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Superman: (John Williams) Few fictional characters
have been as prolific in mainstream entertainment as the Man of Steel.
From the original comic stories in the 1930's to the Clayton Collyer
radio show and Paramount's animated shorts in the 40's, the Kirk Alyn
television shows of the 50's, the musical adaptation for theatre and
George Reeves series of the 60's, the feature films of the 70's and
80's, the television spin-offs of the 90's and 00's, and finally, a
resurrection to the big screen in 2006, the legend of
Superman
has thrived for more than 60 years. Upon the first major motion picture
production in the mid-70's, director Richard Donner and his producers
determined that the character would be treated with respect while, after
all his adventures, providing him with a massive scale on which to
generate his wonder. Their success in that production yielded four Oscar
nominations (with one win) and a permanent "most favored Superman"
status for actor Christopher Reeve. While the sequels for the 1978 film
maintained much of the same cast, the legend was watered down to campy
levels. One member of the crew who refused to kneel before General Zod
was John Williams, whose score for the original
Superman was such
a natural fit with both the legend of the character and audiences'
expectations that he had nothing left to prove by scoring the laughable
sequels. In retrospect, Williams' music for
Superman was so
perfectly placed in both the film and in the history of cinema that this
score, perhaps more than
Star Wars, confirmed the renaissance of
the operatic orchestral fanfare to the big screen. It proved that his
Oscar-nominated work for
Close Encounters of the Third Kind and
Star Wars the previous year was no fluke, leading the composer on
the journey of five subsequent years that would change film music
forever. His Wagnerian extravaganza was so beloved by both fans of the
legend and the mainstream that his sound for the character would endure
in three immediate sequels and become the benchmark for future
adaptations. Jerry Goldsmith would give the title theme a cameo in his
mid-80's score for
Supergirl and John Ottman would eventually
utilize all of Williams' major themes for the successful
Superman
Returns nearly 30 years later.
The key to the longevity of Williams' music for the
Superman legend is its timelessness. The instant recognizability
of Williams' multitude of shamelessly obvious themes is also a
contributing factor. Whether it's the unequivocal heroism, the patriotic
feeling of soaring optimism that it instills in listeners, or even the
brassy, overwhelming orchestral power that hooked so many people into
the genre of film music at the time,
Superman is a score of such
quality that it cannot be completely eclipsed by the
Star Wars
and
Indiana Jones franchise works also by Williams. When
remembering the impact of
Superman on listeners at the time, most
people point to the themes rather than the style. And while the grandeur
of the London Symphony Orchestra's performance of Williams' densely
orchestrated and intelligently designed ideas are as alluring as ever,
the themes do indeed define the score. The opening march provides the
title character with a noble persona of galactic proportions, its
simplistic octave-loving major key progressions serving the dose of
superhero elixir that has, to some degree, worn badly with audiences
through the years due to the brightness of its own light. So blatantly
heroic is its construct that the title march is more difficult to enjoy
thirty years later than the other themes from the film. By far superior
in its agelessness is the love theme, highlighting the magnificent
"Flying Sequence" in the film. Its lyrical sense of movement coincides
with the fact that theme was originally designed with lyrics in mind
("Can You Read My Mind") and several pop variants were recorded for the
scene before the now-famous classical performance and concert
arrangement was used instead. Given the beauty of the theme and the
remarkable personal tragedies that tormented lead actors Christopher
Reeve and Margot Kidder in the following decades, the
Superman
love theme's only detraction is its bittersweet legacy. Still, in both
its interlude performance in the primary march for the film, as well as
its own generous song variants and concert arrangements, it is the best
that
Superman offers. Keeping its numerous original recordings by
Williams straight is another matter, left for discussion about the
albums below.
While the march and love theme are the best remembered
themes from
Superman, there are several notable subthemes that
each receive considerable development. The most intriguing of these is
one that knocks the viewer over the head immediately after the opening
fanfare is finished. The remarkable crescendo that builds from a solo
trumpet into a monumentally harmonic performance of the "Planet Krypton"
theme is the single favorite minute of music for some listeners of the
score. After the planet is introduced in its glory, the film never
allows such a restatement. Unsatisfying incorporation of the theme into
the scene of the planet's destruction and subsequent references in "The
Fortress of Solitude" cause the theme to be underutilized.
Interestingly, John Ottman would rely on clever references to the theme
more often in his 2006 film score. One curious note is that the 1998
re-recording alters the woodwind solo after the end of Krypton's famous
crescendo to match the "Force theme" from
Star Wars. Slight
synthetic effects during the sentencing of General Zod in this cue make
up the bulk of the employment of electronics in the score, and their
impact is barely noticeable. For "Destruction of Krypton," Williams
would foreshadow the danger with a distantly dissonant adult choir,
though
Star Wars fans will delight in the timpani-pounding,
cymbal-crashing full ensemble harmony of the Death Star's glory during
the actual scenes of destruction. A theme for the Kent family is
introduced and maintained until Clark Kent's departure for Metropolis.
Sometimes referred to as the "family theme" or the "Smallville" theme,
this identification with the character's childhood features the same
heroic stature as the fanfare, but with less obvious statement until the
closing of "Leaving Home." The only somewhat weak theme in the score for
Superman is the one for Gene Hackman and Ned Beatty's villainous
duo. Williams' "March of the Villains" treads dangerously close to the
comical territory that the production was trying to avoid, though it's
obvious that Williams was attempting to play off of Hackman's
confidently snickering performance. Much of the concert arrangement of
this irritatingly prancing theme was never actually used in the
film.
The remainder of the score often uses fragments of these
themes for its substance. One cue of singular beauty is "Trip to
Earth," which offers some of the wondrous atmosphere that would
eventually be fleshed out in
Hook. A minor-key variant of the
Krypton theme in "The Fortress of Solitude" is an emotional play aided
in the cue by eerie high female voices. The straight action cues are
overshadowed by moments like the latter half of "The Big Rescue" (or
"Helicopter Sequence"), which cranks out a reprise of the title
fanfare. Some of the better action cues were never available on the
original LP or CD albums for
Superman, further diminishing their
memorability. The album situation for this score was initially
frustrating for many
Superman fans, though they would be
ultimately rewarded for their patience with two stunning releases of the
score in 1998 and 2000, as well as one astronomical treatment of the
score in 2008. The original 1987 release on CD was far from complete,
not even featuring the same quantity of music contained on the LP
release. For some mainstream listeners, however, it could be argued that
the 73 minutes of music presented on that original CD was all that was
really necessary for a cursory appreciation of the composition's
highlights. In 1998, Robert Townson commissioned an effort to completely
reconstruct the score for a re-recording by John Debney and the Royal
Scottish National Orchestra. The resulting 2-CD set on the Varèse
Sarabande label not only maintains the integrity of Williams' original
composition, but added 13 minutes of noteworthy material not available
on the 1987 Warner release. Although there were skeptics at the time who
didn't believe in the concept of the multitude of re-recordings that
were undertaken by Varèse and other labels in the late 1990's,
this presentation of
Superman features a performance among the
best of all the efforts of the era (ranking with
Vertigo on
Varèse and
Raise the Titanic on Silva Screen Records).
Rather than serving as an interpretation of Williams' score, the beauty
of the coordination effort for this recording of
Superman is its
total and complete faithfulness to the original composition. Debney and
the ensemble achieve stellar results in their goal of producing a sound
that recreates the original feel and power of Williams' work.
Casual listeners, in fact, won't even be able to tell a
difference between the 1998 re-recording provided by Varèse and
the original. This is, of course, except for the crisp digital sound of
the Varèse set. While the additional selections and better
arrangement of the music may not be sufficient to alone attract your
purchase, the sound quality will. Hearing the majority of the score in
outstanding digital quality, especially with such precise attention to
the restoration of the music, makes this set a must-have for collectors
of Williams' classic Bronze Age scores. The opening few minutes of the
"Planet Krypton" cue alone will blow you out of your seat. The
packaging, complete with track-by-track analysis, is a fascinating read
as well. It could be argued that Varèse and the RSNO never
reached these soaring heights again. The 2000 Rhino release really ended
all demands by
Superman score fans, presenting forty additional
minutes of previously unreleased music from the original recordings in
what was considered at the time to be a definitive release. If you were
for some reason deterred from the Varèse album, the early 2000
set of double CDs offered the complete score with such attention to
detail that it was originally thought that a significant revisional CD
release of
Superman was never again to be necessary. As
comprehensive as it could possibly be, the Rhino set combines the
superior arrangement of the Varèse album with a collection of
unheard and alternate cues. Along the same lines as similar treatment at
the time for
Jaws,
Close Encounters, and a number of other
classic Williams scores, this Rhino set competed well while in print.
There are some legitimate and surprising additional cues that will be
necessary additions to your collection, including the rousing "Star
Ship Escapes" and "The Big Rescue." A large portion of missing cues
from the second half of the film is also finally made available, leading
to a very satisfactory chronological presentation. For good measure,
Rhino also includes the pop versions of the love theme performed by
Margot Kidder, as well as source cues, alternate takes, and the score's
familiar concert arrangement. The extensive liner notes of the complete
2000 album, despite a somewhat cumbersome slip case that houses them,
are as enjoyable and fascinating as the Varèse ones.
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1998 Varèse: | | |
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Despite common acceptance that
Superman had
received the best album coverage that could have possibly been afforded
it, Film Score Monthly and Warner Brothers teamed up in 2007 to produce
the most outrageously comprehensive
Superman-related set ever
imaginable for release in February of 2008. The resulting 8-CD set was
devoted to all four of the original feature film scores and Ron Jones'
1988 animated series music. The selling point of the set was the newly
available material (and there's a ton of it) from the Ken Thorne and
Alexander Courage sequel scores arranged from Williams' original themes.
While the contents from
Superman aren't significantly different
on this set when compared to the out-of-print Rhino one (there is a
handful of additional alternate material that was discovered but it only
amounts to a couple of minutes in length), the improvement in sound
quality may indeed be an attraction for those already settled on the
2000 set. Only after Rhino had produced that set were original, first
generation masters of
Superman discovered, and it from this
source that FSM's presentation is made. Even so, for 99% of casual
listeners, the awesome FSM product is redundant when considering only
Superman. The related material from the subsequent scores,
however, is in many places similar enough to the original work by
Williams to serve as alternate music of the first composition. The only
problem with the FSM set is that it is clearly targeted at the most
devoted of concept and film music collectors. At a hefty price of $120,
it was one a few sets available from the label that topped the
hundred-dollar mark. Somewhat surprisingly, the first edition of this
set, limited to 3,000 copies, sold out relatively quickly, and FSM
pressed a second edition of another 3,000 copies that remained available
at the same price. The production quality of the FSM product is truly
stunning, easily the most attractive and fascinating item ever to come
from Lukas Kendall's company. The extensive information in the hardcover
book included with the eight discs will keep you occupied for hours. If
you're only interested in the music for the first
Superman film,
however, the Varèse and Rhino presentations are nothing less than
5-star products that will suffice (the original Warner release from 1987
is no longer relevant). Any of these albums will continue to make you
wonder how this score could have lost the Oscar to Giorgio Moroder's
Midnight Express. Fickle, those voters are.
Amazon.com Price Hunt: CD or Download
Score as Written for Film: *****
1987 Warner Album: ***
1998 Varèse Sarabande Album: *****
2000 Rhino Album: *****
2008 Film Score Monthly Album: *****
Overall: *****
| Bias Check: | For John Williams reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating
is 3.73 (in 68 reviews)
and the average viewer rating is 3.59
(in 335,538 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.
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