Classic Ross Amico

Tag: Movie Music

Arabian Nights Cinematic Delights & Movie Music

Open sesame! It’s an Aladdin’s Cave of cinematic delights.

This week on “Picture Perfect,” the focus is on tales from “The Arabian Nights.”

These traditional folk stories from the Orient have come down to us filtered through the sensibilities of Western translators. Further translation was required to get the stories from page to screen; so it’s hardly surprising to find Sinbad, for instance, fighting a giant walrus at the North Pole.

The film versions are often showcases for the work of production designers and special effects artists, but composers have certainly gotten in on the act with suitably imaginative scores.

Bernard Herrmann lent plenty of color and wit to the skeleton duel in “The Seventh Voyage of Sinbad” (1958) by employing a battery of castanets, xylophone, and brass. Stop motion artist Ray Harryhausen was responsible for the memorable effects. “Sinbad” proved to be a dry run for the climax of “Jason and the Argonauts,” in which Harryhausen outdid himself by animating not one, but seven skeletons, and again, Herrmann supplied the music.

Harryhausen animated two further Sinbad adventures – “The Golden Voyage of Sinbad” (1974) and “Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger” (1977). Over the course of the three “Sinbad” films, audiences were treated to fantastic encounters with, in addition to the skeleton, a Cyclops, a roc, a dragon, a statue of the goddess Kali, a centaur, a giant walrus, and a saber-tooth tiger, among others.

“Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger” was scored by Roy Budd. Budd’s reputation was largely that of a jazz musician and composer. He wrote scores for over 50 films, including “Get Carter” and “The Wild Geese,” before his early death of a brain hemorrhage, at the age of 46, in 1993.

Walt Disney created a modern classic in “Aladdin” (1992). The music was by Alan Menken, with lyrics by Howard Ashman and Tim Rice. “Aladdin” won Academy Awards for Best Original Score and Best Original Song (“A Whole New World”). Menken has a whole shelf full of Oscars for his work for Disney. Need I say, Robin Williams was the voice of the manic, freewheeling Genie?

Rex Ingram’s Genie steals the show in “The Thief of Bagdad” (1940). Ingram emerges from his magic lamp and looms over a cowering Sabu, whom he addresses as “Little Master of the Universe.” The beach resounds with his maniacal laughter. There was an earlier, justly celebrated, silent version of “Thief,” with Douglas Fairbanks. The remake splits the thief and the prince into two separate characters. Sabu plays the incorrigible Abu (the thief), and Conrad Veidt is his nemesis, the treacherous vizier Jaffar.

The score is by three-time Academy Award winner Miklós Rózsa. Rózsa was in London, in the employ of Alexander Korda, when the lavish Technicolor production was moved to Hollywood on account of the Blitz. Rózsa would go on to become one of Hollywood’s greatest composers. His music for “Ben-Hur” alone has earned him a place in the film music pantheon. He never wrote a more charming score, however, than he did for this.

I hope you’ll join me for an hour of cinematic enchantments. That’s “A Thousand and One Nights at the Movies,” on “Picture Perfect,” now in syndication on KWAX, the radio station of the University of Oregon!

Clip and save the start times for all three of my recorded shows:

PICTURE PERFECT, the movie music show – Friday at 8:00 PM EDT/5:00 PM PDT

SWEETNESS AND LIGHT, the light music program – ALL NEW! – Saturday at 11:00 AM EDT/8:00 AM PDT

THE LOST CHORD, unusual and neglected rep – Saturday at 7:00 PM EDT/4:00 PM PDT

Stream them, wherever you are, at the link!

https://kwax.uoregon.edu/

July 19, 2024
Father’s Day Movie Music Entitled Birds

Sure, sure, sure. This weekend is Father’s Day. But I did movies about fathers last year.

This year, I’m broadening the focus to “entitled birds.” It allows me to program music from “To Kill a Mockingbird,” with Gregory Peck playing one of the great fathers on film, but also to diversify.

The hour will open with a suite from “The Maltese Falcon” (1941). Humphrey Bogart plays private dick Sam Spade, in John Huston’s adaptation of the Dashiell Hammett novel (not incidentally, full of avian symbols and similes). Mary Astor is the dangerous dame, and the first-rate cast supporting includes Peter Lorre, Sidney Greenstreet, and Elisha Cook, Jr.

The music is by Adolph Deutsch, who in the 1950s became associated with musicals (he won Oscars for his work on “Oklahoma,” “Seven Brides for Seven Brothers,” and “Annie Get Your Gun,” and was nominated for “The Band Wagon” and “Showboat”), but in the 1940s, he was as noir as that closet song-and-dance man, George Raft, some of whose crime films he scored.
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Then it’s on to the most overt Father’s Day association of the hour and the aforementioned “To Kill a Mockingbird” (1962), based on Harper Lee’s beautiful coming-of-age novel. Gregory Peck plays one of his most memorable roles – defense attorney and model father Atticus Finch (his surname yet another bird). The book was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1961. Peck won the Academy Award for Best Actor in 1962. Elmer Bernstein received his only Oscar for his work on “Thoroughly Modern Millie,” of all things. “Mockingbird” remains one of his most memorable and moving scores.

“Jonathan Livingston Seagull” (1973) flies alone on the program as the only film in which the title refers to an actual bird, though the context is a fabulous one, based on Richard Bach’s bestselling parable. James Franciscus supplies a superimposed human voice. The score is by songwriter Neil Diamond, ably assisted by composer Lee Holdridge (who turned 80 on March 3). We’ll hear Holdridge’s music from the film’s “The Other World” sequence.

Finally, Errol Flynn plays Geoffrey Thorpe, captain of the “Albatross” (yet another bird), who defends England on the eve of the Spanish Armada in “The Sea Hawk” (1940). The music, perhaps the greatest pirate score ever written, is by Erich Wolfgang Korngold. If I had kids, I would be perfectly content on Father’s Day if they left me alone to watch “The Sea Hawk.” As my grandfather used to say, “You can help me by standing over there.”

I hope you’ll join me for “Entitled Birds,” on “Picture Perfect,” music for the movies, now in syndication on KWAX, the radio station of the University of Oregon!

Clip and save the start times for all three of my recorded shows:

PICTURE PERFECT, the movie music show – Friday at 8:00 PM EDT/5:00 PM PDT

SWEETNESS AND LIGHT, the light music program – ALL NEW! – Saturday at 11:00 AM EDT/8:00 AM PDT

THE LOST CHORD, unusual and neglected rep – Saturday at 7:00 PM EDT/4:00 PM PDT

Stream them, wherever you are, at the link!

https://kwax.uoregon.edu/

June 14, 2024
Movie Music for Speed Mad Max Bullitt Grand Prix

This week on “Picture Perfect,” we’ve got the need for speed!

With yet another Mad Max movie in theaters, we’ll revisit music from the second installment in the series, “The Road Warrior” (1981). Australian composer Brian May (no relation to the Queen guitarist) wrote the music for the first two films. The director, George Miller, specified that he was looking for a gothic, Bernard Herrmann-type mood to underscore his dystopian vision of a post-apocalyptic Australian Outback.

Maurice Jarre took over to write the music for the third installment, “Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome,” but it’s purely by coincidence that we’ll hear selections from another Jarre score built for speed, “Grand Prix” (1966). The film’s international cast includes James Garner, Eva Marie Saint, Yves Montand, and Toshiro Mifune, but the plot’s assorted relationship and business conflicts take a back seat to driver’s-eye views of lapping the track.

When we remember Steve McQueen, chances are one of the first images that springs to mind is that of McQueen behind the wheel of his Ford Mustang GT 390 Fastback, tearing up and down the streets of San Francisco in “Bullitt” (1968). The high-octane action sequence became the yardstick against which all big screen car chases were measured (at least until “The French Connection”). Lalo Schifrin provided the jazzy score.

Finally, Marty McFly and Doc Brown’s time-travelling DeLoreon needs to hit 88 miles per hour in order to get “Back to the Future” (1985). Director Bob Zemeckis had already worked with composer Alan Silvestri on “Romancing the Stone,” but the producer of “Back to the Future,” Steven Spielberg, didn’t care for the music in that film. Zemeckis’ advice to his colleague: go grand and epic, since Spielberg had a marked preference for the music of John Williams. It was a very good choice.

I hope you’ll join me for an hour of chases and races, on “Picture Perfect,” music for the movies, now in syndication on KWAX, the radio station of the University of Oregon.

Just be sure you’re not driving when you do!

Clip and save the start times for all three of my recorded shows:

PICTURE PERFECT, the movie music show – Friday at 8:00 PM EDT/5:00 PM PDT

SWEETNESS AND LIGHT, the light music program – ALL NEW! – Saturday at 11:00 AM EDT/8:00 AM PDT

THE LOST CHORD, unusual and neglected rep – Saturday at 7:00 PM EDT/4:00 PM PDT

Stream them, wherever you are, at the link!

https://kwax.uoregon.edu/

June 7, 2024
Memorial Day Movie Music Valor and Sacrifice

It’s all about valor and sacrifice this week on “Picture Perfect,” as we anticipate Memorial Day.

Memorial Day has its roots in Decoration Day, established in 1868 to honor the Civil War dead. We’ll hear music from “Glory” (1989), inspired by the extraordinary courage of Colonel Robert Gould Shaw’s 54th Massachusetts Voluntary Regiment, an all African American outfit that distinguished itself in an impossible assault on Fort Wagner, near Charleston, South Carolina. The outstanding cast features Morgan Freeman, Matthew Broderick, and Cary Elwes, with an Oscar-winning performance by Denzel Washington. The poignant score is by James Horner.

Gary Cooper had one of his best roles as “Sergeant York” (1941), based on the true story of Alvin C. York, who went from backwoods hell-raiser to devout pacifist. After a period of soul-searching, York was able to reconcile his strong moral convictions with the unfortunate reality that sometimes it really is necessary to fight. He went on to distinguish himself on the battlefield and become one of the most-decorated soldiers of the First World War. The folksy score, evocative of York’s Tennessee roots, is by Max Steiner.

In director Michael Cimino’s “The Deer Hunter” (1978), three men from a small Pennsylvania steel town serve in Vietnam, then struggle to cope with the war’s psychological impact. The harrowing film, especially memorable for its scenes of Russian roulette in a P.O.W. camp, won five Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director. Christopher Walken was honored with the award for Best Supporting Actor. Stanley Myers wrote the music. We’ll hear his famous “Cavatina,” performed by guitarist John Williams, not to be confused with…

… composer John Williams, who provided one of his sparser scores for “Saving Private Ryan” (1998). Steven Spielberg’s war-is-hell narrative yet manages to honor the sacrifice of the fighting men of World War II. The opening – a sustained “you-are-there” battle sequence on Omaha Beach – is unforgettable. Remarkably, it is presented wholly without music, Williams preferring to allow the tension of the mise-en-scène to speak for itself. Spielberg picked up his second Academy Award for Best Director. The film, however, inexplicably, lost to “Shakespeare in Love.”

I hope you’ll join me for music from these cinematic meditations on the costs and consequences of war, as we honor the valor and sacrifice of soldiers who died while serving in America’s armed forces, on “Picture Perfect,” music for the movies, now in syndication on KWAX, the radio station of the University of Oregon!

Clip and save the start times for all three of my recorded shows:

PICTURE PERFECT, the movie music show – Friday at 8:00 PM EDT/5:00 PM PDT

SWEETNESS AND LIGHT, the light music program – ALL NEW! – Saturday at 11:00 AM EDT/8:00 AM PDT

THE LOST CHORD, unusual and neglected rep – Saturday at 7:00 PM EDT/4:00 PM PDT

Stream them, wherever you are, at the link!

https://kwax.uoregon.edu/

May 24, 2024
Going Ape for Classic Movie Music

With the publicity machine going full-throttle for the new “Planet of the Apes” movie, I thought we’d take the opportunity this week, on “Picture Perfect,” to look back to Jerry Goldsmith’s music for the original 1968 classic.

Goldsmith incorporated all sorts of unusual effects into his groundbreaking score. He employed such instruments as tuned mixing bowls, a bass slide-whistle, and the cuika, a Brazilian wind instrument used to mimic the hooting of excited apes. He instructed his hornists to play without mouthpieces, and he manipulated percussion through the use of an Echoplex.

Barbaric and unnerving, with little in the way of lyricism, I can’t imagine anything like it being used in a major Hollywood film today. Well, from my description, I guess I can, but Goldsmith was the real deal – a talented composer with real tools (not just a laptop) at his disposal.

While my initial impulse had been to fill out the hour with music from some of the other films in the “Apes” franchise, after listening for a while, the grimness and brutality became a bit too unremitting, so instead we’ll swing with the gorilla theme.

Among the other selections will be an extended passage from the Dian Fossey biopic, “Gorillas in the Mist,” which starred Sigourney Weaver and featured music by Maurice Jarre, of “Lawrence of Arabia” and “Doctor Zhivago” fame, though from his later, lamentable “electronic” period.

We’ll also hear a bit from the “Mighty Joe Young” remake, since, at the time I recorded the show, I couldn’t get a hold of Roy Webb’s score for the original (since remedied). The music is pretty much standard James Horner (eg. “Titanic”), though he does incorporate a Swahili choir.

Finally, we’ll sample from Max Steiner’s landmark score to the 800-pound gorilla of all monkey movies, 1933’s “King Kong.”

I hope you’ll join me as we go ape this week, on “Picture Perfect,” music for the movies, now in syndication on KWAX, the radio station of the University of Oregon!

Remember, KWAX is on the West Coast, so there’s a three-hour difference for those of you listening in the East. Here are the respective air-times for all three of my recorded shows (with East Coast conversions in parentheses):

PICTURE PERFECT, the movie music show – Friday on KWAX at 5:00 PM PACIFIC TIME (8:00 PM EASTERN)

SWEETNESS AND LIGHT, the light music program – ALL NEW! – Saturday on KWAX at 8:00 AM PACIFIC TIME (11:00 AM EASTERN)

THE LOST CHORD, unusual and neglected rep – Saturday on KWAX at 4:00 PM PACIFIC TIME (7:00 PM EASTERN)

Stream all three, at the times indicated, by following the link!

https://kwax.uoregon.edu/

“Take your stinkin’ paws off me…!” (with Goldsmith’s music, including cuika effects):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=enRpeRUawNY

May 3, 2024

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