FILM SCORE BLOGS by Bill Wrobel This is the start of a vacation week. I typically take off the week of Martin Luther King’s holiday—Monday, January 17th this year. My next scheduled vacation is not until June. Now: This vacation week will not nearly be as busy as the previous vacation in the fall when I did extensive film score research at Warner Bros. Archives, UCLA, Paramount Studios, etc. I am only going to rent a car for the weekend rate of $26 a day for three days starting Thursday night at 8 pm. I plan to continue my Steiner research at W/B Archives on Helen of Troy. It’s a delightful score, the dvd is now out, and I would like to do a Film Score Rundowns treatment of it later in the year (especially since I can use the dvd as an audio reference source). I may first, however, do Steiner’s The Caine Mutiny (also out on dvd). I also plan to return to UCSB to continue my work on Herrmann’s tv score for A Christmas Carol (more on this later since the dvd is now available). I will also attempt to visit a contemporary film composer in the area and see if I can get some of his written scores. I attempted several times before but he’s been away or otherwise busy. My wife & I also will go (first) to Ojai on the way to USCB (just north of Santa Barbara). I may revisit the Krishnamurti Foundation there in the new building. I would like to spend a great deal more time on the old magazines they hold from the late twenties and early Thirties where K. answers various questions (material that will not be available in the upcoming cd-rom of his works). Fortunately the wicked rains that lasted almost two weeks (ended last Tuesday) are over. Due to the tragic landslide at La Conchita right next to the 101 Freeway on the way to Santa Barbara, the 101 was closed for several days (reopened at noon Friday). If the 101 is closed, there is practically no way (no easy way) to get to Santa Barbara (or to get out of Santa Barbara back to Los Angeles). I may one day (either on Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday) go to Cal State Long Beach Library and continue my research of Goodbye, Mr. Chips (M1527.A3 G6) by Richard Addinsell. Unfortunately, Cal State L.B. holds precious little in terms of film scores. What they have (only) is the MGM Music Collection acquired in 1970. Here’s the description direct from the website: “The MGM Music Collection. (Music) They have a version of Kaper’s Bataan [M1527.K36 B3] (29 pages) arranged by Leonid Raab, also Ramrod [M1527.D48 R3] (photostat of sketches, the site states) by Adolph Deutsch, Body and Soul [M1527.F7 B6] by Friedhofer (I believe a piano conductor rendition), Man In The Sky [M1527.S368 M3] by Gerald Schurmann, and a three-stave score of Tiomkin’s So This Is New York [M1527.T5 S6]. Except for Chips and Bataan (both on dvd), I have never seen the other movies. I consulted imdb.com just now and discovered that Man In The Sky (1957) starred Jack Hawkins as a test pilot. Unfortunately it’s not out on dvd. I would be interested in hearing the Schurmann score. Ramrod (1947 I believe) stars Joel McCrea and Veronica Lake. He too plays a test pilot ….(just kidding!). Not on dvd but it may still be available somewhere on vhs video. So This Is New York (1948) stars Henry Morgan and Rudy Vallee, a comedy set in New Orleans (a comedy because the dumb musicians thought all along that it was New York)…(just kidding : ). So I’m looking forward to seeing those six scores. I may even spend two days there. We’ll see. I won’t need to rent a car there since Cal State Long Beach is close. I already worked a bit on Chips. The date I noted was May 16, 1939, recorded MGM British Studios at Denham, Middlesex. The “Main Title” was 13 pages in length, 87 bars. In Reel 2 is the cue “Chips Dreaming Back” dated May 8, 1939. 1 page, 12 bars, :45. The most interesting cue would be in Reel 4, “Swiss Mountain Sequence” at 3:41 duration. I need to work more on that one. If you haven't seen or heard Herrmann's rendition of A CHRISTMAS CAROL, you will be for a real treat. You will hear Herrmann writing some tuneful melodies! The Finale (Maestoso in C time) is gloriously exuberant, opening with the small and large Carillon for the first four bars. His long middle piece titled "A Very Merry Christmas" (Galop tempo in 2/4 time) is quite snappy and cheerful, sung in a delightfully silly manner by the Ghost of Christmas Present. You can purchase this dvd on the Internet for as little as about $6 (go to DVD Price Search), but I wanted it right away, so I bought my copy at Tower Records nearby for $9.99. My wife watched the show with me and she said she really enjoyed it. She was incredulous that Herrmann wrote all those happy and optimistic tunes! You will be too.” Even if I should do no more research for years after this week, I still would have more than enough material to do rundowns from already-researched material. I already finished with The Wrong Man that will be updated in later this week (along with this Blog # 14 and “Off-Topic Bonus: Astrology # 3). I sent a few audio files of my rendition of Hitchcock’s The Birds (that Markus performed and set up electronically well over a year ago) to Sarah, my site designer and maintainer. I am wondering if she can easily offer the clips on the updated site for interested people can click and to listen to. I will only present the first minute of music of the “Pastorale” file because it’s a big file for the full scene/music cue, and I do not want all that dialog interfering after the first minute. Also I will include “Mitch’s Apartment.” No big deal, however, if it’s too much trouble to do. At any rate, I plan in the following update in the spring to do a rundown analysis of Rozsa’s Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid and perhaps also Steiner’s The Caine Mutiny. I’ll give Herrmann a break this time—unless I do A Christmas Carol. Maybe I’ll do one rundown and have Sarah update the site, and then a month or two later do Rozsa’s score and have it featured alone in the next update following, and then do Steiner’s score. Not sure. I also worked extensively at Columbia/Sony Studios on Steiner’s score to Violent Men along with Caine Mutiny because both were Columbia movies and I was able to xerox, etc. The western score (the movie starred Glenn Ford) is quite excellent, but I do not plan to do an extensive rundown yet since there is no dvd available as a reference source. In time I’d like to do a rundown treatment on Steiner’s The FBI Story and also The Hanging Tree, and Adventures of Don Juan. For Herrmann, I can do North By Northwest but that would be a big job (like the recent Mysterious Island), a chord profile on Five Fingers and a rundown on White Witch Doctor (but still no dvd releases of the latter two scores, although Morgan/Stromberg did a Marco Polo rerecording of Five Fingers). I also plan to do Herrmann Twilight Zone score for “Eye of the Beholder.” I’d like to get that new dvd set of the full first season of the series that has feature commentaries, isolated music tracks, etc. We’re going out to the Farmer’s Market now and to eat at Mimi’s, so perhaps I’ll check out Tower Records. On Friday evening we plan to go to Orange County and visit the old Ken Crane’s (now DVD Planet) store where there are far better prices. The best deals, however, can be found on Dvd Price Search on the Internet.[break at 11:41 am] [resume 8:48 pm] We went to the Farmer’s Market, then Wild Oats, and then Mimi’s Café. I had the spinach lasagna with Caesar salad. I forgot what Susan had. Then we went to Trader Joes and I bought orange juice, raw almonds (flash pasteurized), ruby port wine from Wares. Etc. Then I went to Tower records and decided to purchase the newly released The Twilight Zone: The Definitive Edition, Season 1 for 25% off list price (with tax I paid something over $90). I just barely scratched the surface of watching the set but I feel it’s definitely worth the money. Fortunately I purchased relatively few of the former incarnations on dvd that usually had 4 episodes on each dvd. We have a guest here since 5 pm and I’ve been busy, including doing her chart reading, printing up charts, etc. And they are watching the Golden Globes, so I’ll have to continue the Twilight Zone viewing tomorrow—and continuing this blog! [resume Monday, January 16 at 8:48 am] Now: After preparing my coffee and feeding the cats (and myself—but not the cat food!), I turned on the Sony tv and dvd player and watched Disc One of the TZ: The Definitive Edition, Vol 1. I specifically went to episode 7, “The Lonely.” I was quite interested in comparing this dvd-reincarnated version with the very old CBS Video Library vhs I had bought originally on mail order back in 1989. It had four terrific TZ episodes, “The Invaders” (Jerry Goldsmith), “One For The Angels” (stock music but primarily Herrmann’s, including the first cue of House on K Street), “The Eye of the Beholder” (original score by Herrmann), and of course “The Lonely.” Now, I do not have the previous dvd volume that included “The Lonely” so I cannot compare that version with this version in the Definitive Collection. Next we come to the lovely “The Stars” cue (dvd chapter 3 starting at 4:25) or cue #2066 (cue VIII). As given in my rundown of this episode, there are three “runs” of this cue pattern with each run lasting 16 bars. The total length of the written cue is 17 bars. With the 2nd run (4:57 on the dvd), Herrmann would insert “2x” that then included the trumpets and trombones in mega mutes (not heard in the first run). In the 3rd run (5;31 on the dvd), you then heard the Hammond Organ playing (not heard in the first two runs). Now this is where McNeely really screwed up in his rerecording of the cue (track # 35, Disc One). He did not properly play the cue! Obviously he never listened to the original recording on tv or vhs, and nobody else at the recording session (who was familiar with the cue) tapped his shoulder and corrected his mistake. What McNeely did was he automatically started playing the cue with the H.O. along with the vibes and harps. Apparently he thought that what “3x” meant was that the organ was to actually play thru all three runs (instead of it playing only on the 3rd run). Then of course you heard the trumpets and trombones starting to play in the 2nd and 3rd run. But the logic is flawed because if he saw the “2x’ for the trumpets and Pos, why he assume that the vibes and harps would play through out all three runs. While they are not labeled “1x” the logic is that they would be played only once (using the false assumption initially that 3X meant all three times). Or, put differently, if the vibes and harps were to be played all three times (as they are and supposed to be—but unmarked) why would McNeely assume that just because the H.O. was marked “3x” that it should be played three times (after all, logically, the vibes and harps were not also marked “3x”)?? The key is really listening to the original tracks from the episode itself because then you know precisely what Herrmann meant. McNeely (and the producers and the person responsible for giving him the score) were not doing their homework! “The Stars” is the best cue in the score, and they fouled it up. What a great disappointment that was to me when I first heard the rerecording because I wanted the proper stereo version. Oh, well. Perhaps the ultimate blame goes to Herrmann himself: he should’ve marked the cue far more clearly. Instead of marking “3X” for the H.O., he should’ve marked “3rd run only.” Instead of “2X,” he should’ve written “last two runs only” or “2nd and 3rd runs only). Perhaps McNeely understandably confused the meaning of Herrmann’s directions because “3X” can be perceived as “3 times) instead of “3rd time.” Still, the person who provided the new Parts should’ve known better (and did his homework), and ultimately McNeely should’ve done his prior research homework because the buck stops there at the podium. If you go to the last inside page of the booklet (page 11) of that cd, you will actually see a stat of that cue reproduced for your enjoyment (along with “Elven Months” (misspelled by Herrmann!) on top of that cue page, and the “Where Are You?” cue from Little Girl Lost, and so forth. That’s a nice bonus for people. The picture quality is very good but I think it’s pretty much the same as even the original vhs! I mean, go to the 4:35 point and you’ll see “hairs” popping up momentarily on the image in the bright star cluster scene in “The Stars” scene/cue of Chapter 3 if you go very slow motion. Well, the exact same hairs pop up on my old vhs from 1989! I am not a video restoration person, so I cannot say what is possible to be “cleaned up” or restored actually means. Now: Out of curiosity, I looked up Rod Serling’s birth data. I do not know if there is currently a reliable source of accurate data. The Lois Rodden Astrodata Bank site does not have it, so I dug up my old The American Book of Charts published by dear old Neil Michelsen (deceased many years ago) thru Astro Computing Services. The Serling entry in the back part of the book of “C” and “DD” data (questionable sources, unverified) has a 3:15 pm birth time at Syracuse, New York (where incidentally I too was born), December 25, 1924. I ran his chart on my Solar Fire 5 software. Using that speculative time, he has a 15 Gemini 53 Ascendant, 19 Aquarius 9 Midheaven, Notably, along with the Gemini (mutable air) rising, he has its ruler, Mercury, at 7 Capricorn 27 conjunct Sun 3 Capricorn 48 , and more widely Jupiter at 1 Capricorn 44. Mats, the natural key to identity, is in Aries in the 11th-air-Aquarius house. Moon, co-ruling the 1st house (beginning 7 degrees of Cancer). So there is a strong air and mutable emphasis here in the chart: mental, life in the head, talented, versatile, verbal and intellectual. Sun on Mercury suggests being ego-identified with the mind, wanting to shine thru the use of his mind, creativity and wanting to do something bigger with the mind, and preferably to get the notice and applause of others. Jupiter conjunct adds to the broadening of the mind, philosophy, morality issues, beliefs and values. Communication is speeded up, and if it involves the entertainment area (with Sun involved), the better. With Capricorn there (earth, the practical realist) the capacity to bring his ideas down to earth, to tangible form, is there—so being a writer would be quite natural for him, an innate talent or propensity. With the mutable/fire/earth mixtures, the tendency may be to be the over-achiever and never ever being quite satisfied. “It could’ve been more, better—look at the flaws!” The ambition is definitely there with the Mercury, ruling the Ascendant, conjunct the Sun in Capricorn, really wanting to make an impact on the world, be productive, conscientious, responsible, a worker. The Sun corresponds to the heart, and he died from complications of open-heart surgery on June 28, 1975. Moreover, Mars is exactly square that Sub (Aries-Capricorn square) suggesting problems with the heart, with ego-needs, with ambition in some way, conflicts with authority or Limits in the world, pushing self, competitive—yet definitely a pioneer. Mars is also square Jupiter, so again a degree of impatience and perhaps acting against his own better interests, or bad judgment, too high standards, or over-extending in one part of life so that other areas suffer, biting off more than he can chew, trying to do too much. But high energy, high drive: “I know what I want and I’m going to do it!” with all that fire in aspect. A mental ball of fire! Great sense of drama with the Sun involved so strongly. [2:49] Still watching the TZ: The Definitive Edition. Right now I’m playing Disc Two’s “And When the Sky Was Opened” and the Rod Serling lecture on it. Several of the episodes of course had “stock” background music from the CBS Music Library. This includes a “Police Force” cue that opens the “A Nice Place To Visit” episode. Prometheus Records thru Ford Thaxton already released Bernard Herrmann: The CBS Years (Volume I : The Westerns, and Volume 2: American Gothic). The material was overwhelmingly culled from the materials used in the old Cerberus LP’s (except for “The Tall Trapper” suite). I believe there will be a Volume 3 but the contents are unknown to me. I doubt very much that they will include the cues not included in the old Cerberus records for the Suites already available on the two cd’s. So, for the “Western Saga,” all of the cues on the cd are the same as on Cerberus. However, there actually is a cue titled “The Mesa” (cue #383) that was not included. And I do not believe I heard it in any of the thirty CBS Dats at UCLA Music Library Special Collections. For the so-called “Indian Suite” on the dvd (and Cerberus), only four cues were offered: “Indian Ambush,” “Echo,” “Indian Signal,” and “Indian Fight.” However, as I am sure I mentioned at one time on Talking Herrmann (and listed on my online paper, The Television Works of Bernard Herrmann), there were actually three more “Echo” cues, “Indian Suspense,” and “The Journey.” These were part of the same series of sequential cues in the written format. However, there was one more cue (out of sequence) titled “Indian Romance” that had completely different instrumentation. Dat # 9 at UCLA has “Indian Suspense” in it as well as “The Journey.” For the so-called “Western Suite,” nine cues were offered on the cd and LP, but actually there were three more: #453 “Night Suspense,” #459 “Shadows,” and #460 “The Waiting.” CBS Dat # 3 has all three of these cues. “Night Suspense” is metered or tracked as # 95 on the dat, and “Shadows” at #102, and “The Waiting” at #103. Also in Dat # 8 are #215 “Climax Prelude” and # 217 “Climax Middle Lead-In”—booth cues not previously released in either LP or cd format. Also # 219 “Echo I” (sounds a bit like the “Trouble With Harry” theme), and #221 “Echo III” (2 takes). “Echo II” is otherwise known as “The Hunt” while “Echo IV” is known as “The Chase.” The POLICE FORCE cues were never released either, and there’s a bunch of them available in the CBS Dats. In that dat are the ETHAN ALLEN cues, included alternate versions (muted, etc) not previously released. Dat # 13 has a section of cue # 363 “Clues.” Then we hear #364 “Line Up” in four parts, and then # 368 “The City” in three parts. Dat # 9 has the Lead-Ins and “Openings” and “Middle Tags.” And the complete “Clues” long cue. Dat # 19 has some alternate Twilight Zone cues Herrmann composed for the 2nd season. Dat # 24 has the “Knife in the Darkness” episode Herrmann composed for CIMARRON STRIP. Dat # 28 has the “Where Is Everybody?” episode. Dat # 29 has “Walking Distance” and also “Tall Trapper” (GUNSMOKE). So there is audio material available out there for another volume of CBS Years, and most likely it will involve at least the POLICE FORCE cues. Unfortunately I believe the HOUSE ON K STREET audio masters are missing (according to an annotation on a document I researched)—but you never know! The same probably applies for the STUDIO ONE music. It’s conceivable the RAWHIDE cues and “Nathan Hale” audio masters are available somewhere, and maybe the rest of the DESERT SUITE material. [4:14pm] Well, my wife will be coming back from work soon, and we plan to go out to have dinner and see a movie. Maybe The Incredibles or Meet The Fockers or ??? I don’t think I want to see The Aviator. ***************************************************************** |