A Score Complete Without Themes: Henry Mancini and the Frenzy Experience
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A SCORE COMPLETE WITHOUT THEMES: HENRY MANCINI AND THE FRENZY EXPERIENCE. PATRICIA CLARE WHEELER-CONDON A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE STUDIES IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY GRADUATE PROGRAM IN MUSIC YORK UNIVERSITY, TORONTO, ONTARIO APRIL, 2013 © Patricia Wheeler-Condon, 2013 ABSTRACT This dissertation examines the musical features of, and circumstances surrounding, the film score composed in 1971 by Henry Mancini for director Alfred Hitchcock's ( penultimate work, Frenzy. Mancini's music was rejected by Hitchcock, and replaced with a markedly different work written by British composer Ron Goodwin. A summation of characteristic traits emerging from Mancini's compositional style is herewith considered, as recurring features found in his thematic writing - aspects of melody, harmony, rhythm, timbre, and form-were most apparent to the non-musician film directors who engaged his services. This summation also includes an examination oft4e composer's dramatic underscore writing; an aspect of film music often overlooked in its minutiae by viewers and filmmakers alike, and, in the case of Mancini's Frenzy music, characteristic of his scores for Laslo Bene_dek's 1971 production, The Night Visitor, and Terrence Young's Wait Until Dark, from 1967. Mancini's Frenzy cue sheets, holograph, and recording were supplied by the composer's estate, allowing for an analysis which considers cue placement and length, systems of pitch and rhythmic organisation, aspects of arrangement and orchestration, and conducting and recording methods as practised by this composer. A comparison to the Goodwin score, reproduced by way of transcription from the film, is undertaken in order to explore aspects of filmic point-of-view as they play on the composer of its accompanying music, and to attempt a rationalisation of .Hitchcock's displeasure with Mancini's music. IV Socio-cultural considerations pertaining to Mancini, Goodwin, and the three composer's most favoured by the director for his American productions - John Waxman, Dmitri Tiomkin and Bernard Herrmann - are included in a brief biographical study of each man, as are the musicological characteristics found in the work they undertook for Hitchcock; characteristics primarily of melodicism, and the subjection of melody-based thematic material to extensive modification and repetition. This work suggests that Mancini's admitted refusal, both in his 1987 autobiography Did They Mention the Music? and in subsequent interviews, to construct melodic themes as a unifying element within his score, opting instead to craft timbral unifiers through orchestration, was at the heart of his artistic conflict with Hitchcock. v TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction... 1 Chapter One - The Composers and Their Directors ................................. 17 1. Henry Mancini. 19 2. Ron Goodwin ......................................................... 22 3. Franz Waxman ....................................................... 23 4. Dmitri Tiomkin ............................. ; ........................ 30 5. Bernard Herrmann .................................................... 35 6. Alfred Hitchcock. ................................................... 44 7. Blake Edwards ........................................................ 53 Chapter Two - The Trademarks ..................................................... 57 Chapter Three - Logistics of a Film Score, Ca. 1971..................... .. .. ... 82 Chapter Four- Mancini's Frenzy Score ............................................. 97 1. Main Title Theme .... : .......................................· ...... 98 2. "My Tie is Your Tie" ............................ ; ..... : ........... 123 3. "Posh for Two" ................................................... 130 4. "My Kind of Woman" ............................................ 134 5. "Son of My Kind of Woman" .................................... 144 6. "Exit Oscar Wilde" .................................................. 153 7. "Big Drag for Babs" ................................................ 161 8. "Hot Potatos" ....................................................... 165 9. "Babs Grabs" ............................................ ~ ......... 170 10. "Tijuana on Thames" ............................................. 178 11. "The Inspector Thinks" ..... : ....................................... 180 12. "Rusk on Candid Camera" ......................................... 183 13. "Off to Rusk's" ...................................................... 185 14. "End Credits/End Rusk" ........................................... 203 Conclusion ............................................................................... 207 Appendix A-Mancini Compositional Characteristics Survey ....................... 224 Appendix B-Ron Goodwin, Frenzy Main Title Theme ........................... 231 Bibliography/Filmography/Discography/Sources .... : ........................... 234 Vl Introduction During the months of November and December 1971, in London, England, film composer Henry Mancini created, conducted, and recorded the musical score for director Alfred Hitchcock's penultimate film, Frenzy. Although the composer expressed his satisfaction with the score and his belief, at the time, in his employer's satisfaction, 1 he was removed from the project before the completion of the recording sessions, and his music was replaced with that of British film composer Ron Goodwin.2 Speculation regarding reasons for the dismissal abounds, including second and third-hand quotations attributed to Hitchcock, Goodwin, and the composer most often associated with the filmmaker' s work, Bernard Herrmann. Although speculation will always remain as such, this in no way denies an opportunity to formulate questions and seek out more complete answers pertaining to film music composition, how music was stylised and incorporated into this particular film, and what the experience of doing so reveals about Mancini's methodology and artistic vision. 1. Jimmy Carter. Interview with Henry Mancini. Accessed Feb. 12, 2008 from: http://www.Youtube.com/watch?v=GZQbCyIP+6K 2. This was not Goodwin's first experience with composing a replacement film score. In 1969 the producers of The Battle of Britain dismissed Sir William Walton and hired Goodwin to write ne~ music for the film. (Nick Joy. "Score: Reviews of CDs: "Battle of Britain". Film Score Monthly 9, 34.) The practice is in fact quite common in this industry. Gergely Hubai' s Torn Music: Rejected Film Scores, a Selected History discusses the dismissal of 311 composers from film productions, among them Arthur Bliss, Alex North, and Ennio Morricone. Fortunately, for film music scholars aJ?.d musicians alike, tangible elements which emerged from the Frenzy experience, in addition to the completed film, have been preserved - Mancini's holograph, his cue sheets, and the recording; material, with the exception of the composer's main title music, which for four decades has remained unseen and unheard by parties other than those involved in the initial project. 3 This treatise provides an analysis of Mancini's score and its function within the film, taking into consideration systems of tonality, rhythm, orchestration, and form, as ·well as cue placement and length. While the timing sheets supplied Goodwin are unaccounted for, music notes dictated by Hitchcock exclusively for Goodwin after the Mancini termination are housed in the Peggy Robertson Collection at the Margaret Herrick Library in Los Angeles. An examination of these notes reveals a marked departure from the initial musical direction the film was to take and a much clearer view of the director's conception.4 The possibility must be considered that the seemingly conflicting instructions give.p. the two composers regarding the nature, placement, and amount of music within the film may be due to decisions Hitchcock made during final dubbing, 5 and after Goodwin had finished his writing assignment. 3. Written correspondence of August 20, 2010 with Mrs. Ginny Mancini resulted in her kind donation of these materials for the purpose of this study. Permission was granted to reproduce portions of the score and notes for this paper, while duplication of the recording was· forbidden, and its broadcast limited to an educational forum. 4. "I wish I had had something like that to go by. It might have been a different story." Mancini to Tony Thomas. Film Score, 173. 5. The process of combining all elements of a film's sound - dialogue, sound effects, and music - onto one soundtrack to accompany the visual element of the work. 2 A comparison to the replacement Goodwin score not only incorporates musical and filmic elements, but also brings to light an issue facing the film music student. Although he re-orchestrated and arranged his main title theme for live performance, and this piece is now available for rental from his concert library, the remainder of Goodwin's score suffered the fate of much film music. An inquiry sent to Ron Shillingford, Goodwin's final orchestrator and now archivist, yielded the following result: Dear Patricia; Unfortunately the score of Frenzy has been lost. I expect it was given to the film company after the music sessions, so it certainly doesn't exist anymore. 6 Largely through the efforts of Elmer Bernstein, David Raksin, Fred Steiner, and the Film Music Society, preservation of film scores became an archival exercise beginning in the 1970s. Previous to this, the compositions were considered