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They can now take this title off that list of Oscar winning scores not on CD.
Awesome, Ray. Hope The Foreposter isn't too far off.
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includes a mammoth 72 page souvenir booklet
"Mammoth" is right!
I'll bet even David Whatsisname from MMM is jealous! 
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please somebody tell me this is NOT a limited edition release. because if it is, i would like to know how many copies will be in circulation.
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Posted: |
Apr 21, 2012 - 4:09 PM
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By: |
manderley
(Member)
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.....Alexander Tannsman had written a full score but Selznick deemed it unworthy.....
I think that "unworthy" is probably a poorly chosen word here.
For his films, Selznick hired many of the best composers of the period, from Steiner to Rozsa, from Waxman to Tiomkin and was usually quite astute in his choices and how the music could be promoted, independent of the film, to the moviegoing public. Tansman would have been an interesting choice for Selznick to make and I find it hard to believe that Selznick would have hired Tansman at all if he would subsequently think of categorizing his work as "unworthy".
SYWA is a very sentimental kind of film. I'll bet that Tansman wrote a more avant-garde score and not the kind of sentimental score that Selznick wanted or felt his film required and thus, he dumped it in favor of hiring Steiner once again. That decision doesn't make Tansman's score unworthy, it simply makes it inappropriate to the producer's vision.
I first saw SINCE YOU WENT AWAY in the early 1950s when I was about 13-14. Although many, many people consider the film schmaltzy fare today, on my first viewing in the early 1950s, I thought it had captured the period of the early 1940s in which it was set, expertly.
My personal recollections of that early '40s time are of much bustling activity, with everyone working at capacity, living their lives fully, but also with an underlying sadness---families never knowing how their loved ones (or even they, themselves) would survive.
The film captures this "living on the edge" atmosphere, but also the romantic aspects of "living for the moment" before sending your loved ones off to war. The soldiers dances, the bustling train stations, the limited Christmases, the rationed foods, the gathering and re-cycling of valuable waste, the wartime posters on buildings, the soldiers in uniform everywhere, the women at work in factories, the all-night food places/ bowling alleys/ movie theatres---all these are memories I have of my early childhood, and all these are depicted pretty accurately in the film. (I also think that Nazimova gives one of the really short but really great performances in the history of film in SYWA. From today's perspective, you can get a pretty fair idea of what all the shouting was about in regard to Alla Nazimova's talent.)
For me, the Steiner score pulls all the film's happy-sad strands together quite well, and enhances the movie immeasurably. This is one of those scores that actually deserved its Oscar in the period in which it was awarded.
I'll look forward to getting my copy of this new release.
Incidentally, WAS any or all of the Tansman score actually recorded, and, in fact, DID Tansman actually complete the full score before being let go???
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Posted: |
Apr 21, 2012 - 10:45 PM
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By: |
Ray Faiola
(Member)
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I am concerned though about the reassembled acetates,
did they yield excessive pop during playback?
And thus they must have been rather difficult to "clean" up.
Do the notes go into more detail about the reassembly and restoration?
First, there was almost no noise reduction employed. The fidelity of the acetates was striking, thanks to the amazing Goldwyn Stage and recording system and the fact that the discs were not overplayed through the ensuing decades. However, there were some broken discs. Some beyond repair and some which were pieced back together. This affected primarily the various takes of the main title. There were myriad large pops and skips, necessitating the use of portions of multiple takes to put a complete cue together. Even so, there are still remnants of the pops (now soft bumps) in the opening of the score. It was just dumb misfortune that the most severe damage had to be at the beginning. But we can only pick up the pieces (as it were!) and make the most of the situation. Overall, I think you will find this an extremely enjoyable musical journey.
The only noticeable absence is that of the source cues. These were most likely recorded by studio music director Lou Forbes and, thus, were not among Max's acetates of the score.
I ran the film a few months ago for our Chelsea Rialto crowd and there were very few dry eyes in the house when the lights came up. These are not "film" people. And many were really bowled over by the music.
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