If you are a fan of either John Williams or Jerry Goldsmith, you will be transfixed by this virtual conversation, documented in 2021, but reposted this week by The Legacy of John Williams. It’s one of those rare instances where I thought I’d sample some of it with the idea of watching the rest later, and before I knew it, I wound up watching the whole blessed two hours!
Participants include names familiar to film score fanatics – writer Jeff Bond, producer Mike Matessino, and engineer Bruce Botnick, composer David Newman (who played violin on a number of Williams and Goldsmith scores of the late ‘70s and early ‘80s), studio pianist Mike Lang (who worked with Williams, Goldsmith, and Henry Mancini), and conductor Leonard Slatkin (who grew up in Hollywood and later conducted Williams’ film and concert works, as well as Goldsmith’s “Music for Orchestra”).
The geekier you are about film music, the more you will love this. Lots of behind-the-scenes reminiscences and entertaining anecdotes about the artists and the industry. Enjoy!
The term “Gothic romance” doesn’t necessarily connote a love story. In 19th century literary tradition, “romance” was often suggestive of the mysterious, the adventurous, the sensational – a kind of pleasing terror, often touched by elements of horror.
This week on “Picture Perfect, I strike my annual blow against Valentine’s Day with music from movies featuring creepy old houses, ghosts, malevolent housekeepers, and madwomen in the attic.
Alfred Hitchcock’s “Rebecca” (1940), based on the Gothic novel of Daphne du Maurier, is a clear throwback to the works of the Brontë sisters. Laurence Olivier and Joan Fontaine star, but Judith Anderson steals the show as the ice-cold Mrs. Danvers. The film was the recipient of an Academy Award for Best Picture, the only Hitchcock film to be so honored. Franz Waxman’s opulent and atmospheric score flares at its operatic climax.
Collectively, the Brontë sisters were responsible for some of the most tortured romances in English literature. Charlotte Brontë’s “Jane Eyre,” a work which clearly anticipates “Rebecca,” was adapted most famously in 1940, again with Joan Fontaine, and featuring Orson Welles as Rochester. Three decades later, a television version of “Jane Eyre” (1971) appeared, with Susannah York and George C. Scott. The music for the latter was by an up-and-coming composer, only a few years away from superstardom: John Williams.
“Uncle Silas” (1947) is a Gothic romance that sidesteps the love story altogether. Forced to live under the guardianship of a sinister uncle and a malevolent French governess, its heroine is thrust into an atmosphere of insinuating menace. Sheridan Le Fanu’s “old dark house” thriller was made into a film by Gainsborough Studios, and released in the United States as “The Inheritance.” A young Jean Simmons plays the imperiled heiress. The music was by Alan Rawsthorne, a distinguished concert composer, who nonetheless managed to compose 27 film scores. Bernard Herrmann considered the score for “Uncle Silas” to be one of the finest ever written.
Finally, we’ll hear music from a beloved adaptation of Emily Brontë’s tale of star-crossed love, “Wuthering Heights” (1939). Merle Oberon is Cathy and Laurence Olivier is Heathcliff. Alfred Newman’s music yearns and sobs right along with us.
It’s an hour of gloom and doom for Valentine’s Day. Join me for Gothic romances on “Picture Perfect,” music for the movies, this Saturday evening at 6:00 EST, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.
NOTE: In honor of John Williams’ 90th birthday on February 8, this is the first of several episodes that will incorporate at least one of his film scores. Next week, for Presidents Day Weekend, it’s hail to the chief, as John Williams does the presidents!
After “Jaws” and “Star Wars,” John Williams became everyone’s first choice. Too often, Jerry Goldsmith was left with the dregs.
But the man was a professional, a true work horse, who also had a rare talent for speed. He wrote the replacement score for “Chinatown” in ten days. When Randy Newman was dropped from “Air Force One,” again he saved the day, writing and recording the music in less than two weeks.
Unfortunately, not every film was “Chinatown.” For every “Planet of the Apes,” “Patton,” and “Papillon,” there was “The Mummy” (with Brendan Fraser), “The Haunting” (remake), and “Looney Tunes: Back in Action.”
Williams got “Superman.” Goldsmith got “Supergirl.” Williams got “Raiders of the Lost Ark.” Goldsmith got “King Solomon’s Mines” (with Richard Chamberlain). Williams got “E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial.” Goldsmith got “Baby: The Secret of the Lost Legend.”
But even when the movies were terrible, Goldsmith’s music was like a consolation prize. And nothing can take away the classics. He was one of the last of the greats, and he lived through a great era, so we certainly have enough to cherish. He just had the bad fortune to have more stamina than the movies themselves, which got weaker and weaker and weaker.
The composer himself expressed frustration at his music being drowned out by ever more-elaborate sound effects, which is why his scores tended to become more streamlined – and less memorable – in the ‘90s. He would have lost his mind in these days of laptop editing, when movies can be trimmed and shuffled within an inch of their lives, right up until the day of distribution.
For television, he wrote music for “Dr. Kildare,” “The Twilight Zone,” “Gunsmoke,” “The Man from U.N.C.L.E.,” “The Waltons,” and “Barnaby Jones.” He was the recipient of five Emmy Awards.
Incredibly, despite EIGHTEEN nominations, he was honored with but a single Oscar, for his influential score to “The Omen” (1976). Goldsmith died in 2004, at the age of 75. If he were to come back today, he would mop the joint with all the Hans Zimmer knockoffs.
To honor Goldsmith, and as kind of a belated tribute to special effects artist Douglas Trumbull, who died earlier this week, let’s take a look at the show-stopping drydock sequence from “Star Trek: The Motion Picture” (1979).
In a tight spot in post-production when the effects work was proving to be lackluster, director Robert Wise reached out to and implored Trumbull to work his magic. Trumbull was already a legend in the field, having worked on “2001: A Space Odyssey,” “Silent Running,” and “Close Encounters of the Third Kind.”
“Star Trek” would require more composites than “Star Wars” and “Close Encounters” combined. Paramount Pictures was over a barrel, with an impending deadline that would result in a mega-lawsuit from exhibitors if it didn’t deliver.
Trumbull accepted the challenge, but he drove a hard bargain. In exchange for his services, he leveraged a considerable fee, release from his Paramount contract, and ownership of the technology he developed for “Brainstorm,” his dream project, long languishing in development hell, so that he could shop it around to other studios. Without flinching, Paramount blurted “Yes!” Trumbull assembled his crew, divided them into three teams, and they worked seven days a week, 24 hours a day, for the next seven months, to bring the picture in on time.
Say what you want about the movie, but the effects and the music are unimpeachable – especially this sequence, which Trumbull directed himself – a perfect marriage of music and visuals of a kind you will not find in movies today. This is how it’s done, kids.
As a post-script, we’ll be celebrating the legacy of Douglas Trumbull on the next Roy’s Tie-Dye Sci-Fi Corner. Because Roy will be participating in a live theater event with Country Gate Players this Saturday (“Radio Noir Murders” at 6 pm at Belvidere Manor in Belvidere, NJ), we’ll be taking the week off from our movie-fueled digressions. But we’ll be back at the base of Devil’s Tower, watching for your Kodály hand signals in the comments section, when we livestream on Facebook, NEXT Friday evening, February 18, at 7:30 EDT!
His music introduced me to the glories of the symphony orchestra and changed my life forever. The world’s greatest living film composer is 90. Happy birthday, John Williams!
One need only listen to this fan compilation of Williams’ contrapuntal writing, including some unexpected choices, to understand that there really is no one else in the field today who can touch him. You certainly won’t hear anything like it from the Zimmer school.
This one still gives me chills 43+ years later!
Williams and Steven Spielberg discuss music from the piano bench:
Good exchange with Tavis Smiley (especially toward the end):
Perhaps Williams’ best interview, an unusually candid conversation with André Previn:
Williams is the recipient of five Academy Awards, 25 Grammy Awards, and four Golden Globe Awards. He’s been nominated for an Oscar 52 times, more than any other living person, and second only to Walt Disney.
So what’s he up to now? Although he suggested he would be retiring with “Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker,” he’s been conducting concerts all over place, with Anne-Sophie Mutter the soloist in his new Violin Concerto. He’s also scoring Spielberg’s “The Fabelmans” – their 29th collaboration – and prepping for the fifth Indiana Jones adventure, out next year.
Over the coming month or so, I’ll be including some Williams selections in my “Picture Perfect” programming. Tune in this week to enjoy a suite from “Jane Eyre” (1970), as part of hour of Gothic romances for Valentine’s Day, and next week for music from “JFK” (1991), “Nixon” (1995), “Amistad” (1997), and “Lincoln” (2012) for Presidents Day Weekend. More to come. “Picture Perfect” can be heard Saturday evenings at 6:00 EST on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.
Kenneth Wannberg, a major influence on the shaping of John Williams’ classic film scores, has died at the age of 91.
In the capacity of Williams’ music editor, Wannberg was responsible for, among other things, selecting the best takes from the recording sessions of a particular cue and assembling them into a coherent whole. The main title to “Star Wars” was recorded five times for the original movie. Wannberg used the best three takes to produce the final version as heard in the film.
He was also responsible for the placement of streamers and punches on the work print of a film for the conductor (in this case, Williams), and for the assembly of the soundtrack album.
In the special editions of the original “Star Wars” trilogy and in the subsequent prequel trilogy, George Lucas had a tendency to ramp up Ben Burtt’s sound effects at the expense of Williams’ music. At a time when seemingly everyone had become a Lucas yes-man, Wannberg stepped up during the mixing of “Revenge of the Sith” to point out that the effects were too noisy. When Wannberg explained that the music was the “thread through the montage of cutting back and forth” in the climactic duel scene, and that it needs to “live a little,” Lucas considered his words and ultimately conceded. There weren’t very many people who would have stood up to Lucas at that point in his career.
Wannberg worked with Williams at least as far back as 1967, when Williams provided music for “Valley of the Dolls.” He also assisted him on the Reader’s Digest-produced screen musical “Tom Sawyer” (with songs by the Sherman Brothers). Most significantly, he was at the composer’s side all throughout his heroic hot streak of “Star Wars,” “Close Encounters of the Third Kind,” “Raiders of the Lost Ark,” and “E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial.” He remained with Williams until his retirement, following work on “Revenge of the Sith,” “Memoirs of a Geisha,” and “Munich,” in 2005.
Williams, who dedicated to Wannberg a concert version of “Star of Bethlehem” (originally from Williams’ score to “Home Alone”), will turn 90 on February 8.
Wannberg was a composer himself, providing scores for “The Late Show,” with Art Carney and Lily Tomlin, “Losin’ It,” with Tom Cruise, and “The Philadelphia Experiment.”
