JOEL McNEELY

INTRADA PRESENTS:

SQUANTO
Composed and Conducted by JOEL McNEELY
INTRADA Special Collection Volume 179

The latest Intrada release from the Walt Disney catalog features the premiere appearance of Joel McNeely's 1994 score for Squanto: A Warrior's Tale. The story's historical canvas features characters and scenarios that are painted with broad, forceful strokes: Squanto is unremittingly noble, Sir George is irredeemably loathsome, and Brother Daniel is unassailably virtuous. McNeely responds with powerful and direct emotional writing, propelling the drama forward through the energy of his music. This is especially apparent in the score’s dynamic action cues, and although his score is rooted solidly in Western orchestral tradition (the expected sound for big-screen family entertainment, at the time), McNeely weaves Native American flavor into the music through the use of traditional percussion and wood flutes, and by the occasional incorporation of pentatonic melodic lines. The result is a highly thematic, often soaring, emotional epic score which is seldom heard in film today.

Squanto was the latest entry in a long line of Disney productions (both animated and live-action) to draw from the rich tapestry of American history and legend to bring popular folk heroes to life. Squanto represented another cinematic milestone: the first major studio production to tell the story of a historical Native American, portrayed by a Native American actor (Adam Beach, a member of the Saulteaux branch of the Ojibwa nation in Canada), and told almost exclusively from his point of view.

This release is limited to 1500 units.

INTRADA Special Collection Vol. 179
Retail Price: $19.99
AVAILABLE NOW
For track listing and sound samples, please visit
http://store.intrada.com/s.nl/it.A/id.7218/.f

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Aaaaaaaaah... now THIS is film music. Just listen to those samples!

-Erik-

Pleased with this release. Love his music in this vein.

Good thinking Batman

purchased it in an instant! McNeely was during this era amazing

... and they are great scores and thank goodness he is still working! At this point I could give a flying a fadoo what genre he is working in. Those direct to video Disney films give him an opportunity to write excellent music in his style without all of the hassle of a disrespectful producers and glorified idiotic music video directors! The biggest issue is getting the music released. Tinker Bell and the Great Fairy Escape was excellent!

-Erik-

He's near the top of the list actually!

-Erik-

Add to that the older generation of Holdridge and Folk too.

Apparently you don't listen to them much because McNeely, McKenzie, Debney and Broughton all have obvious musical personalities, so much so that when I'm playing random cues I recognize the composer before I even remember what score it is.

That could be because you're a big fan of them all, and have listened to them countless times. There may be some personalities in there, sure, but they're far too subtle and buried beneath what immediately sounds as a wish-wash of orchestral, conventional pastiche. The critical favourites in today's world have IMMEDIATELY recognizable personalities that even some non-film music savvy person could get, even if they didn't guess the name as such.

Don't get me wrong...I love the work of many of those composers myself (esp. McNeely), but I don't fool myself. I know what it is I'm listening to. I can perfectly understand why they aren't more sought-after in more artistically ambitious films.

I guess I'm trying to say that you need to have a more immediately recognizable sound if you want to be picked up by the big artistic guys -- and you also need to be less conventional. Unless you want to a) be part of a "factory"-type sound like RC or b) you want to work on direct-to-DVD films or cheesy Hallmark TV productions for the rest of your career.

Yeah, I highly doubt that the average movie goer is really going to notice the difference between a Williams score and a Goldsmith and a Horner and a Zimmer. They may be subconsciously aware but they're certainly not going to choose which film they buy a ticket to based on who's composing the score, so I can't see that being the reason McNeely and McKenzie and Broughton don't get high profile projects.

And yet, here's a thought...maybe its precisely because of their unique musical voices that McNeely and McKenzie are not getting projects. Look at Debney and Silvestri and Doyle, they're also in the same sort of sub-Williams category of style, but they're getting A-list projects every year seemingly. Why? Because they're willing to abandon key elements of their musical personality in order to satisfy the studio's desire for their scores to, for lack of a better description, "sound like Bourne/Batman/Pirates." McNeely and McKenzie have never made that compromise, they've always stuck to their unique voice...and look where it's gotten them. Debney and Silvestri and Doyle are making loads of money writing generic stuff like Iron Man 2 and Captain America and Thor, while McNeely and McKenzie are making, presumably, comparatively little money writing beautiful gems like Tinkerbell and El Gran Milagro.

It would seem that sometimes, "real" art is still not appreciated until after its time.

I think there is much more to it then a simple recommendation from Williams (BTW, isn't that just a rumor? Has anyone said for certain that Williams did make the recommendation?) In fact, McNeely had worked closely with Lucas, Townson and Varese on The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles and McNeely scored the Lucas produced Radioland Murders. Maybe that's how he got the project.

-Erik-

No... you hired Clint Mansell if you want Nicholas Dodd to sound like a David Arnold Bond score.

-Erik-

I'm having my first listen to Squanto and it is really repetitive. It's a pleasant theme which I really like.
Tom