Customer Reviews

Hollywood Sound - Music for the Movies / Max Steiner, Franz Waxman, David Raksin

5 star:		(3)
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Both an educational and entertaining look at the classic Hollywood music scoring of the 1930s and 1940s. Host and narrator John Mauceri conducts the BBC National Orchestra of Wales in carefully selected music cues from such classics as Laura, Bride of Frankenstein, Gone With the Wind, Casablanca, Adventures of Robin Hood, The Song of Bernadette, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Johnny Belinda, How Green Was My Valley and Red River. Composer David Raksin gives us in depth background on the composing of his famous theme for "Laura". The process of film scoring is touched explored. Anyone who loves the film music of Steiner, Newman, Waxman, Korngold and Raskin will find this a fascinating 85 minutes. This would be great for a film course also. Highly recommended!

An excellent overview of the Golden Age of Hollywood film music, brimming with musical and historical insight, (Who knew that von Korngold imbued his score for "The Adventures of Robin Hood" with protest against Nazism?) The personalities of that era's great composers come through--Steiner, Newman, Waxman, Tiomkin--even though there is hardly time enough to do any full justice. The lion's share of coverage goes to David Raskin and the story of his composition of the signature theme for "Laura": Even if you know that tale, Raskin's own retelling of it is delightful, and he is good company. The disc serves equally as a primer, introducing the craft of film scoring, as well as a time capsule for the more knowledgeable. The production is intelligently written and well edited. Highly recommended.

Fully agree with the previous two reviews - an excellent view of the people in the Hollywood Golden Era created their scores. Very insightful and interesting.