When Heitor Villa-Lobos was contracted by M-G-M to write music for a big screen adaptation of W.H. Hudson’s novel “Green Mansions” (1959), expectations ran high on both sides. The Brazilian master began immediately, diving into the project with characteristic gusto. After all, he had been writing music inspired by the rain forest for his entire career.
Unfortunately, he had very little affinity for the practicality of the filmmaking process, turning in musical impressions of scenes from the book. The studio was befuddled. Since Villa-Lobos was unable to adapt to the customary way of doing things, he was replaced by MGM house composer Branislau Kaper, who used the Villa-Lobos material as a springboard for his own dramatic conception. The result is part Villa-Lobos, part Kaper, and all MGM gloss.
Villa-Lobos was a little embittered by his Hollywood experience. He promptly assembled a multi-movement symphonic poem, “Forest of the Amazon” (1958), some 75 minutes in length, which employed his rejected sketches. He made a recording of 45 minutes of the music in 1959, for which the soprano Bidu Sayao came out of retirement.
This week on “Picture Perfect,” we’ll have selections from both versions of “Green Mansions,” as well as from the Mayan adventure “Kings of the Sun” (1963), composed by Elmer Bernstein, and “The Night of the Mayas” (1939), by Mexican composer Silvestre Revueltas.
I hope you’ll join me for cinematic evocations of the indigenous peoples of Latin America, this Friday evening at 6 EDT, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.
PHOTO: The project that left Villa-Lobos feeling green around the gills
For the 60th anniversary of Cecil B. DeMille’s “The Ten Commandments,” the Intrada label has handed down, like stone tablets from Mount Sinai, a definitive, 6-CD box set of music from the film. The collection includes the complete 2 ½ hour score, three commercial soundtrack releases, and bonus material intriguing enough to curl Charlton Heston’s beard.
This week on “Picture Perfect,” we’ll share lovingly remastered selections from the 1960 Dot and 1966 United Artist soundtrack re-recordings, the Pillar of Fire and parting of the Red Sea sequence from the actual film, and rare demos, prepared for Mr. DeMille by the composer, Elmer Bernstein, who will introduce his themes from the piano.
So let it be written, so let it be done! Join me for the definitive “The Ten Commandments,” on “Picture Perfect,” this Friday evening at 6 EDT, on WWFM – The Classical Network and at wwfm.org.
TGIF! Make the transition to the weekend with music by Joseph Ryelandt, Domenico Dragonetti, Harald Saeverud, and Percy Faith, on their birthdays. In addition, we’ll hear pianists/birthday celebrants Robert Casadesus and Leif Ove Andsnes play Chabrier and Grieg, respectively.
That’s got to be at least two hours, right there.
Then stick around for “Picture Perfect” and a definitive survey of Elmer Bernstein’s music for Cecil B. DeMille’s “The Ten Commandments.” We’ll be sampling from an exhaustive 6-CD set, released on the Intrada label, in honor of the film’s 60th anniversary.
I’ll be there, enjoying the music right along with you, this Friday afternoon at 4:00 EDT. “Picture Perfect” begins at 6, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.
This has been circulating all over the internet today. It turns out Sunday night’s envelope mix-up was not the first in Academy Awards history. Watch as Sammy Davis Jr. is handed an envelope for a different category than the one announced. Nobody fielded the foul ball on Sunday as well as Davis does here. I am also inclined to share it because of the staggering talent of the nominees for Best Original Score. I don’t think the time will ever come again. Truly, this was an era when giants walked the earth.
PHOTO: André Previn, Sammy Davis Jr., and Elmer Bernstein
2016 has been a bold year for remakes. Above and beyond a new “Ghostbusters,” which had so-called fanboys tied up in knots, Hollywood has brazenly taken on two beloved classics in “Ben-Hur” and “The Magnificent Seven.” Generally speaking, the originals excelled on all levels, which is why they are still fondly remembered, but the music for both has been especially indelible. In fact, I would argue “The Magnificent Seven” is as beloved as it is mostly because of Elmer Bernstein’s immortal score.
This week on “Picture Perfect,” you’ll have a chance to sample music from the remakes, alongside selections from their classic predecessors.
I’ve been listening to James Horner’s score for the new version of “The Magnificent Seven,” and while the result is not exactly top-shelf Horner – the composer was killed in a plane crash last year, not long after making some sketches after having merely read the script (an associate of his, Simon Franglen, who worked with the composer on “Titanic” and “Avatar,” was hired to flesh out the material) – it nonetheless serves as a painful reminder of exactly what’s been lost from the art of film-scoring.
Horner’s trademark use of the shakuhachi is invoked, as are “Mask of Zorro”-style handclaps and the inclusion of the all-pervasive Horner “Danger Motif” (which echoes the opening of Rachmaninoff’s Symphony No. 1 and is in just about every genre score Horner composed since at least “Star Trek II” in 1982). But what is most pertinent, and most refreshing, are the snippets of bona fide melody – and some of that melody is actually stirring and uplifting. After all, Horner hit his stride in the early ‘80s, when music still had something meaningful to add to movies, beyond simply acting as a moody drone or pumped-up bass-line.
Say what you will about Horner – he was a flawed artist who lifted freely from his own and others’ work – but he was always polished, professional and dramatically effective. I would go so far as to say he may very well have been the most naturally talented film composer of his generation. He was fatally limited by a lack of originality, but he always knew his way around an orchestra.
Furthermore, he had the ability to uplift. It’s a quality not at all common in film music today, or in movies at all for that matter. Movies may retain the ability to thrill, but the thrills, I find, such as they are, are mostly adrenaline-driven. When was the last time you experienced awe at the movies, or left the theater feeling elevated or elated? More commonly, it’s the sensation of having been wrung-out, triumph experienced vicariously only insofar as having survived the latest computer-generated assault. Where is the joy in that? Where is the hope?
Horner’s score in no way displaces Elmer Bernstein’s immortal music for the original “The Magnificent Seven.” Then again, how could it? But at least he doesn’t embarrass himself. The best I can say about Marco Beltrami, on the other hand, is that he is smart enough to know there is no way a new “Ben-Hur” is going to be able to top its predecessor. So instead, he tries for something completely different.
Tune in at 6:00 EDT and hear for yourself. We’ll enjoy a little “7” and “7” with two sides of “Ben-Hur,” on WWFM – The Classical Network and at wwfm.org.
Unfamiliar with Horner’s “Danger Motif?” These clips should give you an idea:
You can also it hear it here, in the first movement of Rachmaninoff’s First Symphony:
