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CHAN 10418 29 CCHANHAN 1104180418 BBooklet.inddooklet.indd 228-298-29 227/3/077/3/07 113:47:253:47:25 The Film Music of John Addison (1920 –1998) premiere recording 1 I was Monty’s Double 2:58 March premiere recording 2 Centennial 4:09 Main Theme, arr. Patrick Russ 3 Swashbuckler 5:46 Suite Reproduced with kind permission from Lucinda Sanderson 4 A Bridge Too Far 10:24 5 The Maggie 2:31 Song of the Maggie, arr. Shaples 6 Reach for the Sky 4:07 7 Strange Invaders 9:28 8 The Man Between 2:10 ‘Berlin Story’ 9 Tom Jones 4:45 Overture 10 The Charge of the Light Brigade 7:19 Suite John Addison always orchestrated and conducted his own music at the recording sessions of his fi lm scores. 3 CCHANHAN 1104180418 BBooklet.inddooklet.indd 22-3-3 227/3/077/3/07 113:46:543:46:54 premiere recording Brandy for the Parson 3:03 Courtesy of bfi Stills Courtesy of bfi 11 Opening Titles 1:20 12 End Titles 1:43 13 Torn Curtain 2:22 Main Titles, orch. Edward B. Powell premiere recording 14 Touch and Go 2:41 Mirror Waltz 15 Sleuth 3:08 Overture premiere recording 16 Carlton-Browne of the F.O. 1:49 March, arr. Ronald Hanmer 17 Murder, She Wrote 2:10 Main Theme TT 70:50 BBC Concert Orchestra Cynthia Fleming leader Rumon Gamba Still from Tom Jones 4 CCHANHAN 1104180418 BBooklet.inddooklet.indd 44-5-5 227/3/077/3/07 113:46:573:46:57 for the ensuing main-title overture, scored military experiences meant he was uniquely The Film Music of John Addison robustly for full orchestra and ending (in qualifi ed to write a sympathetic score for the original soundtrack version) with a witty Attenborough’s fi lm. Addison’s march- harpsichord cadenza for a close-up shot of dominated music, for which he won a BAFTA One of the most celebrated director- was duly composed to fi ll the gap, but was the baby Tom yawning. The innovative style award, harked back in many places to an composer collaborations in cinema history not included in the fi lm as released. of Tom Jones infl uenced a later collaboration optimistic parade-ground ceremonial style came to an abrupt end in 1966 when Alfred It was this sorry but high-profi le story, between Richardson and Addison: The with a long pedigree in earlier British war Hitchcock rejected Bernard Herrmann’s more than any of the more signifi cant Charge of the Light Brigade (1968), fi lms, now updated with subtle harmonic ambitious orchestral score to his Cold achievements in his career, that earned starring Trevor Howard and John Gielgud twists; but much of the score was delicate, War thriller Torn Curtain, humiliating Addison a fi rm place in most histories of in an appealing melange of comedy, social and the bloody action scenes were not the legendary composer in front of his fi lm music. Addison’s rise to prominence in comment and graphic animation. Addison’s scored. Other war fi lms scored by Addison studio orchestra at a recording session Hollywood during the 1960s came with his score paid homage to the time-honoured some time after the historical events depicted and sending a shock wave through the winning the Academy Award for Best Score fi lm-music tradition, dating from the silent- were Lewis Gilbert’s Reach for the Sky industry by cancelling the recording on for his contribution to Tony Richardson’s fi lm era, of alluding to well-known themes (1956), a biopic based on the heroism of the spot. Ostensibly the reason for this version of Henry Fielding’s eighteenth- such as the national anthems of the nations legless RAF pilot Douglas Bader (portrayed brutal dismissal was Herrmann’s refusal to century comic novel Tom Jones (1963), one participating in the confl ict. by actor Kenneth More), who was Addison’s pander to commercial interests by supplying of no fewer than four Oscars netted by the Addison’s musical career had begun brother-in-law, and John Guillermin’s I Was Hitchcock with a hit tune suitable for the fi lm. A pioneer of experimental Free Cinema with a classical training at London’s Royal Monty’s Double (US title Hell, Heaven and pop market, but the director had also grown in the UK, Richardson brilliantly applied College of Music, terminated prematurely Hoboken, 1958), another true story in which uncomfortable with his favoured composer’s a wide range of fresh cinematographic in 1939 by the outbreak of the Second John Mills took the role of the Intelligence growing critical stature and perhaps felt the techniques to Fielding’s often bawdy World War. He saw active service in the Offi cer responsible for an actor pretending to need to exert his power as a true auteur. In masterpiece to create a vivid period piece Normandy landings in 1944 as an offi cer in be Bernard Montgomery, the commander of the search for a more compliant replacement in which the comic effect owes much to a tank unit that fought at the Battle of Caen, the British Eighth Army (the ‘Desert Rats’) in for Herrmann, the equally legendary Dimitri Addison’s inventive musical conceptions. during which he was wounded. Years later, North Africa. Tiomkin was passed over, and the fi nal The fi lm begins as a parody of silent cinema, Addison composed the score to Richard After the end of the war in 1945, Addison choice alighted on versatile British composer Addison’s music veering between music-hall Attenborough’s fi lm A Bridge Too Far (1977), returned to London and taught composition John Addison. Addison found Hitchcock silliness and neo-classical counterpoint for an all-star epic re-enactment of Operation at the Royal College before becoming curiously dispassionate about his musical mock seriousness: the harpsichord remains Market Garden (the allied airborne attempt increasingly involved in theatrical projects, ideas, discussing the score with him only a prominent feature throughout the fi lm, to capture the river crossings at Nijmegen notably the Cranks review in 1955 – which by telephone, and in the end still showing underscoring voiced-over narration in the and Arnhem in September 1944); contrary became something of a cult success – and dissatisfaction about the absence of a manner of baroque recitative. The music to popular belief, Addison did not participate several collaborations with playwright John potential hit tune: the song ‘The Green Years’ for the silent-fi lm prologue forms the basis in Market Garden himself, although his own Osborne, who later wrote the screenplay 6 7 CCHANHAN 1104180418 BBooklet.inddooklet.indd 66-7-7 227/3/077/3/07 113:47:033:47:03 for Tom Jones when Richardson moved from whom Addison worked extensively; it was his most of his energies to music for the The BBC Concert Orchestra was formed in theatrical directing to the silver screen. The wartime friendship with Roy Boulting that had burgeoning American television industry and 1952. It has a wide and fl exible repertoire, quantity of Addison’s fi lm work increased given him his initial entrée into fi lm scoring. perhaps (like Herrmann) in his turn coming ranging from classical works and musical considerably during the 1950s, and he tackled Also from the 1950s dates Addison’s score to realise that the traditional fi lm music at theatre to light music and fi lm scores, and a wide range of genres, including many to Carol Reed’s Cold War drama The Man which he had excelled was less in demand in appears with a huge range of artists every comedies in the amiable domestic style typifi ed Between (1953), a James Mason vehicle about a modern age dominated by pop scoring and year. Conductor Laureate is Barry Wordsworth by the output of the famous Ealing Studios. a fated profi teer in West Berlin which singularly limited attention spans. Two of Addison’s late and Charles Hazlewood joined as Principal For Ealing, he provided music to Alexander failed to repeat the commercial and critical cinema fi lms, both harking back to an earlier Guest Conductor in 2005. Anne Dudley was Mackendrick’s The Maggie (US title High and success of the same director’s earlier The Third age, were James Goldstone’s Swashbuckler the Orchestra’s fi rst Composer-in-Association, Dry, 1953), a maritime yarn about an American Man (1949). (UK title The Scarlet Buccaneer, 1976), an with Jonny Greenwood now fi lling that role. businessman duped into trusting his important In 1972, Addison’s music for veteran affectionate reworking of the action genre The Orchestra has close links with BBC cargo to a decrepit old steamship, and Touch director Joseph L. Mankiewicz’s fi lm version made famous by Errol Flynn in his 1930s Radio 3 which broadcasts the majority of its and Go (US title The Light Touch, directed by of Anthony Shaffer’s hit play Sleuth was period romps with opulent music by Erich concerts, and with BBC Radio 2 where it is Michael Truman, 1955), concerning a family’s nominated for an Academy Award, in Wolfgang Korngold, and Michael Laughlin’s featured on the weekly programme Friday indecision about their projected emigration to somewhat controversial circumstances Strange Invaders (1983), a parody of 1950s Night is Music Night. On BBC Television, Australia. Other comedic scores were penned surrounding the barring of Nino Rota’s sci-fi set in an Illinois town occupied by the BBC Concert Orchestra has appeared by Addison for Ealing-style fi lms produced Godfather nomination when several Italian aliens.