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Oswald Shot in JFK — Where’s the music on the album?


Alejandro

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Hello Everyone,

 

I’m a high school history teacher, and of course I pretty much only show films in class with Williams’ music.  We are watching clips from JFK and Nixon now, and I was wondering where I can find the music that accompanies Oswald being shot (so I can overlap it onto the actual footage).

 

I know the JFK album is pretty incomplete.  

 

Thank you. 

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There's a breakdown of every cue heard in the film, and whether it's available on the OST, here:

http://www.jwfan.com/?p=3862

 

I'm not familiar with the film or where the scene you're looking for is located. But if you're familiar with the movie you should be able to work out whether that music was on the OST, using the breakdown above.

 

Unfortunately, if it's not on the OST, it hasn't been released anywhere else.

 

Incidentally, one of the boutique music labels (La-La Land Records) were planning an expanded release of JW's score to JFK as far back as 2017, but it's never seen the light of day (so presumably some complex licensing issues stalled its release).

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13 hours ago, Alejandro said:

Hello Everyone,

 

I’m a high school history teacher, and of course I pretty much only show films in class with Williams’ music.  We are watching clips from JFK and Nixon now, and I was wondering where I can find the music that accompanies Oswald being shot (so I can overlap it onto the actual footage).

 

I know the JFK album is pretty incomplete.  

 

Thank you. 

Glad to know you are using those as teaching tools.

Despite the whining and crying by ' historians" these films give an much more honest version of events

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It also must be noted that a lot of the music as heard in the film is the result of Stone and the editors using cues in piecemeal fashion, much like as it was found music than actual score, so it might be hard to sync up the piece to the footage.

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17 hours ago, TownerFan said:

It also must be noted that a lot of the music as heard in the film is the result of Stone and the editors using cues in piecemeal fashion, much like as it was found music than actual score, so it might be hard to sync up the piece to the footage.

 

So it's just like Rise of Skywalker ;)

 

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On 3/11/2021 at 8:05 PM, Trumpeteer said:

The music for this scene comes from "Garrison's Obsession," track 6 on the official CD release. The music comes from 1:20-1:59.

 

18 hours ago, TownerFan said:

It also must be noted that a lot of the music as heard in the film is the result of Stone and the editors using cues in piecemeal fashion, much like as it was found music than actual score, so it might be hard to sync up the piece to the footage.


The entirety of the Garrison’s Obsession track is a cue of the same name. Like several JFK cues, and contrary to Williams’ usual practice, it’s what’s called a “wild” cue, meaning it wasn’t written to precisely sync with any specific footage, and so lacks a slate (1M2, 3M5, etc.). Usually only pieces intended as album-only arrangements won’t have a slate, but it seems the intention here was always that they would be edited into the film in some fashion.
 

There’s an OST breakdown and complete cue list here: 

 

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4 hours ago, The Big Man said:

I revisited this score not long ago and aside from having to skip dumb source tracks, I'm satisfied with what we've got.

Right.

Unless there is a great unused piece, like the " Ballroom Dance" from EASTWICK.

Otherwise not sure what can be added.

Love the score, so if there's more, bring it on!

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Just to clear up and clarify some points being made here in this topic:

 

John Williams was asked by Oliver Stone to write a score for "JFK," which Williams quickly accepted. However, Williams was very busy with Steven Spielberg's "Hook," which at the time was being discussed as an original musical. Both films were set for a fall/winter 1991 release, and the timelines for scoring both projects created a conflict.

 

After "Hook" officially became a nonmusical, Williams had a little time to work on the "JFK" score. He visited Stone on the New Orleans set to talk about some ideas, and visited Dealey Plaza, where Kennedy was shot. After that, he wrote music to fit scenes as written in the script and concepts of the film. Stone and Williams agreed that the music would be recorded almost as concert suites, with Stone and music editor Ken Wannberg fitting the music into the film where needed. The only scene that seems to precisely fit the score and visuals is the team examining David Ferrie's home after his apparent suicide. The music for that scene doesn't appear anywhere else, and likely Williams was able to write music for that specific scene after Stone presented a rough cut.

 

If you never heard the soundtrack album, and you didn't know the story, you would think Williams composed the score pretty much in his usual fashion. I didn't know the back story of the composing technique until about 2005, and it offered a different perspective on the score but did not detract from the "enjoyment" of it.

 

I discuss many of these points with Brian Martell in my "JFK" epsiode of my podcast:

 

 

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1 minute ago, Trumpeteer said:

John Williams was asked by Oliver Stone to write a score for "JFK," which Williams quickly accepted. However, Williams was very busy with Steven Spielberg's "Hook," which at the time was being discussed as an original musical. Both films were set for a fall/winter 1991 release, and the timelines for scoring both projects created a conflict.

 

After "Hook" officially became a nonmusical, Williams had a little time to work on the "JFK" score. He visited Stone on the New Orleans set to talk about some ideas, and visited Dealey Plaza, where Kennedy was shot. After that, he wrote music to fit scenes as written in the script and concepts of the film. Stone and Williams agreed that the music would be recorded almost as concert suites, with Stone and music editor Ken Wannberg fitting the music into the film where needed. The only scene that seems to precisely fit the score and visuals is the team examining David Ferrie's home after his apparent suicide. The music for that scene doesn't appear anywhere else, and likely Williams was able to write music for that specific scene after Stone presented a rough cut.

 

This is all true, except that eventually, he did write a bunch of cues to specific edited footage: Check out this list here.  All the stuff with XMX numbering was written to specific footage, while the unnumbered cues after are the ones he wrote as you described

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On 3/14/2021 at 7:16 AM, bruce marshall said:

...the "Ballroom Dance" from EASTWICK.

 

That's THE BALLROOM SCENE. 

Sorry Bruce, but if you are going to go around quoting cue titles from THE WITCHES OF EASTWICK, then you've got to get it right. It's a beloved score, and I won't have it misrepresented.

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 3/22/2021 at 12:55 PM, Jay said:

 

This is all true, except that eventually, he did write a bunch of cues to specific edited footage: Check out this list here.  All the stuff with XMX numbering was written to specific footage, while the unnumbered cues after are the ones he wrote as you described

That's interesting about "The Witnesses," because it sounds a little choppy in the film mix, but that could have just been some last-minute editing choices made.

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