Quartet Records 2022: THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN COLLECTION 4CD

[Amer 2,097]

Quartet Records Announces:

 

Original MGM Motion Picture Soundtracks

 

THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN COLLECTION (4CD)
Music Composed and Conducted by ELMER BERNSTEIN

 

Disc 1: THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN
Disc 2: RETURN OF THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN
Disc 3: GUNS OF THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN
Disc 4: THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN RIDE

 

 

Quartet Records Announces:

Original MGM Motion Picture Soundtracks

THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN COLLECTION (4CD)
Music Composed and Conducted by ELMER BERNSTEIN

 

 

Disc 1: THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN
Disc 2: RETURN OF THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN
Disc 3: GUNS OF THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN
Disc 4: THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN RIDE

 

Celebrating the centenary of Maestro Elmer Bernstein, Quartet Records and MGM are proud to present a mammoth, deluxe 4-CD collection with the original iconic MAGNIFICENT SEVEN saga that comprises four films produced between 1960 and 1972, all of them scored by the great Elmer Bernstein.

 

Bernstein’s music is a genre-defining masterpiece. Inspired, in part, by the work of Aaron Copland, the composer created a distinctive blend of Americana and what he called Tex-Mex elements without resorting—as so many of his predecessors did—to quoting actual folksongs. The score is replete with memorable themes and rife with tension when such is called for. Following the development of Bernstein’s music through all four films makes for a fascinating journey!

 

The score of THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN was not officially released until 1998 by Ryko. For this new release, on Disc 1, we accessed three 1/4? full-track monaural rolls of “print” takes vaulted by MGM to expand upon the earlier edition. Several bonus tracks are included at the end of Disc 4 due to insufficient room on the first disc.

 

For RETURN OF THE SEVEN, only the celebrated re-recording done by Bernstein in London has survived; the scoring masters and music stems remain lost. For Disc 2 of this set, we newly transferred the 1/4? stereo album master and have maintained the spacing the composer placed between each track. We have also included the CD premiere of the rare album recorded by the composer for a promotional Philip Morris & Co. campaign on United Artists Records: THE MUSIC FROM MARLBORO COUNTRY, sourced from the 1/4? stereo album master.

 

GUNS OF THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN is perhaps the most varied and musically satisfying of the sequels. We have used on Disc 3 the same extended stereo program produced by Lukas Kendall for the Film Score Monthly label and included in a long-out-of-print western box set.

 

For the final entry in the series, THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN RIDE!, Bernstein’s orchestrators, Leo Shuken and Jack Hayes, adapted the composer’s thematic material to fit sequences in the movie. A single day was spent recording at the Universal Scoring Stage in Los Angeles with Bernstein conducting. While scoring masters remain elusive, we have accessed the monaural music stem to include the 45 minutes of music heard in the film on Disc 4.

 

Meticulously produced, restored and mastered by Chris Malone, the package designed by Nacho B. Govantes comes with cover art created by Jim Titus and a 36-page booklet with an in-depth essay by authoritative music writer Frank K. DeWald.

Elmer Bernstein never wavered from his commitment to write music that enhanced every film he scored with beauty, excitement, passion and dignity. Quartet Records is proud to celebrate his centenary with this 4-CD compendium of all the surviving music Bernstein recorded for the four original MAGNIFICENT SEVEN films. Enjoy the ride!

 

DISC 1. (1960)

THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN

 

1. Main Title (2:01)

2. Calvera (1:55)

3. Council (3:13)

4. Quest (0:59)

5. Strange Funeral (4:04)

6. After the Brawl Is Over (2:41)

7. Vin’s Luck (2:02)

8. And Then There Were Two (0:54)

9. Britt (0:51)

10. Duel (1:22)

11. Chico’s Bravado (1:21)

12. The Journey (4:37)

13. Chico’s Speech (1:47)

14. Stalking (1:17)

15. Worst Shot (3:02)

16. Toro (3:23)

17. Training (1:40)

18. Calvera’s Return (2:34)

19. In the Trap (3:11)

20. Calvera Routed (1:49)

21. Ambush (3:10)

22. Petra’s Declaration (1:45)

23. Quiet Moments (0:43)

24. Enemy Cam (1:53)

25. Lee’s Problem (2:22)

26. Argument (1:20)

27. I Can’t Give You Anything But… (2:19)

28. Surprise (2:06)

29. Defeat (3:28)

30. Crossroads (4:46)

31. Harry’s Mistake (2:48)

32. Calvera Killed (3:33)

33. Finale (3:30)

Total Disc Time: 78:40

 

DISC 2. (1966)

RETURN OF THE SEVEN

 

1. The Magnificent Seven (2:12)

2. Bandidos (2:21)

3. Return of the Seven (2:32)

4. Defeat (3:23)

5. Mariachis De Mexico (1:59)

6. El Toro (3:26)

7. The Journey (3:33)

8. Council (3:22)

9. Petra’s Declaration (1:49)

10. In The Trap (2:58)

11. Battle (2:30)

12. Finale (3:39)

Music For The Marlboro Country (1967)

13. The Magnificent Seven (2:15)

14. Bossa Nova (1:22)

15. Return of the Seven (2:31)

16. Mariachis De Mexico (1:58)

17. The Journey (3:32)

18. Border Town (3:17)

19. Symphony Seven (2:35)

20. Guaracha (1:08)

21. Seven Miles From Home (1:19)

22. El Toro (3:24)

23. Lazy Night In Nashville (1:36)

24. Bandidos (2:18)

25. Swingin’ Through (1:28)

26. Petra’s Declaration (2:49)

27. The Longhorns (2:04)

 

Total Disc Time: 67:32

 

DISC 3. (1969)

GUNS OF THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN

 

1. Logo (0:18)

2. Main Title (3:21)

3. Church Sanctuary (1:52)

4. Farmer’s Demise (2:32)

5. Quick Exit (1:15)

6. Max Joins Up (0:45)

7. Explosion (2:32)

8. Hat Trick (0:24)

9. Belly Dancer (1:13)

10. Armed Gunnie (0:37)

11. High Hung Farmers (2:07)

12. Father And Son (1:50)

13. Saddle Pals (1:15)

14. Un Porco Es Un Porco (0:52)

15. Nightmare (1:21)

16. Ceremony Is Over (3:20)

17. Aftermath (1:10)

18. None For Out (1:53)

19. New Recruits (0:29)

20. The Lady Of The Land (0:49)

21. A Man And A Boy (1:13)

22. Lace Hanky (1:17)

23. Lobero’s Camp Suicide (0:17)

24. The Riding Seven (0:30)

25. Cantina Rushed (3:46)

26. Attack (4:32)

27. End Title (3:47)

28. Guitar Source (2:46)

29. Thin And Handsome (2:38)

30. Camp Source Part. 1 (2:08)

31. Camp Source Part. 2 (1:31)

32. Camp Source Part. 3 (3:10)

 

Total Disc Time: 57:45

 

DISC 4. (1972)

THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN RIDE!

 

1. Logo And Prologue / Main Title (2:31)

2. A Mother’s Accusation / Friends (2:35)

3. Shelly Strikes / Chris Rides Out (1:03)

4. Finding Arilla (4:45)

5. To Mexico (1:15)

6. Leaving Jim (0:56)

7. Tracking Shelly (2:49)

8. Arrival In Magdalena (1:34)

9. MacKay’s Fate / Recruiting (1:54)

10. The Lucky Seven (1:08)

11. Preparing The Hacienda Attack (4:03)

12. Ready For Magdalena (0:39)

13. Working With The Women (1:49)

14. Noah Reflects (2:00)

15. De Toro Attacks (6:55)

16. The Final Confrontation (3:04)

17. Finale (2:19)

18. De Toro’s Woman (Guitar Source 1) (1:40)

19. Hard At Work (Guitar Source 2) (1:29)

20. If A Tree Falls… (Guitar Source 3) (1:27)

Source Cues and Additional Music From The Magnificent Seven

21. Fiesta (1:20)

22. Meanwhile Back At The… (0:39)

23. Drum Improvisation (0:11)

24. Celebration (1:25)

25. Petra’s Declaration (1:51)

26. Argument (Edited Version) (1:14)

27. Training (Edited Version) (1:27)

28. Small Suspense (0:16)

29. The Journey (Alternate Ending) (4:41)

 

Total Disc Time: 58:01

 

https://quartetrecords.com/product/the-magnificent-seven-collection-4-cd/

[Disco Stu 15,495]

An interesting release.  The samples of the original score don’t sound significantly different to the 90s expansion, although of course it’s nice that it includes more music.  
 

Besides that the only real premiere here is the ‘72 score, right?  And it was not composed directly by Bernstein.

 

It’s very disappointing that the elements for the second score seem to be lost forever.

 

So overall my snap first impression is that it’s a bit of a mixed bag, that I’ll be buying anyway lol

[Positivatee 327]

 

 

It's incomplete without this soundbyte. 

 

[Smeltington 1,439]

3 hours ago, Amer said:

Elmer Bernstein never wavered from his commitment to write music that enhanced every film he scored with beauty, excitement, passion and dignity.

 

It sounds like he did waver a little bit on the 4th one. That's an interesting story though, that he conducted the recording despite the score material being 100% William Ross-ified.

[Stark 312]

I find the first three scores similar enough to not easily distinguish and I imagine the fourth will be similar as well, but this is still an interesting release.

[Yavar Moradi 2,598]

4 hours ago, Disco Stu said:

Besides that the only real premiere here is the ‘72 score, right?  And it was not composed directly by Bernstein.

But it was freshly conducted by him, however!

 

Yeah it’s a bummer that Return of the Seven is apparently completely lost without even stems surviving. I’m sure they wanted to include it and looked thoroughly. I’d heard that Bernstein did more work on that than the other two sequel scores so it really is a loss.  

 

Of course the LP under the “Return” title is infamously just Bernstein’s album re-recording of the original Magnificent Seven score, which should have been produced earlier at the time of that film’s release and bizarrely wasn’t. It was only labeled “Return of the Magnificent Seven” for marketing purposes because that was the new film!

 

There is another premiere here you missed: the CD premiere of the Marlboro Country LP. It’ll be nice to have that from original tapes free of clicks and pops.

 

Yavar

[Stark 312]

3 minutes ago, Yavar Moradi said:

 

 

Of course the LP under the “Return” title is infamously just Bernstein’s album re-recording of the original Magnificent Seven score, which should have been produced earlier at the time of that film’s release and bizarrely wasn’t. It was only labeled “Return of the Magnificent Seven” for marketing purposes because that was the new film!

 

Wait, so the “Return of the Magnificent Seven” isn’t the Return of the Magnificent Seven? That explains why it sounds so similar to the first!

[Disco Stu 15,495]

Ordered this via Screen Archives, along with Frenzy

[Jurassic Shark 12,054]

4 minutes ago, Yavar Moradi said:

Of course the LP under the “Return” title is infamously just Bernstein’s album re-recording of the original Magnificent Seven score

 

Are you saying there's no music from Return in this new set?

[Yavar Moradi 2,598]

7 minutes ago, Stark said:

Wait, so the “Return of the Magnificent Seven” isn’t the Return of the Magnificent Seven? That explains why it sounds so similar to the first!

 

5 minutes ago, Jurassic Shark said:

Are you saying there's no music from Return in this new set?

 

6 hours ago, Amer said:

For RETURN OF THE SEVEN, only the celebrated re-recording done by Bernstein in London has survived; the scoring masters and music stems remain lost. For Disc 2 of this set, we newly transferred the 1/4” stereo album master and have maintained the spacing the composer placed between each track. We have also included the CD premiere of the rare album recorded by the composer for a promotional Philip Morris & Co. campaign on United Artists Records: THE MUSIC FROM MARLBORO COUNTRY, sourced from the 1/4” stereo album master.

 

DISC 2. (1966)

RETURN OF THE SEVEN

 

1. The Magnificent Seven (2:12)

2. Bandidos (2:21)

3. Return of the Seven (2:32)

4. Defeat (3:23)

5. Mariachis De Mexico (1:59)

6. El Toro (3:26)

7. The Journey (3:33)

8. Council (3:22)

9. Petra’s Declaration (1:49)

10. In The Trap (2:58)

11. Battle (2:30)

12. Finale (3:39)

Music For The Marlboro Country (1967)

13. The Magnificent Seven (2:15)

14. Bossa Nova (1:22)

15. Return of the Seven (2:31)

16. Mariachis De Mexico (1:58)

17. The Journey (3:32)

18. Border Town (3:17)

19. Symphony Seven (2:35)

20. Guaracha (1:08)

21. Seven Miles From Home (1:19)

22. El Toro (3:24)

23. Lazy Night In Nashville (1:36)

24. Bandidos (2:18)

25. Swingin’ Through (1:28)

26. Petra’s Declaration (2:49)

27. The Longhorns (2:04)

 

Total Disc Time: 67:32

So yeah, discs 1, 3, and 4 on this set are the actual film recordings/performances (albeit 4 only survived on stems alas, so the sound quality won’t be as good as the great sounding 3—in stereo—or even 1, which I only survived the ages in mono but not from stems).

 

Return of the Seven, the first sequel score, appears to be completely lost. In its place Quartet has provided the ALBUM Bernstein newly recorded in 1966, the year the sequel film was released. That album was titled and marketed at the time as “Return of the Seven” (and I’m sure Quartet therefore contractually had to do the same, here) but it was really just Bernstein’s very first album recording of the original The Magnificent Seven score — just look at the track titles for confirmation! He inexplicably wasn’t asked to do an album at the time of that popular original film (which is what he of course put the greatest effort into!), so this was his way to rectify that using the excuse of the sequel film as a tie-in, and the record label actually slapped the title and artwork from the sequel film on the album to make it even more confusing for fans (but they figured it out pretty quick). It’s good that Quartet is including this album (and pairing it with that Marlboro County LP’s CD premiere was a brilliant bonus decision) but this is not music fit to picture and recorded for Return of the Seven, only a new recording of the original Mag7 film score, produced just a few years later rather than decades later like Bernstein did in the 90s.

 

I’m actually most interested in this great looking new box set because of 1) Chris Malone restorations and 2) a big liner notes booklet from Frank DeWald, which presumably researched and explains some of this background, and Bernstein’s involvement on the sequel scores.

 

Yavar

[Jurassic Shark 12,054]

Are you sure about this? I've read that Bernstein repurposed his first score for the second movie, so that's why the scores are quite similar. 

[Yavar Moradi 2,598]

I’m sure that the Return of the Seven LP is a straight up misleadingly-labeled re-recording of the original Magnificent Seven score. That’s been discussed for years and years… like this post from expert Bob DiMucci:

https://www.filmscoremonthly.com/board/posts.cfm?threadID=144920&forumID=1&archive=0
 

Quote

There never was any 1960 album soundtrack. The original tracks from the 1960 film didn't appear until the 1998 Rykodisc CD release.

My go-to stereo version is actually Bernstein's recording for the 1966 sequel RETURN OF THE SEVEN, which is pretty much THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN under a nom de plume.

 

What I’m not sure about is how much new material Bernstein contributed to the actual sequel score as recorded for the film. Hopefully this set’s liner notes say more about this even though the recording was lost.

 

And actually I see in that above thread I linked that the Marlboro LP actually claims to have original music from Return of the Seven in addition to the original Magnificent Seven, so maybe I’m a little wrong and that’s where we can find some music actually written for the first sequel score…

 

Yavar

[Andy 4,119]

This looks super cool.  I would love this.  So many releases that have to be put off until next year.

[Jurassic Shark 12,054]

Anybody listened to this?

[Andy 4,119]

I did. It’s too much of the same if you binge the set.  It’s a great set, but I would definitely never listen to the four discs one after another again. 
 

Mag7 has always been a score where the theme is just so stratospheric good, the other material doesn’t quite measure up.  Not that it isn’t all good, but for example the Commancheros is a Bernstein western score that is better balanced. 
 

Anyways, it’s a very cool box set, if a little repetitive.