SHOOT-BACK HERE | E-MAIL THE AUTHOR

KNOWING THE SCORE - April 9, 2003

by Paul Tonks

soundtrack -- n. / Pron. "sound ( trak"
1. The narrow strip at one side of cinema film carrying the sound recording.
2. The music that accompanies a movie.
3. A commercial recording of such music.
4. A bastardised phrase record labels use to sell you crappy songs that have nothing to do with the movie they're apparently associated with.

THE GREATEST INTERVIEW THAT NEVER HAPPENED!

In the process of conversing in interview, it’s inevitable that any two people will stray from the original topic. Personally I love these moments. Understandably though, whoever has commissioned the interview won’t really be interested. I’ve conducted more interviews than I can remember now. I do however, remember the ones that had me wracking my brains for how to condense them to size during the transcription stage. Anecdote and opinion have often been lost to judicious cut ‘n’ paste. This fat is trimmed off, never to see the light of day.

“Waste not, want not” said a wiser person than I. Here at last is an opportunity for me to share some of these lost moments by presenting a collection of some of the best quotes I was never able to use in whole or in part.

ANGELO BADALAMENTI – on how TWIN PEAKS was scored, and his biggest fan:
“We did the first season with its 2 hour Pilot, and they were all wall-to-wall music. I don’t think you had 2 seconds of silence. Every character had their own theme: Audrey – sexy dreamy music, Laura – the beauty or the dark wood theme, the Dwarf – the dance. They all had to be created for the Pilot. The opening title I’m happy to say won me a Grammy. The album sold over 3 million copies. That’s pretty darn good for a television show! I basically built a library. Then did lots of mixes. After the Pilot which David and I recorded together, there was always something new needed for each episode. I recorded tons of hours of music. Like 60 hours of mixes. I want to tell you my best TWIN PEAKS story which relates to London. There are so many stories! No matter where you travelled, world-wide, there was a TWIN PEAKS buzz going on. I remember at the Cannes Film Festival they had special screenings. But my favourite story is that I got a call from Paul McCartney while the show was hot and in its first season in England. He wanted me to arrange and orchestrate one of his songs, and fly over to Abbey Road Studios to conduct it. My problem was I was doing a film so I said I didn’t have time. They offered a First Class fare and everything. The only thing I could come up with was if they flew me by Concorde on a Sunday. I’d write the orchestration in the 2 and a half hours. Take a taxi to Abbey Road, and have copyists waiting to go. I’d do the piece and get a Concorde 5 hours later back home. Nobody would know I’d gone missing! Paul agreed and so I did my thing. I get there, everything’s ready. By the time I get there refreshed all the parts are on the stands and everything’s ready to go. I start rehearsing, and Paul comes in and tells me to stop. “Everything sounds great” he says. “We’ve got loads of time. I just want to tell you something. I was requested by Buckingham Palace to perform for the Queen on her Birthday. Of course I was thrilled. I’m just about to go on, and she comes up and says “Mr McCartney, it’s so lovely to see you”. I tell her I’m delighted etc. “I’m rather sorry I can’t stay though”. I was going on in 5 minutes, so I was devastated. “Mr. McCartney, I’m afraid I must go upstairs and watch TWIN PEAKS!” Paul was next to me on the podium, and punched me so hard on my arm. “Your lousy show meant I couldn’t perform for the Queen!” You can’t get higher praise than that.”

JOHN BARRY - on his biggest fan:
“I was watching a show that was interviewing the Pope’s personal photographer, and the interviewer was asking what sort of thing the Pope reads. Then he asked about music. I was waiting for him to say Beethoven’s 9th or something like that. He said he listens incessantly to DANCES WITH WOLVES. That killed me. I think that’s a hell of a compliment.”

DANNY ELFMAN - on meeting the gal he just married (Bridget Fonda - in case anyone missed it), and how hard it is to work for Sam Raimi:
“I saw EVIL DEAD 2 and became an immediate fan of that. Then discovered EVIL DEAD after the fact, like a lot of people did. I was just on the set of A SIMPLE PLAN and was talking with Bill Paxton and Bridget Fonda, and we all have the same story; which is that we all saw EVIL DEAD 2 and all decided we wanted to work with whoever made it. We all put out the word, and all of us auditioned for DARKMAN. Unfortunately, I was the only one who got the job. So I did DARKMAN, but now all three of us are in Sam’s new one. I also worked a little bit on EVIL DEAD 3 - or ARMY OF DARKNESS.”
Paul Tonks: Bridget had a little cameo in that too as Ash’s girlfriend. So how did you link up for DARKMAN?
“I’d put out the word and I got a call saying Sam would love to meet me. It was for a movie starring Liam Neeson. They suggested I met Sam at midnight that night on set. He immediately shook my hand and said: “you wanna help us out here buddy? Hey! Get this guy a bucket and a raincoat!” Next thing I know I’m standing out in the street with a big bucket of water and it’s the scene where Liam stumbles out of an alley and a car splashes him. Well, that splash is me throwing water at him. But in fact it was something like 3 hours standing in this artificial downpour - which was cold. After the first downpour, I was already drenched. The raincoat wasn’t nearly enough to keep it out. So I stood there shivering and throwing bucket after bucket at poor Liam. I think that was Sam’s way of endearing me and committing me to the project. Making me suffer for it, because of course I did get a cold. And it worked!”

GEORGE FENTON - on maintaining a musical identity:
“I used to be known mostly for variety. But you’re quite right that I haven’t done an action film. That’s not because I didn’t want to. The few times I’ve been asked, I’ve not been able to. People think that getting me for an action score is a bit too much hard work. All they basically want is a roaringly rocking score. I’d love to because it would be different. In a curious way, as you go on, you find that whereas when you start you imagine you have no particular style, as the years go by you realise that you do. Given a certain set of notes, you will always arrange them in a certain way. It’s how people know who writes what. Sometimes I curse it actually, yet I can’t help it. Some of it’s because I’m English, not American. Or Male, not female. Everything in your life tends to imprint itself. You look back and realise that actually you did write things certain ways.”

ELLIOT GOLDENTHAL - on how he came to mutate the 20th Century Fox Fanfare at the start of ALIEN 3:
“That was almost like knocking over Lenin’s statue. Digital recording came along, and we had time left at the end of the recording session. We had 40 minutes of musicians time. So rather than tell them to go - and pay them - they said they wanted a digital recording of the Fox logo. We did it. Then I said: “listen - it’s ALIEN. You think I can mess with it? Can I be subversive with it so you’re lulled into a state of non-comprehension, and then realize you’re going to be in some deep shit?” We didn’t have any score, so I just got up on the stand and told the musicians what to do on what note.”

JAMES HORNER - on how he made Jim Cameron realise TITANIC was a love story:
“I wanted to feel what I might have felt had I been on board and lost something very dear to me. The sinking didn’t really matter to me. It takes care of itself in the watching. It didn’t really matter what the music was that I put to it, it’s already so spectacular to watch. What I felt needed my help more was the depth of passion between them. The profound loss that she feels. The way the story turns itself around at the end and goes full circle. All those sort of wistful mystical feelings I wanted to convey in the music. That’s the most elusive thing to convey. Originally I think he (James Cameron) had a more conservative idea. He would have signed off more easily than I would. He was obviously looking for something that I gave him. I was a little bit ahead of him. As the film progressed - as he heard more and more of my music - he understood the depth of the love story. Initially that wasn’t playing as much of a role in the film. There was more of the technical stuff. The love story got broadened as he became more comfortable with that. As a filmmaker, he’s never made a movie like that. We were working very closely. We saw each other every 2 days. It was a gradual trust on his part.”

HOWARD SHORE - on whether he had any unfulfilled ambitions to score a Western, Fantasy or Comic Book genre movie (asked before LORD OF THE RINGS came about!):
“No I don’t think so. I think I’ve covered a lot of ground in the 50-odd movies that I’ve done. I like to work with good projects though. I base my decisions on the people that I’m going to work with. Sometimes it’s based on the projects, but quite often it’s based on the people. I’d say most importantly, you know a director relationship, script, decisions on the writing. Those are very important. Cast. Who are you teaming up with to make a film? And then what does the film require? Well it could be anything. There’s many ways to approach a film. It might be the Western approach, or Action approach, or it might be solo piano. It might be any of those things. I feel well equipped to do any of them.”

JOHN WILLIAMS - on why he re-sequences his albums:
“When it comes to doing the CD in a certain sense you have more than you need. And what I usually try to do, which may come from years of making concert programmes – I try to make a musical programme based on material I’ve got from the film that will make the most rewarding listening experience in terms of entr’acte, overture, soft, loud, fast, slow, etc. So there’s a gestalt or contour to keep the listener interested. But with as much contrast to achieve the best listening experience.”

HANS ZIMMER - on defining the music of the action genre with BLACK RAIN:
“It was the second movie I ever did in Hollywood. The first was RAIN MAN. That experience was very self-contained. I never even met a studio person. So when it came to BLACK RAIN I thought it would be just as easy, and sure enough we (Ridley Scott) had really great fun in the actual working together. And then certain people whose names I shall not mention, heard my score. Admittedly it was pretty ‘out there’ for its time, but they completely freaked out on me. I remember getting so shouted at coming out of the preview at Paramount. I couldn’t take the assault, and told Ridley. He sort of stood up to them like a Bulldog and said: “don’t you ever talk to my composer like that.” You never know when you’re working on something that it’s spectacular. But it really shaped the action genre from there on. It suddenly became the temp score for everybody else’s action movies. That became really tough on me because the next time I was given an action movie I literally had to try to re-invent the language. Everybody had been following it, so what was new then suddenly became a cliché. I suppose you could say it was a good thing because it is good to re-invent yourself.”

REVIEWS:

Is self-promotion shameful? Yah-boo-sucks to you even if you think it is. I am proud of my association with the new Perseverance Records label, and the products speak for themselves. Newly available are the following two titles, to which I have provided Liner Notes incorporating interviews and no small amount of research.

PRINCE VALIANT - David Bergeaud, Perseverance Records PRP 001
DR. PHIBES RISES AGAIN - John Gale, Perseverance Records PRD 002

Who the heck is Brian Tyler’s agent? (The Gorfaine / Schwartz Agency) What a great start to the year he’s having. All three of the following are arriving in a very short space of time:

DARKNESS FALLS Varèse Sarabande VSD-6449
Frequently atmospheric (i.e. dark and pregnant with tension before exploding raucously) without resorting to too many well-worn genre tricks.

CHILDREN OF DUNE Varèse Sarabande VSD-6454
A marked improvement, though stylistically not a marked diversion from Graeme Revell’s previous instalment. Big themes swirl around ethnic instrumentation, all highly evocative of the epic desert-bound tale.

THE HUNTED Varèse Sarabande VSD-6450
Lean and mean, this is a better exercise in tension than DARKNESS FALLS. Frequent wailing brass and punchy rhythms (or “Asymmetric Rhythms” as the opening cue is named). Not one to listen to in hopes of a romantic night in.

More info on how the 3-for-1 release schedule came about and much more can be learned from Tyler himself in a highly amusing interview over at Cinemusic:
http://www.cinemusic.net/composers/brian_tyler_interview.html

NEWS NUGGETS:

There’s been early word on a performance in Seattle of Howard Shore’s "The Lord of the Rings Trilogy: A Symphony in Six Movements." This is presumably the entire work as opposed to the extracts from FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING that have already played in Los Angeles and London. Performances are Saturday, July 17, 2004 at 2pm and 8pm. So you’ve got a bit of time yet.

The appearance of this Column will have missed April Fool’s Day by over a week, but you’ll be delighted / indifferent to learn that the tradition of bogus film music announcements was maintained. I was guilty of wily prankery by posting the following:

“It was announced this morning that John Williams will be collaborating with William Ross once again.

After the 2 got on very well working on HARRY POTTER & THE CHAMBER OF SECRETS, George Lucas has suggested to Williams that Ross take over once the initial recording sessions are completed. Ross will then work exclusively with Sound Designer / Editor Ben Burtt to adapt & re-edit cues from the previous 5 movies, games & Holiday Special into the continually changing cut of the movie.

It was also announced that the rumoured Cantina Band remix which was supposed to have appeared in Episode II will now appear in Episode III. Paul Oakenfold's version has already been approved by Lucas for a scene at the Mos Eisley cantina, wherein Obi Wan surreptitiously hands over a baby Luke Skywalker to Owen Lars across a booth table. (Although it is already rumoured that the DVD version may show Owen passing the baby first)

Most exciting for fans is the promise of how Williams intends to score the final chilling scene as the newly appointed Emperor Palpatine flips up the hood of his cloak, confirming (duh) that clone or no clone, evil only ever had one face. Williams will re-use his Naboo Celebration motif from the end of Episode I, which he has just remembered he did intend to foreshadow The Emperor's Theme after all. This will be interwoven with a gorgeous new rendition of the Celebration motif from the end of the Special Edition of RETURN OF THE JEDI.

The traditional crash into the End Credits will then segue into a subdued duet between Ahmed Best and Emiliana Torrini.

More news as it comes in.”

(Just in case anyone’s skim-reading, that was a joke…)

ANNIVERSARIES:

We celebrate the following Birthdays: