrassment and got it. Well worth it.

 
 
 Posted:   Aug 16, 2014 - 11:31 AM   
 By:   Rollin Hand   (Member)

¶ To those of you, willing to expand their THX 1138 avant garde experience,
I advise you to dive into Earth II, also from Film Score Monthly.
It's the ideal companion into the 1971 abstraction.

Earth II Page
http://filmscoremonthly.com/cds/detail.cfm/CDID/460/TV-Omnibus-Volume-One-1962-1976/

¶ FSM online liner notes for Earth II
http://www.filmscoremonthly.com/notes/earth_ii.html

 
 
 Posted:   Aug 16, 2014 - 11:42 AM   
 By:   Rollin Hand   (Member)

¶ The atmosphere and the soundscape of Lalo Schifrin's THX 1138 is influenced by the work of Gyorgy Ligeti that you find and hear in 2001: A Space Odyssey.

¶ Please listen to: "Overture: Atmospheres", "Requiem For Soprano, Mezzo Soprano, Two Mixed Choirs & Orchestra", "Lux Aeterna".

 
 
 Posted:   Aug 16, 2014 - 12:25 PM   
 By:   Bob DiMucci   (Member)

Can you elaborate on the rights issue for Hell in the Pacific, please?

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I am not the one to discuss the rights issue, but if you think about the person who has championed many of Schifrin's scores, from DIRTY HARRY to THE HELLSTROM CHRONICLE, he would be the better person to ask.



HELL IN THE PACIFIC, was produced by Selmur Pictures, Inc. (ABC Pictures Corp.). The likely owner of the film, as with other ABC assets, is Disney. But the real problem would be locating the original music elements. No original soundtrack has ever been released for any of the ABC film productions, other than what was issued on LPs at the time of the films' release. (There was no LP for HELL IN THE PACIFIC.)

In 1997, Schifrin himself renewed the copyright to the music score, so a re-recording would seem to be possible, if anyone thought it would sell.

 
 Posted:   Aug 16, 2014 - 2:19 PM   
 By:   BornOfAJackal   (Member)

When THX buys a red dendrite after he gets off his work shift at the beginning of the movie (later to dispose of it in a disintegrator as soon as he arrives home), a clarinet-led kind of "elevator music" plays as he moves through the "shopping area".

Is this music on the FSM CD? Was it composed by Schifrin?

 
 
 Posted:   Aug 16, 2014 - 3:09 PM   
 By:   jenkwombat   (Member)

This is one of my favorite FSM CDs as well.

 
 Posted:   Aug 20, 2014 - 8:41 AM   
 By:   chriss   (Member)

When THX buys a red dendrite after he gets off his work shift at the beginning of the movie (later to dispose of it in a disintegrator as soon as he arrives home), a clarinet-led kind of "elevator music" plays as he moves through the "shopping area".

Is this music on the FSM CD? Was it composed by Schifrin?


from the liner notes:
"A brief Muzak cue for light, bluesy saxophone heard as THX returns home after his shift is not by Schifrin and was not part of the film's recording sessions. The cue sheet identifies it as "The Blonde" by Ray Heindorf."

PS: I really miss the in-depth high quality liner notes in the FSM style!!

 
 
 Posted:   Aug 27, 2014 - 6:59 AM   
 By:   Rollin Hand   (Member)

¶ To those of you, willing to expand their THX 1138 avant garde experience,
I advise you to dive into Earth II, also from Film Score Monthly.
It's the ideal companion into the 1971 abstraction.

Earth II Page
http://filmscoremonthly.com/cds/detail.cfm/CDID/460/TV-Omnibus-Volume-One-1962-1976/

¶ FSM online liner notes for Earth II
http://www.filmscoremonthly.com/notes/earth_ii.html





¶ Trailer for EARTH II

 
 
 Posted:   Aug 27, 2014 - 7:11 AM   
 By:   Rollin Hand   (Member)

¶ The Iron Policemen from THX 1138

 
 
 Posted:   Aug 27, 2014 - 7:14 AM   
 By:   Rollin Hand   (Member)

¶ 2004 - THX 1138 - Re-Released Trailer - Be Happy

 
 
 Posted:   Aug 29, 2014 - 4:13 AM   
 By:   Rollin Hand   (Member)

And now, for something completely different, the most joyful track of the THX 1138 soundtrack.

Be Happy Again
http://www.filmscoremonthly.com/store/MP3/0604/05_BE_HAPPY_AGAIN__JINGLE_O.MP3

 
 
 Posted:   Aug 29, 2014 - 4:19 AM   
 By:   Rollin Hand   (Member)

Be Happy and Get THX 1138.

 
 
 Posted:   Aug 29, 2014 - 6:20 AM   
 By:   jkannry   (Member)

¶ To those of you, willing to expand their THX 1138 avant garde experience,
I advise you to dive into Earth II, also from Film Score Monthly.
It's the ideal companion into the 1971 abstraction.

Earth II Page
http://filmscoremonthly.com/cds/detail.cfm/CDID/460/TV-Omnibus-Volume-One-1962-1976/

¶ FSM online liner notes for Earth II
http://www.filmscoremonthly.com/notes/earth_ii.html





¶ Trailer for EARTH II



It's one of the mutants from beneath the planet of the apes and the narrator sound alike for the animated fantastic voyage

 
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