More Goldsmith and a Grofe

The versatility of Jerry Goldsmith is aptly illustrated by the following selections...



The Chairman




QB VII




The Swarm



The Secret of NIMH



and a nugget from the Golden Age of film scoring... Ferde Grofe is mainly known for his concert work GRAND CANYON SUITE, but he did dabble in film scoring, mostly for B pictures in the 50's. This is his best known score - also the debut release for the short lived Starlog Records label.



Rocketship X-M

Batch 'O Goldsmith

The late maestro Goldsmith left an impressive body of work, that's still popular to exploit. We here at Music-Snob, are no exception. Here we present a variety of his scores from the early 60's to the 80's.



LILIES OF THE FIELD is one of Goldsmith's early features. The very simple folkish string/harmonica combinations is a style he used in music for some TWILIGHT ZONE episodes, and he would go back to this sound for scores such as THE FLIM-FLAM MAN, THE HOMECOMING (THE WALTONS pilot), and others. The vocalist is Jester Hairston, who was a supporting actor in the sitcom AMEN in the 80's, and who can be seen as one of the older people near the end of BEING JOHN MALKOVICH. What may not be widely known is that Mr. Hairston also worked for composer Dimitri Tiomkin as a vocal arranger.



ISLANDS IN THE STREAM is an adaptation of an unfinished Ernest Hemingway story, and another collaboration with director Franklin Schaffner. The film is not widely known, but Goldsmith has remarked that it is one of his favorite scores. This is a re-recording done for Intrada Records in the 80's.



MacARTHUR is a bio-pic of another WWII general - unlike the earlier PATTON, it hasn't become a classic, but the music, also by Goldsmith, is worthy of note.



LINK was a suspense/black-comedy about primal natures and killer apes - a difficult combination to pull off successfully. That the movie premiered to audience indifference is more indicative of the subject matter rather than the actual quality of the film. Goldsmith's score treads that line a bit more adroitly than the visuals.





LIONHEART is a little known and seen picture set during The Children's Crusade and it was Goldsmith's last major collaboration with Franklin Schaffner. On LP, the score took up two releases, Vol. 1 and Vol. 2 - there was a cd reissue that combined both, but it dropped a couple of tracks due to space limitations. If you haven't heard it, this is comparable to his score for LEGEND - but with a more Medieval sound.

Snacks before the main meal

Currently in the vinyl vault, hard at work burning several albums for posting - all OUT OF PRINT, for the benefit of anyone who cares about such things... until those are ready, I thought I'd throw up a couple of things up that are.

First is a repost of a previous entry - I've had a couple of requests for this so it should make the Shirley Walker fans happy. DEAD

CAPE FEAR is Bernard Herrmann's score from the J. Lee Thompson film with Gregory Peck and Robert Mitchum... and this is the original recording, conducted by Herrmann. DEAD

SPFM Tribute is a disc from the 1993 convention of The Society for the Preservation of Film Music, held in L.A. The guest of honor was Jerry Goldsmith and this was a highly prized collectable given to attendees of the dinner... and afterwards available to people who joined the society. The disc includes suites from THE FLIM-FLAM MAN, TAKE A HARD RIDE, MAGIC, and BABY: SECRET OF THE LOST LEGEND. Most of this has since been released commercially and is available elsewhere, with the probable exception of BABY. DEAD

I've also meant to include music other than soundtracks here... "Theme from THE GREEN SLIME" sort of covers both areas.

Enjoy!

Christus Apollo - Jerry Goldsmith

My first big musical love was - and still is, really - movie soundtracks. Due to a steady diet of 60's television rerun on afternoons after school and on weekends, I suspect - well before STAR WARS burst the soundtrack gates wide open in '77, I knew who John Williams was; when he was "Johnny" Williams and doing the music for Irwin Allen shows like LOST IN SPACE and LAND OF THE GIANTS, to name one example.

For me, it's opened the doors into a lot of aural landscapes; rather than being limited, it's a genre/label that's pretty inclusive - everything from orchestral, to pop songs, to sound/noise design.

I mention this because in addition to the occasional pop/rock items that may show up here from time to time, I'll also post soundtrack/soundtrack related items also.

CHRISTUS APOLLO falls into 'soundtrack related' - it's not a soundtrack, but a concert work from the late 60's composed by Jerry Goldsmith... specifically a "A Cantata For Contralto, Narrator, Chorus And Orchestra", with text by Ray Bradbury.

If you only know Jerry Goldsmith from his work in the 90's, like TOTAL RECALL, BASIC INSTINCT, RUDY... well, this is the Jerry Goldsmith from the 60's, when he was into serial composition - stuff like PLANET OF THE APES. Great stuff, but the neighbors may complain.

There is a recent recording of this, on the Telarc label, that features Anthony Hopkins doing the narration, as well as features two other concert pieces from Goldsmith, that is highly recommended.

This recording is from the premiere performance by The Southern Chamber Orchestra and Choir, with Goldsmith conducting and narration by Charlton Heston.


CHRISTUS APOLLO