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Superman IV - Wiliams level of involvement


EdwardHall

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Alexander Courage wrote the music for Superman IV: The Quest for Peace based on Williams' themes, but does anyone know if Williams himself composed any of the new themes that appeared in Superman IV? For example, the light and breezy "Jeremy's Theme" for the kid sounds similar to "Jim's New Life" from "Empire of the Sun." Both films were released in 1987. Williams' sound is not that easy to replicate which is why I think he wrote new music for Superman IV. Just look at how bad Don Davis' score was for "Jurassic Park III." For some reason that I still can't understand after thirteen years, he didn't even get the notes right when quoting the "Journey to the Island" theme from the helicopter scene in the first Jurassic Park. Unless the principal trumpeter misread the score repeatedly :)

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I have seen PDF's of parts of the Superman IV score. Some cues are in Alexander Courage's hand, and are *very* detailed. Jeremy's Theme is in JW's hand, and on that familiar 8-staff layout he uses so often in his sketches. The cue is called "Flying With Jeremy". Unusually for JW, it has virtually no instrumental detail marked and is largely in two or three staff layout (albeit on his usual 8-staff Pacific Manuscript paper).

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Williams composed three new themes for the film:

"Lacy's Theme"

"Jeremy's Theme"

"Nuclear Man Theme"

The rest is Courage (except when Courage is referencing Williams' themes, of course, which is often). The film is so incredibly bad, it's almost campy fun.

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This has been know for a long time though

The final arrangements are still Courage. Jeremy's Theme would probably sound better if JW fully arranged it and conducted it.

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Yeah, I doubt he arranged any of those theme suites. If he did, he did a pretty lame job. Unless. he did it while eating his dinner or something like that. Rest of the score is so much better than those. I love it.

Karol

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It's pretty well known that John Williams composed three original themes for Superman IV. There's some excellent info on it in the FSM Blue Box liner notes:

During more optimistic times, it was the intention of [Superman IV's production company] Golan-Globus that Superman IV legitimately carry the credits "Music by John Williams," but the composer was once again uavailable, due to scheduling concerns. He did, however, personally recommend his longtime friend and collaborator Alexander Courage and - even more significantly - agreed to contribute new thematic material. As a result, Superman IV is the only one of the Superman sequels to feature new John Williams music, even though the score itself is the work of another musician.

Courage recalled to Jeff Bond (in The Music of Star Trek how he and Williams finalized their working arrangement: "He said, 'I'd like you to adapt it using my themes, and I'll write whatever new material is needed,' so I went over to London and stayed there for three months and wrote the score." Courage had just helped orchestrate Williams's score for The Witches of Eastwick, finishing his work on March 23, 1987. On April 6 Courage and his family moved to a townhouse on St. Luke Street in London's Chelsea district. That same week Williams conducted a series of concerts with the Houston Symphony, after which he returned to Los Angeles to finish recording the Eastwick score, which wrapped with a late-night session on April 28. The next day Williams traveled from Los Angeles to Boston to prepare for the new Pops season, which got underway on May 5.

Williams composed straightforward album arrangements of his new themes based on descriptions of the characters. He also received videotapes of certain keyscenes and offered ideas to Courage by telephone. Courage scored 100 minutes of music for the long version of the film, assisted by orchestrators Frank Barber and Harry Roberts. Williams's new themes attached to three new characters:

Nuclear Man theme: The dark theme for Superman IV's super-villain is cleverly structured in a way that allows it to be combined with Lex Luthor's theme yet, when played quietly, can take on a acomedic character suggestive of Williams's later work on the Home Alone films. In action sequences, however, it is played over a driving rhythm (enhanced by electronic percussion) prefiguring some of the writing the composer would do for films like Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, Hook and the Star Wars prequels.

Lacy's theme: For the character of Lacy Warfield (Mariel Hemingway), the go-getter newspaper executive and new romantic foil for Clark Kent, Williams offers a sophisticated, slightly sultry melody, one that both contrasts with the original Love theme and works well when juxtaposed against it. Melodically it would easily fit any of the composer's comedy scores from the 1960s, yet it also foreshadows his work on films like Sabrina and Catch Me If You Can. A tenor saxophone solo is featured for several occurrences of the theme, although other instruments are sometimes brought to the fore; the middle portion is generally carried by sweeping violins.

Jeremy's theme: Jeremy (Damian McLawhorn) is the schoolboy whose letter draws the Man of Steel into the issue of nuclear disarmament. In the released version of the film, his theme is only obvious in one scene, as all of its prominent occurrences were cut from the picture. It is a classic Williams composition and as such is a true gem for the composer's legion of fans. Heartfelt and lyrical, it prefigures Williams's work for Steven Spielberg's Hook, several themes for which were written not long before Superman IV, when Williams was developing a Peter Pan musical with lyricist Leslie Bricusse.

In addition, with Superman IV beginning as an effort to return the series to its original level of quality, it was decided that every major theme from the original film would be integrated int the score as appropriate. Courage added to this repertoire two themes of his own: The "Russian" motive is an appropriately minor-mode march, while the new "Missile" theme (signifying the nuclear threat) consists of a short repeating phrase that rises and then ends with a descending minor third.

While in a sense Courage performed the same assignment as Ken Thorne did on Superman II and III, there is a difference as to how they handled John Williams's source material. Thorne, especially on Superman II, took Williams's finished musical cues - melody, harmony, counterpoint, orchestration, etc. - and stretched and manipulated the existing constructions to fit new scenes. Courage, on the other hand, took Williams's thematic material - the melodic DNA, as it were - and rebirthed the surrounding musical organism from scratch.

Consequently Courage's score sounds "less" like John Williams even though it ironically features "more" Williams themes and input than either Thorne picture. Owing to Courage's long background as a composer/adaptor on musicals, there is a great deal of variety and nuance to his manipulation of Williams's themes, and the score is given the sense of showmanship that Courage provided to famous musicals in the 1950s and '60s. Due to the many deleted scenes, the score is even more varied and imaginative than fans have ever realized.

If you don't have that box set yet, pick it up. The music is great (the complete Superman IV is indeed a fantastic listen) and it has 160 pages of awesome liner notes by Mike Matessino, Lukas Kendall and Jeff Eldridge.

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If you don't have that box set yet, pick it up. The music is great (the complete Superman IV is indeed a fantastic listen) and it has 160 pages of awesome liner notes by Mike Matessino, Lukas Kendall and Jeff Eldridge.

Completely and totally agree with this!

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I was always satisfied with my old Warner Bros. CD of SUPERMAN and the ol' combo CD of II and III. So my attraction to this set was mainly IV, and in that, mostly the Williams themes. Thankfully, a friend of mine who bought the set gave me a copy those three tracks (so sue me!), so I'm all set.

But what impressed me was the production values that went into this -- the book, the artwork, the whole thing. Lots of love there!

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I kept my 2-LP set and my Rhino even after getting the FSM set. Not sure why people part with their OSTs when they "upgrade" even though the albums often contain alternate takes, edits, artwork and sometimes superior sound quality that becomes lost in the expanded version.

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Just look at how bad Don Davis' score was for "Jurassic Park III."

Don Davis's score was bad??? :eh:

For some reason that I still can't understand after thirteen years, he didn't even get the notes right when quoting the "Journey to the Island" theme from the helicopter scene in the first Jurassic Park.

That's because there was a mistake in John Neufield's orchestrated score for 'Journey to the Island', which Williams probably then missed corrected on the podium. Davis simply repeated this mistake without realising.

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For some reason that I still can't understand after thirteen years, he didn't even get the notes right when quoting the "Journey to the Island" theme from the helicopter scene in the first Jurassic Park.

That's because there was a mistake in John Neufield's orchestrated score for 'Journey to the Island', which Williams probably missed corrected on the podium. Davis simply repeated this mistake without realising.

what mistake?

I haven't heard JP3 score outside of the movie that I only watched once.

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You must set very high standards for your music indeed. While it may not be on par with Williams, I'd happily settle with Davis' "mediocrity"!

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I think it's a fine score. I wouldn't call it mediocre, though.

Mediocre probably isn't the right word. The action writing does a good job of emulating Williams, perhaps to a fault. The score doesn't really have its own personality or any compelling new themes or passages. In fact, some of the new material is detrimental to the film (in my opinion). The family theme feels completely out of place. Its syrupy tone would feel more at home in something like Toy Story or A Bug's Life.

And to counter GreyPilgrim's assertion that I "don't like anything", I wholeheartedly recommend John Ottman's Superman Returns. Its a much more rounded adaption, staying faithful to source material while still maintaining of distinct personality and taking the material to places it hadn't been before.

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Superman Returns = Mediocre Defined, just another dull action score with some highlights (Luthor theme vs. Superman theme for example) IMHO.

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