Frank Vincent

I got a shipping notice.

Intrada announces an expanded reissue of Christopher Young's sci-fi/horror score to the 1995 MGM film Species. The album features the program Young put together in 2008, where he chose to present the score not in strict chronological sequence but rather in an intricately edited re-imagining of the cues to create the strongest musical listening experience. Several cues were dropped, and many others were trimmed to facilitate the new sequence. As is customary for this most creative and talented composer, Young judiciously married several otherwise-unrelated cues into longer pieces that were musically satisfying while still retaining the overall shape and architecture of the film itself. In some cases, he pulled bars from one take and inserted them into other takes as well as remixing everything to obtain the specific sound he desired. This release features that magnificent program. Additionally, for the collector who wants everything, we've also included the complete unedited score in chronological sequence, making this the last word on Young's brilliant work. The music for Species is written for large orchestra plus synthesizers and choir. Christopher Young scored some 90 minutes of music using these forces both in full and in part, and his compositional gifts are on full display. In the film, a seemingly human child is held in a government facility, yet the girl is actually the product of an alien transmission that enabled Earth scientists to combine extraterrestrial and human DNA. The head of the project, Xavier Fitch (Ben Kingsley) orders the destruction of the young creature, Sil. But Sil escapes before the execution can take place, quickly grows to adulthood and begins a rampage in Los Angeles. Fitch gathers a team of unlikely experts to track down and kill the creature. The personnel include an “empath” who can read others’ thoughts and feelings (Forest Whitaker), a sociologist (Alfred Molina), a biologist (Marg Helgenberger), and a government contract killer (Michael Madsen). The twist in Species is that Sil is by all appearances a beautiful human female, played as a young girl by Michelle Williams and as an adult by actress and model Natasha Henstridge. CD 1 Original Score 01. Main Title (Revised) (3:43) 02. Sil Escapes Part 1 (2:57) 03. Sil Escapes Part 2 (1:28) 04. Sil’s Dream, Number 1 (0:26) 05. Sil Gets Off Train (1:14) 06. Track And Hunt Her Down #1 (1:06) 07. Sil’s Dream, Number 4 (0:29) 08. Young Sil Transforms (0:57) 09. Dan The Psychic (Alternate) (1:27) 10. Sil Grows Up (0:35) 11. The Experiment (3:55) 12. Battlefield L.A. (3:47) 13. Sil In L.A. (1:20) 14. Bad Experiment (Revised) (4:31) 15. Manhunt Begins (0:55) 16. Sil Stalks Her Prey/Ladies Room Killing (0:47) 17. Sil Kills Robbie (2:58) 18. More Docile (1:12) 19. Sil’s Dream, Number 3 (0:41) 20. Track And Hunt Her Down #2 (0:41) 21. She’s So Lonely/Body Repair (2:27) 22. Hospital Report (0:52) 23. Dangerous Sex (5:42) 24. Sil Follows Team (2:37) 25. Sil’s Dream, Number 2 (0:38) 26. The Set Up (Revised) (2:53) 27. Sil Stages Her Death (3:57) 28. Sil’s Disguise (4:02) 29. Wrong Blond (0:34) 30. Sil Follows Laura (0:42) 31. Hole To Hell/Feminine Intuition (3:23) 32. Fitch Gets It (0:54) 33. Creature Watches Team (2:38) 34. Baby Alien (1:28) 35. The Baby’s Demise (4:16) 36. Sil’s Demise (1:53) 37. End Credits (5:07) CD 1 Total Time: 79:13 CD 2 The Extras 01. Main Title (Original) (2:29 02. Dan The Psychic (Original) (1:25 03. Bad Experiment (Original) (4:29 04. The Set Up (Original) (3:01 Total Extras Time: 11:24 2008 Composer Assembly 05. Species (3:38) 06. A Vibrant Slime (3:29) 07. Protostar (2:52<) 08. Ring Nebula (5:28) 09. Fever (2:27) 10. Are You Out There Somewhere? (5:17) 11. Species Feces (4:24) 12. Bax Max (3:40) 13. Milky Way Breasts (4:52) 14. Safe Sex (2:32) 15. Fever’s Fever (3:40) 16. The Alien Underground (3:57) 17. Worm Hole (2:20) 18. Son Of Sil (1:50) 19. Star Bright (5:01) 20. Aetherian Universe (4:30) 21. How To Defend Yourself Against Alien Abduction (3:07) 22. Angel Hair (3:06) Composer Assembly Time: 67:15 CD 2 Total Time: 78:39 SPECIES (2CD - EXPANDED) (intrada.com)

Intrada announces the premiere release of Christopher Young's stunning score for The Piper. Writer/Director Erlingur Thoroddsen sought out the veteran composer not only for the task of scoring The Piper, but to compose the three-movement Concerto for Children, which is rehearsed and performed in several pivotal scenes in the movie and whose motifs haunt the soundtrack of the movie and its characters. The filmmaker tasked Young with creating a work that was sophisticated enough to convince as a concert hall composition, maddening enough to compel characters to stab their ears as it unfolds, dynamic and dramatic enough to work as underscore during some of the film’s most frightening and powerful moments, and so compelling in its unearthly beauty that it seems capable of holding characters—from unscrupulous conductors to innocent children—in its spectral grip. “It turned out to be a 30-minute, three movement concerto that I had to write in advance,” Young says. “Erlingur basically told me that he needed one movement that was going to be crazy, because it was going to be played toward the end of the movie when the whole theater is going to pot. But beyond that, it was pretty open ended." The concerto employs standard flutes with the performer providing more exotic timbres through his playing. “I used piccolos through the lower C flute, alto flute, into the bass flute range, for these lower chords. For the Piper himself, when we see him play, it’s a normal flute that has been completely altered through electronic modification.” As Young notes, all these factors add up to one problem: “My flute concerto can never be performed as written. I’d have to make changes because the performer is required to move from the alto flute to the C flute to piccolo all within a handful of bars. It was easy to punch in and record them, but I’m going to have to make some revisions if I ever want to have this performed live.” The result is a powerful and sophisticated work that would stand up well in the concert hall ... if only it could be performed as written! Thoroddsen’s supernatural horror film follows Melanie Walker (Charlotte Hope), an ambitious young flautist, composer and single mom working under the auspices of imperious conductor Gustafson (Julian Sands), who leads the orchestra at the fabled but financially troubled Virgil Hall. Struggling to maintain her first-chair position in the orchestra, Melanie hopes to impress Gustafson with a flute concerto she’s composed, but she’s being undercut by the equally ambitious flautist and composer Franklin (Philipp Christopher), who has his own concerto in front of the demanding conductor. Gustafson also has a connection to another troubled composer—the late Katherine Fleischer, whose Concerto for Children No. 1 was given but a single, disastrous performance in 1975. That uncompleted rendition resulted in the Virgil Hall Tragedy, a fire that killed over 100 children. Katherine had been Melanie’s mentor before the elder composer took her own life by burning herself to death—after Gustafson tried to browbeat her into another performance of the concerto. Struggling to maintain her position with the conductor, Melanie Walker insists that she can find Katherine Fleischer’s written music so that Gustafson can conduct it at a crucial upcoming fundraiser for the hall and orchestra. FLUTE CONCERTO: A Concerto for Flute, Children's Choir and Orchestra 01. Movement 1 (11:12) 02. Movement 2 (07:33) 03. Movement 3 (11:24) Concerto Time : 30:11 THE SCORE 04. Suite (21:11) CD Total Time: 51:13 THE PIPER (intrada.com)

I hope I secured my copy too, together with Avatar: The Way of Water.

According to the international store How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World and Hellboy II: The Golden Army will ship on or before March 22.

In stock at Music Box Records: Hook - Ultimate Edition | John WILLIAMS | CD (musicbox-records.com)

Home Alone (John Williams) Navy Seals (Sylvester Levay)

La-La Land has posted this on the FSM message board: FSM Board: LAST CALL: EMPIRE OF THE SUN (filmscoremonthly.com)

Canadian Bacon (Elmer & Peter Bernstein)

Grease Halloween Jaws 2 Superman: The Movie

Another Peter Pan update to get rid of the question marks. Castle Swordfight 0:00 - 2:45 Castle Swordfight 2:46 - 3:29 Croc 3:30 - end The Warrior Is Healed Wendy Meets Hook 0:00 - 0:24 Pirates Kidnap Wendy 0:25 - end Wendy Meets Hook Hook Is Dead / Flying Jolly Roger 0:00 - 0:38 Hook Is Dead 0:39 - 1:48 Flying Ship 1:49 - end Returning Home Adopting Lost Boys / Peter Returns 0:00 - 2:25 Adopting Lost Boys 2:26 - end Peter Returns

I have two adjustments for Peter Pan. "Peter Returns (Alternate)" is part of the end credits suite (9:22 - end) on the Intrada album. The version of "Fairy Dance" as heard in the film (with more choir) is also part of the end credits suite (2:33 - 7:51). Unfortunately is doesn't have a clean opening or ending. This version is also included on the FYC album.

Interesting to read the information about the end credits suite. I guess the filmmakers loved the version of "Fairy Dance" in the end credits so much that they also used it for the scene.