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Elmer Bernstein
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Author
Topic: Elmer Bernstein
S Smith
unregistered
I was very fortunate this past week to (very briefly) meet Mr. Bernstein at (of all places), a local high school orchestra concert. He was guest conducting three of his works with the school orchestra.He's very nice and very gracious, but personality aside, I REALLY like his music. He's probably in my top three of favorite composers.
To actually see him in person, it's kind of hard to believe he wrote the scores to some of the slap-sticky films he has like "Airplane!" and "Animal House."
His filmography is excellent. Let's face it, "Magnificent Seven" is one of, if not the most popular western scores ever written.
I guess what impresses me is the scope of films he's scored. Granted, probably most composers have scored more than one type of film. But from "Ten Commandments" to "Airplane!" to "Magnificent Seven" to "Great Escape" to "To Kill a Mockingbird," I just love his music.
And I'm REALLY looking forward to see what he does with "Wild, Wild West."
posted 04-23-1999 10:02 PM PT (US) SFT
Oscar® Winner
Now, heres a composer whom I really havent gotten the chances to listen to yet (I havent been collecting for very long); Can you recommende any of his scores?Thanks,
SFT
posted 04-23-1999 11:51 PM PT (US) Gae
Oscar® Winner
Wow,S.Smith, I really envy you! Elmer Bernstein is a legend in the film music world. Back in the 50's and 60's he was the equivalent of Williams,Goldsmith etc and in my view rates up there with Rozsa,Tiomkin,Steiner etc. His score to "The Ten Commandments" is on a par with Newman's "The Greatest Story ever told" or Rozsa's "Ben Hur". As you mentioned his scores "The Magnificent Seven" and "The Great Escape" are classics and have two of the most "memorable" film themes ever written. If you like "jazzy" soundtracks get "The Man with the Golden Arm" soundtrack...its excellent. Once again I envy you! Did you speak to him or just worship him from afar? gae
posted 04-24-1999 08:45 AM PT (US) S Smith
unregistered
SFT, for starters, you should definitely get "Magnificent Seven," "Great Escape," and "Ten Commandments." I think most people would agree that those are some of his best scores. Also, they demonstrate the scope of his ability. I'm sure that other people will have some good suggestions too.Gae, I got to talk to him, unfortunately for only a couple of brief moments. It was during a short intermission, and there were other people that wanted to speak to the maestro. He did sign the booklet for my copy of "To Kill a Mockingbird."
Actually, what I left out of my original post is that I was delighted to see many high-school aged kids that seemed to know who he was and appreciated his music, and also wanted to bend his ear. There is hope!
posted 04-24-1999 10:07 AM PT (US) Matt
Oscar® Winner
Great Escape rules!!! one of my all time favorite scores, could whistle it for hours, hehe.
NP: Field of Dreams
posted 04-24-1999 10:52 AM PT (US) Old Infopop Software by UBB