Dracula recording sessions are confirmed as lost to time :(

[Sharkissimo 1,973]

Do Joel McNeely or John Debney still do re-recordings for Varese?

I think McNeely stopped in the late 90s, though I could be wrong.

[Naïve Old Fart 9,512]

Actually the album is a cleverly edited presentation of the film recording.

Maurizio is correct

Are you absolutely sure, guys: it's just that the Main Title sounds re-recorded, to me.

Is there any reason why someone can't just lift the music track from the original 35mm sourse, like so many other scores?

[fommes 153]

Yeah, Tadlow/Prometheus should release this in their "Goldsmith Only" series!

Oh, wait.

[publicist 4,643]

Are you absolutely sure, guys: it's just that the Main Title sounds re-recorded, to me.

It's just a different take.

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

You know this?

How?

[publicist 4,643]

What else could it be? (the different main title part might be just an insert like in the end credits of HPPOA). The LP even has a different take on the same scene on it ("Night Journey"'s second half is an lternate to "The Love Scene"). By all accounts no LP rerecording was made.

[King Mark 3,631]

Wel, it's known The Fury album has re-recordings. Dracula was about the same time so why not?

[Jay 37,339]

The difference is that The Fury album - like Jaws, How To Steal A Million, Not With My Wife You Don't, and Fitzwilly - a COMPLETE rerecording, made after the film recording sessions specifically for the LP.

Dracula is - like all other Williams OSTs - made from the actual film recording sessions, but contain music not heard in the film because some are alternates, concert arrangement, or album versions.

[publicist 4,643]

I stands to reason that a specially prepared recording like THE FURY would have more substantially different pieces than those on DRACULA's album, which has clearly noticeable edits ("The Abduction of Lucy", "Dracula's Death") though the album is, apart from the sound issues, is much better produced than it is often given credit for. The missing 20 minutes are great but nowhere on the scale of ESB or other epics.

[Marian Schedenig 8,191]

I think McNeely stopped in the late 90s, though I could be wrong.

He did the limited North by Northwest just a few years ago, didn't he? (I sadly missed that) But aside from that, the re-recordings seem to have moved mostly to central Europe.

Wel, it's known The Fury album has re-recordings. Dracula was about the same time so why not?

The Fury album as a whole sounds entirely different from the film recordings.

[Sharkissimo 1,973]

One of the rare cases where I prefer Nic Raine's re-recording over the original is THE FURY's Main Title.

[Naïve Old Fart 9,512]

Are you absolutely sure, guys: it's just that the Main Title sounds re-recorded, to me.

It's just a different take.

Actually, that's what I meant, and not a re-recording.

Do we know exactly what was destroyed in the Universal fire?

Didn't Nic Raine reconstruct "Raise The Titanic" from just watching the film?

Anyway, shouldn't JW have his original manuscripts, or does it all depend on who owns the film?

[dylan345 3]

All the destroyed materials from the fire were duplicates.

[Naïve Old Fart 9,512]

...so...the originals exist...somewhere...

[filmmusic 1,825]

...so...the originals exist...somewhere...

Are you talking about recordings or sheet music?

If it's sheet music you mean, as I said in the previous page, the score exists, and there is no need whatsoever for a reconstruction of it by ear.

[Jay 37,339]

Right. And as for the sessions, this entire thread started because Jeff Bond said the sessions cannot be found anywhere.

[Naïve Old Fart 9,512]

So, if the manuscripts exist, then theorectically, there's nothing to stop any-one re-recording it?

[Jay 37,339]

Well, no, but it wouldn't be legal to release a CD of your recording unless you licensed the rights from the owner of the music.

[Naïve Old Fart 9,512]

Well, then, there is a viable alternative: jwfan could fund it.

Now, don't look at the screen like that. It's been done before, most notably with Marillion, who needed just 5,000 fans to pre-order their (then) latest record...12,000 ordered it...It can be done.

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

Well, then, there is a viable alternative: jwfan could fund it.

Now, don't look at the screen like that.

[Ricard 2,245]

I wonder who'll be the first to use it as his new avatar

[Donna Lackluster 23]

I had the same reaction.

Well - how naive, Richard!

http://www.gotoquiz.com/how_naive_are_you

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

I wonder who'll be the first to use it as his new avatar

Be my guest Ricard!

[RICHARDSTRAUSS68 107]

I know this is an old post so I hope someone responded, the sheet music is partially lost to time, I myself own a copy of two original cues from the score. The End Title and one from the funeral.

[Jay 37,339]

Nah I am sure all the sheet music survives. JW has a collection of all his scores at his house, for one thing. The only sheets we know are lost are his oldest stuff, plus Jane Eyre that got lost in a fire. Dracula should be fine.

[Gruesome Son of a Bitch 6,488]

First Jane Eyre, then the Max Rebo band music, then the stereo versions of Family Plot and Dracula. All of his best stuff has been lost!

[filmmusic 1,825]

Nah I am sure all the sheet music survives. JW has a collection of all his scores at his house, for one thing. The only sheets we know are lost are his oldest stuff, plus Jane Eyre that got lost in a fire. Dracula should be fine.

I don't understand why he hadn't kept a copy of Jane Eyre, or others that are presumably lost.

But anyway, this is off topic.

[Incanus 5,714]

Nah I am sure all the sheet music survives. JW has a collection of all his scores at his house, for one thing. The only sheets we know are lost are his oldest stuff, plus Jane Eyre that got lost in a fire. Dracula should be fine.

To be exact Jane Eyre sheet music wasn't lost in a fire. It was simply dumped to the trash by the studio as the insurance people thought all the sheet music in their storages was a huge fire hazard.

Boston Globe: The Music Man - Richard Dyer - 1990

Another prominent presence in Williams' living room is a long row of leatherbound pencil sketches and scores for most of the films he has composed; it stretches all the way across one wall. "It's been a working life," Williams says, without exaggeration. "Even though the point is speed, writing music for films is a very time-consuming thing. I sometimes think to succeed it's just as important to be strong as it is to be good. It's a lot to turn out 10 to 15 minutes of music for full orchestra every week."

Williams acknowledges, "There's even more music upstairs, spilling out of filing cabinets, but even so I don't have all of it -- the early stuff is probably better off lost. It's probably immodest of me to save all of this, but always in my ear, I hear the voice of my colleague and friend Bernard Herrmann, who wrote so many great scores for Hitchcock, and he said, 'Keep your music. You can't trust anyone else to.' And as usual, Benny was right.

"Did you know that the whole great MGM music library is gone? Sometime in the '70s, an insurance inspector came along and wondered what all that dangerous-looking yellow molding paper stuff was doing lying around, and it was destroyed -- not only the orchestral scores like 'Dr. Zhivago' but also the great musicals. The only way they are preserved is on the sound tracks, and if you want to perform those arrangements, you have to listen to them and write them down. I had to do that myself when I wanted to pull out my music for 'Jane Eyre' for the Pops. It had been burned, so I just sat right here with the record and listened to it over and over and copied it by ear. Even last year when I wanted to do the fugue from 'Jaws,' I had to reconstruct it. So there's a point to keeping all of this."

[Score 770]

Nah I am sure all the sheet music survives. JW has a collection of all his scores at his house, for one thing. The only sheets we know are lost are his oldest stuff, plus Jane Eyre that got lost in a fire. Dracula should be fine.

To be exact Jane Eyre sheet music wasn't lost in a fire. It was simply dumped to the trash by the studio as the insurance people thought all the sheet music in their storages was a huge fire hazard.

Boston Globe: The Music Man - Richard Dyer - 1990

Another prominent presence in Williams' living room is a long row of leatherbound pencil sketches and scores for most of the films he has composed; it stretches all the way across one wall. "It's been a working life," Williams says, without exaggeration. "Even though the point is speed, writing music for films is a very time-consuming thing. I sometimes think to succeed it's just as important to be strong as it is to be good. It's a lot to turn out 10 to 15 minutes of music for full orchestra every week."

Williams acknowledges, "There's even more music upstairs, spilling out of filing cabinets, but even so I don't have all of it -- the early stuff is probably better off lost. It's probably immodest of me to save all of this, but always in my ear, I hear the voice of my colleague and friend Bernard Herrmann, who wrote so many great scores for Hitchcock, and he said, 'Keep your music. You can't trust anyone else to.' And as usual, Benny was right.

"Did you know that the whole great MGM music library is gone? Sometime in the '70s, an insurance inspector came along and wondered what all that dangerous-looking yellow molding paper stuff was doing lying around, and it was destroyed -- not only the orchestral scores like 'Dr. Zhivago' but also the great musicals. The only way they are preserved is on the sound tracks, and if you want to perform those arrangements, you have to listen to them and write them down. I had to do that myself when I wanted to pull out my music for 'Jane Eyre' for the Pops. It had been burned, so I just sat right here with the record and listened to it over and over and copied it by ear. Even last year when I wanted to do the fugue from 'Jaws,' I had to reconstruct it. So there's a point to keeping all of this."

I also remembered (wrongly) that it was due to an accidental fire, but reality is even more stupid than the legends, apparently. Complete lack of brain.

[Thor 7,490]

Are we sure that Williams' story about the MGM fire is correct? He isn't always very good at remembering historical details, whether about himself or the artform in general.

[Incanus 5,714]

Are we sure that Williams' story about the MGM fire is correct? He isn't always very good at remembering historical details, whether about himself or the artform in general.

If you doubt Williams's memory, feel free to sleuth out if there was a fire or if they just threw the papers out as a fire hazard Thor.

[Faleel 5,345]

Nah I am sure all the sheet music survives. JW has a collection of all his scores at his house, for one thing. The only sheets we know are lost are his oldest stuff, plus Jane Eyre that got lost in a fire. Dracula should be fine.

I wonder if he mistyped and actually meant "Isn't partially lost to time".