Herrmann's CBS Television Years
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Herrmann’s CBS Television Years : Climax, Indian Suite, Western Saga, Western Suite, Ethan Allen Suite, Desert Suite, Collector’s Item, Have Gun-Will Travel, etc. [commenced Friday, February 10, 2006 at 6: 40 pm PST] The Winter Olympics start tonight in Torino, Italy. My vacation coincidentally starts today as well. After work yesterday late afternoon, my wife suggested that we go to Huntington Beach for dinner because she needed to do some Pep Boys vendor work in two shops in the area. So we went to Olive Garden for early evening dinner on Beach Blvd (Highway 39) a block away from DVD Planet. I had schrimp primavera with spicy arribata sauce. She had shells with sausage. Then she went off to do her work while I roamed the aisles of DVD Planet. I ended up purchasing four dvds: “E.T.” “Dumb & Dumber” new unrated edition, “Third Man on the Mountain” (nice music by William Alwyn), and Critics Choice “The Last Man on Earth” starring Vincent Price. The bonus feature of that Critics Choice dvd is what I was really after: the Herrmann-scored Collectors Item pilot, “The Left Fist of David” (also starring Vincent Price). I will include in this rundown analysis of Herrmann’s CBS Years the only two written cues I have of that pilot show, cues I discovered in Box 424 of the CBS Collection at UCLA Music Library Special Collections. The music was used extensively in many CBS shows, including the Perry Mason episode I am watching tonight as I type (I believe titled “The Case of the Spurious Wife”). I had far better luck in finding the complete cues of the various Herrmann suites he composed for CBS in the late Fifties. This including Herrmann’s Police Force cues (that I have already delineated in a separate rundown analysis), Western Saga, the so-called Western Suite, Indian Suite, Desert Suite, Ethan Allen, and so forth. As the primary audio reference source, I will use the first two volumes of the Prometheus Records series, “Bernard Herrmann: The CBS Years.” Volume 1 (The Westerns) includes the formerly Cerberus Records LP release of Have Gun Will Travel, Western Suite, Indian Suite, and Western Saga. That volume also includes the formerly unreleased tracks to the Gunsmoke episode Herrmann scored titled “Tall Trapper.” Volume 2 (American Gothic) includes the Landmark theme, Walt Whitman, Ethan Allen, Desert Suite, Collectors Item, Moat Farm Murders, and Brave New World. I e-mailed the producer a night ago to see if he still plans to release a Volume 3 of the series (hopefully so!). So far I have not received a reply [Note: Dated February 17th, I still received no reply…], but I suspect that if that third probable is released it will include the Police Force cues that are available. I reviewed at length the first two volumes in the Talking Herrmann forum. Here are the links: http://herrmann.uib.no/talking/view.cgi?forum=thGeneral&topic=1504 http://herrmann.uib.no/talking/view.cgi?forum=thGeneral&topic=1517 1 http://herrmann.uib.no/talking/view.cgi?forum=thGeneral&topic=1577 [resume Saturday, February 11 at 8:26 am] Back in 1983, Richard Jones produced a series of remarkable LP's under the label "Cerberus Records." These included: CST 0201 = Zulu Dawn by Elmer Bernstein CST 0202 = Windwalker by Merril Jensen CST 0203 = Humanoids From the Deep by James Horner CST 0204 = The Brigand by Nino Rota CST 0205 = Film Music of Nino Rota Vol. 2 CST 0206 = Q-The Winged Serpent by Robert Ragland CST 0207 = Western Saga [B. Herrmann suites] CST 0208 = Outer Space Suite B. H. CST 0209 = Have Gun, Will Travel B.H. suites CST 0210 = Radio and Television Music of Bernard Herrmann CST 0211 = The Power by Christopher Young CST 0212 = Def-Con 4 by C. Young CST 0213 = Dinosaurs by David Spear CST -301 = Together Again by Bruce Kimmel Plus 20 releases of the Ennio Morricone Film Score Society were released. Most LP's cost $7.98 each plus 6 1/2% sales tax plus $3 max handling for postage. I spoke with Richard a sometime in the mid-Nineties on the phone, and unfortunately he no longer had copies, and his contract with CBS expired long again (so he could not release CD's of those old LP's). Now: The Western Saga LP was wonderful, but you can only include a limited number of cues per Herrmann suite. There are actually fourteen cues in the so-called "Western Saga"(Herrmann never wrote that title on his written score suite).On the LP, these are 9 cues: (1) “Prelude” (2) “Street Music” (3) “Open Spaces” (4) “The Hunt” (5) “The Watching” (6) “The Canyons” (7) “Gunsmoke” (8) “Gunfight” (9) “Victory.” The cues not included in that LP (and in the Prometheus cd) are: -cue # 378 VI "Comedy Curtains"[short pieces] -cue # 379 VII "Heavy Curtains"[short pieces] -cue # 380 "Short Curtains"[short pieces] -cue # 381 "Lead-Ins" -cue # 383 "The Mesa" The original recording date was July 1957 in London. Included in that LP was also The Desert Suite with 7 cues: (1) “Prelude” (2) “The Trail" (3) “South Horizon” (4) “Ghost Town” (5) “The Mountains” (6) “East Horizon” (7) “North Horizon.” The cues not included in that LP are: -Cue # 554-2 II "Mirages" -cue # 554-6 VI "West Horizon" -cue # 554-8 VII "Sandstorm" -cue # 554-10 X "Noonday" -cue # 554-12 XII "Midnight" 2 -cue # 554-13 XIII "Dry Lakes" -cue # 554-14 XIV "Cloudless Skies" -cue # 554-15 XV "Red Rocks" -cue # 554-16 XVI "Bad Water" Also included in that LP are four cues from the Indian Suite : (1) “Indian Ambush” (2) “Echo “[Echo IV The Chase] (3) “Indian Signals” (4) “Indian Fight” The cues not included that Herrmann suite are: -cue # 219 “Echo I” -cue # 220 “Echo II (The Hunt)” -cue # 221 “Echo III” -cue # 223 “Indian Suspense” -cue # 227 “The Journey” -cue # 295 “Indian Romance” Note: Cue # 295 came much later so it really isn't part of the original so-called "Indian Suite"( but it is included thematically speaking). In the "Have Gun, Will Travel" LP, the so-called Western Suite was also included with 9 cues: (1) “Prelude” [Herrmann titled it "Dramatic I"] (2) “The Ambush” (3) “Tranquil Landscape” ["Travel I" as titled by B.H.] (4) “Dark Valley” [“Travel II” or “Dark Valleys”] (5) “The Meadows” [“Travel III”] (6) “Bad Man” (7) “Gunfight” [aka "Dramatic II"] (8) “Rain Clouds” (9) “Sun Clouds” The cues not included in the LP are: -cue # 453 I "Night Suspense" -cue # 459 VII "Shadows" -cue # 460 VIII "The Waiting" The suite was originally recorded in July 1957 in Paris. The HGWT suite did not include: -cue # M-14 "The Newspaper" -cue # M-16 "The Holster" -cue # M-32 "The River" -cue # M-37 "End Tag" The Outer Space Suite includes 11 cues, starting with "Prelude." Actually, on the written score, it is written "Prelude (Outer Space) or Cue # 1007.The only cue not included is cue # 1008 II "Time Passage." Also included in the LP are three cues from The Moat Farm Murders (11 cues not included), plus five cues from "The Hitchhiker" (4 cues not included). I believe a short cue (M-23 “Albany” cue # 6180) from the Ethan Allen suite was the only cue not included in that HGWT vinyl disc (reintroduced in the Vol. 2 : “American Gothic” cd). 3 Now: Researchers can make an appointment with Tim Edwards at UCLA Music Library Special Collections to hear any of the thirty CBS Dats (originally transferred by Chris Lembesis of the old SPFM). I do not know how many have now been transferred to audio cassette format (ideally to cd format) but in 2003 several were transferred for me (so as not to over-use the dats). CBS DATS (Work in Progress) CBS Dats at UCLA Music Library Special Collections 30 CBS DATS at UCLA Music Library Special Collections (initially received from SPFM December 1997). You can access online from OAC a less detailed rundown: http://content.cdlib.org/view?docId=tf296nb13d&chunk.id=dsc-1.8.5&query=CBS Below is my own researched rundown: DAT #1 -DAUBER (B. Herrmann)16 cues Cue #387-1 Dauber #1 version 1 (Take 3) 387-1 Dauber #1 version 2 (T.1) 387-1 Dauber #1 version 3 (T.1) 387-1 Dauber #1 version 4 (T.1) 387-2 Dauber #2 Take 1 387-2 Dauber #2 T.2 387-3 Dauber #3 T.1 387-4 Dauber #4 T.1 387-4 Dauber #4 T.1 387-5 Dauber #5 T.1 387-7 Dauber #7 T.1 387-7 Dauber #7 version A, T.1 387-9 Dauber #9 T.1 387-10 Dauber #10 T.1 387-11 Dauber #11 T.1 387-12 Dauber #12 T.1 387-8 Dauber #8 T.1 387-13 Dauber #13 T.1 387-14 Dauber #14 T.1 387-14 Dauber #14 T.2 387-15 Dauber #15 T.1(Note: Used in HGWT “Ransom” episode) 387-15 Dauber #15 T.4 387-16 Dauber #16 T.1 387-16 Dauber #16 version A, part 2 -Drink of Water (B. Herrmann) 10 cues Cue #392-1 Drink of Water #1 Take 2 392-1 “ “ “ “ (Bar 1 only). T.3 4 392-2 Drink of Water #2 Take 1 392-2 “ “ “ “ Take 2 Etc (392-3 thru 392-10). [Note: On the analog cassette version, Side B starts with “Drink of Water” # 9, Take 1] -Laredo Suite (William Grant Still) 393-8 “Frontier Fort” Take 2 393-1 “Neutral” T.2 393-1 “ (with breaks) T.1 393-5 “Radiant Night” T.2 393-3 “Romance” T.4 393-3 “ T.5 393-2 “Premonition” Take 2 Etc (393-6, 393-11, 393-12, 393-7, 393-9, 393-10).