William Stromberg is conducting a film music concert with the Golden State Pops Orchestra in
MYSTERIOUS
KING KONG (Suite) - Max Steiner
NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS - Danny Elfman
TWILGHT ZONE - arranged by Stu Phillips
Sherman Oaks, CA – September 4, 2008 - There are few things as rewarding as listening to a great composer’s music written at the peak of his power and coming from the depths of his own soul.
So it is with Tribute Film Classics’ richly realized rerecordings of Bernard Herrmann’s scores for The Kentuckian (1955) and Williamsburg: The Story of a Patriot (1957). Both are wonderfully expressive examples of
In his only directorial effort, Burt Lancaster also stars as The Kentuckian, a frontiersman with a yearning to leave
Tribute score reconstructionist John Morgan adds, “Since this 2008 rerecording would include all the music Herrmann wrote for the film and would contain forty-eight separately titled cues, we put many of the short cues together without pause to maintain a solid, rewarding listening experience. Due to Herrmann’s inherent musicianship, these cues fit together beautifully...”
Williamsburg: The Story of a Patriot is one of Herrmann’s undiscovered treasures for many film-music enthusiasts. The film was created to run exclusively in the specially designed twin Patriot Theaters in Colonial Williamsburg. It first premiered in March of 1957 and is currently the longest-running motion picture ever: fifty-one years and counting. Herrmann scored
Steven C. Smith, author of the acclaimed A Heart at Fire’s Center: The Life and Music of Bernard Herrmann, says, “In
As with previous Tribute releases, the music is performed to perfection by the Moscow Symphony Orchestra under the baton of William T. Stromberg, who says, “Herrmann had a gift for writing wonderfully nostalgic and expressive
Included with the CD is a 32-page deluxe booklet beautifully designed by Jim Titus, with a Herrmann overview by Steven C. Smith and exhaustive cue-by-cue analysis of both scores by Kevin Scott.
The expert production and distribution of Tribute Film Classics score CDs is by Screen Archives Entertainment.
During the mid-1960s, I really hated The Beatles.
While all my friends were playing ‘Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band,’ I shook my head in disgust and played Al Hirt’s ‘The Horn meets the Hornet,’ a collection of redone TV themes by the great trumpeter. That was the very first LP I ever bought.
Being a very devout Monster Kid, I’d gingerly turn the pages of my Famous Monsters of Filmland collection every day. And just like every other Monster Kid, I’d dream of buying all those great things from the Captain Company, including ‘Horrible Herman’ (I really wanted to know what that thing was and still do to this day).
One of the holiest of Holy Grails was the Dick Jacobs Coral LP, ‘Themes from Horror Movies.’ Man, did I salivate over that. I finally got it a few years later and was crushed to hear the awful sound effects and narration (“They zig... they zag...on and on!”). Still, I listened to it religiously, particularly the HORROR OF DRACULA and THE INCREDIBLE SHRINKING MAN cues. I wouldn't find out until later just how off-center all those themes really were.
I also remember being devastated when Bernard Herrmann put out those London re-recordings of his science fiction and monster movies, ‘The Fantasy Film World of Bernard Herrmann’ and ‘The Mysterious Film World of Bernard Herrmann.’ Hardly anything sounded close enough to the music I loved in all those films. The real heartbreaker was his recording of a few tracks from MYSTERIOUS ISLAND, probably my favorite Ray Harryhausen movie (and Herrmann score) of all time. Particularly horrible was ‘The Giant Bird,’ a cue that was so slowed down I had to play it at 45 rpm to get the tempo right, which really made those piccolos shriek, let me tell you!
And that’s how I learned about the incredibly iffy world of re-recordings. Although the original soundtrack to MYSTERIOUS ISLAND eventually surfaced on Cloud Nine Records, it was incomplete (most prominently missing were ‘The Giant Bee’ and lots of ethereal island cues) and with only so-so sound quality.
Enter Tribute Film Classics, the new label specializing in meticulous re-recordings that finally released the complete MYSTERIOUS ISLAND (with outtakes even) as their premiere CD last fall. It was more than I – and many, many others – could have ever hoped for.
But way before founding the company, two of the principals behind TFC already had a big hand in some of the best re-recorded monster music of all time, along with even more great non-genre film music. And, with a third partner, they’ve written a substantial number of original scores – most of those genre-related, too.
Click here for the rest of Curt's take on "Monster Kids Music."
