Valentine's Day, Sunday, February 14, 2010 at 10:20 am

First is John Barry's simple but effective score for BORN FREE. I like the score andfortunately had an opportunity to study the written score back in 1991, I believe. There'snothing Herrmannesque about this particular score but you can find at times Herrmanndevices in various Barry scores. This includes that piggyback shuttle-ride on a Britishjumbo jet cue in MOONRAKER when two stowaways are first seen, ready to steal theMoonraker shuttle. This includes the "Pretty Busy" cue of THE BLACK HOLE after DrHans Reinhardt (Maximilian Schell) says, "The end justifies the means" and the scenecuts to Pizer walking down the corridor with the evil robot! Repetitive devices.Next is a complete detailed rundown of Herrmann's score for the "Ninety YearsWithout Slumbering" episode of THE TWILIGHT ZONE. It is the lightweight score ofall the TZ scores Herrmann did but some of the cues (especially the long "Your Time HasCome" cue near the end) is quite classic atmospheric Herrmann. In comparison to theother Twilight Zone scores Herrmann worked on, it is a minor one (perhaps because thereare plenty of minor chords in it:)!Finally is my newest blog (blog # 40). I discuss a wide range of topics started in April.One topic recently is the list of hints given by Tribute for upcoming probable recordings.As I wrote:quote: Of all of those proposed titles I am, however, quite enthusiastic about HornBlows at Midnight. I would definitely buy that one! No hesitations. I would pre-order it.Long ago I researched the written score at Warner Bros. Archives and it is a delightful,fun score! A & B Meet Frankenstein is a fun score but the former is superior music, inmy opinion. After Horn I would buy Helen of Troy and Don Juan. All the others are iffy.Chances are I will eventually buy most of those titles but the priorities are given. Atany rate, I have not purchased film music cds (or any other cds for that matter) this yeardue to financial belt-tightening. Maybe by Christmas I'll have discretionary money tospend on some--including THE PRINCE & THE PAUPER. I enjoyed that score andresearched it at USC/Warner Bros Archives long ago.As I also wrote in the blog, I would love to see a complete release of Max Steiner's TheLion & the Horse. It is such a relatively obscure score, and practically never seen ontelevision, that I doubt if more than a handful of people on all the film music forums everhad the pleasure of discovering that superb score. But I personally consider it one ofSteiner's finest scores. There are even some rather Herrmannesque cues or sections ofcues in that score. I hope it is eventually offered by the new Warner Archive dvd site!Curiously there is no Herrmann title in that proposed list by Tribute. Personally Iwould love to see more obscure television music by Herrmann released on cd. I maderecommendations. As quoted in my blog:quote: Bill Stromberg once mentioned that he was interested in doing old Universal-Revue television scores by Herrmann. Excellent idea! However, the Universal music105