Friday, September 17, 2010

Goldsmith in session

I came across this yesterday and thought it was pretty interesting. The scoring session is from The River Wild and two things are readily apparent: 1. studio musicians do make mistakes (though not often) and 2. just because Jerry's music is simple doesn't mean it's easy to play. I think for a lot of his music it's because there's so much space in it that requires that you actually, I don't know, count. Anyway. It's a rare and interesting look into the process even though that process has evolved somewhat since.

Also, check out the look that Goldsmith gives the orchestra at 2:36. Priceless.

3 comments:

Reed said...

That's pretty freakin' awesome!
I haven't ever really studied conducting videos (even when I took conducting), but I think I'll check more out now.
53 takes?!?! It seems like a ton, but it probably isn't. Maelstrom could have benefited from some 53 take sessions... but we didn't really have that much time and I didn't want to ask too much from my musicians as they were donating all of their time.

One day...

Herr Vogler said...

I think it's the total number of takes in the score. Not just on that cue. I think I'd have fired the entire orchestra if that one cue had taken 53 goes.

the warrior bard said...

I don't know, maybe it did take that many takes just for that one cue. That explains how tired and frustrated Goldsmith appears. On the bonus track of A New Hope, you hear "Take sixteen..." and "Take seventeen..." But yeah, 53 is a shitload. It was probably faster to just keep cutting them off and telling them to get their shit straight than to find a new orchestra.

Mixed meter... maybe they were having an off day.

I heard that "Bishop's Countdown" from Aliens was done in one take. Basically, it was composed in the last-minute rush and they had to throw it together, and the result is a balls-out blast that is one of my favorite James Horner moments. How accurate my recollection of that story is, and how accurate the story itself is, is up for debate, I'll admit.

Fuck, I used to feel like a musician.