LEONARD ROSENMAN

STAR TREK IV: THE VOYAGE HOME - Leonard Rosenman

Label: Intrada MAF 7114
Date: 1986
Tracks: 24
Time = 72:44

World premiere release of complete Leonard Rosenman score to all-time classic fourth installment of legendary STAR TREK feature-film franchise, starring William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, DeForest Kelley, directed by Nimoy. Intrada presentation is part of current ongoing CD restoration series of complete STAR TREK film soundtracks being overseen by Paramount, this one through courtesy of both Paramount, UMG. (Other titles appear on Film Score Monthly, La-La Land labels.) Time travel, whales feature in this particular movie, Rosenman draws inspiration from both in exciting score. Musical ideas are sometimes energetic, exciting, sometimes cerebral, complex. Rosenman even gives thematic attention to Chekov, a franchise rarity! Complete Intrada CD restoration offers full score with previously unreleased cues, versions appearing on 1986 MCA album plus several alternates including Rosenman's unused take on famous Alexander Courage TV theme. Fun to hear Rosenman's own signature brass "pyramid" at climax of Courage's melody! CD even includes wild "I Hate You" by Kirk Thatcher, Mark Mangini that annoys Star Trek crew on San Francsico bus ride. Production by Lukas Kendall, mix & assembly by Mike Matessino plus definitive liner notes by Jeff Bond round out stellar package, itself designed by Joe Sikoryak to comfortably fit in with other STAR TREK feature soundtrack restorations. Leonard Rosenman conducts.

http://store.intrada.com/s.nl/it.A/id.7334/.f

-Erik-

Well said, James. I agree.

Snapped this one up as soon as I saw Erik's post! Listening to the clips over at Intrada I think that the sound is much improved over the MCA Records LP and CD I have of this. Looking forward to hearing this in the new year.

I wonder if people have started salivating at the comments made over at Intrada that are associated with this release?

"Intrada presentation is part of current ongoing CD restoration series of complete STAR TREK film soundtracks being overseen by Paramount..."

I love the Rosenman version of the original Star Trek theme heard in track 16, "Main Title (alternate)" in the new Intrada release.

ESCAPE FROM ALCATRAZ / HELL IS FOR HEROES

Label: Intrada Special Collection Volume 236
Date: 1979 / 1962
Tracks: 29
Time = 70:04

World premiere of two dramatic soundtracks to Paramount films directed by Don Siegel. Appearing first is brief score by Leonard Rosenman for intense, highly regarded WWII action film HELL IS FOR HEROES starring Steve McQueen, Bobby Darin, Fess Parker. Rosenman launches with one of his most exciting "Main Title" sequences of his career, then settles in for closer look at psychology of men in war. Intrada presents complete score in stereo from original three-channel scoring session masters. Second up is longer, highly complex score by Jerry Fielding for Clint Eastwood prison picture ESCAPE FROM ALCATRAZ. Combination of director Siegel, star Eastwood, composer Fielding guarantees success, this one is no exception. Deliberate movie allows composer to examine confined spaces, cold conditions of containment through use of 'musique concrete' techniques. As Fielding described score in 1979 lecture: "It's all hardware... steel on steel... it's Alcatraz. There's nothing lyrical about it; there's nothing poetic about it. It's an awful place." Quietly intense, slow-buring music was first played by orchestra, then manipulated in variety of manner during later mixing phase to create distinctly unorthodox, experimental music, highly unusual for films. Complete score appears, including alternates. Due to unusual nature of score, where much of it was created mechanically in studio after recording, finished mixes in varying stages of mono, multiple mono and stereo are necessarily the only elements that can be presented. They have been expertly mixed here into two-channel stereo by Chris Malone to afford optimal listening pleasure. Flipper cover allows original Paramount campaign artwork from either film to show as front cover (you choose your favorite!) plus stills, liner notes by John Takis and complete cue assembly details help round out exciting package. Leonard Rosenman, Jerry Fielding conduct. Intrada Special Collection release available while quantities and interest remains!

Hell Is for Heroes
Composed and Conducted by Leonard Rosenman

01. Main Title 1:45
02. Reese 0:54
03. Off Limits Bar 0:34
04. Belligerent Reese 0:53
05. Homer’s Disappointment 1:15
06. Back to the Line 2:29
07. The Mine Field, Part 1 4:35
08. The Mine Field, Part 2 1:20
09. Battle Shock and Reese’s Rage 0:59
10. Kennedy’s Speech/End Title 1:09

Total Time: 16:14

Escape From Alcatraz
Composed and Conducted by Jerry Fielding

11. Main Title 4:25
12. Welcome to Alcatraz 1:45
13. Solitary and Home Again 3:12
14. Carpenter Shop 1:55
15. Cockroach 0:48
16. Welding in the Cell/Digging the Grill 3:36
17. Wedge and 1st Montage 3:39
18. Utility Corridor 5:12
19. Trial Run 1:29
20. Nosey Cop 1:59
21. The Pipe 1:25
22. Bye Boy (film version) 0:26
23. Wedge and 1st Montage 1:58
24. Beginning of Escape 2:17
25. To the Finish Line 7:41
26. End Credits (film version) 2:58

Total Time: 45:21

The Extras
27. Welcome to Alcatraz (unused) 6:39
28. Bye Boy (original version) 0:27
29. End Credits (original version) 4:02

Total Time:11:13

While I don't write much here @ maintitles, allow me, justin, to chime in with some thoughts & observations & questions.

My understanding is that a record producer has the greatest amount of artistic control over album content.
And if a composer of film scores also happens to be the soundtrack album producer, then he (as producer) possesses authority to decide which music appears on the album, to re-arrange the order of tracks, to edit 2 separate tracks into a single cue, etc.

Not having the 1986 MCA album credits for Leonard Rosenman's STAR TREK IV disc in front of me, I could only imagine that this soundtrack album's producer had determined the contents of the final product and (one would think) deemed the album satisfactory.

25 years onwards, 2011 witnesses our specialty soundtrack labels not only using the C&C standards but re-mastering original sound elements and re-mixing them to meet 21st century specifications and expectations.
Thus, Doug Fake & Intrada staff possess the responsibility to "deliver the goods", so to speak, to the current customer base and its high levels of criteria.

Yet, even with these 2 versions of ST IV, folks such as j.b. are still not satisfied with the program content of either album and set forth to re-program the material to appeal to their own personal settings.
All this is O.K. up to a point, because it's each individual's prerogative to do what (s)he wishes.
If this is what floats your boat (or U.S.S. Enterprise), then so be it.

Nevertheless, I'm curious to learn why the order of some tracks don't "work" for justin boggan when such an order was apparently sanctioned by Fake and/or Jeff Bond and/or Lukas Kendall, etc. At this late date, we might even presume that the initial 1986 soundtrack album had Leonard Rosenman's blessings.
This makes me intrigued about just how much subjectivity exists amongst all of us with respect to music's dramatic flow and story-telling narratives.

Who's correct?

Shall any of us accept the original "concept" of the album via the composer? Should we accept the specialty soundtrack labels' producer's vision of the film score's expanded & re-mastered re-issue in complete archival & chronological order? Or do we simply ignore everybody else's input and trust only our own internal perspectives and recreate our own album?

Well ... there's probably no "right" answers to these questions, and if there are answers they simply reflect our own personal preferences.

Looks like I'm talking in circles because we've come back to square one. So what is my concern, then?

Nested within all the above verbiage is an unspoken & unwritten concern of mine. What is it?
Why is it that most soundtrack collectors repeatedly gravitate around a well-worn genre (i.e. sci-fi) and fixate specifically upon particular specimens of said genre (i.e. STAR TREK)?

Leonard Rosenman not only has a number of official soundtrack releases from non-sci-fi (A MAN CALLED HORSE, THE CHAPMAN REPORT, CROSS CREEK, etc.), but hundreds of unreleased titles from television as well as cinema.
Home video releases exist on films and made-for-TV movies that have been scored by Rosenman. One can explore THE RISE AND FALL OF LEGS DIAMOND (1960) or PORK CHOP HILL (1959) or CONVICTS 4 (1962) or BOMBERS B-52 (1957), etc.
Yet, I'm concerned that a typical soundtrack collector owns merely one soundtrack of Rosenman music, or maybe has two or three: STAR TREK IV, ROBOCOP 2, and (perhaps) the 1978 animated THE LORD OF THE RINGS. That's about the extent of it.

I get the impression that one can only be considered a "follower" of Leonard Rosenman's oeuvre if one has 4 or more Rosenman soundtracks.
But even this may not be enough to make one a fan of Rosenman.
I recall at one time a person who expressed interest (@ FSM's site) in Rosenman's BENEATH THE PLANET OF THE APES & BATTLE FOR THE PLANET OF THE APES, but was not actually a fan of Rosenman, per se.
Indeed, the guy simply wanted anything and everything attached to PLANET OF THE APES simply because he loved that series. He had no interest whatsoever in Rosenman's decades-long career as an artist. No love for THE COBWEB?

I see this happens with other composers, too. Rosenman's dodecaphonic techniques may not be the sole blame here for alienating soundtrack collectors.
Consider Laurence Rosenthal, who hardly ever (if at all) utilizes 12-tone methods; Rosenthal's 1981 CLASH OF THE TITANS is the one Rosenthal soundtrack to figure prominently within collections.
Indeed, I imagine most current collections have just this one (and only one) Rosenthal opus. No matter if it's THE COMEDIANS or THE MIRACLE WORKER, non-genre items don't attract the contemporary collector.
Similarly, I speculate that DRAGONSLAYER might be the only Alex North soundtrack in some such collections. The reason? Answer: genre movie!
That's right - sci-fi/horror/fantasy is the order of the day. Cinematic adaptations of playwrights Arthur Miller, Tennessee Williams, Edward Albee, Harold Pinter, etc all get swept under the rug, especially if these types of films offer no special effects.

In summary (and to return to topic), Leonard Rosenman had scored films regularly starting in 1955 and lasting through 1991 or thereabouts. A 35+ year career. A career from which it seems LR will be remembered in the years ahead solely on the basis of his attachment to one STAR TREK movie!

Is this not a sad thing?

I don't think Cobweb was criticizing you specifically, Justin. And I think he makes a valid point. We do pay attention to sci-fi/fantasy films more than most. I would throw historical epic in there, too.

I think there are two major reasons for this. First, these are the films that usually have the biggest budgets, and so get the most advertising. Those films then become more "high profile" and more people hear about them, and so more people hear them. The music for this bigger films is usually also bigger, which brings me to my second point.

I think that sci-fi/fantasy, horror, and epic films get music that is generally more memorable than music written for smaller films or tv. Part of that is the budget, probably, but there is also an expectation for long lined themes for those kinds of films.

None of this is to say that other scores are any less deserving of our attention. We probably all know and own smaller film/tv scores that we enjoy just as much as our favorite big genre film scores. The difficulty for me is that I only find out about those scores if someone around here mentions them, and that is usually predicated on that score getting a release.

Yeah, yeah....we've discussed this a hundred times, but I can't help myself when the topic comes up. It's my favourite film music topic.



I think so, personally. There is no difference between a composer's vision of his album presentation than a painter's choice of colours in his painting or a director's choice of editing in a film etc. We should accept that for what it is. Then, of course, we may choose to like or dislike said presentation, but that's a different matter.



I accept that it is the desired modus operandi these days, and that there is a high demand for these presentations in the film score fan community. I do not recognize it as a valid artistic presentation, however. Only as a sort of popcultural, archeological/preservationist enterprise.



No more than we would normally add our own colours to a painting we've bought or edit our own cut of a film. We can like or dislike an artistic presentation based on our preferences, but I've never been comfortable with the idea of tinkering with someone else's artistic expression. Then I'd rather create an artpiece on my own, from scratch.

I don't know how we came to this from Leonard Rosenman, but there you go.

Does anybody know if any of his concert work (or other non film/TV scoring works) have been released on CD?