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New podcast with yours truly: THE GOLDSMITH ODYSSEY


Yavar Moradi

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I shamefully mostly know Elmer through his comedy scores - I love Airplane, Stripes, Ghostbusters.  All so much fun!

 

Beyond that, I of course know The Great Escape and The Magnificent Seven, but I think the only other Elmer OST I've ever heard is Slipstream, which I also like.

 

I've always meant to expand my Elmer horizons, but haven't yet.  Not really sure where I should start, either!

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22 minutes ago, Modest Expectations said:

I have jotted down those

 

Oh, nice! Sadly due to character limit, on this interview and the Brian Tyler one we could not provide helpful links for the music we used (usually we link to the most definitive album release, if something has been released, and the film itself if not), as we have previously. I can help you out on these though...
 

22 minutes ago, Modest Expectations said:

Saturday’s Hero

 

Elmer's first ever film score from 1951 is sadly totally unreleased, and most likely lost to time. You'll have to watch the film itself for it (we just pulled the main title off YouTube for this):
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=saturday's+hero+1951

 

However, let me recommend strongly a score of his from a bit later in the decade which might also be really up your alley: Fear Strikes Out. Listen to the sound clips and purchase at Kritzerland:
http://www.kritzerland.com/feartin.htm
Movie-Wave review of the album:
http://www.movie-wave.net/fear-strikes-out-the-tin-star/
 

22 minutes ago, Modest Expectations said:

Bolero

 

This is a really good score IMO by both Elmer and Peter Bernstein, though apparently they didn't coordinate much on it like they did later for say Wild Wild West. Prometheus released this complete (I think) on CD some years back and given the film I wouldn't expect another label to tackle a new edition, even though it's good music. But I guess you never know as BSX has pleasantly surprised with some of their reissues lately...I personally would just pick it up from SAE as its still available there for $16.95:
http://screenarchives.com/title_detail.cfm/ID/2352/BOLERO/

 

22 minutes ago, Modest Expectations said:

The Three Amigos

 

This has sadly never been expanded beyond the original album...which itself is OOP at the moment but there is *one* affordable copy on Amazon Marketplace right now so I'd nab it while you can!
https://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/B00BDYSI7O/
 

22 minutes ago, Modest Expectations said:

Slipstream

 

An original album program (not complete but a great selection) was actually released by Perseverance Records (actually I think it's the best release the label ever did), but then later withdrawn from sale because while licensed from the Bernstein Estate, they apparently didn't get proper licensing from the weird film company which has been unwilling to license it to any label (Roger at Intrada has been trying for years). You can still find that (not fully legal) release secondhand but it's fairly pricey I'm afraid...
https://www.discogs.com/Elmer-Bernstein-Slipstream-Original-Motion-Picture-Soundtrack/release/3424743

 

27 minutes ago, Jay said:

I shamefully mostly know Elmer through his comedy scores - I love Airplane, Stripes, Ghostbusters.  All so much fun!

 

Beyond that, I of course know The Great Escape and The Magnificent Seven, but I think the only other Elmer OST I've ever heard is Slipstream, which I also like.

 

I've always meant to expand my Elmer horizons, but haven't yet.  Not really sure where I should start, either!

 

I'm happy to help you out! Based on your love of Slipstream, I would highly recommend you purchase Heavy Metal next, post-haste!
https://filmscoremonthly.com/cds/detail.cfm/CDID/396/Heavy-Metal--The-Score/

Truly an amazing score...I think I might like it even better than Slipstream when it comes to that Elmer sound.

I'm surprised you don't know To Kill A Mockingbird -- that and The Birdman of Alcatraz are maybe my favorite Bernstein drama scores (but he's done so many amazing ones including The Great Santini which I bring up in this interview -- have you had a chance to listen to it yet? https://filmscoremonthly.com/cds/detail.cfm/CDID/479/Great-Santini-The/) Check 'em out on YouTube!

(film recording of this score is sadly unreleased due to someone's estate nixing Intrada's plans, but here's the main title...the Ava album recording or Film Music Collection re-recording are superb and your best bet on album; I don't like Elmer's 90s re-recording of the score as much as his 60s or 70s ones)
 


Much as with Jerry (or Basil, or Benny, or Miklos) you really can't easily go wrong with Elmer, though. Super consistently strong work even on the dumb projects. (We would have included a badass chase cue from Leonard Part 6 but it had so many sound effects and Bill Cosby vocals over it that it really didn't work and we had to go with the Main Title which really wasn't representative of the score but was most bearable despite the sound effects....)

Yavar

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On 10/3/2019 at 11:47 AM, Jay said:

I've always meant to expand my Elmer horizons, but haven't yet.  Not really sure where I should start, either!

 

It's almost like Intrada heard you...

ImageImage
And check out the podcast: https://www.dropbox.com/s/op7grvpg61ml2 ... n.mp3?dl=0

(The podcast is so tantalizing!)

Yavar

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Just listened to the whole interview. Really interesting. Peter Bernstein had a lot of funny insights into his father. I was a little disappointed he didn't have more to say about The Black Cauldron, but I guess for him it was just another day of work.

 

I've been a big fan of Elmer Bernstein's music since I watched How to Kill a Mockingbird in Jr. High. While his music is very noticeable and his own, there's a lot of richness and variety in there, to go from The Great Santini to Zulu Dawn in the same time period shows a lot of versatility for example. Of the unreleased sampled theme tracks that I heard, Leonard Part 6 interested me the most just because I've never heard him compose something that "rocking sounding" in the eighties, especially for such a bad movie. I know Peter mentioned that Elmer originally hired him so he could work on more band instruments like guitars, but it just stood out to me.

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I have lovely memories of Peter Bernstein working with the USC Symphony in my first weeks there.  A very sweet man.  That concert was an incredible early experience.  Many of the Elmer's original handwritten scores were on display at the library and were amazing to see...I've posted some pics here.  Thanks for posting this.

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On 10/4/2019 at 9:39 PM, Fancyarcher said:

Just listened to the whole interview. Really interesting. Peter Bernstein had a lot of funny insights into his father. I was a little disappointed he didn't have more to say about The Black Cauldron, but I guess for him it was just another day of work.


Yeah we decided to leave that bit in (and some other similar ones) so it was clear I didn't just forget to ask him about it.

 

On 10/4/2019 at 9:39 PM, Fancyarcher said:

I've been a big fan of Elmer Bernstein's music since I watched How to Kill a Mockingbird in Jr. High. While his music is very noticeable and his own, there's a lot of richness and variety in there, to go from The Great Santini to Zulu Dawn in the same time period shows a lot of versatility for example. Of the unreleased sampled theme tracks that I heard, Leonard Part 6 interested me the most just because I've never heard him compose something that "rocking sounding" in the eighties, especially for such a bad movie. I know Peter mentioned that Elmer originally hired him so he could work on more band instruments like guitars, but it just stood out to me.


I'm glad we left the Leonard Part 6 Main Title in, then. We considered leaving it out because 1) it had those weird sound effects and 2) it wasn't very representative of the score on the whole, which was overall much more traditional orchestral (with one really strong action cue) -- but we couldn't do any of those cues because there was even *more* intrusive sound effects plus a lot of Bill Cosby voice! It really is a pretty good score and deserves a release, as does everything Elmer wrote of course. ;)
 

On 10/7/2019 at 5:59 PM, karelm said:

I have lovely memories of Peter Bernstein working with the USC Symphony in my first weeks there.  A very sweet man.  That concert was an incredible early experience.  Many of the Elmer's original handwritten scores were on display at the library and were amazing to see...I've posted some pics here.  Thanks for posting this.


You're welcome, and thanks for posting what you did! So you performed in this concert?
 


Can you say more about what it was like, working with Peter?

Yavar

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4 hours ago, Yavar Moradi said:

 


Can you say more about what it was like, working with Peter?

Yavar

 

I didn't perform in the concert but attend the rehearsals, I was in the composition program in the same school with the same teachers.  Peter's dad, Elmer, had just died a few years earlier and was a beloved teacher in our school.  My fellow classmates just three or four years before me studied with him!  Peter was very kind and modest as was my mentor and advisor David Spear who was Elmer's orchestrator on Ghostbusters, Airplane, Heavy Metal, Three Amigo, Animal House, the last decade or so which is how they knew each other.  Perhaps I was just very stupid then but I was surprised how down to earth Peter was.  He mentioned that this was the pastiche phase of Elmer's career where so many of the projects were sort of insultingly banal but Elmer took them on modestly.  I think alot of these years he was associated with comedy but his scores were the straight man in the comedy.  Peter talked very humbly about his dad and I thought I filmed it but this was before smart phones so I didn't yet have a good camera to capture this stuff! :(  He was very friendly, modest, smiled a lot, a very good conductor.  I will confess that I hadn't heard so much of this music because I was more familiar with the epics but absolutely adored the smaller scores.  I believe they said Elmer composed the first jazz score which was brilliant in the man with the gold arm.  John Landis was in the audience at the concert and gave a brief talk about his reflections working with Elmer.  It was very laudatory as you would imagine. 

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Very cool @karelm, thanks for sharing more about Peter! If you attended the final concert as well as the rehearsals, who knows we might even have been sitting near each other without realizing it!

"First jazz score" is a little tricky to declare, I've found. The Man With the Golden Arm is often brought up as an important milestone, in terms of jazz becoming popular in Hollywood scoring, but it was preceded by Alex North's A Streetcar Named Desire and even earlier, Franz Waxman's Sunset Blvd. (which was not primarily jazz but certainly had some jazz elements). I have no idea if jazz might have entered European film scores earlier.


Yavar

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7 hours ago, Yavar Moradi said:

"First jazz score" is a little tricky to declare, I've found. The Man With the Golden Arm is often brought up as an important milestone, in terms of jazz becoming popular in Hollywood scoring, but it was preceded by Alex North's A Streetcar Named Desire and even earlier, Franz Waxman's Sunset Blvd. (which was not primarily jazz but certainly had some jazz elements). I have no idea if jazz might have entered European film scores earlier.


Yavar

 

I think they might mean it more as a mainstream score.  Think of it how "The Jazz Singer" from 1927 is consider the first film with sound but sound was in film from 1908.  Jazz Singer was a major distributed film from Paramount (or what would become Paramount) so became the first mass produced Hollywood production with sound though sound existed in film earlier in some form.  Maybe "first jazz score" is somewhat like that.  I can ask John Burlingame about this but I have his book on my shelf which might also explain.  I think these are generally gray lines where to identify a "first" isn't as easy as it might seem.

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 10/21/2019 at 11:50 AM, BrotherSound said:

@Yavar Moradi Thought you might like to know the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Collections site was recently revised, and now has details about the sketches of almost every Goldsmith score, including cue lists and page counts:

 

http://collections.new.oscars.org/Details/Collection/661

 

WOW! What a treasure trove! This includes official cue titles for multiple unreleased scores (like Black Patch, Face of a Fugitive, the rejected score for The Public Eye, and Take Her, She's Mine), a couple of substantially written but never-recorded scores (Babe and Disney's The Kid), and a whole host of scores waiting to be expanded, from The Chairman to US Marshals to the partially-rejected Love Field!

Thanks so much for sharing that.

 

Yavar

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  • 2 weeks later...

And the episode is now up!

http://goldsmithodyssey.buzzsprout.com/159614/1958638-episode-22-gunsmoke-love-thy-neighbor-old-faces-1961

 

There's lots of exclusive good unreleased Goldsmith western music here, and in music-only form thanks to a generous collector at FSM (Ron Burbella), who shared them with us. We also discuss one of the best episodes of television we have come across yet!

I can't wait to hear what you think of it, @Fancyarcher @Brundlefly @Display Name @TownerFan @Disco Stu @Mr. Breathmask @Faleel J.M. @El Jefe @Modest Expectations @Laserschwert @publicist @BrotherSound @karelm @Modest Expectations @Jay

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I adore Goldsmith so much, one of my favorites.  He was a teacher at USC where I went to school but before my time.  Marco Beltrami talked about him as a mentor teacher and said he was quite bad at it.  He was first and foremost a musician, not a mentor, not a teacher.  In contrast, some composers are brilliant at inspiring others.  Goldsmith wasn’t that.  Copeland was.  It is up to the student to learn from these crusty characters and take the abuse and not all of us are up to that.  As for me, I have no problem dealing with crusty types if they are a musical genius.  It’s worth it to get their input.  Also very worth hearing is how they crafted some of their brilliant scores like Planet of the Apes.  When in a collaborative mode, Jerry is brilliant!  I think POTA is a perfect example. 

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14 hours ago, karelm said:

I adore Goldsmith so much, one of my favorites.  He was a teacher at USC where I went to school but before my time.  Marco Beltrami talked about him as a mentor teacher and said he was quite bad at it.  He was first and foremost a musician, not a mentor, not a teacher.  In contrast, some composers are brilliant at inspiring others.  Goldsmith wasn’t that.  Copeland was.  It is up to the student to learn from these crusty characters and take the abuse and not all of us are up to that.  As for me, I have no problem dealing with crusty types if they are a musical genius.  It’s worth it to get their input.  Also very worth hearing is how they crafted some of their brilliant scores like Planet of the Apes.  When in a collaborative mode, Jerry is brilliant!  I think POTA is a perfect example. 

 

Goldsmith may have been a bad teacher/instructor, but I don't think he was a bad mentor. He was incredibly supportive of younger composers and their work. You probably know he personally recommended Bruce Broughton for Tombstone when he couldn't do it. In my conversations with composers Cliff Eidelman, David Newman, Justin Freer, and Brian Tyler, a consistent thread was how encouraging and supportive Jerry was, and also how free he was with advice about how to navigate the industry and such, if not necessarily the actual composing side of film music... you can listen for yourself:
http://goldsmithodyssey.buzzsprout.com/159614/827526-odyssey-interviews-cliff-eidelman
http://goldsmithodyssey.buzzsprout.com/159614/1000935-odyssey-interviews-david-newman
http://goldsmithodyssey.buzzsprout.com/159614/1012976-odyssey-interviews-justin-freer
http://goldsmithodyssey.buzzsprout.com/159614/1693987-odyssey-interviews-brian-tyler

I would love to eventually interview Marco Beltrami and get his thoughts about that, and see if his really differs from theirs.
 

7 hours ago, Jurassic Shark said:

@Yavar Moradi, your voice is lacking depth. Did you record the episode via Skype or something?

 

So we have our conversations via Skype, and occasionally we have had to use a Skype backup for someone... but usually (and in this case) we record locally to Audacity and send those lossless files to David who edits. That said, I'm just using an inexpensive Snowball mic while both David and Clark have much more professional grade mics. I've been considering an upgrade especially since I'm doing all of these interview episodes as well, and it's kinda sad in those instances like Brian Tyler, Robert Townson, and David Newman, when the guest sounds better than the interviewer. :) 

So are you saying that I sounded worse to you in this episode recording than I usually do, when I'm with my colleagues?


Yavar

 

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4 hours ago, Yavar Moradi said:

So are you saying that I sounded worse to you in this episode recording than I usually do, when I'm with my colleagues?

 

No, I'm not saying that - I've only sporadically sampled a few episodes so I only though about it now. 

 

I'm just thinking that upgrading your mic would make the show sound a notch more professional (not that it doesn't appear very well done already)!

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8 hours ago, Yavar Moradi said:

 

Goldsmith may have been a bad teacher/instructor, but I don't think he was a bad mentor. He was incredibly supportive of younger composers and their work. You probably know he personally recommended Bruce Broughton for Tombstone when he couldn't do it. In my conversations with composers Cliff Eidelman, David Newman, Justin Freer, and Brian Tyler, a consistent thread was how encouraging and supportive Jerry was, and also how free he was with advice about how to navigate the industry and such, if not necessarily the actual composing side of film music... you can listen for yourself:
http://goldsmithodyssey.buzzsprout.com/159614/827526-odyssey-interviews-cliff-eidelman
http://goldsmithodyssey.buzzsprout.com/159614/1000935-odyssey-interviews-david-newman
http://goldsmithodyssey.buzzsprout.com/159614/1012976-odyssey-interviews-justin-freer
http://goldsmithodyssey.buzzsprout.com/159614/1693987-odyssey-interviews-brian-tyler

I would love to eventually interview Marco Beltrami and get his thoughts about that, and see if his really differs from theirs.
 

 

So we have our conversations via Skype, and occasionally we have had to use a Skype backup for someone... but usually (and in this case) we record locally to Audacity and send those lossless files to David who edits. That said, I'm just using an inexpensive Snowball mic while both David and Clark have much more professional grade mics. I've been considering an upgrade especially since I'm doing all of these interview episodes as well, and it's kinda sad in those instances like Brian Tyler, Robert Townson, and David Newman, when the guest sounds better than the interviewer. :) 

So are you saying that I sounded worse to you in this episode recording than I usually do, when I'm with my colleagues?


Yavar

 

Very good point, the comment might reveal more about Beltrami than Goldsmith.  I also think Beltrami had a bit of a chip on his shoulder because he studied classical music at Yale and that might have been a source of conflict that Beltrami felt unjustly criticized and Goldsmith felt he needed to be humbled as a young kid with a chip on his shoulder.  Very, very possible.  Chris Young also mentioned that Goldsmith wasn't the most personable but that doesn't really matter.  He was edgy, that I get and I don't think that is disputable.  Some will take that the wrong way and others don't mind it as much.  I sat next to Joel Goldsmith and Jerry's widow (I think her name was Carol but going off memory so not fully sure) at a tribute concert and they were such genuinely sweet people with naturally positive dispositions.  His widow was very kind, lovely, and so warm.  I recall Joel was gravely obese and profusely sweating but genuinely sweet.  I was really sad that he died maybe a year or months later.  Did you ever read the fragments of the memoir his daughter wrote about Jerry?  It was very honest and full of his opinions, frustrations, and interviews she was making as he was dying, etc.  I felt his character really came through and he even talked about JW.  Unfortunately, I don't believe it was ever published and she might have removed what she released.  Maybe you should track her down and interview her.  I hear very positive comments from the musicians who performed for Jerry.  He was greatly admired as an artist.

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David Newman said the scoring sessions for Star Trek The Motion Picture were very intense.  He would be a good one to interview too.  At the time he was a studio violinist, I don't think he had made the switch to composing yet. 

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1 hour ago, karelm said:

David Newman said the scoring sessions for Star Trek The Motion Picture were very intense.  He would be a good one to interview too.  At the time he was a studio violinist, I don't think he had made the switch to composing yet. 


Dude, did you not read my above post (that you quoted) very closely? ;)

 

Yavar

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This was a very fun episode to listen to. Not just for the Goldsmith discussion, but also honestly from the way you guys described those Gunsmoke shows, it made me wanna go back and look at the series again. I remember watching it years ago on TVland, and it didn't make much of an impression, but to be fair I was also like 8 at the time. 

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On 11/2/2019 at 10:54 PM, Fancyarcher said:

This was a very fun episode to listen to. Not just for the Goldsmith discussion, but also honestly from the way you guys described those Gunsmoke shows, it made me wanna go back and look at the series again. I remember watching it years ago on TVland, and it didn't make much of an impression, but to be fair I was also like 8 at the time. 

 

I mean, to be fair it's hit or miss! "Love Thy Neighbor" was a superb episode, but I wouldn't describe any of the other four we've seen that way. But they are all perfectly watchable with quite likable recurring characters -- particularly Chester, who sadly won't be around for Jerry's final excellent score written for the 12th season of the show. But I hope you do revisit some of the show, particularly that one great episode at the very least. So glad you had fun listening to the podcast. :) 

@karelm, do let me know your thoughts after you listen to the David Newman podcast from earlier this year. We do talk about TMP but other Goldsmith scores he played on including one of my favorite often-overlooked favorites (and his first time playing on a Goldsmith score): Contract on Cherry Street.

I just recorded another Odyssey Interview with a veteran composer who knew Jerry and had a few places of overlap with him. @Fancyarcher @Brundlefly @Display Name @TownerFan @Disco Stu @Mr. Breathmask @Faleel J.M. @El Jefe @Modest Expectations @Laserschwert @publicist @BrotherSound @Modest Expectations @Jay -- anyone care to venture a guess who I spoke with this past Friday?

 

Yavar

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1 minute ago, Yavar Moradi said:

Well done!

 

Yavar

 

I knew it had to be.  He's shown a willingness to do podcasts in the past and of course I knew about the "overlap" of doing the later Soarin' attractions for Disney after Jerry passed.  What I didn't know until I just IMDB'd him is that Broughton also scored a couple episodes of Barnaby Jones, presumably having to work with Goldsmith's theme for those.  Very cool, I look forward to hearing it.

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1 hour ago, Disco Stu said:

I knew it had to be.  He's shown a willingness to do podcasts in the past and of course I knew about the "overlap" of doing the later Soarin' attractions for Disney after Jerry passed.  What I didn't know until I just IMDB'd him is that Broughton also scored a couple episodes of Barnaby Jones, presumably having to work with Goldsmith's theme for those.  Very cool, I look forward to hearing it.

 

So I guess you were not aware that one of Broughton's two Barnaby Jones episode scores was included complete along with Jerry Goldsmith's pilot score, on the recent LLL release "The Quinn Martin Collection Volume 1: Cop and Detective Series"?
https://lalalandrecords.com/quinn-martin-collection-the-volume-1-cop-and-detective-series-limited-edition-2-cd-set/

 

It's a good score too, although not on the level of Jerry's IMO. He adapts Jerry's theme near the end of his score.

Most interestingly of all, though, was Bruce's revelation in the interview that there was at least one more time that he adapted a Jerry Goldsmith theme! You'll have to wait until the interview to find out the circumstances...fingers crossed he still has the music in his archives and can share it with us to play for you on the show!

 

Yavar

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  • 3 weeks later...
8 hours ago, Laserschwert said:

I hope you talk about "The Orville", because that is clearly Broughton channeling Goldsmith.


Towards the end we do yes, though I don’t really hear the Goldsmith influence directly in the music. But considering I’m a big Orville fan, it’s tangentially Jerry-related because it’s a Star Trek homage, and it’s the most recent media project Broughton has had, yes...we spend a while talking about it. :)
 

Broughton was one of our most engaged guests. This was also truly a nice bit of timing with our recently having covered more of Jerry's fine Gunsmoke work on The Goldsmith Odyssey, since Bruce got his composing start at CBS television on that very same show! His memories of his CBS years were a particular gift that kept on giving in this conversation, as he worked closely with a lot of people who knew Jerry from his time under contract there just over a decade earlier, and (before he even got to know Jerry better) he found his way into multiple recording sessions, such as Brotherhood of the Bell! Among a wide variety of subjects spanning the breadth of his entire Hollywood career, we also discuss the three (!) times he was asked to adapt a Goldsmith theme, his insights into incorporating unusual instruments with the typical symphony orchestra, and his experience in the world of concert music, with an exclusive clip of his upcoming Trombone Concerto, "Quaternity"!
 

Here’s the direct link:

http://goldsmithodyssey.buzzsprout.com/159614/2083614-odyssey-interviews-bruce-broughton
 

I hope you all enjoy listening to the conversation as much as I enjoyed having it, and I hope you'll chime in with any thoughts should you feel so inclined.

 

Yavar
 

P.S. In addition to Bruce himself, I'd like to thank Doug and Roger of Intrada, and their friend at Disney Randy Thornton, for their kind assistance in facilitating the inclusion of a precious 30 seconds of the unreleased score to Soarin' Around the World, which was so helpful to illustrate Bruce's skillful putting Jerry's melody into new ethnically flavored musical settings. I think it was way back in a 2016 interview where Bruce originally revealed that Doug was working on a set of his Disney Parks compositions, so I'm sure everyone here will be pleased to know that work on that has not been abandoned, almost four years later. I for one am sure that whenever it comes out, it will be worth the wait!

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Is it just me or does Bruce seem to almost go out of his way to *not* mention John Williams' name?  Is there something there?  Am I being weird?

 

EDIT: never mind!  Just got to the part where he brings up Home Alone, and a few times after that.  Which is exactly the context in which I expected Williams’ name to come up!  And the happy ending to that story is that Bruce did get to score a John Hughes Christmas movie a few years later with Miracle, and it’s one of the greatest Christmas film scores ever written!

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  • 3 weeks later...
4 hours ago, Stefancos said:

Good interview!

 

Thanks!

 

4 hours ago, Stefancos said:

I rolled my eyes when Bruce Broughton said he though Jerry didnt do comedy very well. :)


He certainly isn't the first person I've heard express that very opinion, but it did surprise me that he hadn't heard Looney Tunes: Back in Action, since that was Jerry's final score.

Yavar

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On 10/3/2019 at 7:47 PM, Jay said:

I shamefully mostly know Elmer through his comedy scores - I love Airplane, Stripes, Ghostbusters.  All so much fun!

 

Beyond that, I of course know The Great Escape and The Magnificent Seven, but I think the only other Elmer OST I've ever heard is Slipstream, which I also like.

 

I've always meant to expand my Elmer horizons, but haven't yet.  Not really sure where I should start, either!

 

True Grit is quite good.

 

 

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49 minutes ago, publicist said:

And 'To Kill A Mockingbird'

 

 


Agreed, though that’s my least favorite recording of it (after the film recording, original Ava album recording, and the 70s Film Music Collection recording).

 

Yavar

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@Yavar Moradi in your interview with Mike Ross-Trevor you mentioned you thought Jerry might have simplified his music a bit on King Solomon's Mines because he was recording it with the Hungarian State Opera Orchestra. 

 

Its something I've thought for years now for his score to Rambo III. 

 

Any idea if that might have been the case?

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I doubt any composer lowered his or her bar for London- or LA-based musicians. Rambo II's themes are more basic, too, still they play the hell out of Jerry's precise action constructs, though compared with that the Hungarians struggle manfully through KSM.

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20 minutes ago, publicist said:

Rambo II's themes are more basic, too, still they play the hell out of Jerry's precise action constructs,

 

They do, though someone is obviously unable to keep time in the opening cue, and a xylophonist falls behind in one of the big action tracks.

And I'm not normally someone who picks up flubs.

 

 

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Sure, though it lacks the raw energy the NPO would have given it, I think.

 

Personally I'm glad that Jerry had enough of second rate European orchestra's after the disastrous Total Recall attempt.

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