VOTD 5/5/2023

 Sinoia Caves: Beyond the Black Rainbow OST (Jagjaguwar/Death Waltz)

I don't recall where and how I purchased this.

Over the years I've become something of a film soundtrack buff. It's a personal....journey?...that's too cliched but I suppose accurate. It's not that I hated soundtrack music at one time. It bugged me though, whenever people heard instrumental music of any sort, they'd describe it in terms of being soundtrack-like. This would come to be true of music I would write too. It wondered, is this the only way many can relate to music without vocalists? By thinking of it as being linked to visual imagery?

I've always enjoyed cinema, that was not at issue. Some of the music I had started writing in my younger days was inspired by particular directors. Something that led me to pay more specific attention to soundtrack music as its own medium was hearing Esa-Pekka Salonen and the LA Philharmonic's 1996 CD of selections from Bernard Herrmann. By and large I now prefer hearing the original artifact, but it remains a particularly good collection. It's also a strong argument that many of the works would stand up in a concert hall alongside more traditional symphonic fare. 

I became interested in several ideas: what music written for film is able to stand alone without the visuals? Herrmann's music largely stands up when played apart from the film. I'd even say, having heard some of his non-cinema concert music, his film scores are better. By contrast, Howard Shore's score for The Silence of the Lambs works beautifully with the film, but isn't particularly interesting to me when played by itself. This is not a knock on Mr. Shore, for whom I probably have more respect than any other living film composer. I sometimes also wonder, does the music ever overwhelm the imagery?

I've also become interested in who is writing music for cinema, and can their pieces be reinterpreted? There are those composers known mostly or exclusively for cinematic scores: Herrmann, Morricone, Franz Waxman, John Williams, Jerry Goldsmith, etc. And what of those composers better known in other fields who have created film scores? Herbie Hancock, Prokofiev, Copland, Zappa, Takemitsu, for example. And of that general list, who's done just that one or two great scores? 

Between both cinematic composers and the latter list of part-timers, whose work can I transcribe arrange, reinterpret, and perform? I've transcribed and arranged a number of pieces from film scores for my band OPEK: Gato Barbieri's waltz version of Last Tango in Paris; David Shire's main title theme to Taking of Pelham 123; the "Sacred Spring" song from the original Godzilla Vs. Mothra by Akira Ifukube. The latter is one of my favorites in the OPEK book, in part because it's from such an unlikely source that nobody ever guesses. 

One of my unrealized projects for OPEK was a program of pieces entirely written for film. I wanted some degree of multimedia, with images from the films projected as we played those cues. The pieces would have all been required to have been written for the film medium, no songs that originate from Broadway, such as West Side Story. "Stella by Starlight" would qualify though, having originated from the film The Uninvited starring Ray Milland. In addition to the pieces mentioned above, I would have had to arrange some Herrmann and Morricone. One of Ian Gordon's favorite works is the theme from Get Carter, so no doubt that would be been considered. Furthermore, I would have loved to get some Jerry Fielding on the program too. Born Joshua Feldman in Squirrel Hill, there's our Pittsburgh connection to major film scores. I'd think about Steve Moore for the same reason. 

But....like I wrote, unrealized. There were some people interested by not enough to get something happening, no support, I don't know how I'd make it happen.

When I bought this LP. I'm pretty sure I hadn't seen the film. I have since. I'd regard it as flawed but worth seeing. There's an institute, it's New Age-y, there's a girl kept there who can apparently make people's head explode a la Scanners, there's a weird doctor/therapist. Not all of it made sense.

I like the music though! Very minimal-prog keyboard oriented. Steve Moore comes to mind here, not quite Tangerine Dream-ish, vaguely similar to Italians like Goblin and Fabio Frizzi. 

I like Death Waltz releases but it's an expensive habit. I've just looked up their site (mondoshop.com) and they're taking pre-orders on a vinyl issue of the Planet of the Vampires LP. It looks beautiful. I like the movie but don't remember the soundtrack. It's $35. I can afford it, but with so many LPs, so many I need to get around to listening to, do I want to spend the money that way? It'll pop up at The Attic most likely, in which case I'll decide then.