September 3, 2014

  • Tiomkin's "Wild is the Wind"

    In a welcome change from more recent releases, La-La Land has turned to a score from one of the masters of the mid-20th Century, Dimitri Tiomkin.  Tiomkin’s music is oft admired by fans of film music of the 1940s-1960s.  His distinct orchestral style, informed a bit by his Russian heritage, is unique from many of the other composers working at the time.  Similar to Victor Young’s penchant for crafting popular songs from his film themes, Tiomkin’s best known film pieces are themes that became popular songs, especially from his many western scores.  Still, today, his music is perhaps less likely to appear which makes this release of 1958’s Wild is the Wind all the more significant.  The release may encourage new fans to seek out this important Hollywood composer.

    George Cukor’s Wild is the Wind (1957) began life as a potential remake (of the 1947 Italian film Furia) that intended to find another American project for Italian actress Anna Magnani after her successful appearance in Hal Wallis’ recent The Rose Tattoo.  The end result featuring a rewritten script by Arnold Schulman (Cimarron), his first screenplay, was set in Nevada where a sheep rancher (Anthony Quinn) brings home an Italian wife but his neglect eventually opens the door for a love triangle with his hired hand (Anthony Franciosa) and her.  The film received Golden Globe nominations for “Best Drama” and Best Actess and 3 Academy Award nominations for Quinn, Magnani, and Ned Washington and Tiomkin’s title song (up against a strong set of now classic songs:  “An Affair to Remember”, “April Love”,  and “Tammy”, and the winner “The Joker is Wild”).

    The opening track features a vigorous sweep of romantic Hollywood scoring before shifting into a lighter folk-like melodic idea that follows Quinn’s character laying flowers at his wife’s grave.  There is a slight Italian feel to the mandolin melodic statement that is a touching theme for Rosan(n)a (sic), the deceased wife.  Her music will cast itself across the score as it proceeds.  The familiar title song appears here in its originally intended orchestral form (replaced by Mathis’ vocal version in the film).  One gets a sense of the sweep of this gorgeous theme and the way Tiomkin suggests some of the turmoil that is to come as it moves to unusual arrival points and even winds around chromatically.  The title theme appears in unique ways (including a radio source that brilliantly blurs diagetic and non-diagetic music) and Tiomkin manages to help shape that theme so that we are always aware of this tumultuous romantic triangle that will tear things apart.  There are some delightful light moments as well in “Sheep Country”—with even a little musical animal “color”; and “Horse Chase”.  The more haunting music of Rosanna recalls a more film noir style at times, especially in the scoring of “Pictures of Ros(s)anna”.  The orchestral colors in the score are equally engaging blending a romantic orchestral narrative with touches of Italianate scoring and a variety of interesting variations that add extra flourishes around the full textures here.  The final bars of “Let Him Go” are the beginning of the more intense dramatic hints at the gathering storm and darkness to come that begin to appear in the score.  Often there are familiar film tropes to help ratchet up tension made more effective by snippets of thematic material masterfully incorporated into the textures and adding to the emotional depth of the scenes they support.  There is even a little Italian film music in the “Canzona Neapolitana/Scaptricciatiello”.  The latter receives a “bonus” instrumental track to round off disc one.

     

    At the time, Columbia records produced an LP of portions of the score.  That album makes up disc two here allowing fans a chance to hear this recording in improved sound.  It kicks off with Johnny Mathis’ hit cover of the title song.  Many of these score tracks feature some slightly different endings and adjustments to make them more appropriate for their appearance apart from the film.  As many of the original sequences were often dialed out earlier in the film, fans now get a chance to hear Tiomkin’s original intent.  The music is always quite fascinating to  listen to how the primary thematic material is woven into the fabric of this score and how they become colored by the intensity of the relationships as things play out.  The result is a score that works quite well on its own here, even more so than the LP, though it does provide a nice nostalgia value and makes this release even more complete and desirable.  This is a must have for lovers of classic film scoring and a great way to hear one Tiomkin’s equally fine scores.  La-La Land's limited edition of 2500 copies is now available from the label's website and other specialty outlets.