Celluloid Copland - Film Music / Sheffer, EOS Orchestra

Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com
Telarc has come up with a real novelty--four Copland scores new to CD. All date from his populist period of accessible Americana tinged with modernism and all make for fascinating listening. From Sorcery to Science accompanied a puppet show plugging the history of drugs for the 1939 World's Fair. Its often witty score begins with a fanfare, segues to chinoiserie, and winds up with a flag-waving march. The City, written for a World's Fair film extolling social engineering, includes some of Copland's finest music in the simple vein, from bucolic rural portraiture to urban bustle complete with blaring auto horns. Copland's music for The Cummington Story, a government documentary about refugee resettlement, is austerely moving; he later used it in his Clarinet Concerto's slow movement. The North Star, a Hollywood World War II epic about Nazis devastating a Russian village, drew an effective score from Copland, huge chunks of which sound like leftovers from Prokofiev's Alexander Nevsky. Topnotch sound and performances make this essential for Copland fans. --Dan Davis

Tracks:

From Sorcery To Science: Opening Fanfare
From Sorcery To Science: The Chinese Medicine Man
From Sorcery To Science: The Witch's Cauldron
From Sorcery To Science: The Alchemist
From Sorcery To Science: African Voodoo
From Sorcery To Science: The Modern Pharmacy
From Sorcery To Science: Finale: March Of The Americas
The City (Ste): Main Title: New England Countryside
The City (Ste): The Steel Mill
The City (Ste): The Sorrow Of The City
The City (Ste): Fire Engines At Lunch Hour
The City (Ste): Taxi Jam
The City (Ste): Sunday Traffic
The City (Ste): The New City
The City (Ste): End Title: The Children
The Cummington Story (Ste)
The North Star (Ste): Main Title
The North Star (Ste): Death Of The Little Boy
The North Star (Ste): Going To School
The North Star (Ste): Damian Is Blind
The North Star (Ste): Song Of The Guerillas (The Collegiate Chorale)
The North Star (Ste): North Star Battle
The North Star (Ste): The Children's Return
The North Star (Ste): Guerilla's Return
The North Star (Ste): Leaving The Village

Amazon.com

Telarc has come up with a real novelty--four Copland scores new to CD. All date from his populist period of accessible Americana tinged with modernism and all make for fascinating listening. From Sorcery to Science accompanied a puppet show plugging the history of drugs for the 1939 World's Fair. Its often witty score begins with a fanfare, segues to chinoiserie, and winds up with a flag-waving march. The City, written for a World's Fair film extolling social engineering, includes some of Copland's finest music in the simple vein, from bucolic rural portraiture to urban bustle complete with blaring auto horns. Copland's music for The Cummington Story, a government documentary about refugee resettlement, is austerely moving; he later used it in his Clarinet Concerto's slow movement. The North Star, a Hollywood World War II epic about Nazis devastating a Russian village, drew an effective score from Copland, huge chunks of which sound like leftovers from Prokofiev's Alexander Nevsky. Topnotch sound and performances make this essential for Copland fans. --Dan Davis

Customer Reviews:

Sampling of Copland's Movie Music.......2001-03-13

Copland wrote music for several movies, jumping from entertainment to documentaries and back. This CD contains music from both, some pieces recorded for the first time.

From Sorcery to Science is a light, almost frivilous, piece that does to various forms of "medicine" what Saint-Saens did to zoo animals. A witch's cauldron being stirred by dancing strings, the percussion-heavy medicine man, and so on so forth. The music is short, but so was the documentary.

The City is perhaps the most well-known of this collection of movie music, thanks especially to the Music for Movies compilation. I saw this movie in a course I took on Planning Theory; one of my classmates described it as "Fantasia for Planners." The movie was music-heavy with little narration, and, as is typical of these suites based on movie music, contained additional material to the base pieces presented here; but not much is missed in terms of new material. The documentary was long, drawn out, and repetitive, but nevertheless had its elements of humor. The movie promoted New Urbanist type communities opposed to conventional suburbs and inner-city density, this being a somewhat revolutary idea for its time.

The Cummington Suite: if any of this music sounds familar, don't be surprised. Copland borrowed themes from Down A Country Lane and Sunday Afternoon Music (or was it vice versa?), both solo piano works. It does have a smattering of new material, though. Simple, populous style Copland.

The North Star is a war-like piece, with increasing tensity as the piece prograsses. Reminds me a bit of Prokofiev's Alexander Nevsky, but not nerely to the level of depth and drama. Interestingly, Ira Gerswin wrote the lyrics to the Song of the Guerillas.

Also be sure the look into the Red Pony and Something Wild, two of Copland's other movie scores. And we're still waiting for more music from Of Mice and Men; there are two pieces from this movie in Music for Movies, just enough to make you want more.

Copland rarities, recently unearthed and expertly performed.......2001-02-26

If you enjoyed the excellent "Copland: Music for Films" by Leonard Slatkin and the St. Louis Symphony on RCA, toss this one in your shopping cart. Besides pure enjoyment of the music for its own sake, you'll get a deeper appreciation of how pervasive and influential his musical voice has become in American culture. On this disc, only the score for "The North Star" was attached to a Hollywood release. The other selections are from what you might call specialty films, two produced for exhibits at the 1939 New York World's Fair and one by the federal government during World War II. These selections are simultaneously unfamiliar yet familiar. You've probably never seen the films, so these specific scores may be entirely new to you in that sense. Still, the Copland style is recognizable.

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