My Favourite Scores – 1937

• Snow White and The Seven Dwarfs
• Frank Churchill / Leigh Harline / Paul J. Smith / Larry Morey
• Walt Disney Records / 2001 / 73:50

I have to admit upfront that 1937 is a bit of lean year for me when it comes to film scores*. But listening to Snow White and The Seven Dwarfs it’s clear that the music composed for this groundbreaking animation os much more than just a few well-known songs. The songs (well some of them) are iconic: “Whistle While You Work”, “Heigh-Ho”, what more can you say. But there are cues in the orchestral score that are so dark that it’s difficult to believe that the music was composed for an animated film – e.g., “Have A Bite”. But, I do have to admit that the singing voice for Snow White (Adriana Caselotti?) is really annoying.

* Korngold’s The Prince and The Pauper, Tiomkin’s Lost Horizon and Britten’s Love From A Stranger are all scores that I have heard but I don’t particularly enjoy.

THE ASPERN PAPERS – Alexander Lasarenko

Original Review by Alan Rogers

A young American publisher heads off to the jungles of Venezuela in search of the manuscripts of poet Jeffery Aspern. He meets an old lover of Aspern’s who he believes holds the dead poet’s papers. Adapted from a novella by Henry James, The Aspern Papers marks the feature film debut of director Mariana Hellmund. A story that examines the issues raised when a biographer pries into the private life of their subject, Hellmund asks composer Alexander Lasarenko to compose a score that adds emotional depth to the story. Composed primarily for piano and acoustic guitar, and featuring additional colours from a small string ensemble and light percussion (hand drums), Lasarenko’s score is based around achingly beautiful melody that is heard in a number of variations throughout the score.

The album begins with “The Aspern Papers Theme” which states the score’s theme in full. We first we hear a piano establishing a repeating motif over which the theme proper is heard. This first statement of the theme has a sense of sadness and regret associated with it. This feeling is suggested partly by Lasarenko’s theme being played on solo strings and recorded as a piece of source music from the dilapidated Venezuelan hacienda where the majority of the film is set. As the cue progresses, the theme is taken over by a string ensemble and a percussion rhythm (establishing further the film’s location). Lasarenko uses the theme in various ways to suggest different key moments in the film: solo piano plays the theme against sustained string ensemble lines in “Juliana’s Deathbed” reflecting the life ebbing away from Juliana, Jeffery Aspern’s lover. And a halting statement of the theme on solo piano in the track “Juliana Bourdereau’s Gone” suggests the sadness of the loss of Juliana, perhaps the last link to Aspern (the person and his personal effects)? 

Ten Tracks Today – A John Williams Special #1 – 27th October 2011

01 – “Commando Raid” – Black Sunday

I have vague recollections of this film but had no memory of the score until I heard the clips once FSM had announced this for release. This is a great suspenseful score from Williams – as well as having some excellent action scoring. It’s quite different from his score to Star Wars and is a clear indication of how great Williams was/is as a film composer. This track is full of interesting suspense scoring. Less is definitely more here: lean orchestrations convey everything that needs to be said. Not as action-packed as the track’s title suggests!

02 – “Dracula’s Death” – Dracula

A great rendition of Williams’ theme for Dracula is the highlight of this track. The swirling and sweeping strings adds an emotional romanticism to the whole piece and it all builds to a rather subdued final few seconds.

03 – “Main Title / Approaching The Death Star” – Return of The Jedi

Goosebumps! The Star Wars main title theme is always one to savour when it’s heard. And it is interesting to hear how Williams gets out of this familiar theme and into the score proper. Quite similar to the beginning of Star Wars itself, it’s a quiet, suspenseful piece that I remember being quite disappointed with when I heard it the first time. This latter part of this score summarises a lot of the score as a whole – it is more snippets of themes strung together rather than sweeping passages. But it is a great track to hear variations on the Imperial March.

My Favourite Scores – 1936

• Things To Come
• Sir Arthur Bliss
• Chandos / 2001 / 32:06

Reading the excellent liner notes of Chandos’ excellent release of the film music of Sir Arthur Bliss it is clear that the music for this film had a tortuous life even at birth. Having been assured by H.G. Wells himself that Bliss’ music would be an integral element of the film and not just “tacked on” at the end, Bliss prepared a suite of music from his score for a concert at the Proms in 1935. But Bliss’ music was severely modified for inclusion in the final film release in 1936. Bliss felt obliged to modify his music for the suite in order to give the film audiences what they had heard in the film. And there was more changes to come…

What Chandos has done with for this recording is to return Bliss’ music more to a state that was composed by Bliss – and it reinforces just how powerful Bliss’ music is. Bliss’ vision of the future is not a particularly happy one with tracks such as “The World In Ruins” and “Pestilence” that paint broad strokes, that focuses on providing emotional backdrops for the film and hinting at the hardship. I prefer the way the composer provides an emotional feel with the music rather than spelling out everything in music.

There’s a lot to discover with this score: not just in the tracks cited above. Lighter (it’s all relative) moments include “Ballet For Children” and there’s an almost patriotic feel to the concluding “Epilogue”.

 

CRIMEFIGHTERS – Hayley Hutchinson & Sam Forrest

Original Review by Alan Rogers

CrimeFighters is a low budget (apparently the entire budget ran to about £7,000), independent film from 2010 made by a group of individuals with very little feature film experience. Writer/director Miles Watts – probably best known to some as part of the creative force behind the zombie horror/comedy web series Zomblogalypse – sets his film in York and follows a group of friends who are bored after deciding to keep off the drink for a month. To liven things up they don face masks and Spandex then set off to rid York’s streets of crime. Shot in black-and-white, the film is more Batman than Kick-Ass in style and has had mixed reviews since its release. Having produced a number of videos for rock band The Sorry Kisses (made up of duo singer-songwriter Hayley Hutchinson and Nine Black Alps singer/guitarist Sam Forrest), Watts asked Hutchinson and Forrest to create an original score for CrimeFighters. The duo composed, performed and recorded a (synth-based) orchestral score that’s full of urban-styled rough guitar riffs, tribal percussion and has a couple of themes worth hearing. However, this album shows that the score is as much a mixed bag as the film’s reviews.

The album begins with a 5-minute montage highlighting the main musical ideas of the score. What could be considered the “CrimeFighters’ theme” bookends the “Main Theme” and features a catchy percussion hook and a Peter Gunn-styled electric guitar riff. It’s a good start to the album, particularly when another theme – heard later in extended form in “Ella and Ethan” – is stated in the middle section of the track. The music for Ella and (ex-boyfriend policeman) Ethan is a highlight of the album. Beginning hesitantly on piano/keyboards, the addition of sparse wordless female vocals and a slow percussion beat, gives their theme quite a gloomy feel to it. Theirs is not a happy relationship it seems but the composers’ music adds a sense of longing and perhaps even a sense of a missed opportunity to their situation. It is where the score supports the chief protagonists of the film that is its strength. The thematic material for CrimeFighters Pip and Daisy (“Pip and Daisy”) has shades of romance about it, mostly down to the repeating acoustic guitar motif and it’s accompanying electric guitar. Both “Ella and Ethan” and “Pip and Daisy” offer up statements of the melodies with some variations in instrumentation rather than thematic variation but that’s not too much of a problem as the melodies are so pleasing on the ear. 

Ten Tracks Today – 23rd October 2011

01 – “The King’s Highway” – Bubba Ho-Tep – Brian Tyler

This is such a catchy tune that it brightens any playlist. I particularly enjoy the way that the guitar goes off and embellishes the melody. A great instrumental track. And quite different from Tyler’s orchestral scoring.

02 – “Neutralizer / Kelvan Theme / More Neutralizers / Broken Blocks” – Star Trek: By Any Other Name – Fred Steiner

There was such excellent music composed for these original Star Trek episodes. Sequence after sequence of recognisable music that seemed to be frequently used in various episodes. And because music from these tracks was cut-and-pasted into these shows hearing them (I assume) in their original settings, short passages stand out when heard here. And a great re-recording too.

03 – “Main Title” – Mountains of The Moon – Michael Small

Quite an uplifting theme this one with some bright brass fanfares and full string playing, it’s quite unlike what I am used to with Small’s other works that I heard before hearing this (e.g., The China Syndrome, Klute, The Star Chamber).

DEATH, DECEIT AND DESTINY ABOARD THE ORIENT EXPRESS – Stelvio Cipriani

Original Review by Alan Rogers

Stelvio Cipriani’s score for the 2001 Canada/Bulgaria/US co-production Death, Deceit and Destiny Aboard The Orient Express is difficult to praise but it is also difficult to criticise too harshly. Cipriani’s music for this apparent turkey of a film is a “by-the-numbers” effort: it’s functional without being too memorable. The film’s plot concerns a group of terrorists holding captive (on the Orient Express of all places) a number of very rich people for ransom. What follows is ninety minutes of clichéd set pieces, bad dialogue and hopeless acting in a movie that bears very little resemblance with Agatha Christie’s Murder On The Orient Express – just in case you were wondering.

South African-born director Mark Roper chose Italian-born composer Stelvio Cipriani (Tentacoli, La Polizia Sta a Guardare) to score the film and Cipriani gives Roper a much better score than the film deserves. The opening track “Destiny (Bolero)” is a six-minute piece that sails quite close to Ravel’s famous piece. As the track progresses it swells and fills out satisfyingly with the addition of various sections of the orchestra. But I am curious how this quite classical piece fits into the film (perhaps the formal rhythm somehow relates to the train that dominates the film). “Arrival At Destination” follows on from the first track and is notable for its lovely string and woodwind melody that’s got a definite European, romantic feel to it. What then follows is a series of tracks that are connected by their track titles. “Train Raid” contains action scoring that relies heavily on string ostinato and includes some quite dramatic and effective brass statements (e.g., “Train Raid (M36)”). This cue does suffer though from some very disjointed sequences that I assume reflects the disjointed on-screen action. It all sounds quite clumsy. And the appearance of a cartoon “stinger”-styled descending woodwind motif (that would be just as at home in a Tom and Jerry short) does seem quite out of place. Interspersed tracks entitled “Yearning” and “Mysteria” slow the pace down somewhat with some delicate flute writing that does have a slight John Barry feel to it (e.g., “Yearning (M07)”). 

THESE AMAZING SHADOWS – Peter Golub

Original Review by Alan Rogers (First uploaded at maintitles.net)

Since 1989 the National Film Registry (a part of the United States National Film Preservation Board) has been choosing a number of films every year that it thinks are films of “cultural, historical and aesthetic significance” and making a list. These Amazing Shadows is a documentary film from 2011 that tells the story of the history of the National Film Registry. Directors Paul Mariano and Kurt Norton have turned to composer Peter Golub. As Golub says, many of the films featured in the film have themselves memorable, if not iconic scores of their own. The decision was taken not to use the original music from these films (a decision driven either by creative choices or financial necessities). Golub composes a score that makes passing references to these movies but also composing a score specific for These Amazing Shadows.

What Golub has done is to write a score in the true nature of the documentary film, namely, not to be too intrusive but to act as a canvas for the images to express themselves. It is in these intimate cues, composed to underscore the narrative of the documentary film, that I think Golub has the most success. The “Main Titles” has a wondrous feel to it, a feeling that a child might have experienced with their first sight of a movie. And as this first cue ends, we are treated to a much grander, soaring brass fanfare as we begin to appreciate the importance of movies (in all their forms). The next few tracks – “Protecting Our Films”, “Creating The National Registry” and “Preserving Our Cultural Heritage” – go on to summarise clearly and crisply the endeavour of the National Film Registry and it’s chosen task and also the importance of the role they have in preserving a national identity. “Final Montage: The Power of Movies” allows Golub to draw everything to a satisfying close: the innocent, wondrous feel to the music is back, perhaps re-emphasising how we can all still capture that feeling as a child when we shut ourselves off from the world for a few hours, in the darkness of the cinema, being once again amazed by the images on-screen. 

Ten Tracks Today – 19th October 2011

01 – “The Course of My Life” – Doctor Who: A Christmas Carol – Murray Gold

There’s a melancholy (though it is only hinted at) to this track that reflects very concisely a sadness to The Doctor’s recollections of his life (if it is actually the Doctor’s life that the cue title refers!). As this character has developed it’s become increasingly clear the pain the Doctor feels being a Time Lord, and the composer put this across well here.

02 – “Scene II: (Pas de Deux) – Lullaby” – What Do We Do About Mother? – Patrick Soluri

This is an orchestral score (Manhattan Chamber Orchestra) for a ballet premièred in 2007 that deals with the highs and lows of people caring for the aged. The score as a whole is well worth a listen and this track is a lovely restrained piece that’s delicate but at the same time soars with light strings flitting about.

03 – “Forever” – Cracks – Javier Navarrete

I really like scores that strongly feature strings and this track is a fine example. Closely miked you can hear every nuance the composer squeezes out from the strings. The string solo is full of emotion which is amplified by being played over a Philip Glass-like ostinato.

ENCOUNTER POINT – Kareem Roustom

Original Review by Alan Rogers

Three years before Syrian/American composer Kareem Roustom scored film director Julia Bacha’s documentary Budrus, he composed an award-winning score for her 2006 film Encounter Point. The film is about members of the Bereaved Families Forum, a group of Israelis and Palestinians who have been touched by the violence in the region and who are part of a growing movement, working together to end the regional conflict and build a lasting peace through non-violent means. The film-makers follow Forum members hoping to show how even with differing attitudes (both within and outside the Forum) it is possible to work together with a common goal of securing a better future. For this score, Roustom fuses together both Arabic classical and klezmer musicians (klezmer is a musical tradition of the Ashkenazic Jews of Eastern Europe) to fashion a score that is much more rooted in the Middle East compared with Budrus.

Roustom’s music is surprisingly upbeat considering the film’s subject matter. It’s not what I would call happy music but there’s an optimism running through a lot of the music that makes for a very enjoyable album. The heavy use of Middle Eastern percussion and tempo is a main driver for this upbeat quality, and the inclusion of additional instruments such as clarinet adds melodic lines that enhance the positive tones. The “Main Title” and tracks such as “Windows – Ruti” showcases how these two aspects of the score meld together to good effect. Tracks where ethnic percussion alone provides the music are particularly memorable: “Seeds of Peace 1” and “Driving With Ali” have an inherent power that is immediately apparent even though the tracks themselves are relatively short. Over half of the tracks on the album are under one minute in length and this does tend to break up the listening experience. But as the film is a documentary a significant proportion of Roustom’s music is probably used to set scenes or as transitions between scenes and so short, bridging tracks would be necessary. Bu the music is so listenable that their short playing time does not really matter.