Welcome to the board! It looks like there isn't much of a fanbase - for your thread - while I am a huge fan of Irwin Kostal - and the old fashioned HOLLYWOOD MUSICAL!
The three movies you mentioned are probably my all time favorite musicals, and at times, I am too embarrassed to mention it, as these titles are referred to as kids flicks, and the songs are aimed at the kids, but if I was to play a score like An American In Paris - which is not aimed at the kids - I would get the same response. I would be told - I need to grow up!
I would like to know what happened to this kind of Hollywood Musical - and when did people start singing like they had a frog in their throat? I can't stand THAT KIND of singing - the way people sing these days! (The 007 films did have great title songs though and the singing by Shirley Bassey - even though was "sexy" was in tune with the orchestra). An example of what I am trying to say is listening to the way Christmas Carols get sung these days - it's as if they are trying to make it sound "sexy".
Some of the Christmas Carols of the 80s, and 90s, as I was growing up were sung in tune with the orchestra - just like the Hollywood Musicals of the golden age - but TODAY in this day and age - that melodic way of singing is now extinct. SO SAD!
Hollywood Musicals of the 50s and 60s - and some of the seventies - is what is considered by me - when people sang in tune with the orchestra. (And they didn't try to sound "sexy" about it).
So when I play scores like this - when people sing the way they are supposed to - I get told that it's children's - and that I have not grown up - why? Because I need to listed to music that is "hard core?"
The trilogy of films you mentioned - are my top three musicals - and I am also a fan of The Slipper and The Rose - South Pacific - Charlotte's Web (which is aimed at the kids - but the singing is no different than say Calamity Jane - or On Moonlight Bay - which both have "adult storylines" - I wonder when will those two ever get a soundtrack release - there are re recordings available of those two!)
I'm a HUGE fan of Irwin Kostal's arrangements and conducting too!
I'd like to remind you that he also arranged and conducted the music for Bedknobs and Broomsticks in addition to the 3 classics you mentioned. There are two lengthy segments in that film that leave me in awe of his orchestration skills: The Portobello Road street scene/ballet and the final confrontation of the uniforms with the nazis. I've recorded both of these sequences from the DVD so I can listen to them with the rest of the soundtrack in their entirety. For me they are the highlights of the score. The DVD also includes a special feature with Irwin Kostal recording Portobello Road with David Tomlinson and the orchestra - in a version that finally resolves the song naturally rather than the abrupt interrupted ending used in the film. Oddly, the resolved version wasn't used on the album either so I had to make my own edit using the DVD special feature.
Kostal was also one of the orchestrators for WEST SIDE STORY, and conducted on A FUNNY THING HAPPENED ON THE WAY TO THE FORUM, HALF A SIXPENCE, and CHARLOTTE'S WEB (1973).
Though it's not credited, I would assume he was the arranger for Charlotte's Web, which is in fact another Sherman and Sherman musical (and probably my own holy grail for LP that needs to see a CD issue, though given it was 28 minutes if any more music in stereo were available it'd be nice too....)
I think his most underrated work is for Half a Sixpence. I love this film, but unfortunately, it died at the boxoffice. Kostals orchestrations are stunning here.
I think his most underrated work is for Half a Sixpence. I love this film, but unfortunately, it died at the boxoffice. Kostals orchestrations are stunning here.
I agree, the movie was an over produced bore, but the expansive and abundant scoring was excellent.
Agree - Half a Sixpence really shows his mastery in arranging for the orchestra. Found this old documentary on youtube which features Kostal in discussion with the composer, finding the right key for Tommy Steele's voice and conducting the orchestra.
