February 12, 2022

  • Welcome to Cinemusical

    BEGINNING IN FEBRUARY 2022--CINEMUSICAL WILL BE MOVING TO MY PRIMARY WEBSITE.  New reviews will be posted there.  CINEMUSICAL

    Cinemusical is hosted by composer, educator, and music critic Steven A. Kennedy.  Steve's reviews appear in Film Score Monthly Online Magazine and at Film Music Review.  Steve is a member of BMI, the International Film Music Critics Association, the American Composer's Forum, and the Dramatist's Guild of America.  For information on his music, or to inquire about commissioning a work, visit his website. He has written five musicals: The Jurgens File (a contemporary work based on a true story that took place in MN in the 1950s-1980s); The Magnificent Ambersons (based on the Booth Tarkington Pulitzer Prize-winning novel) with audio excerpts available at the site; Tinsel in the Toilet (a holiday drama); Chantecler (a new translation of Rostand's play); and Mark the Halls (a parody of Hallmark Christmas Movies).

    The Marian Sonata for Violin and Piano featured on the release In Tandem available for order.

    The physical CD, Reflections, can be purchased exclusively from HealingBaskets.com.   You can download  the album on Amazon, iTunes, or my website.  It is also available on Spotify and Pandora.  During the pandemic, Improvs for Hope  is available at www.sakennedymusic.com.  Also now available is Off 2 Broadway which features piano renditions of music from Steve's musicals.  All albums are available on Amazon, Spotify, and iTunes.  

    The blog features reviews of releases of film, video game, and classical music.  There is a blend of contemporary and classic film scores that will appear here.  Classical reviews focus primarily on 20th Century music as well as American music, however, occasional forays into previous periods appear as well to offer some variety.

    Most of the reviews here will be of releases available in physical CD format.  Reviews will be more infrequent (2020 and moving forward) due to less physical product availability and my own personal focus on composing.  Reach out if you wish to have your releases reviewed here.

    Please note that there are some formatting issues that may appear in older reviews possibly due to some overall design changes since the original post.  Spammers be warned that all posts are monitored for approval and covert advertising is not allowed.

    Thanks for stopping by and dropping a comment or two!

    For those referencing articles in this blog for school/academic work, this is not considered a peer-reviewed source:

    APA style: Kennedy, S.A. (2015). Cinemusical.  (and then include the URL for the referenced review)

    MLA style: Kennedy, Steven. "Title of article" Cinemusical. Article Day Month Year . Access date.

     

     

Comments (8)

  • Hi Steven Kennedy - I wrote to you a few weeks ago, wanting to submit something to you hopefully for your response and review - you've reviewed work by a few friends of mine, that's how I've gotten to know your website.

    I see your reply posted above on this page, but I don't believe I ever did get an e-mail from you with details on how to send the request and work to you - perhaps it got lost or something. Could you let me know the best way to submit work to you?

    Specifically, I've written an opera, a through-sung film project I'm premiering exclusively online, THE WEB OPERA - and would love you to have a look at it and get your response. It's been called groundbreaking by some, Randy Newman calls it "a great 21st Century opera," and I'm very proud of it. Please let me know what would be best, I look forward to hearing from you.

    Thanks -
    Michael Roth
    rothmusik@aol.com
    https://rothmusik.wixsite.com/rothmusik
    https://www.thewebopera.com/

  • Hello Steven Kennedy - I've enjoyed reading your entries on your website now and again - I have something I'd like to submit to you for review - is the best way to contact you this way (via a comment) or is there an e-mail address contact that would work - Please do let me know, I look forward to sending you details - thanks - Michael

  • Dear Mr. Kennedy,

    My name is Joan Prat and I am a journalist and I work in a cultural quiz show for the Spanish Television in Barcelona called ‘BOOM’. My work consists in writing the questions and checking if they are correct and well formulated, in order to be as precise as possible and make sure we don’t spread wrong information to our contestants and our audience. Sometimes, to do this work, I need to contact some experts, such as you, in this case. I would like to confirm please the following question:

    Question: ¿WHICH WAS THE FIRST FILM TO RELEASE THE ALBUM OF HIS SOUNDTRACK?

    According to our information we think that the correct option is ‘Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs’. I would appreciate your help very much to check if it is correct, please.

    I would appreciate your help very much to check if it is correct, please.
    I thank you in advance for your help and I am looking forward to hearing from you.
    Best wishes,
    Joan

    • Hi Joan,

      Thanks for this question! Your supposition here is correct. Some purists might not "count" this only because of the song material that was released rather than instrumental score.

      Some of the original songs though for Snow White and the Seven Dwarves were released by RCA Victor on 78rpm records. The popularity of these pieces encouraged further release of material from films. One might argue that often the synergy between a popular song in a movie and subsequent record sales were already beginning to be more commonly linked prior to this. Obviously, a song in a film might encourage people to run out to get the record or sheet music. But, as to your question, the information tends to be accepted and can be supported by Mervyn Cooke's excellent survey of film music.

      It is worth noting that it was actually Miklos Rozsa's score for 1942's The Jungle Book which had the first soundtrack album release of the original score.

  • do you have a twitter that i can follow

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