YOUR ALL TIME FAVOURITE FILM SCORE ALBUMS!!!

#20: BIRD OF PARADISE (1951) by Daniele Amfitheatrof; paired with Hugo Friedhofer's 1952 LYDIA BAILEY [on a single Varese Club CD from the end of 2009]


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This is one of those limited-to-1,000 pressings that sold-out rapidly. I was fortunate to get one copy at the time, but, because I have grown to love this disc so much, I wish I had gotten 2 instead.

Initially, I ordered this album because of the Hugo Friedhofer opus.

LYDIA BAILEY resides within my Top 10 soundtracks by Friedhofer and, though it is not my #1 favorite from Hugo, LYDIA BAILEY is still a 4-star masterwork (to me, anyway).

Afro/Haitian rythyms and percussion are achieved by the standard orchestra. I do not detect any authentic-sounding instruments (and I doubt actual Haitian musicians were in attendance during the recording sessions).
Still, Friedhofer's score utilizes infectious Calypso-style rythyms and thematic intervals.
LYDIA BAILEY, on the whole, contains fierce music to depict manhunts and inhospitable events (though since I never saw the movie, this is solely my guesswork based upon the temper of the score).
There's also a typical lyrical Friedhofer romantic theme for the Anne Francis protagonist; this aspect is rather part-'n'-parcel with most (if not all) stories and scores from Hollywood's Golden Age.
Not until the final track does period-flavor music surface to impart a sense of its historical setting.

As much as I like LYDIA BAILEY, I like it's companion score on this disc even more.

BIRD OF PARADISE grew on me so much during my repeated listenings that I now consider it to be my favorite soundtrack by Daniele Amfitheatrof.

Amfitheatrof's dense and colorful music demonstrates that "Amfi" (as he was called by friends) could spin notes with as much facility as Dimitri Tiomkin and even surpass Dimi in this category - which is the case with BIRD OF PARADISE.
All instrumental sections of the studio orchestra get a work-out, so to speak, with BIRD OF PARADISE. Amfitheatrof's cornucopia of themes get stated (in full or in part) and altered during development or interrupted by the next musical idea all whilst thick counterpoint transpires simultaneously and constantly throughout the score's duration.
Difficult to describe in detail to one whose never heard of this score (or, indeed, this composer), BIRD OF PARADISE can stand with dignity alongside a program of classical music concert works by the likes of Alexander Scriabin or Ottorino Respighi or Karol Szymanowski or Vaino Raitio, etc. etc.
If Scriabin hadn't passed way in 1915 and lived through the 1950s, one could possibly mistake the score for BIRD OF PARADISE as music by Scriabin - such is the level of this soundtrack's entrancing aural colors and intoxicating effect. An ecstatic symphonic poem of a film score!

I tend to listen to this CD on Fridays, either going to or coming back from the workplace.
It's no exaggeration to say I listen to this Varese album on almost a weekly basis. And when I listen to it, I sometimes play it multiple times in a row before I'm satiated.

Hope you like it!

A pithy description of BIRD OF PARADISE: Polynesian polyphony.

It's interesting; I don't have a single one of those you list, Cobweb. I had THE ILLUSTRATED MAN and THE ROOTS OF HEAVEN once, and I've heard some of the others here and there (at least samples of them), but that's about it.

[Wait a minute -- I DO still own THE MECHANIC on that ol' Bay Cities release]

Yeah, I'm aware, Cobweb. There's even a Japanese CD pressing of that album. However I only found that out long after I had sampled and purchased the Disques Cinemusique version (which is coupled with Un Jardin Public ).
To be able to cut the list to a "mere" fifty I have a self-imposed rule that it should be made up from albums I actually own. Hence my decision.

(See how much thought and drive went into all of this? I probably should put that time and effort into something that might make me some money some day....but then where would be the fun in that? )

The Lord of the Rings albums are perfect albums.

Me neither. At least not to my top 50. It's a bloody wonderful listen though and it's not all fluffy either, I particularly love the tracks that have an impressionistic Debussy quality to them ( The Ships track comes to mind ), great music!

I'll do a sum-up once we've reached the end.

I've never heard his score to DANTON so I'm listening to it now thanks to Spotify

WOW!!!!

This is BRILLIANT!

Thanks for that Bregt. His review is spot on. I'm very disappointed that the album on Spotify doesn't include the other two film scores mentioned, neither of which I've heard before.

Quelle surprise!!?

It's not a pattern I'm trying to create.

This is about as close as I got Re: LP...



...and I still have the LP.

I'd say the patterns, if anything, are more likely to be found in Cobweb's list. You are an outlier, sir, in this day and age.

I expected to see the tongue when I tease Timmer.

Sure, we all realize that we are thinking in depth when we choose our favorites.
We not only create lists of favorites - we are also ranking them, too.
This requires serious consideration.

Nonetheless, when we witness the results, there do appear to be some trends (not intentional, per se, but as a sort of undercurrent behind the titles of albums we list).

Hence why I said "film scores released."

Interest in the "classic" scores that labels are releasing now is difficult to generate I think.

For me at least, a lot of the interest in the Golden Age scores is from having seen the films themselves as a youngster - when the films were on TV (and there was no other media to grab the attention). Hearing the music in context helped foster an interest in the music when it was released years later. I don't think that many people have the interest to watch older films from a relatively early age.

Another thing too is that, even though I do have an interest in the older scores, a lot of what I see being released now are titles I have never heard of. And a lot of these titles are from composers who I have little knowledge of too.

It's been years since there's been a run of Golden Age titles released by the speciality labels that I have been interested in buying.