Suite from Black Sunday

[Alfonso Tornero 0]

A question for the scholars:

A Suite from Black Sunday recording with a length of 14 minutes was presented in the cd Jurassic Park · The Classic John Williams [1993], conducted by William Motzing. Some experts from these forums affirm, and I agree with them, that the recording offered in the cd Close Encounters · The Essential John Williams Film Music Collection [1999] is the same 1993 recording, but re-edited and reduced for some indiscernible reason. Does anyone know if John Williams can be credited with the arrangement or preparation of this suite, or is it a product from the pen of an anonymous arranger or even Motzing himself?

 

[TownerFan 4,983]

Neither this or The Rare Breed suite you mentioned in another thread were arranged or prepared by Williams himself. Back in the the era of these Silva re-recordings (mid to late 1990s), there was quite an unregulated landscape concerning the chance of renting scores and do new recordings. Most of these were transcriptions made by using copies of the original full score manuscripts that were circulating (most of the time without a proper authorization) in music libraries and various archives. A lot of these full score manuscripts are stored in film studios libaries or at Jo Ann Kane Music Service, but it's very hard to get authorization and use them, unless it comes directly from JW.

[Bespin 8,480]

I remember, that the Canadian guy from cinematic radio edited a montage of Black Sunday, if I'm not mixing with another score... in other words, make your own edit!

 

Hey @Erik Woods!

[Tom Guernsey 2,282]

I can't add much as to the origin of the suite, but I do remember it being one of the more interesting cuts on that Silva compilation, which was largely a pretty poorly performed selection. I don't know if it was luck, chance or lack of anything to compare, but Silva always seemed to get better performances out of less well known music. I never understood why the original 14 minute suite was cut down as the full selection was pretty great. It's one of those random tracks I wouldn't mind having in my collection.

[GerateWohl 4,355]

I own a bootleg of the Towering Inferno score that has as bonus a 24 minutes!!! suite of The Towering Inferno and a 10 minutes suite from Black Sunday, of course no credit from where these recordings were.

[thx99 1,740]

11 minutes ago, GerateWohl said:

I own a bootleg of the Towering Inferno score that has as bonus a 24 minutes!!! suite of The Towering Inferno and a 10 minutes suite from Black Sunday, of course no credit from where these recordings were.

 

The Towering Inferno suite is likely a combination of the 3 tracks (Main Title, Planting the Charges, & An Architect's Dream) from the following Varese Sarabande compilation...

... and the Main Titles from the following Silva compilation...

 

The track timings are 5:01, 11:01, 3:31, and 5:06, respectively, which adds up to approximately 24:39.

The Black Sunday suite is likely the Motzing recording (13+ minutes), first released on the following Edel CD and later by Silva as the OP has indicated...

[Thor 7,492]

I like the Silva suite. It was the only music I had of BLACK SUNDAY for years. Same for THE RARE BREED, although that STILL remains the only recording of that to this day.