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Author	Topic: WHY?

smidgin unregistered	I am assuming that we all worship at the altar of our favourite composer. My idol being Miklos Rozsa, and perhaps we should'nt try to analyze too deeply, why this is. What caused one particular composer's music, to trigger the indefinable 'something' (because it has no name), dormant within YOU, just waiting to be awakened. Is it the composer's personality? the work? or both. For me, the man and his music are one. A passion for,and and an unrivalled knowledge of, his profession is present in all his music, particularly the film music. He composed in the grand manner while never swamping the film with the score, and composed for characters first, situations second, which is why his music always has a human quality about it. An unerring instinct when the film was being 'spotted', which resulted in music fitting each scene like a glove. What prompted this post. I've just finished playing the BACKGROUND TO VIOLENCE SUITE. Music from Brute Force. And my spine is still tingling! This is truly emotionally draining music! Some of you will understand what I've been trying to say. For those people who don't understand. Well, I guess it only matters to me. I mean, something so personal.
posted 09-07-2001 12:24 PM PT (US)

Gae Oscar® Winner	I agree Smidgin. Rozsa is one of my faves ( if not THE favourite). His music consistantly has the ability to move me and give me goosebumps as you mentioned. It also has a deeply humanitarian feel to it and I reckon Rozsa must have had a very beautiful spirit/soul...whatever you want to call it. Gae NP Lifeforce (Mancini)
posted 09-07-2001 02:11 PM PT (US)

Graham Watt Oscar® Winner	Gae, good to see you back! And smidgin, yes, Miklos is one of my favourites of all time. I'll bet you liked him when you first started out in film music, before you even knew that there were people behind all that great music. Certainly in my case, when I was a child and before I was told I had to analyse, the music just hit an emotional nerve. It all grows from there. Speaking of Miklos, when I was a lot younger I used to play over and over again the Finale from Diane. It just blew my mind, still does in fact. Since then I've discovered that the composer was indeed a wonderful human being who effortlessly translated his personality into music. Having said that, I like a lot of music by people who were undoubtedly baskets.
posted 09-07-2001 02:24 PM PT (US)

smidgin unregistered	The last lines of my tribute to the composer, on learning of his death while I was in Switzerland, encapsulate how I felt and still feel, about Miklos Rozsa. My one abiding memory is of seeing him at Filharmonic. The Royal Albert Hall. 1972. This quiet gentle man, possessed of great dignity, a legend in his own time, weaved his way through the orchestra to the podium, to thunderous applause, and as he raised his baton, the audience seemed to fade away. And he was conducting his music only for me. Spellbound! I still am!
posted 09-07-2001 03:22 PM PT (US)

El Cid Oscar® Winner	Rozsa is certainly my favorite Golden Age film music composer. And he ought to be very popular. Who doesn't like Quo Vadis or El Cid, for example? Film music doesn't get any better. In recent years it seems like Rozsa has received less than his fair share of attention, especially in the various re-recording projects. Hey Varese, instead of recording every 15-second Herman cue, how about a little Rozsa? Pretty please?
posted 09-07-2001 05:38 PM PT (US)

Gae Oscar® Winner	Thanks Graham, I haven't actually been away just doing a lot more lurking recently. To be honest, there hasn't been that many posts I've felt bothered replying to recently with all the ranting and raving thats been going on. Lets stick to keeping this board a "film music" topic board please and not an "anything goes" board...theres enough of those on the net I'm sure. Gae NP Classic FM
posted 09-08-2001 04:20 AM PT (US)

Timmer Oscar® Winner	Wish I could have been at that 72 concert Smidgin, Rozsa and John Barry on the same bill...WOW! I was lucky enough to go to only one Filmharmonic which was 1980. Geoff Love, John Addison and the highlight being John Williams...what a fantastic night. Such a shame this series ended right there! and I was so looking forward to 1981 where Jerry Goldsmith was promised?! Good to see you back Gae
posted 09-08-2001 05:00 AM PT (US)

smidgin unregistered	EL CID: If it were possible, I'd have ALL my idol's film scores re-recorded! speaking of which. I'd like your opinion of Mr. Sedares's recording of EL-CID. Ponderous, lacking pace and vitality. No fire! a concert-hall performance, or am I being TOO critical! And do you approve of Mr. Broughton's recordings of my idol's work?
posted 09-08-2001 05:05 AM PT (US)

smidgin unregistered	Gae: with reference to keeping the board for what it is intended for. Primarily the discussion of film music and it's composers who ever they may be. And where members may disagree with certain views held by others, but always with courtesy mixed with a liberal dose of humour! A certain site which I will NOT mention cos you'll know which one it is, has become a battle-ground for members, not to mention an uncomfortable amount of personal abuse hurled at each other! The one thing that binds us all together, is our love of the music! and for some of us. Respect and admiration, and yes, affection for some composers. We behave toward each other as we should, and long may it remain so!
posted 09-08-2001 05:19 AM PT (US)

smidgin unregistered	Graham: I think we know each other?
posted 09-08-2001 05:21 AM PT (US)

smidgin unregistered	TIMMER: Boys are'nt supposed to cry, but I am not embarrassed to say I did! having seen him, is a treasured memory, as vivid now as it was then, and attempts to explain are useless, I don't know why his music can still move me to tears.................... For some years now, I have been championing the cause of foreign composers. Names I've never heard of, but in buying their work, I have discovered some stunning scores! magnificent and beautiful, funny, quirky, high drama! Music to stir the soul! Music for films we may never see. But oh what music! as good if not better than that composed by the names we are all familiar with. And it's all out there, just waiting to be discovered!
posted 09-08-2001 05:38 AM PT (US)

John C Winfrey Oscar® Winner	Hip, Hip Hooray for Rozsa. One of my top three favorites along with Goldsmith and Newman. I have liked him since the early '60s. I have many items in my collection by him. I like all the scores mentioned above. A great composer. John.
posted 09-08-2001 06:15 AM PT (US)

Graham Watt Oscar® Winner	smidgin, have we really met or do you mean that we're just operating on the same wavelength...? Anyway, you asked El Cid his opinions on the Bruce Broughton re-recordings of Rozsa's work. Let me step in here and say that I have both Julius Caesar and Ivanhoe, and they are absolutely magnificent. Beautiful recordings. And correct! There are so many other composers out there, working in Europe, who don't get the attention they deserve, composers who manage to convey their innate humanity ("humanity" I think is a better word than my original choice "personality") in their scores. Back to composers from the USA, I think that Henry Mancini breathed humanity into every note he wrote, as does John Williams. I did a review once (BIG DEAL I hear you cry) of Williams' score for Saving Private Ryan, in which I ended by saying "This score speaks to us with the utmost dignity and compassion and is an intensely moving experience. At the end of it you're actually grateful to John Williams for making you a better person, and that alone confirms him as one of the most important artists of his generation." Maybe that was over the top, but I still feel that way.
posted 09-08-2001 07:29 AM PT (US)

smidgin unregistered	GRAHAM: Yep, just emailed you. As to your review of Saving Private Ryan. No it's not over the top. You wrote the way you felt, which perhaps made it more valid than some other reviews. If the score has worked it's magic and weaved it's way around us and through us. Then the composer has succeeded in his task. To provide the emotional link between the screen action and the audience. The unseen link.
posted 09-08-2001 09:52 AM PT (US)

El Cid Oscar® Winner	<BLOCKQUOTE> posted by smidgin: EL CID: If it were possible, I'd have ALL my idol's film scores re-recorded! speaking of which. I'd like your opinion of Mr. Sedares's recording of EL-CID. Ponderous, lacking pace and vitality. No fire! a concert-hall performance, or am I being TOO critical!<HR size=1></BLOCKQUOTE> Quite possibly a case of imprinting (I heard the Sedares first), but I actually prefer the Sedares to the Rozsa-conducted re-recording. Mainly, I suspect, because of sound. The Sedares recording may be slightly ponderous, but it sounds powerful. The Rozsa recording sounds wimpy to me - shrill trumpets, barely audible trombones. Not the fault of Rozsa the conductor, of course. I would love to hear the OST...or a new re-recording! <BLOCKQUOTE> And do you approve of Mr. Broughton's recordings of my idol's work? </BLOCKQUOTE> I love them and wish they (Intrada) would make more. [Message edited by El Cid on 09-08-2001]
posted 09-08-2001 10:20 AM PT (US)

Graham Watt Oscar® Winner	smidgin, I KNOW WHO YOU ARE!
posted 09-09-2001 01:50 PM PT (US)

Scott Oscar® Winner	Interesting topic. Yes, Miklos is (was) quite an artist. The two styles of all composers that seem to suite me most are the styles of John Williams and Jerry Goldsmith. Whether it's the orchestrations, the melodies, the way they are able to support the film and yet write great pieces that stand on their own, I really don't know. As far as their personality, history, accomplishments or even looks are concerned, for me at least, all those have nothing to do with my preferneces whatsoever. It's the music baby, it's the music. Scott
posted 09-09-2001 02:13 PM PT (US)

Lou Goldberg Oscar® Winner	For me the number one composer is Bernard Herrmann, but swiftly following in the number two slot is Rozsa. There are others that make up a top 12 and then everyone else, but really it's Herrmann & Rozsa together that I consider the top. When Aaron Copland wrote a chapter on film music in his book What to Listen For in Music, he only listed two film composers by name: H & R.
posted 09-09-2001 08:39 PM PT (US)

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