The score from Varese is a masterpiece in its own musical right, though (even YOU have to admit that, Howard - and if my memory serves me right, you do). Solemn and disturbing, yet playful and nostalgic. I also have a suite on the wonderful ELMER BERNSTEIN BY ELMER BERNSTEIN compilation from Denon.

(Hi, Howard! Say, did you ever complete your saga about your pilgrimage to Canada -- I don't think I ever got the last installment...)

THE CARPETBAGGERS is a fun score from Bernstein's prime period, full of jazz and drama, even some electronics. A Mainstream cd of the score was released, coupled, if memory serves, with BABY THE RAIN MUST FALL.

THE TEN COMMANDMENTS is a magnificent work. There've been many LP's and CD's of different versions. Definitely check it out. The MCA CD is a rerecording in stereo, previously a double LP. The Tsunami is original tracks, well worth having for the compositional differences in various tracks, but it should have been a double CD of the complete score and it's not. Biggest drawback: it's minus the Moses-in-the-river music, one of the most beautiful tracks in the score (included on the MCA).

Happy listening,

Preston

It does! Mockingbird makes both My Favorite Stand Alone and Film With Music ("desert island") lists. I must agree with Ubik, however, that I find the slower tempo of the Varese re-recording positively maddening at times vs. the film and Ava recordings. And the omission of the 2nd instance of the "someone carrying Jem" theme drives me CRAZY. This brief snippet occurs in the scene/cue following the attack in the woods: first comes "stalking" music underscoring a shot of the Someone from the waist down, who picks up the boy. Scout sees the shadowy figure carrying Jem and that moment is accompanied by a wondrous and mysterious clarinet phrase. The whole musical sequence is repeated in the film but the Varese re-recording instead shifts to Scout's sprint and the whole thing is just too abrupt for the ultra-orthodoxer within me, GRRRRRRRRRRRRRR. The stereo sound quality, though, sure is nice but give me back the whole score in stereo and at the better tempo, please!

"(Hi, Howard! Say, did you ever complete your saga about your pilgrimage to Canada -- I don't think I ever got the last installment...)"

Hi, Preston! It's in my head but the forces of block and suddenly severely limited PC access--particularly the latter--well, you know. Anyway, please elaborate on the Finian reference in today's FSDaily. The flick is pretty much mind's eye/ear memorized and I am very curious as to which production number you referred to. If you need my email address contact Mr. Kinsinger (a/k/a Dickinson a/k/a Bloom a/k/a Pro from Dover, et al.).

As to FINIAN. Would you like to guess first? Here's a hint: The Eames film is TOCCATA FOR TOY TRAINS, so, which production number(s) in FINIAN'S feature a train...?

Give up?

Okay, it's "This Time of the Year," the number which concludes with multiple shots of Woody heading on his way by rail to Rainbow Valley. The specific crib from TOCCATA comes at the very end of the number, when a camera tracks fast-forward through several rail cars, one right after the other in fast cutting. (Coppola added to the whimsy by putting Woody in each car.) My hunch is it was even harder technically to achieve that effect in the Eames' film because after all the trains were just small toys.

(A recent boot finally puts the score on cd, and expanded from the LP. Worth the price of admission to hear Ken Darby's vocal arrangement of "Look to the Rainbow" for the wedding scene. Exquisite.)

Yeah, especially when you consider his re-recording of Herrmann's Mrs. Muir. Interesting that Herrmann, of course, had that notorious penchant for doing the exact same thing. But isn't the Bernstein recording of Muir more comparable to the film tempo than the Mockingbird re-do? Anyone??

Just the same, this morning I was cleaning around the place and for the fun of it listened first to the Varese album in its entirety followed by the Ava recording in its. Yes, the Swashbuckler Principle that performance trumps over all other considerations holds here. It was also interesting to note that snatches of the score seemed to show up in Star Trek a few years later. I'm talking of similar sounding music; will try to define the cues I have in mind after another listening session.

Thor, I envy you. You will be approaching your initial viewing of Mockingbird from an unvarnished stand alone listening perspective. It'll be interesting to hear your comments re visions inspired by the music on its own vs. those the music accompanied in the film. I finally saw Obsession from end to end after having listened to the soundtrack for years. It was neat. Anyway, may I suggest that you watch it first in the role of moviegoer to get the full motion picture experience, then maybe go back for the inevitable note-taking. And think of me when you see Jem, we resembled each other at that age (ain't foolin').

Preston, I did make the train association at first but not that specific sequence. So much for the great mind's eye, huh! You have me salivating at a CD with music excluded from the LP. The joyous, melancholic ending was truly lovely, conversely reminds me of the folks humbly searching the skies for that elusive ticket out of Casablanca. But the music, the music! A fuller release would truly have pleased a certain Heindorf backer now-departed even more than we.

I strongly recommend the book, by Harper Lee, for anyone who hasn't read it. It's even better than the film! Trivia: When Harper Lee was a child, she lived next door to Truman Capote (himself a child of course at the time). The character "Dill" was very closely fashioned after Capote as a child!

I cannot speak for others, but the reason that I prefer the original performance (best represented recording-wise by the Ava LP) is that it is close-miked, simple and unembellished -- EXACTLY what was needed for the film! Had Bernstein inserted a labored, concert-hall sounding score (like the Varese)into this film, he would have totally blown the assignment, putting out something as inappropriate as a Tangerine Dream score in any film!

I am not disputing anyone else's right to like the Varese recording better. I am only saying that to do so, one must forget entirely about the role of the score in the film, and the legendary effectiveness of that score precisely because of its simplicity and lack of pretense. As a listening experience, on the level of sound quality and the presence of lovely music, perhaps Varese wins. As a representation of the original score to a film, it blows!

There's plenty of lovely music on the Ava recording, together with a reasonably faithful rendering of one of the finest film scores of all time -- I'll take the Ava any day. I wish the performance qualities of the Varese matched its technical qualities, but if you understand and care at all about what Elmer Bernstein did for the film, it just clearly doesn't measure up.

I do have that Denon CD mentioned here, Elmer Bernstein by Elmer Bernstein; I'm quite fond of it. I have very few Bernstein soundtracks, alas (just The Age of Innocence, Ghostbusters [and that CD is mostly pop songs], and The Great Escape); at least I have a sampling of several of his others on the Denon CD...

- JE

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“There it stuck fast, and would move no more...”

quote:

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Originally posted by Ubik:
Does anyone else think that the re-recording of "Mockingbird" slows down the pace on the main title too much? Otherwise an excellent recording.

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Yes, I would agree. And that includes both re-recordings, the new Varese CD, but also the one Elmer did for his club in the '80's (but to a lesser extent).

Normally I liked the original soundtracks from films of this era, but here is clearly one where issueing a CD of the original film tracks would be most welcome.

quote:

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Originally posted by Dana Wilcox:
As a listening experience, on the level of sound quality and the presence of lovely music, perhaps Varese wins. As a representation of the original score to a film, it blows!

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Well, here I mostly agree with you, Dana, but then again, when a conductor conducts a score, he should not try to to emulate another recording of the score, he should not try to recreate something that cannot be recreated, but he should rather try to do justice to the score at hand. True, if you wish to hear a film score -- any film score -- to sound exaclty as it did in the movie, then the original soundtrack recording always wins. Always. For better or for worse. And it is in my opinion perfectly legitimate to wish for the "original" recording. I certainly would never dispute anybody's right to prefer the original recording as such over the Varese for whatever reason either, but -- and this is why I started to jump in here in the first place -- it should be clear the the Varese recording presents the music for Mockingbird as pure music. I for one am glad the Mr. Bernstein did record a new Mockingbird and in his choices as a conductor went beyond simply aping an already existing soundtrack recording just to beef up the sound, but rather took a fresh look at the score and made musical and not filmical conducting choices. Last but not least, "To Kill A Mockingbird" deserves to be heard as music, and it deserves the clear and dimensional recording sound over the the flat and leveled sound of the original recording, though I would in any case agree that the closer recording technique was in this case absolutely vital for the original soundtrack.

Yes, but can you imagine if they left in the the whole Miss Dubose angle? And you want provocative, how about the scene at Calpurnia's church? Imagine a 1962 black movie audience confronting reverse-racism! I think expanding the prejudice theme by including all this would have changed the tone of the film considerably.

I agree with Nicolai on the OST. if that's what you have to have that's the one to get.

To me, if you're looking at a re-recording of a film score, it's inherent that you are not recording the score for film, but as a standalone experience (obviously). In that context then I think it is not necessarily correct to expect that the re-record be a tempo for tempo reproduction. I look at it as I do for the billions of recordings of Beethoven, Mahler, and Bruckner symphonic cycles that exist. Each has its own merits and detractions. but each symphony is a powerful force of its own.
To Kill a Mockingbird is that as well. A great score can withstand re-interpretations, just as a great symphonic work does. As such, it is open to different emotional interpretations. Bernstein re-recorded this score nearly 40 years after he originally composed it, and so, I would expect him to have a different approach to it musically. I think it's just as valid what he did for Varese, as what he did on the originals.
it's like ballet music without the dancers, opera without words and sets....

the Varese re-record then, sounds fabulous and contains some of the best music written in the 20th Century. Especially if you can't get the original.
I was blown away when I first heard the music, and still am whenever it plays.

I welcome re-recordings of film scores.

forgive me, if that wanders around a bit...