mondomark

No, no, no. Esteemed composer Christopher Young hasn’t experienced a psychotic snap. He talks about Psycho. No idea where you got such a silly idea.

The final slice of Rue Morgue’s 3-part Q&A with composers well-versed in the nuances of horror film scoring is up & running, and it’s the transcript of my discussion with Young based around 3 questions.
What I love about Young is that he’s a film music fan, an educator, a passionate artist, and gracious about his own work. If I had to be stuck on an island and could only choose music by 5 composers, my picks would 99.9% be Young, Jerry Goldsmith, Bernard Herrmann, Oliver Nelson, and Hugo Friedhofer.

Which Young scores I’d take is a different matter, but they would have to include his horror work, as well as Jennifer 8, Copycat, and Hider in the House, because they’re marinated in pure melancholy. (Hider is a gem, and I don’t’ want to see the film because my own mind has conjured a drama more vivid than the cinematic tale of Gary Busey playing a sleazy Bad Ronald.)

Also of note is a post-Halloween treat (thanks, Pete!) originally spotted by io8.com, where you too can listen to a special mix of themes from John Carpenter films. The hour-long program was created by former Carpenter ‘associate’ and co-composer Alan Howarth for Resident Advisor.

I’ll have a list of sampled films in the next blog. The downloadable file is worth checking out for music written when Carpenter’s film output was far more creative and fun than his weak TV (Pro Life) and rare film work of late.

Lastly, Tadlow Music, who brought us crisp digital re-recordings of the full scores to Mikos Rozsa’s El Cid (later reissued via Silva Screen), and more recently Maurice Jarre’s Lawrence of Arabia, have announced their 2-CD set for Basil Poledouris’ Conan the Barbarian. The label has posted a YouTube video of a snippet from the recording session to tease us before the set is released, uhm, today!

Mark R. Hasan, Editor

KQEK.com

(A frame-by-frame guide on why showers are not safe.)

For Rue Morgue’s current October issue, where Psycho is saluted for being 50 years young & still grisly, I posed three questions to a number of composer specially contacted for the article.

The final piece contains several quotes, but there were further details, opinions, and some digressions that obviously didn’t fit the retro’s purview, so I divided the transcripts from the Q&As into three parts, of which two have already run.

However, before you choose to dig into the pieces, let me direct your attention first to James Burrell’s blog on Psycho memorabilia (and take a good look at that beautiful Belgian poster – much more attractive than the North American campaign).

Part 1 of our Q&As with composers has comments from Elia Cmiral (Splinter), Daniel Licht (Dexter), and John Frizzell (Whiteout).

Part 2 features comments from Austin Wintory (Grace), Michael Wandmacher (Piranha 3D).

In Part 3 – to be uploaded around Monday, closing out this Psycho-themed month – I’ll focus solely on a discussion with Christopher Young (Drag Me to Hell), and maybe a few other goodies.

Those wanting to experience Psycho on the big screen can do so via the TIFF Bell Lightbox, where a cleaned up version of the film will have an exclusive run, starting today!. I’ve seen the print and heard the new Dolby Digital 5.1 mix, and I’ve blogged about what to expect when you see it in theatres this weekend, or on Universal’s new Blu-ray edition.

This past Sunday I caught a live performance of Michael Nyman’s NYman with a Movie Camera, accompanied by the composer leading the Michael Nyman Band.

In a nutshell: Nyman composed an original score to Dziga Vertov’s Man with a Movie Camera (1929), and then edited an original film patterned after the structure of Vertov’s movie, and set to his score. The NYman footage comes from the composer’s own archives, and the resulting film is really, really good.

I’ll have a review of the Vertov film, Nyman’s film, and notes on the DVD versions out there this weekend.

Mark R. Hasan, Editor

KQEK.com