As a long-time local radio host only recently set adrift, I am thankful for the life raft of syndication. Which means armchair travelers can still join me, via internet streaming, on KWAX, the radio station of the University of Oregon.
Orientalism is a term used to describe evocations of the East by Western writers, artists, and designers. This week on “Picture Perfect,” while I acknowledge the complexities and pitfalls inherent to “exoticism,” I hope you’ll enjoy musical selections from four films set in faraway lands.
Two of these are loosely based on tales from “The Arabian Nights,” depicting the East as a kind of fairy world. The Alexander Korda production of “The Thief of Bagdad” (1940) features Sabu as the thief, Conrad Veidt as a slippery vizir, and a scene-stealing Rex Ingram as the djinn. The score is one of the earliest and most charming of Miklós Rózsa.
“The Seventh Voyage of Sinbad” (1958) is really a showcase for the special effects of Ray Harryhausen. In particular, it contains a kind of rehearsal, in the skeleton duel, for the classic sequence in “Jason and the Argonauts” (in which Harryhausen ups the ante to seven skeletons!). The alternately sinuous and percussive music, by Bernard Herrmann, fits the images like a Persian slipper.
Director David Lean was inspired by the historical exploits and complex character of T.E. Lawrence, in the undertaking of “Lawrence of Arabia” (1962). The film won seven Academy Awards and made international superstars of Peter O’Toole and Omar Sharif. Maurice Jarre won the first of his three Oscars for his music. Jarre himself conducted on the film’s soundtrack, even though, for contractual reasons, Sir Adrian Boult received the screen credit.
Finally, Sean Connery is Mulay Ahmed Muhamed Raisuli the Magnificent, sharif of the Riffian Berbers, in John Milius’ “The Wind and the Lion” (1975). The score represents composer Jerry Goldsmith at his finest. In fact, so happy was he with the effort that he was convinced that he finally had a lock on the Oscar. Then he went to see “Jaws.” Goldsmith would receive his only Academy Award, finally, the next year for his music to “The Omen.”
I hope you’ll join me for these examples of Orientalism at the movies – a theme that’s really an excuse for me to play some of my favorite scores – this Friday evening on KWAX!
See below for streaming information.
Keep in mind, KWAX is on the West Coast, so there’s a three-hour difference for the Trenton-Princeton area. Here are the respective air-times of my recorded shows (with East Coast conversions in parentheses):
PICTURE PERFECT, the movie music show – Friday on KWAX at 5:00 PACIFIC TIME (8:00 PM EDT)
THE LOST CHORD, unusual and neglected rep – Saturday on KWAX at 4:00 PACIFIC TIME (7:00 PM EDT)
Stream them here!
PHOTO: Rex Ingram as the Djinn in “The Thief of Bagdad”
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