SH Spotlight "The most complicated project SH ever worked on?" Franz Waxman "The Nun's Story" WB soundtrack CD

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by Steve Hoffman, Nov 13, 2013.

  1. Steve Hoffman

    Steve Hoffman Your host Your Host Thread Starter

    That would be great.
     
  2. Steve Hoffman

    Steve Hoffman Your host Your Host Thread Starter

    Not really carelessness, they just don't give a s***.
     
  3. yasujiro

    yasujiro Senior Member

    Location:
    tokyo
    Finally, I found a copy with reasonable price tag on Amazon.jp MP and ordered it today.
     
  4. Steve Hoffman

    Steve Hoffman Your host Your Host Thread Starter

    It's grim music but a classic score.
     
    kevinsinnott likes this.
  5. kevinsinnott

    kevinsinnott Forum Coffeeologist

    Location:
    Chicago, IL USA
    It's a grim story. Well-told, but a downer nonetheless. One thing about all Fred Zinnemann-directed films: the attention to detail in the audio is impressive. This goes back to Eyes in the Night, a 1940s B movie directed by him. Watch and listen to Day of the Jackal to experience this. Those long shotgun mics are used to exploit the tiniest aural details.

    I also have great affection for A Man for All Seasons as Zinnemann's with it tough but uplifting faith message.
     
  6. Steve Hoffman

    Steve Hoffman Your host Your Host Thread Starter

    I woke up this morning with the NUN'S STORY theme in my head, I kid you not. After all this time. It has a great main title but I wish it would get the hell out of my brain today.. Hard to snap your fingers to it..
     
    kevinsinnott and Tingman like this.
  7. noveltone

    noveltone Forum Resident

    Location:
    Philadelphia, PA
    I read this thread years ago, it clued me to pick up this CD in a used bin this weekend. I never would have known to check it out otherwise. Great music and a great story!
     
    BrettyD likes this.
  8. Steve Hoffman

    Steve Hoffman Your host Your Host Thread Starter

    Grim music, but beautiful.
     
    noveltone likes this.
  9. Jskoda

    Jskoda Forum Resident

    Location:
    Washington, DC
    To add some more background, I think the reason sessions were started in Italy was because of a huge U.S. musicians strike going on in Hollywood then. It's the only reason why Warners would spend the money to send Ray Heindorf way over to Italy to record.

    It's also the reason that Bernard Herrmann didn't conduct his own score for VERTIGO and why it was recorded in a couple of different locations in Europe. They started recording VERTIGO in England, but then the English musicians decided the join the strike, and the recording had to be finished in Vienna.
     
    McLover likes this.
  10. speedracer

    speedracer Forum Resident

    Location:
    Cascadia
    Wow. That was a gripper of a tale of tape travail! The gasmask vinegar syndrome stuff sounded like combat. PTSD duty.

    I just found an old VHS of Nun's Story in a charity shop - Audrey fan so I pounced - will be watching and carefully listening for all the cues.

    Am an aficionado of soundtracks, will look for this remaster
     
    McLover likes this.
  11. Jskoda

    Jskoda Forum Resident

    Location:
    Washington, DC
    Speaking of THE MUSIC MAN, the episode of FAMILY GUY with "Shipoopi" was on the other night. I'd seen it once before but had forgotten about it. They recreate Heindorf's arrangement from the film exactly!

     
  12. Steve Hoffman

    Steve Hoffman Your host Your Host Thread Starter

    Not a lighthearted flick, that's for sure, but it is quite wonderful.
     
    speedracer likes this.
  13. Steve Hoffman

    Steve Hoffman Your host Your Host Thread Starter

    Heindorf was a genius. Really.
     
    McLover and Jskoda like this.
  14. speedracer

    speedracer Forum Resident

    Location:
    Cascadia
    Thanks for the warning - not sure why but I had it pegged as a happily-ever-after 50s thing, like nun falls in love and kindly old Mother Superior fast tracks anullment of vows via her connects in Rome. Sounds perhaps more realistic - interest piqued.
     
  15. Jskoda

    Jskoda Forum Resident

    Location:
    Washington, DC
    I guess he more or less grew up on that Warners sound stage, too, and knew instinctively how to show it off.
     
    McLover likes this.
  16. Steve Hoffman

    Steve Hoffman Your host Your Host Thread Starter

    Yes, he was their "fixer" for all things musical. I feel like I got to know the man after hearing hundreds of hours of his WB Orchestra recording sessions.
     
    McLover and Jskoda like this.
  17. Steve Hoffman

    Steve Hoffman Your host Your Host Thread Starter

    Um, no. You will be in for a surprise then. This is a serious drama based on a best selling book. Not a laugh in the thing..
     
    speedracer likes this.
  18. speedracer

    speedracer Forum Resident

    Location:
    Cascadia
    Ach - Audrey Hepburn in tears is heartwrenching. You recommend book first, film to follow?
     
  19. Steve Hoffman

    Steve Hoffman Your host Your Host Thread Starter

    Just watch the movie, enjoy it, appreciate the musical score, unique for that time. Notice the last scene in the movie is played without ANY music. They tried it several ways and just decided to leave it musicless except for one note. Powerful.
     
    McLover and speedracer like this.
  20. speedracer

    speedracer Forum Resident

    Location:
    Cascadia
    Thanks! Looking forward to it . Will check back after viewing. Gonna zip my lip now, am inviting spoilers!
     
    Last edited: Aug 29, 2020
  21. Hamhead

    Hamhead The Bear From Delaware

    A true record store story.

    Me and Bob (the owner of Blue Note) drove to a storage facility in Miami to buy a collection from this guy we were told was "a eccentric".
    When we got to the large 20x25 storage room, there was a mountain of records going from the floor to the ceiling, a giant hill of record albums.
    Without looking Bob paid the guy at the storage room $200 for the pile, we shelled out for 60 U-Haul boxes (the storage place was a agent for U-Haul) and
    assembled the boxes, load up the albums in a truck and as we were ready to leave the guy comes back and asks us "I have a roomful of books from the same guy, do you want them? I'll take $100 for all" and then he lays the whammy on us "the guy is a hoarder, he used to go to every thrift store in town and buy up all the books and records everyday". Great! we bought some guy's hoard, this is going to be fun going though all this crap. Then we are going though all the boxes, we had 2 boxes of just and only "Whipped Cream & Other Delights", boxes containing the soundtracks for "The Sound Of Music", "The Music Man", "West Side Story", "Fiddler On The Roof", "Oklahoma" in 30-50+ copies each, hundreds of budget LP's on the Diplomat and Premier groups of labels, hundreds of hammered to death kiddie records and out of the blue we found this and our eyes popped out, we knew it was rare.

    [​IMG]

    It was in near mint condition, gold label, nice jacket with no splits, and stereo to boot.
    We were hoping on finding another jem like that but no, more copes of every Herb Alpert, Harry Belafonte, Irving Fields and Andy Williams LP along with soundtrack/cast, budget knockoff albums, Christmas with the Happy Crickets, trashed Chipmunks, Disney and Sesame Street LP's. From counting the contents in the boxes, there were over 6000 LP's and the only album in the collection that was decent is a stereo pressing of "The Nun's Story". We never broke even on that collection, that one LP sold for $100. The rest of that collection went to various Goodwills, Red White & Blues, St. Vincent DePauls, and Faith Farms for donation slips to make up for the loss until all the boxes were gone.
     
  22. Hamhead

    Hamhead The Bear From Delaware

    Acetate base stocks deteriorate, when they start to decay the film twists to where it's hard to project, worse of all it lets out a nauseous gas that smells like vinegar.
    It happens usually with film stock but I encountered it with reels of 1950's acetate base Reeves Soundcraft and Scotch 111 tape where I opened the boxes and the contents reeked of vinegar, it wasn't a gas mask worthy stench but more like a 'someone's dying Easter eggs' stink.
    When I threaded up the machine with that tape, it was so curled up and twisted it kept moving back and forth between the capstan and pinch roller while it was playing to where it completely de-threaded itself and the machine went into fast forward and stopped. I wonder if Steve encountered that with some of the tapes he worked with.

    [​IMG]

    The tapes were full track mono recordings of classical and Polish vocal music from a Minnesota radio station dated 1954.
     
    McLover likes this.
  23. pocketcalculator

    pocketcalculator Forum Resident

    Location:
    New York City
    I saw the movie several years ago because I was an Audrey Hepburn fan, and it really is a remarkable movie, with a much more somber mood than the rest of her 50's stuff (which I love), and a real extension of her acting chops. If anybody thinks she could only do one type of role, this movie should dissuade them.
     
    Steve Hoffman likes this.
  24. Steve Hoffman

    Steve Hoffman Your host Your Host Thread Starter

    Agreed.
     
  25. speedracer

    speedracer Forum Resident

    Location:
    Cascadia
    Just watched it - wow - GREAT film. And excellent score, despite the poor quality of the sound. What a daunting task that must have been, the cues are all over place - a bit distracting at some points thinking of this thread to myself going good lord what a tangle. Man, thanks for the recommend - Hepburn was out of this world. Would like to hear the soundtrack with some love on it - pretty harsh in the film.
     

Share This Page

molar-endocrine