Bernard Herrmann At Fox, Vol. 2 - Garden of Evil / Prince of Players / King of the Khyber Rifles: Original Motion Picture Soundtracks [3 on 1] [Soundtrack]

Bernard Herrmann | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (October 19, 1999)
• Original Release Date: October 19, 1999
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Soundtrack
• Label: Varese Sarabande
• ASIN: B00002DDNT
• Also Available in: Audio CD
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #380,391 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Main Title

2. Siesta

3. Me-Mue

4. The Cliffs

5. The Chasm

6. Hooker

7. The Mission

8. The Circle

9. The Night

10. The Quarrel

11. The Wooden Cross

12. The Mine

13. The Feather

14. The Wild Party

15. Fuller's Devotion

16. Fuller's Plan

17. Fuller's Death

18. Night Scene

19. The Chase

20. The Cards

See all 37 tracks on this disc

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The great Herrmann experiment!, April 12, 2003

By 

Reginald D. Garrard "the G-man" (Camilla, GA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Bernard Herrmann At Fox, Vol. 2 - Garden of Evil / Prince of Players / King of the Khyber Rifles: Original Motion Picture Soundtracks [3 on 1] (Audio CD)

While channel-surfing the other evening, I came upon the start of a movie on the Western Channel. The opening chords of the film's theme momentarily caught my attention; they sounded like the great Herrmann may have composed them. To my satisfaction, as the credits rolled, I saw the name of my favorite movie composer. Unfortunately, I didn't have time to watch the movie in question: "Garden of Evil". But, I knew that the first opportunity that I had, I would be purchasing the soundtrack.

My copy arrived yesterday and I it hasn't left my sound system.

What a wonderful find is this CD!

"Garden of Evil" comes across as an experiment in themes, tonal structure, and orchestral arrangement that Herrmann would explore in depth in future compositions. One can hear the beginnings of his music for "Psycho", "Jason and the Argonauts", "Vertigo", "Mysterious Island", "North by Northwest", and many of his other more notable scores. Only two tracks come close to being "traditional" for a western, and even they bear the undeniable Herrmann stamp of orchestral construction. The cut "The Wild Party" shows Herrmann as his most "schizophrenic".

Astute listeners can recognize cues that would later be used in various Twentieth Century Fox/Irwin Allen productions ("Lost in Space," "Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea", "The Time Tunnel"). Because Fox obviously owned the rights to the music, it could make use of Herrmann's work as background for its programming. The shows were only enhanced with the sound from a true master of film scoring.

The selections from "Prince of Players" and "King of the Khyber Rifles" are pure Herrmann and that is enough to be said.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "Herrmann's multi-faceted musical career", October 22, 2000

By 

J. Lovins "Mr. Jim" (Missouri-USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Bernard Herrmann At Fox, Vol. 2 - Garden of Evil / Prince of Players / King of the Khyber Rifles: Original Motion Picture Soundtracks [3 on 1] (Audio CD)

In the early 1950s, we found our composer in a transition period, moving to California at the age of forty to be near and active in film composing. Meeting with Alfred Newman (music director) at 20th Century-Fox, engaged the volatile but brilliant Herrmann to score some of the studio's most romantic and dramatic films...thus our story begins.

Let's look at our first score - "GARDEN OF EVIL" (1954), Henry Hathaway film, starring Gary Cooper, Susan Hayward and Richard Widmark all looking for a gold mine. Herrmann opens with a powerful statement for brass, an ominous orchestral theme, suggesting barren forbidding landscape, and our composer hits the mark...dead on! Traditional western themes, spanish rhythms, masked with typical Herrmann dark hues, even Rita Moreno sings one of Herrmann's compositions...this twenty-four track score is worth the price of admission.

Next we have "PRINCE OF PLAYERS" (1955), chronicled the lives, fortunes and misfortunes of one of America's great theatrical families the Booths, starring Richard Burton, Raymond Massey and John Derek, as the family of John Wilkes Booth, who attained infamy as Abraham Lincoln's assassin. Herrmann loved this film and scored a memorable overture that combines theatrical fanfares with a stately march, later combined with 19th century incidental theater music, which emotionally is low-key drama, moving to high-Shakespearean moments, all the while blending sweet and melancholy themes, works perfectly as we know only too well, is "Pure Herrmann" at his finest hour.

Final score - "KING OF THE KHYBER RIFLES" (1953), was the studios fourth CinemaScope film, the theme is India under British colonial rule (la Kipling) in 1857, starring Tyrone Power, Michael Rennie and the beautiful Terry Moore (Howard Hughes widow), setting was picturesque and Herrmann was attracted to the story-line. Opening main theme is exciting, with pounding drumbeats, screaming brass and shrill flutes indicating hard riding soldiers against the faux-indian panorama of mountains and desert (actually, was Long Pine, California), but you get the general idea. Our composer gently hints at indian themes, cleverly deploying woodwinds, harp and percussion...but the stand out is "The Storm" that the indian natives call (Hammer of God), is appropriately awesome, sweeping strings, pounding percussion with interwoven flute harmonies, brilliantly Herrmann.

Herrmann was kept busy from mid 1951 to late 1954, writing some of his best music for Fox productions..."movie-music collectors" this is a dream come true...more Bernard Herrmann, sit back and enjoy...once again thanks Varese Sarabande for this second volume!

Total Time: 71:27 on 37 Tracks...Varese Sarabande-066053...(1999)

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Esoteric Original Recording from Bernard Herrmann, January 15, 2002

By 

hille2000 "hille2000" (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Bernard Herrmann At Fox, Vol. 2 - Garden of Evil / Prince of Players / King of the Khyber Rifles: Original Motion Picture Soundtracks [3 on 1] (Audio CD)

This is the original recording of Bernard Herrmann's penetrating and esoteric score for the composer's only Western film GARDEN OF EVIL (providing you don't count his score for THE KENTUCKIAN, which has a rich Appalachian flavor and spirit running throughout). Conducted by Herrmann this score is strangely moody and mysterious throughout yet contains outbreaks of sheer energy that are clearly and technically reproduced from this original stereo recording. This is truly a historic recording for any collector of Herrmann's music. Here with GARDEN OF EVIL Herrmann gives us mostly fragments or hints of a melody and continually keeps the flow off balance which is very unsettling. The entire film was unsettling. Director Henry Hathaway took a very minimal plot and twisted a tale of emotion driven by greed and ultimately survival. Every day the sun sets and it takes another soul seeking redemption in the process. Bernard Herrmann's score brilliantly captures this sentiment throughout with his use of rich orchestral color. Selections from PRINCE OF PLAYERS and KING OF THE KHYBER RIFLES are also on this CD. GARDEN OF EVIL is a brilliantly conceived composition and is one of Herrmann's most important and perspicacious scores.