What is your favorite soundtrack to a Welles film?

[Store Hadji]

I temped in some Benny H tracks into Shanghai, after editing the wav file of the original soundtrack to remove the original score. My God, with Herrmann music it's stunning. Much more effective. I think the film is damaged by the original music. Welles didn't need the composer going over the top as well, he needed someone to ground him.

[Jeff Wilson]

Welles provided Columbia with detailed notes for what he wanted musically (not to mention his contempt for Roemheld's score), so someone so inclined could piece together something approaching Welles' intentions by locating similar pieces and slotting them in.

[Swithun]

I have only seen the Trial, Kane and the Stranger but the use of Albinoni's Adagio (well he wrote the first eight bars) in the Trial is brilliantly atmospheric and gives the mood of impending doom. The other sound track's free jazz is interesting and gives an eerie feel since it has no direct relation to the images.

[The Night Man]

Welles provided Columbia with detailed notes for what he wanted musically....

Have these notes been published, Jeff, or are they only available in some archive?

[Jeff Wilson]

They haven't been published in full, not that I'm aware of. They're at the Lilly. I have a copy. If people are interested I'll put a couple excerpts up.

[Store Hadji]

I'm interested. I'll follow them as best I can. Were they for the release cut or Welles' first version?

[Jeff Wilson]

It appears to be for the release version; there actually two documents, one by Dick Wilson for Welles, where he briefly runs through the problems he saw, and then another by Welles, which elaborates on everything in detail. He doesn't really name many specific preferences since no score was done prior to Roemheld other than the temp track, but he discusses tone and intended effect often. For example:

"The preview title music was written by a first rate composer, George Antheil. Although not written for our picture at all, the temp title music had an atmosphere of darkness and menace combined with something lush and romantic which made it acceptable. The title music as it now stands is atrocious."

"SAILING MONTAGE: This whole musical section is unbelievably poor. Again our temporary track was 100% better. I cannot understand why some of the feeling we tried to indicate with this temporary music wasn't taken as a cue by the composer; but here, as elsewhere, he seems to have gone out of his way to create an effect totally different from the one I indicated. The temporary track, although pasted together in a hurried manner, had variety, movement, and romance. It conveyed the feeling of a journey -- a journey taken into a picturesque and highly-colored world. It had, besides this, a quality of satire. None of this is present in the sequence as it now stands. The rhumba treatment of "Please Don't Kiss Me" over Rita's dive is particularly painful."

[The Night Man]

Fascinating material. Thanks, Jeff.

Personally, I'd prefer to read them complete, but I understand if you don't have time to reproduce them in their entirety.

[Tony]

Jeff: do you know the title of the temp music used by welles for the preview ""The preview title music was written by a first rate composer, George Antheil." Or what does "preview" mean: trailor?


Or indeed the titles and composers for any of the temp music? A partial reconstruction could be attempted, of course, if we had those.

I recall Herrmann once said (in a friendly moment) that Welles was the only director he had ever worked with who really knew about and understood music.

[Jerzy]

re Lady from Shaghai - Welles hated the fact that the shootout scene was scored. He wanted just the sound of flying bullets and breaking glass. Interestingly he thought Rita's song was quite good after all... - that's what I found in Heylin's book.

re Ambersons: Is the complete original soundtrack available on CD? That would be wonderful...

[Kevin Loy]

Jerzy,

The complete (i.e. Herrmann's) score for Ambersons has been released on CD. I don't have it, but I believe it is out of print.

[Glenn Anders]

Jerzy: Bernard Herrmann's Complete Score of THE MAGNIFICENT AMBERSONS came out on CD for a label called Preamble, a division of Fifth Continent Music Corp. (FCMC), in 1990. [Epinions.com lists the actual release date as "July 27, 1993.") Tony Bremner conducted the Australian Philharmonic Orchestra. The catalogue number is PRCD 1783 (DDD).

Glenn

[Store Hadji]

For the title, I used this piece by Benny H. for the film The Snows of Kilimanjaro, from the CD Music from Great Film Classics. It's lush and romantic, but has more a sense of melancholy and doom than darkness and danger. Maybe I can find something closer.

[Glenn Anders]

Hadji: In my opinion, Herrmann's music for THE SNOWS OF KILIMANJARO is a bit soft and lush for such a "torch song" of a movie as THE LADY FROM SHANGHAI. Hemingway's story is more one of wasted artistic and romantic opportunities than one of betrayal and murder.

I used to do this kind of thing, decades ago, with a reel-to-reel tape recorder, but I'm rusty now. What about George Bassman's score for THE POSTMAN ALWAYS RINGS TWICE? The music is no more distinguished than that laid under THE LADY FROM SHANGHAI, but the elements of the story are similar, and the mood of the music may be more satisfactory than what some find in the present score.

It may be a mistake, granting a Herrmann exception, to insists that only classic composers provide music for our favorite Welles films.

Glenn

[Store Hadji]

Maybe I'll go mad and score it with Syd Barrett songs. My intention was to use only Herrmann; just need to find the right tracks.