Film Composers

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moira finnie
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Film Composers

Post by moira finnie »

I'm not sure where to put this, so I'll place this thread in a spot where some of us who love movie music might gather. I was perusing the Leonard Maltin website over the weekend and came across an entry that referred to one of our very own members: Ray Faiola!

As many undoubtedly know from his TCM persona as ChelseaRialtoStudios, Ray is an expert in this area and produces and markets many well known and obscure film scores on cd to the world. I was so impressed and excited to read that Ray has unearthed previously unknown material from the Fox vaults that were incorporated into a new cd of the Alfred Newman score for the 1947 classic film, The Razor's Edge.

If, like me, you feel an involuntary intake of breath whenever you've heard the soaring sound of this film's main theme, I think that you might enjoy reading about Ray's achievement. I'm not promoting this for commercial purposes, but just to send out a deep bow to someone who's accomplished something special for classic film fans.

If you'd like to read more about this cd, you can see what Leonard Maltin has written here. You'll need to scroll down toward the cd section of Mr. Maltin's picks to see the info about this music. It also mentions that film historian Rudy Behlmer and music writer Jon Burlingame have even contributed to an accompanying booklet, providing background info about 20th Century Fox's internal production issues. I believe the cd also includes the catchy hit parade tune of that year, written by the talented director of the film, Edmund Goulding. It was called "Mam'selle", and the pastiche evokes a jaunty French feel with a '20s spin.).

Kudos, Ray, and if you can give us more info about your research into this cd, and any other film composers whose work is meaningful to you, I'd be very appreciative, as I think, would others.
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Ray Faiola
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Post by Ray Faiola »

Well, Moira, I certainly appreciate the kudos. I've been doing soundtrack restoration for quite a few years now. If you go to my website you can listen to many excerpts from various scores. There's also a link to my Max Steiner Pages - a work-in-progress.

The music to THE RAZOR'S EDGE is quite sensational - that's because of Maestro Newman! I am merely one of the conveyors in the modern world. But thankfully, Fox preserved optical music elements from both angles that were recorded, so I was able to create a true stereophonic soundtrack CD from a 1947 film. We've also done this with David Buttolph's THE FOXES OF HARROW and Alfred Newman's magnum opus CAPTAIN FROM CASTILE - 94 minutes of stereophonic Spanish thrills!

Of course, my partners in crime - in some cases (the Max Steiner scores) Brigham Young University; and for the rest Screen Archives Entertainment - deserve as much of the credit as might come my way for pursuing these classic scores. There are others doing this great work, too, such as Film Score Monthly. And my good friends John Morgan and Bill Stromberg work tirelessly to reconstruct and re-record classic scores with modern symphony orchestras. So I am proud to be in very good company in these endeavors.

The more fans we can attract, the longer we'll be able to continue preserving and presenting this - our great American music, which just happened to be written for the motion picture screen.

Here's the web address:

http://www.chelsearialtostudios.com

RPF
Classic Film Scores on CD
http://www.chelsearialtostudios.com
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Moraldo Rubini
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Tracking Sound

Post by Moraldo Rubini »

As a collector of soundtracks, I was happy to find this new thread. I hope others will post about newly released soundtrack recordings and soundtracks in general. It's an honor to have Ray Faiola here.

I read a rave review today for the Brigham Young University/Film Music Archives release of Max Steiner's soundtrack to A Summer Place. The review included these interesting tidbits:

"...it would become [Max Steiner's] most appreciated piece, earning him enough money to get out of debt and bringing him a Golden Laurel Award. Ironically, the central theme had been rejected just a year earlier by producer David O. Selznick, who thought Steiner's music was inappropriate for his remake of A Farewell to Arms starring Rock Hudson. ..."

It may have been inappropriate for the Farewell to Arms pic, but it fully captured the tone of the Sandra Dee sudser and is iconic for the period.

Another rave review is for Miklós Rózsa's score for The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes; just released by Tadlow Music. A mixed review of Victor Young's soundtrack for Scaramouche was also included. The downside to the latter was not the score itself; in fact, it mentions that Young was a genius in recreating a Renaissance atmosphere. Rather, the problem is that the original masters no longer exist, and the disk was made from poor mono recordings causing the phonics to sound flat. The good news is that it also includes alternative takes.
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MissGoddess
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Post by MissGoddess »

Bravissimo, Ray! And you too, Moira, for starting the thread. I am so excited about The Razor's Edge cd---I'm going to read up on it now and will undoubtedly be tempted to buy it since it's one of my favorite films, aided immeasurably by the haunting score.
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Post by MissGoddess »

Ray---a quesiton for you. I have been aching for the (Max Steiner) soundtrack to The Searchers. Is there any hope for it? I mean the original soundtrack, including Stan Jones' vocals, not a re-recording by another symphony.
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Post by MissGoddess »

I'll throw a few more "accolades" your way for the Dark Victory soundtrack, Ray. It's all good. I may now have to get an mp3 player with more memory!
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Moraldo Rubini
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Film Composer's Documentaries

Post by Moraldo Rubini »

I just discovered that three DVD were released last Tuesday regarding the careers of film composers: Bernard Herrmann, Georges Delerue, and Toru Takemitsu. Anyone familiar with this series? Music For The Movies: Bernard Herrmann, directed by Joshua Waletzky, features interviews with Martin Scorsese and Claude Chabrol.

Herrmann and Hitchcock battled over the score to Torn Curtain, thus ending their great partnership. The film was released with a score by John Addison. But this documentary purports to show the movie with Herrmann's original score! That sounds spectacular to me! Anyone know anything about this series? Was it originally aired on television?
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movieman1957
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Post by movieman1957 »

I know several of you are Korngold fans. Have any of you listened to his concert works? What do you think?

(I know he did them I'm just not familiar with them.)
Chris

"Time flies like an arrow, fruit flies like a banana."
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Jezebel38
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Post by Jezebel38 »

Movieman - there is a broadcast called Classic Arts Showcase on public access channels (some of us discussed this on the TCM board) which has shown excerpts from his opera Die Tote Stadt, as well as his violin concerto. From these, one can recognize little snipets of themes that bring to mind his scores for the Warner Brothers films. I have been intrigued enough to add to my Netflix queue a documentary, Korngold: Adventures of a Wunderkind, as well as Die Tote Stadt - haven't gotten to either yet as I keep bumping other titles to the top of my list.
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moira finnie
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Post by moira finnie »

I just discovered that three DVD were released last Tuesday regarding the careers of film composers: Bernard Herrmann, Georges Delerue, and Toru Takemitsu. Anyone familiar with this series? Music For The Movies: Bernard Herrmann, directed by Joshua Waletzky, features interviews with Martin Scorsese and Claude Chabrol.

Herrmann and Hitchcock battled over the score to Torn Curtain, thus ending their great partnership. The film was released with a score by John Addison. But this documentary purports to show the movie with Herrmann's original score! That sounds spectacular to me! Anyone know anything about this series? Was it originally aired on television? ~Moraldo Rubini
I think that the Herrmann doc was originally shown on PBS in the '90s, but I'm not familiar with the other documentaries. Music For The Movies: Bernard Herrmann is well worth a look. Mr. Herrmann was a great talent and--to put it mildly, a "character." I hope that it is rentable on Netflix soon. Thanks for mentioning this, Moraldo.

Jez,
Thanks so much for mentioning the documentary Korngold: Adventures of a Wunderkind. I'll be ordering it promptly!
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