by Sam Juliano
This post is a contribution to the third annual For the Love of Film blogathon and fundraiser, which will be running from May 13-18. This year, hosts Marilyn Ferdinand, Farran Smith Nehme and Roderick Heath have dedicated the week to Alfred Hitchcock, whose early (non-directorial) work “The White Shadow” will be the beneficiary of any money earned during the event. The film preservation theme of course is at the center of this cinematic lament. We can certainly hope for a miracle. Be sure to donate!]
Printed prominently on the CD artwork and in the elaborate booklets included in the “Brigham University Film Music Archive Collection” launched in 1995 and still running series of film music releases is this specification: All proceeds from this limited edition compact disc go towards the acquisition and preservation of film music elements. The series now includes a relatively-scant 14 releases, each a miracle of production, in almost all instances produced from master tapes and manuscripts that were donated to the university, and are presently managed by the curator, James D’Arc, who has sereved as producer for each of the releases. The published “mission statement” of the project reads:
The Film Music Archives (BYU/FMA) exists to acquire, preserve, catalog, and make
available to scholars and other interested parties original motion picture music manuscripts and recordings that document the history of music composed and recorded for motion pictures.
The series has rivaled in quality the impeccable work done on all the titles in the far more prolific Film Score Monthly label, and like that other series, it affords film music the kind of definitive attention it has long deserved. D’Arc is a tireless proponent of film music titan Max Steiner, whose presence in the collection is far more all-encompassing that any of the other artist represented. Not surprisingly, the majority of the completed CD sets are on Steiner: “Max Steiner: the RKO Years,” “The Flame and the Arrow,” “The Adventures of Don Juan,” “Battle Cry,” “Dodge City/The Oklahoma Kid,” “A Summer Place,” “The Letter,” “Dark Victory,” “The Glass Managerie,” “The Fountainhead” and the just-released “Since You Went Away.” The remaining sets cover two score from Dimitri Tiomkin, and one from Hugo Friedhofer. The archive presently holds work from some other notable film music composers like Jerry Fielding, Ernest Gold and John Addison, and there are contingency plans to release future CDs featuring their work. The archives unofficially formed in 1981 with the acquisition of the Max Steiner papers, which were bequeath to the L. Tom Perry Special Collections department at BYU by Lee Steiner, the composer’s widow, who lived ten years after Steiner’s passing in 1971.
The first two releases in the series, were Dimitri Tiomkin’s reconstructed score to Frank Capra’s 1937 Lost Horizon and Max Steiner’s classic music to John Ford’s The Searchers, both of hefty running lengths of close to seventy minutes. In the case of Lost Horizon, the end product was a kind of miracle, made possible by the unlikely discovery of discs in early 1996. Says D’Arc in the CD booklet: “The release that you have in your hand, the first complete original soundtrack of Lost Horizon, is the end result of a long process involving the internet, a charitable organization (and it’s children’s summer camp), and a record collection in which the original discs, were, in effect, buried. The saga involving this recording began in the fall of 1996 when I was alerted to a number of discs included in a collection of thousands of popular 78 rpm recordings to be auctioned off via the internet by the Canadian Cancer Society. Included in this material were ten discs labeled Lost Horizon.” After speaking to the person who has purchased the lot from a collector, D’Arc decided to meet up with the eventual seller for fear of losing the transaction. The recording on the CD set of course is the one conducted by Max Steiner, and includes a photograph of Steiner, composer Tiomkin and Frank Capra in the recording studio. The Tiomkin score, which is arguably the greatest of his legendary career, is one of aching lyricism, suffused with orchestral color and haunting choral complicity that beautifully supports the elusive desire to find meaning in life and the discovery of bliss in a hectic world. The main theme, one of Tiomkin’s loveliest, is now synonymous with the lush visuals, negotiated by Capra and his ace cinematographer Joseph Walker. Music practically suffused the film, from the sensory images experienced by Conway to the declarations of the High Lama who speaks of his favorite composer Mozart: “Mozart has an austere elegance which we find very satisfying. He builds a house which is neither too big nor too little, and he furnishes it in perfect taste.” The score taken as a whole is an aural wonderment, music that is both intimate and optimistic, mysterious and other-worldly, perfectly evoking the spirit of James Hilton’s vision and director Capra’s talent for transcribing sentiment. The main theme re-appears in subsequent tracks, sometimes restrained, other times with bleeding intensity, and it’s music that can never escape the subconscious. Some of the score’s most magnificent passages are the funeral procession, when Conway leaves, as the violins and chorus converge to announce his betrayal, while the earlier drums of the procession suggest a strain of hope and faith, consistent with Shangra-La’s philosophy – symbols carry the procession along as the main theme swells with frenzy, urging the protagonist to reverse himself; the High Lama’s meeting with Conway when the organ and strings carry the musical underpinning in a scene where immortality and eternal health are posed as a reward for living an idyllic life within the borders of this earthly paradise. The music is pensive and hopeful, and tinged with excitement; the orchestral anticipation of Conroy’s return makes for a musical passage of power and exhilaration, the return home and the undeniable desirability of living the perfect life.
Max Steiner’s theme to Martha’s emergence from the shadows to the porch of the ranch house in John Ford’s The Searchers is one of the cinema’s most recognizable and gorgeous themes, one that is as synonymous with western setting as the ballad that commences with What makes a man to wonder, what makes a man to roam, what makes a man leave bed and board, and turn his back on home is a statement on the film’s narrative arc. Steiner borrows from a lovely Civil War song titled ‘Lorena’ but it is Steiner’s interpretation and use of the main theme in key moments that give the film and the western genre one of it’s most identifiable codas. It’s breathtaking, but it can also be ominous, as in the cue when Ethan Edwards stares ahead as he prepares to mount his horse knowing his brother’s house may be under attacks from the Comanches. The solo violin carries the sense of foreboding, and returns in a mournful dirge when the discovery of the attrocities are discovered by Ethan and Martin Pawley. Steiner wrote some of his most powerful orchestral music for this terrifying scene. Throughout the score Steiner evokes mood brilliantly, letting his music serve as stronger harbinger of what is to come and how one should feel in those passages where dialogue is either irrelevant or unable to transcribe the deepest feelings. A scene of deep emotional resonance near the end when Ethan is re-united with Debbie allows Steiner to bring back ‘Martha’s theme’ in a passage of soulful sublimity. All in all Steiner’s music for The Searchers is probably more complex and deeply felt than anything that can be created by language and is a testament to the crowning jewel of a peerless career during Hollywood’s Golden Age. Brigham Young University’s booklet is a fascinating look at Steiner’s music and the method by which it is wed to the visuals of what is arguably the greatest of all Western films.
Max Steiner’s music to the Mirian C. Cooper production of She (1932) is one of the greatest weddings of harmonic and dissonant elements in movie history. It’s Tchaikovsky shaking hands with Stravinsky if you will. But it was Max Steiner’s first musical masterpiece, and to this day is affectionately referred to as “an opera without arias.” The score is awash with ethereal beauty, an oppressive atmosphere of doomed romance and a strain of ethnic exoticism. A haunted female chorus contributes mightily to the mood, and She’s theme is one of the most sublimely beautiful he’s ever written. Among many fascinating details about the creation of the score by the great writer Ray Faiola (who provided liner notes for nearly all the BYU releases) is the revelation that Steiner did not write the full score, opting to allow three other musicians including Bernhard Kaun to complete the “bridges” between passages he had in place. There is progression in this music and soaring lyricism inevitably yields to the depths of human despair. There’s a Wagnerian scope, and an epic structure to the score, which at 72 minutes is substantial. The CD of She is now hard-to-find and commands a hefty price tag on e bay. It’s the only BYU release to become a collector’s rarity to this point.
Each of the other current releases in the series is crafted in the same meticulous way, and each is released in limited numbers. The most recent in fact, Max Steiner’s Oscar winning score for 1944’s Since You Went Away was limited to 500 copies. (my own copy in an amazing irony came today as I prepared this feature). It’s another wonderful set, and it expands on the previously-released German pressing that has been circulating for years. It’s one of Steiner’s most ravishing compositions, from the impassioned opening titles to the rapturous music serving as an underpinning to some of the domestic scenes. The score is Steiner is melodious mode, much as he was in Dark Victory, the Bette Davis tearjerker that is another notable entry in this series. In the style of the incomparable Film Score Monthly series, BYU’s CD sets are attractively designed with exhaustive bookets (Since You Went Away’s is 70 pages) featuring overviews of the film and score and a track-by-track musical/narrative analysis delivered with authoritative scholarship. In March 2003, D’Arc explains the daunting challenge of preparing the CDs and booklets for release in the liner notes in the booklet to Dimitri Tiomkin’s score to Howard Hawks’ The Big Sky:
As has become the custom with the presentation of original recordings of classic film scores in the Brigham Young University Film Music Archives soundtrack series, the efforts involved in bringing this CD to you required almost as many crew members and was often as difficult and full of obstacles as was the trip of the keel boat Mandan up the Missouri River as depicted in ‘The Big Sky’ itself.
One of the highlights of the series both by way of volume and quality is the three disc set “Max Steiner: The RKO Years” which includes some of his finest early work at the time he began to impress producers and hone his craft. Included in the set are his scores and/or partial scores for Symphony of Six Million, Bird of Paradise, Sweepings, Morning Glory, Of Human Bondage, Little Women, The Little Minister and the two gems he wrote for The Lost Patrol and The Informer, the latter winning Steiner the first of his three Academy Awards. The dark and brooding music for the expressionist The Informer, went a long way in carrying the dramatic themes, and chronicling the downward spiral of the main character Gypo Nolan, played by Victor McLaglen. For this score Steiner creates themes for all the character including the blind man (D’Arcy Corrigan) who emerges from the fog to serve as Gypo’s conscience. As The Informer is a drama noted for it’s segments with no music as it is for the ones that do, Steiner’s music sometimes comes in with a powerful force. I am also fond of the music Steiner wrote for the aforementioned Little Women and The Dawn Patrol.
Other titles in the series that offer unforgettable music (geez, there doesn’t seem to be a weak release) are Steiner’s Johnny Belinda, Dark Victory, Dodge City, A Summer Place,The Adventures of Don Juan and Battle Cry, (the last introduces the now universally admired march “Honey Babe”) Friedhofer’s The Bishop’s Wife and Tiomkin’s The Big Sky. It’s been an arduous and time-consuming task to bring all the elements together for these CD treasures, but D’Arc and his staff (including Executive producer Craig Spaulding at Screen Archives Entertainment) appear to be ready to carry the torch well into futures. This is a boom to collector’s, film music fans, and those committed to the preservation and protection of our culture.
I’ve said it before and I’ll SAY IT AGAIN…
I truly believe that certain people have a talent in certain areas. Mine may very well be drawing and painting while I know that others have a penchant for making mince-meat out of the latest video games or are good at changing the oil in their cars. In the case of Mr. Sam Juliano, my friend and cohort, I fully believe he is blessed with an analytical ear for music. In his corner is also writing. Add the two together and the talent finally emmerges.
I was bowled over by this post as not only was it well written and completely pontificated a knowlwdge and an ear for this type of music, but was superlative in its descriptions of it. Sam, dear friend, you are wasting your time as an educator. You should be writing reviews for music for the NY Times. The facts are this, I know of nobody else that can relay a feeling of passion adn knowledge for music better than you.
If ever their was a post that displayed what you do best then this is one of them.
I’m also dying to here that score for LOST HORIZON!!!!!
Well done.
MORE PLEASE!!!!!!!!!
Thanks very much for all that you say here Dennis, but I’ll opt to stay mum! I will be delighted to turn you on to the LOST HORIZON scores, one of the most beautiful ever written. As to the request for more, I am happy to report that over the coming months I will have two more exhaustive features, one on the composer Elmer Bernstein, and the other on the Best 15 Film Score Monthly CDs. FSM will be closing shop with their 250th release in late summer, and I wanted to salute their unrivaled work, which frankly is second to no other label. They are the Rolls Royce outfit of film scores.
I can’t thank you enough for this glowing comment, though I am now running for cover. LOL!
This is why I told Sam to focus on movie scores and their composers it’s his area. That it’s an excellent piece goes without saying.
Thank you Allan. This is certainly the aspect of film I have the deepest feeling for.
Dennis may have a flare for going over the top, but he’s not wrong. In this monumental consideration of film music and this amazing label of preservationists you have me wanting to hear these scores as soon as possible. I am intrigued by ‘She’ which I haven’t heard in any capacity, but the complete score to ‘Lost Horizon’ and ‘The Searchers’ are among the joys of the movies. You’ve hit a grand slam with this post, Sam.
Frank–
SHE is an essential score, and I will soon make sure you will be able to hear it. Thanks as always for your sterling support, enthusiasm and kind words.
Steiner is one of the all-time greats, so I’d say the Brigham Young Archives have the perfect anchor for their collection. They were lucky to get the papers from the composer’s widow, but it’s clear they took it a step further. The music for The Searchers is as famous as any other western film score -and it’s terrific to have it complete. I’d love to hear many of these. The writing, the importance of the subject and the amazing work of this label make this one of the finest posts I’ve seen. The work Steiner did for RKO deserves more exposure.
Peter–
Dead-on what you say here about Steiner and THE SEARCHERS score. And yes, BYU got a present from the stork, though their tenacious commitment to the cause is what really made the breaks. Thanks as always for the amazing support and compliments.
I knew NOTHING about this archive, and you make it sound amazing. Now I have to figure out where I can buy some of these CDs. Thanks for a passionate post……
Tinky–
Thanks so much for stopping in and for the exceedingly kind words. You can get most of the tiles on amazon or on amazon marketplace by typing in the title and setting the ‘music’ pull down tab, but the best distributor for film scores in general and this series is undoubtably SCREEN ARCHIVES ENTERTAINMENT, where I have placed many of my own orders over the years:
http://www.screenarchives.com/index.cfm
Thanks again!
Fabulous! Thank you for letting me know……
Sensational overview and music analysis. I think the scores to “A Summer Place” and “The Big Sky” are underrated. You’ve made quite a passionate case for the BYU series, a boon for film music lovers.
Fred–
You picked two big winners there for sure, and yes they are seriously underrated! Thanks as ever for the very kind words!
Exceptional study of a worthy ongoing venture. Steiner is one of film music’s icons and the one who paved the way for the kind of thing that Korngold and Newman did later. I’ve heard ‘Don Juan’ and it’s lush and spirited. Hope the group have further plans.
David–
He did indeed influence those other greats, though it can safely be asserted that the influence was mutual as well. DON JUAN, which I heard recently is a splendid example of Steiner’s spirited artistry. Thanks for stopping by my friend!
A blast to read in every way. Entertaining, enjoyable, highly informed, passionate. Really nice work Sam, I’m recalling many of these themes as I read through this.
Yeah, obviously you need to do the extended Series Allan proposed in email and again above. Now that the Diary is dying like a dog hopefully time can open up.
Thanks very much for the very kind words and compliments Jamie. I will absolutely be moving forward on two projects in the coming weeks that I am excited about. Thrilled to hear too that you recall some of the themes.
As far as the Diary I do feel it is doing as well as it ever has both by way of comments and page views. It has been one thread that never has lost it’s consistency, as the last two weeks have attested to. Still, I’m always thinking of new ways to re-invent it, even while going through with promised modifications.
Sam is lyrical when he writes with passion, and music is his passion. Bravo!
My favorite Steiner score is Casablanca that is available I believe only as a poor quality CD?
Another great soundtrack is John Lewis’ jazz score for Odds Against Tomorrow, which is available as a remastered CD. I described it thus in my review of the movie: “Composer John Lewis’s edgy modern jazz score, played by an ensemble that included Milt Jackson on vibraphone, Percy Heath on bass, Connie Kay on drums, Bill Evans on piano, and Jim Hall on guitar, is demanding and intrusive in a way that gives it an unprecedented role in proceedings. It takes on the role of a Greek chorus that exceeds its mandate by persistently and loudly challenging the protagonists’ actions. Though the soundtrack has quiet piano interludes and significant long silent scenes where nothing much happens – particularly an extended sequence in which each gang-member waits out the afternoon before the heist alone in a desolate industrial landscape on the banks of the Hudson river, its calm beauty sacrificed to the garbage strawn in the water along its shores, and to an overcast desolation.”
Tony—
As always thanks for the exceedingly kind words and tenacious support, which you have afforded me and this blog now for nearly four long years. I guess like some others here, my focus shifts from music and opera to film and theatre on a rotating basis, but it’s true that my deepest feelings are for music. But it’s a very close call. Ha! Needless to say your choice of CASABLANCA is an excellent one as far as Steiner is concerned. Yes, it is really shameful that the full score to the film, and not the “soundtrack”
that we all own is what collectors have been clamoring for over many years. The closest we have is a fine abridgement from Charles Gerhardt, which has been re-packaged on CD in the ‘Fims of Humprey Bogart” series. It does in all fairness contain most of the vital Steiner cues.
Your comment on this thread today has cost me $20.00. (new copies are way higher, as it is apparently OOP and a rarity) i don’t say that in despair mind you, but more in the spirit of appreciation and cameraderie. You see, that ODDS AGAINST TOMORROW score you are rightly praising is one I do not own, and one that absolutely deserves a place in any comprehensive film music collection. or any collection in general for that matter. I well remember your stupendous analysis of the film and score and appreciate your re-posting it here, much as it greatly enhance the film music discussion.
Thanks again!
A fascinating piece, Sam, and a great contribution to the blogathon – your expertise on film scores is inspiring and I will definitely be listening to some of those you discuss here. Steiner constantly astonishes me with the sheer number of films he wrote scores for as well as the quality(and sometimes the score is more impressive than the rest of the film, with some of the minor films he worked on.) I love his score for ‘Dark Victory’ and remember that in ‘City for Conquest’ (1940) he even wrote a symphony which is supposedly composed by one of the characters.
Judy—
Your tireless support for this blog, and your exceeding kindness and vast supply of insightful comments are a joy to behold, and I can’t thank you enough for all you have done in every sense imaginable. It’s true that Steiner is one of film music’s irrefutable titans, and that DARK VICTORY (part of the BYU series) is one of his most haunting and ravishing compositions. Steiner is indeed considered the forerunner of orchestral film music, and for this propensity it has been referred to as “the father of film music.”
http://www.screenarchives.com/title_detail.cfm/ID/5687/DARK-VICTORY/
As far as being prolific, he’s right up there among the leaders with Morricone and Bernstein, and it could be argued that as the composer of GWTW, CASABLANCA, KING KONG, THE INFORMER, THE SEARCHERS, NOW VOYAGER, DARK VICTORY, THE LETTER, THE MOST DANGEROUS GAME, LITTLE WOMEN and others, that he has composed the music for more masterpieces than any other composer. In fact it’s an argument that would be futile to counter.
Thanks again!
Sam – A completely unique and fascinating subject for the blogathon, one you have attacked with knowledge, skill, and passion. Lost Horizon is one of my favorite films, and I could actually hear the music as you discussed it – what a rare and wonderful thing. Through my own forgetfulness, I missed seeing a screening of She yesterday, and now I have another reason to kick myself around the block. Thanks a lot! 🙂 Anyway, thanks for being a part of the blogathon. Sadly, we won’t come anywhere near to making enough money to record the score for The White Shadow, but I believe someone, somewhere will find a way.
Marilyn–
The real kudos go to you, Rod, Greg and the Self-Styled Siren for another labor of love, and a profound monetary and spiritual boost to film preservation. That you have repeatedly, year after year, given of yourself to this degree is truly an astounding feat, and I applaud you here and now for this feat. You can now take a well-deserved rest, well, until that famous writing bug returns! As to LOST HORIZON being one of your favorite films, well I couldn’t agree with you more, it’s one of mine too, and the last few days has rekindled a hankering in me for Tiomkin’s music, which is as haunting and sublime as any composition ever written. I’m sure you’ll get another chance at SHE. It’s no wonder you missed this time in view of the hectic proceedings the last few days. Thanks very much for your kind and spirited words here, and it was a real honor to be involved with the blogothon.
I’m surprised that Steiner’s King Kong score isn’t in this series.
Ricky, the complete KING KONG score by Steiner is on a superlative CD from Marco Polo with the Moscow Symohony Orchestra conducted by William Stromberg. A wonderful booklet is included as well.
Thanks for stopping by.
“Either I’m going up those stairs, or Max Steiner is going up those stairs, but we’re goddam well not going up together.”
Who said it, during the production of which picture? (this may be too easy).
Gone with the Wind
Good guess, but nyet.
The only other possibility then would be DARK VICTORY, which has a famous sequence to this end.
(Geraldine Fitzgerald)
Well done. Actually Davis said it, one of the few studio battles she didn’t win.
I’d send you my autograph book, but I just sent it to the cleaners.
I suppose I should explain that Davis hated dramatic underscoring and felt her performance should speak for itself. Fitzgerald recalled the anecdote a while back on TCM.
Ah yes Mark, that is typical for Davis. One of the greatest of all actresses, but never afraid to flaunt it. We still love her of course.
Dear Sam:
Many thanks for this wonderful post on the BYU FMA series. I have most of them in my collection and am pleased to think of James D’Arc as a good friend, having spent many weeks at poring through the Steiner collections there. I hope you and others continue to write your blogs, they are fantastic.
Cheers,
Stephen