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Posted: |
Feb 20, 2021 - 8:19 AM
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By: |
OnyaBirri
(Member)
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Ms. Birri and I re-watched this amazing films last night, fir the first time in maybe 20 years. I believe this was the first major film that Q scored.
I have long had the LP and CD, and am very familiar with the music on the album.
Listening to the music in the film, it is clear that Q took a very different approach for the album, and that it was not simply a case of re-recording the music. While I did recognize some passages that were similar between the film and the LP, there was lots of music in the film not on the LP, and vice versa. In other cases, it sounded like passages were re-orchestrated for the LP, but that perception may be in part due to different miking techniques between the film and LP.
I'm wondering if the the film music tracks still exist, and if so, would there be any possibility of an expansion. I would think there would be at least some audience for this, given the film's reputation and Q's involvement.
What are your thoughts?
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Mancini was instrumental in getting Quincy hired for Mirage, not The Pawnbroker. Lumet's movie was a New York film, but Mirage was Hollywood film written by Peter Stone ("Charade" "Father Goose") and starring Gregory Peck, so very Hollywood and very white. God forbid it should be scored by a black person!
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Posted: |
Feb 21, 2021 - 12:07 PM
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By: |
Graham Watt
(Member)
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Interesting that Rozsaphile mentions the song (for the album) being almost unimaginable in its connection to a film such as this. Quincy Jones said as much in his sleeve notes, adding that he managed to steer it away from typical "mush". I suppose he had no choice but to defend it on the LP.
So, I've just watched the film. It's not an easy watch, and although I realise that the Steiger character is complex and left empty of emotion from the horrors that he had been through, I sometimes felt that someone showing that complete lack of emotion, even hostility, to all those around him would have resulted in zero interraction with anyone. And yet he has his caring family-by-proxy, the lonely social worker who tries to reach out to him as a kindred spirit, his affair with the wife of one of his friends who died in the concentration camp... it struck me as vaguely unconvincing at first, but it all comes together if you have patience.
The black and white photography is stunning. I think that if you took any frame from all those shots of grubby New York, it would make a fantastic 2,000-piece jigsaw puzzle.
Loved the music, but being a conventional old fuddy-duddy at heart, I did wonder if the jazz worked dramatically. And what's with the hothouse "Deep South" sound? Seemed more like Tennessee Williams territory. I was surprised and amused to hear "Soul Bossa Nova" used as source music in one of the scenes.
Yes, there seemed to be a LOT of differences between the LP cuts and the score as heard in the film. The movie has plenty of moody underscore and some quite beautiful cello-based work which I don't think made it to the album. Even the up-front jazz pieces sounded like different takes, but I only dipped into the album tracks which are up on YouTube, so I can't be sure. I absolutely loved the sound of the piano both in the film and on the LP. Wikileaks names Dave Grusin as pianist, adding the likes of such giants as Oliver Nelson and J.J. Johnson among the personnel.
If the original tracks were available, it would make a GREAT release if combined with the LP cues. It would be a "can't have one without the other" situation. I feel that way about Oliver Nelson's ZIGZAG score. After being used to the LP for decades, I snapped up the FSM release which coupled it with the film tracks, and it's brilliant. Wouldn't do away with either of the two versions. They complement each other to perfection, and I think that would be the case with THE PAWNBROKER too.
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Posted: |
Feb 24, 2021 - 6:57 AM
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By: |
OnyaBirri
(Member)
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Onya, the "Deep South" sound I referred to appears in what YouTube calls the "Main Title". It certainly isn't the Main Title, but rather the music for the opening sequence. Isn't there a kind of Alex North does Tennessee Williams bluesiness about that? I love those long-held string passages starting about 02:35. Perhaps we were supposed to imagine that Rod Steiger and his family were out cotton pickin' and we weren't meant to know initially that it was, crucially, Europe.
Where does that play in the film? The early scene in which Steiger is on the lounge chair in the backyard? The melody does have a bluesy quality. But considering that cue is played primarily by strings, with bowed basses arpeggiating the harmony below, and harpsichord answering the strings' melodic phrases, I always interpreted that cue as Europe meets the U.S. I do hear a bit of Streetcar, now that you mention it, but I don't pick up on a sultry southern vibe in Q's cue.
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