Music From The Soundtrack Of Cecil B. DeMille's The Ten Commandments [Soundtrack]

Elmer Bernstein | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (October 5, 1989)
• Original Release Date: October 5, 1956
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Soundtrack
• Label: Mca
• ASIN: B000002PJ1
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #211,120 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Prelude

2. In the Bulrushes

3. The Bitter Life

4. Love and Ambition

5. The Hard Bondage

6. Egyptian Dance

7. The Crucible of God

8. And Moses Watered Jethro's Flock

9. Bedouin Dance

10. I Am That I Am

11. Overture

12. Thus Says the Lord

13. The Plagues

14. The Exodus

15. The Pillar of Fire

16. The Red Sea

17. The Ten Commandments

18. Go, Proclaim Liberty!

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

26 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful music that tells a story, May 27, 2001

By 

Rabbi Yonassan Gershom (Minnesota, USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

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This review is from: Music From The Soundtrack Of Cecil B. DeMille's The Ten Commandments (Audio CD)

The biggest reason I used to watch "The Ten Commandments" on TV every year was because I loved the music. And I still do. The film itself is rather dated, and really more "Protestant" than Jewish in its script and acting styles -- a discussion which belongs more in the video section, so I won't get into it here. Let it suffice to say that I was very, very glad to find this CD, which lets me listen to the music without having to sit through the whole darned movie every time.

As other reviewers have pointed out, this CD is not the actual movie soundtrack. It's "music from" the soundtrack, i.e., a later performance conducted by its composer, Elmer Bernstein, to answer the demand for a stereo performance back when stereo LPs were just becoming popular (after the movie was released). Some listeners might fault it for that. However, the CD does contain all my favorite themes and those supremely emotional moments that I love from the movie. And of course, the tracks are arranged in the same order as the movie. The result is a fine CD that is really a symphony in itself, which can be listened to from beginning to end as a performance that tells the Exodus story beautifully.

It comes with the original liner notes from the LP release, with color stills from the film and some interview material from Bernstein, who said of this score: "Of all the arts, I strongly feel that music is closest to religion. It's hard to explain what happens at the magical moment when suddenly there is music in my heart and mind and I can go to the piano and express it in sound. That is why I feel that music above all other arts can come closest to expressing religious experience and conveying it to others." Amen.

25 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Only The Original Will Do!!, September 11, 2004

By 

Joel H. Tenenbaum "score it" (Hartsdale, NY USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Music From The Soundtrack Of Cecil B. DeMille's The Ten Commandments (Audio CD)

I have a suggestion for anyone out there who wants the "Original Score" from the Ten commanments to be created, and by that I mean a complete anthology of all the original music that is actually on the film, from beginning to end (no re-recorded stuff) should write to Paramount Pictures as I have recently done.
The 1989 CD release of this music is fine but it is not the original, nor is it complete by any means. (I don't believe that MCA records took the time to remaster it either).

If we want Paramount to release the complete original soundtrack of The Ten Commandments, now is the time to write to them and act, since the 50th Anniversary of this film is fast approaching and the composer of this magnificent music,"Elmer Bernstein" has very recently passed away. - THE TIME IS RIPE - please write to Paramount and flood them with requests.

Thanks
JT "scoreit"

P.S. It might not hurt to mention in your letters that the public wants the original score in its entirety "remastered" for the best quality possible

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful epic-religious music., October 28, 2002

By 

Juan Alberto Diaz Wiechers (Santiago Chile) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Music From The Soundtrack Of Cecil B. DeMille's The Ten Commandments (Audio CD)

After reading a previous review of Rabbi Gershom, I must confess there is not much more I can say regarding the beauties of this recording, and it is not necessary to mention again that this one is a stereo re-recording of highlights, or more properly suites, of the original score. I share Rabbi Gershom's views without restriction. But I can add that while this recording includes 60 minutes of very good-sound music, the German label TSUNAMI has issued an additional CD with 62 munutes of "more music" from the motion picture, corresponding to parts from the original sountrack recording. Only a few cues are repeated; TSUNAMI's release is mostly of unreleased music. The sound quality is obviously not so good as in the case of the above CD, but it provides "a little bit more" music. Obviously the release of the whole original soundtrack in the movie's chronological order would be much better, but for a while you can have more than two hours of the grat music from this film.