Film (movie) Music

[Szykneij]

That one was great, too. He composed the scores to an incredible number of films. If only more of them had done better at the box office, Bernstein's work would be even more widely known. 

Bernstein's career was nearly destroyed by the Red Hunt of the fifties when he was called before a congressional subcommittee and told to name communists he knew in the film industry. When he refused to offer any names, he was graylisted because "I wasn't important enough to be blacklisted".
  Major studios wouldn't hire him, so he ended up having to compose music for low-budget films. It wasn't until Cecil B. De Mille asked him to do for Egyptian music what Puccini did for Japanese music with "Madame Butterfly" that the ban was broken, and Bernstein was hired to score "The Ten Commandments".

[Szykneij]

Ephemera, see ..

To you, perhaps, but thank you for deeming the list worthy to quote in its entirety and for continually returning here to what appears to have become your favorite thread.   

[Grazioso]

Ephemera, see ..

If ignorance is bliss, you must be rolling on the floor in ecstasy  A number of those films are widely hailed as classics, still viewed and heard today:

The Ten Commandments
The Magnificent Seven
To Kill a Mockingbird
The Great Escape
True Grit
etc.

[Grazioso]

I was talking about the music, wake up please.

The scores are parts of those films. The films were popular when released, are still aired on TV today, available on DVD/Blu-Ray today, studied today, soundtrack recordings available for separate listening on CD today, scores available today. Ergo, by definition not ephemeral, but lasting.

[Mirror Image]

Ladies and gentlemen just remember one thing when dealing with James: he's RIGHT and you are WRONG. There is no middle ground. There are no compromises. There is only his high and mighty opinion and that is all.

[Szykneij]

Ladies and gentlemen just remember one thing when dealing with James: he's RIGHT and you are WRONG. There is no middle ground. There are no compromises. There is only his high and mighty opinion and that is all.

And since his opinions are posted here on this short-lived forum that will eventually dissolve into cyber oblivion, they are irrelevant and inconsequential as compared to those of the great writers and thinkers of today, and not only do I disagree with them, I choose not to even consider them as worthy of my attention. My standards are set much higher.               0:)

[bhodges]

A very fine score indeed. In fact, I'm having problems locating a copy on CD. I've looked on Amazon, but it's out-of-print and the third-party sellers prices are through the roof, any suggestions Bruce? Thanks.

Alas, this is one case in which there doesn't seem to be much recourse (at the moment) other than striking it lucky on eBay. (I have an "eBay alert" that lets me know when copies are on sale, but at the moment, I don't have any interest in paying $200+.) The other avenue might be to inquire in any of the various music-sharing groups out there.

You'd think that with the high demand for this score, that the recording would be re-released, but the rights are probably tied up in litigation somewhere. 

--Bruce

[Szykneij]

\You'd think that with the high demand for this score, that the recording would be re-released, but the rights are probably tied up in litigation somewhere. 

--Bruce

Wow, he wasn't kidding about those prices. Amazon has only one available new for $255.90 and 15 used ranging from $64.99 to $183.91!

[Philoctetes]

High demand from whom? 

To those with high brows and low voices.

[jochanaan]

To those with high brows and low voices.

Nice comeback!

[eyeresist]

Robot Monster! I remember praising this music in a review elsewhere, but I got the name wrong. No, Leonard Bernstein did not write Robot Monster. Actually, neither did Elmer, I'm guessing. The score was probably assembled from library copies of previous scores, as was common for low budget films at the time.

The film itself has been called one of the worst of all time. Certainly the title creature is laughable (just do a quick Google for it), but the film is not the most boring or annoying I've seen, and the plot is quite interesting in an extended-episode-of-Twilight-Zone kind of way.

I listened to the Naxos issue of The Sea Hawk over the weekend. It was exciting at first, but really there's little need to hear all one hour and forty-five minutes of it. It does get very repetitive, theme-wise. There should be an easy compromise between Gerhardt's 8 minute suite and the full score. If it was edited, it would certainly be the equal of any late Romantic ballet score.

Which raises the question - have many film scores been turned into ballets? Imagine the ballet of Herrmann's Vertigo. That would be something.

[Jaakko Keskinen]

Which raises the question - have many film scores been turned into ballets?.

Vice versa with Tchaikovsky's Sleeping Beauty.

[Szykneij]

Which raises the question - have many film scores been turned into ballets? Imagine the ballet of Herrmann's Vertigo. That would be something.

dizzy dancers ...

[Grazioso]

You are confused, we're talking about the music tho. 

It's telling that whenever someone points out the fallacy of your statements or asks you to provide evidence for your assertions, you say he or she is confused...

You're referring to irrelevant merchandising, that's all that is. Doesn't mean anything in true musical terms. And for it to be

Simple statement of fact: the music is still heard today, therefore it's not ephemeral. Whatever you personally think of the music is irrelevant to that fact. And if true musical terms are what float your boat, please show us in concrete musical terms why the scores to the films I mentioned fail, using detailed analyses of form, melody, harmony, rhythm, and instrumentation. (Hint: you'll have to actually listen to the music to get started!)

The "irrelevant merchandising" you speak of is not irrelevant and not "merchandising" in the usual sense of making an extra buck off branded items like Luke Skywalker action figures. Why is it not irrelevant? Because we're referring to the very fact that the films and their scores have been preserved and made available to the public in common media formats. That's like condemning Messiaen for having La Transfiguration published by Editions Alphonse Leduc and the music recorded by DG on CD. Darn those "real guys" with their venal marketing! Next they'll have a Shostakovich Snuggie at Wal-Mart.

taken seriously as truly high musical art it should be able to stand on it's own in a major way as music. But it does not ..

There you go again (and again and again), using undefined terms and confusing fact and opinion. Because you don't take it seriously as "truly high musical art" (whatever that is) says nothing at all about the music but rather the limitations of your approach to it. And why on earth should film music have to stand on its own? That's not what it was designed for, where original scores are concerned. Would you judge Ligeti's Lontano as hip-hop dance music?

[Mirror Image]

Next they'll have a Shostakovich Snuggie at Wal-Mart.

Where do I go to one of those?

[Philoctetes]

Grazioso,

You are sooo confused because you simply can't hear or understand the differences! And that the film stuff is truly not about the music for starts. The Partridge Family & Air Supply are still seen/heard today .. you have no clue bro. I've already explained myself numerous times in the simplest most straight forward manor and you refuse to THINK. You say some major confused bullshit  .. and really misunderstand what I said earlier. Just because a film (or TV show) is re-run or the company puts out a DVD, a CD, a score, a book etc means nothing about the quality and depth of the music making. You know, that exact kinda meaningless merch. exists for a lot of shit out there, merely floating out and about in the effluent .... Think now. The fact that you're on this very board, where 'real' concrete artistic stuff is discussed ad nausuem and yet still need evidence about what I'm referring to is a joke.  You don't even know what things mean to begin with, you need everything 'defined' for you; there is no point even talking at all because you don't even have a basic understanding of things in general it seems. For any music to have legs & carry any weight it's got to stand on it's own for one, otherwise it's not really about the music then is it ..

Man, you're such a waste. Don't you ever just get bored with yourself?

[eyeresist]

.. you have no clue bro. ... You say some major confused bullshit  ..

No way this guy is 60 years old! More like 16.

there is no point even talking at all 

And yet you just won't sod off.

Come back in a couple of decades, after you've figured out that music is music, and it's all valid for consideration, regardless of what genre it originates in. In the meantime, stop bothering the grown-ups, like a good boy, okay?

[Philoctetes]

Right back at you.

Really? Rubber-Glue? I think you might have been on this forum too long.

[Philoctetes]

Neither of you dopes add shit tho, you just jump in like fleas.

Not a very apt metaphor.

[Scarpia]

Neither of you dopes add shit tho, you just jump in like fleas.

For a person who claims to have elevated taste, your posts have a paradoxical resemblance to conversation overheard at a middle school lunch table...