Well I did go to the Paley (had to watch it in a cubicle) to see this and it is terrific. An hour with a young Elmer explaining his process to students and getting up and playing examples with a full orchestra! The host explained how different this show was because this series usually centered on musical theater so this was an offbeat edition. Elmer was fresh from being in New York to do the background music to LAURETTE on Broadway, which Kritzerland has released.
This is an example of something that seemed to be possible only in the early days of TV. Thanks to the Paley for getting a hold of these and making them available.
I have noticed something while watching these videos. It's his accent. Does anyone know what accent is that? It sounds to me Mid-Atlantic or the kind of an accent newscasters used to speak with back in those days. Anybody?
Yeah, I sometimes notice this weird mid-Atlantic accent in some people. James Horner is the same. Hans Zimmer too. Maybe because they've stayed in England for a while (I'm not sure about Bernstein) or because they think it sounds nicer or some other influence in the past.
I remember well an interview with the late Stanley Kauffmann on the latter's television show The Art of Film. This would have been in early 1967, since Bernstein was up for three Oscars at the time. He modestly pointed out that the situation gave him three ways to lose. They showed a scene from The Magnificent Seven (the burial procession) and some others that I cannot recall. Bernstein described Mag Seven as being merely functional and propulsive. He preferred working on subtler subjects.
The Art of Film. was a good series for a couple of years. Other guests included Edith Head, Richard Sylbert, and a sloshed Peter O'Toole. I think it was on WNET (Thirteen) before the days of PBS syndication.
I have noticed something while watching these videos. It's his accent. Does anyone know what accent is that? It sounds to me Mid-Atlantic or the kind of an accent newscasters used to speak with back in those days. Anybody?
My take on this is two pronged. First according to one of Elmer’s bios: [strartquote] Although his father was a high school English teacher, both parents were extremely interested in the arts, and enjoyed the company of the colorful denizens of that world. As Bernstein fondly recalled for Cynthia Miller of the Guardian Unlimited , "They surrounded themselves with Greenwich Village [New York] drunken poets and painters. It was not uncommon for me to find a poet at the foot of my bed reading to me at midnight from the Bible."
So language was prominent in the Bernstein household and had a bohemian mix to it in his youth.
Then, and more importantly, he studied acting as a child. Usually this is insignificant for a kid but he studied between the ages of 10-13 at the King Coit Drama School for Children and allegedly appeared on Broadway in the role of Caliban in Shakespeare’s THE TEMPEST! The 30s was the time of the Group Theater and a level of sophistication in acting that would encourage actors to rid themselves of their New York accents (which I believe I can still detect) if they were going to take themselves seriously, and it looks like young Elmer did. And at that tender age it is much easier to do that and when you lose an accent what you are sometimes left with is an affected one that may be geared for the theater.
That's interesting, Morricone. I have very little to contribute in terms of old Bernstein, but I'm all the more interested in his colleague Williams from the same period. He acted in school plays too, although not the "professional" degree as Bernstein. Here's an example from the late 30s, I guess (maybe early 40s):
That's interesting, Morricone. I have very little to contribute in terms of old Bernstein, but I'm all the more interested in his colleague Williams from the same period. He acted in school plays too, although not the "professional" degree as Bernstein. Here's an example from the late 30s, I guess (maybe early 40s):
This kind of reminds me of the frustration I found with the film score guides. I have been a fan since my first one finding they went way beyond the score in question and into well researched biographies of each composer.
So why not one John Williams, Jerry Goldsmith or Elmer Bernstein score? Do they not measure up to Miklos Rozsa, Erich Wolfgang Korngold or Louis and Bebe Barron?
