reiher@ucla-cs.UUCP (02/10/85)
In regards to the recent net.music discussion of Aaron Copland, I just saw
"The North Star", which featured an original Copland score. Because it was
a WWII pro-Soviet propaganda film, it got recut in the fifties and is almost
unavailable in the original form (the butchered version is called "Armored
Attack", despite a noticeable lack of tanks in the movie). I suspect that
the Copland score got chopped up along with the rest, which is a pity. It's
a rather good score, sort of Russianized "Appalachia Spring" in places, or
at least definitely in the same vein. It also features several pleasant
songs (lyrics by Ira Gershwin). If they weren't sung by such legendary
vocal talents as Dana Andrews, Anne Baxter, Walter Brennan, and Walter Huston,
they might be more than pleasant. (As an aside, Kurt Weill wrote "September
Song" for "Knickerbocker Holiday" upon discovering that its star, Huston, had
absolutely no singing voice; he thought it dishonest, I guess, to have the
star of a musical not singing *any* songs in it, and "September Song" can sound
pretty good even if you can't sing.) Does anyone know if Copland recycled any
of the music from "The North Star" into his other works, or if the score
received any recent release (highly unlikely)?
(For those who are interested, "The North Star" was RKO's bit for the American-
Soviet alliance. They put an awful lot of talent on it, including the cast
members mentioned, Dean Jagger, Erich von Stroheim (who had spent WWI playing
ghastly Huns, and did the same during WWII), Jane Withers (no more bearable
than in her Shirley Temple days, just older), Lillian Hellman as scriptwriter,
James Wong Howe as cinematographer, Lewis Milestone directing, and William
Cameron Menzies as executive producer (and probably in charge of production
design). With all of those talents, one could have hoped for a bit more
than "The North Star" delivers, but it's not too bad.)
--
Peter Reiher
reiher@ucla-cs.arpa
{...ihnp4,ucbvax,sdcrdcf}!ucla-cs!reiherjfh@browngr.UUCP (John "Spike" Hughes) (02/16/85)
I don't know if Copland recycled the music from North Star, but Joseph Silverstein, concertmaster for boston, reportedly once said "I like Copland's work--I just wish he'd quit renaming it." I saw a movie a long time ago -- God's Little Acre -- with music that sounded a lot like Copland. Does anyone know if it was Copland? -jfh
leeper@ahuta.UUCP (m.leeper) (02/21/85)
REFERENCES: ucla-cs.3845, <1869@browngr.UUCP> >I saw a movie a long time ago -- God's Little Acre -- with >music that sounded a lot like Copland. Does anyone know if >it was Copland? It was Elmer Bernstein.