JOHN CORIGLIANO

I'm interested too. Shore's work wasn't bad if uninspired. I wonder what he's done with this one.

Two scores for the same film with two different titles for the film. Why the secrecy and title change.
Tom

You could be right

As it turns out this was a good move as the way the music is presented as a classical work there was no need to know it was even from a film.
Tom

I think Tom means the album works, even if you don't know it's connected to a film.

Absolutely. You could listen to this music and not even know a movie was involved
http://sdtom.wordpress.com/2012/06/27/m … origliano/

It's too bad the album wasn't rounded out with suites from other Corigliano films. I know he re-worked his Red Violin score into a concerto which includes the Chaconne from the original soundtrack recording and three other selections. And isn't there a concert suite of his Altered States music?

-Erik-

Violin Concerto, "The Red Violin"
I. Chaconne 17:16
II. Pianissimo scherzo 5:24
III. Andante flautando 6:28
IV. Accelerando finale 9:50

http://www.amazon.com/Corigliano-Violin … B000SNUMEI
(featuring Josha Bell - the original violinist on OST)

http://www.naxos.com/catalogue/item.asp … e=8.559671
(Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra featuring Michael Ludwing on violin)

-Erik-

Why wouldn't it work?

-Erik-

That was my earlier point, Tom.

-Erik-

Just doubling up on a post over in the Now Playing thread...

NP: Music from The Edge (John Corigliano)

Aka Edge of Darkness (rejected score) -- released this past year by one label to whom Corigliano fans are grateful. It's a solid effort -- one that unsurprisingly draws on the whole resources of the western orchestra (so rarely tested for films these days), even if the story doesn't give scope for the same compositional freedom as Altered States and The Red Violin did. A core theme for the character of Mel Gibson's daughter opens the score, and closes it in a surprisingly epic way. In between there's quite a bit of a variety to the abrasive orchestral material -- fans of Elliot Goldenthal will recognise aspects of his sound as being influenced by his mentor here. There's a slight reprise of one Red Violin piece in there.

Now, it's not wonderful. Maybe that's disappointing given the rarity of any score -- rejected or not -- from this titan of the classical scene. But if you were ranking orchestral scores by the quality of the writing, this would be topping your list for albums of new film music out in 2012.

And yes, there is one thing that doesn't work for me at all, and that's the very classical song for the closing credits. It's not the orchestration, nor the melody -- it's the lyrics, which are in English, and the mouthpiece, a classically-trained songbird. It can't help but feel incredibly conservative. This sort of thing arguably can work for something like Rise of the Guardians (where Desplat's song could be similarly described), given the playful content. But here it just doesn't work. The Kathleen Battle song for House of Flying Daggers also comes to mind. Not a shining moment for me. Arguably a matter of taste.

We'll never know how any of this would have worked for the film, because of course the score didn't make it. And perhaps that's not so surprising -- writing like this for dramas is so rare these days, it feels like it would need commitment from the producers to stay. I do feel though that for all of Corigliano's stature, it would not have made the impression on people that the original Kamen/Clapton score for the miniseries did. (Mind you, it's hard not to think that the miniseries and the film -- despite featuring the same director -- are pitched at very different audiences.)