Customer Reviews

The Film Music of Leonard Rosenman: East of Eden / Rebel Without A Cause

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Michelle Kwan fans, I understand your need to warn others that this is not the cd you expected. But for those of you who are just interested in intelligent film music, it really doesn't get any better than this. Here's a man who really understands the needs of a film, what film music should do, and what music should do. Anybody interested in well constructed '50s film scores should pick this up immediately.

I can't think of a more "user friendly" way for those listeners who find Berg, Schoenberg & Webern somehow "too atonal" or "too intellectually complex" to get more exposed to that musical aesthetic. As just one example: the music Rosenman composed here for the Planetarium sequence in "Rebel Without A Cause," dealing with the creation of the Universe, is music of eloquent chaos - and it's right out of the 2nd movement from Alban Berg's Violin Concerto! Not a literal "lift and use" like film composer James Horner is so frequently guilty of (he used the slow mmvt. of the Shostakovich 5th in both "Patriot Games" and "Clear & Present Danger"), but more of an homage to Berg.

It boggles my mind that in 1955 film audiences in record numbers came to see this film about teenage alienation - and got exposed to the New Vienna School quite by accident! Adams' conducting is gorgeous, and the recorded sound is superb.

Rosenman was a pupil of both Schoenberg and Roger Sessions. I am also rather fond of his score for Ralph Bakshi's animated version of Tolkien's "Lord of the Rings." Rosenman went on to supervise the wonderful classical music selections used in Kubrick's film "Barry Lyndon." Kubrick here - and in "2001" and "The Shining" - probably did more for putting classical music in the mainstream than any other film director.

Not really a review. Just a clarification the piece skater Michelle Kwan used was composed by Lee Holdridge.

I WANTED THIS SET MAINLY FOR THE SCORES THAT LEONARD ROSENMAN WROTE FOR THESE FILMS. JUST ABSOLUTELY UNSURPASSABLE! AND TO MY DISMAY ,HIS NAME IS NOT EVEN MENTIONED IN THE BACK OF THE BOX SET!!!!! SUCH A BRILLIANT COMPOSER, AND HOW COULD THOSE IDIOTS THAT PUT THIS BOX SET TOGETHER OMIT SUCH AN IMPORTANT FACT????? THE MUSIC THAT LEONARD WROTE FOR THESE FILMS IS JUST AS STRONG A CONTRIBUTION AS THE FILMS THEM SELVES AND PROBABLY MORE SO. BECAUSE WITHOUT A STRONG POWERFUL SCORE, MOST FILMS FALL FLAT ON THEIR ASSES. BUT OF COURSE MOST PEOPLE DON'T KNOW THAT!!!! BUT KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK, AND I'M A BIG FAN. AND I'M THRILLED TO HAVE THIS SET...FRANK TAGLIERI

More music here than on the old Columbia soundtrack LP,and without the absurd "Giant" tracks that wasted groove time. The sound is a vast improvement, & the tempos are essentially a mirror image of the soundtrack. This is a 1st choise - If you can afford it, get both.

I was so excited while watching a tape of Michelle Kwan skating to "East of Eden". I had heard the music for years and could never remember the name. So, when I discovered there was a recording of it, I was enthralled. To my complete disappointment, the CD skips over the most lucid and poignant lines of the melody in favor of a sampling approach. I will probably never listen to the CD again. My only hope is Michelle will keep her program for a while.

The album that supposedly has the East of Eden version used by Michelle Kwan is Beastmaster/Spash/Going Home.