LAST TIME I covered my 118th, 119th, and 120th Goldsmith works (Hawkins on Murder, Winter Kill, and Babe), and that was...fine, I guess.
THIS TIME I’m covering a much spookier side of scoring: music from the original The Twilight Zone TV series which includes
- Bernard Herrmann’s first season title music and unused alternate title music
- The familiar title piece crafted from two pieces of library music by Marius Constant
- Episode scores by Herrmann, Goldsmith, Nathan Van Cleave, Franz Waxman, Leonard Rosenman, Nathan Scott, Fred Steiner, and Jeff Alexander
- Herrmann’s score for the original 1941 radio version of The Hitch-Hiker (with a screenplay by Herrmann’s first wife!)
- Herrmann’s 1957 library music Outer Space Suite which was re-used throughout the series
- Jazzy library music by Goldsmith and René Garriguenc
Previously I had heard the music represented on Varèse’s two “Best of” CDs which contained the highlights of the 5 volumes they had previously released (including some Goldsmith episodes), plus Herrmann’s ‘Walking Distance’ as re-recorded by Tribute. This survey considered two OTHER releases: Silva’s 40th Anniversary set covering Seasons 1-3 and Varèse’s rerecording of Herrmann’s contributions under the baton of Joel McNeely. I think I bought the Varèse album 9 years ago and it’s just been sitting in various piles since then...OOOPS.
As I did for U.N.C.L.E., I’ve broken out my thoughts by season AND by composer. I’m only considering music that’s been issued standalone; there are plenty of scores that haven’t been released including (I believe) any of the music written for Season 4 by Van Cleave, Steiner, and Garriguenc.
If you prefer the TL;DR version, it would be “Season 1 is perhaps the best single season of anthology scoring ever, Herrmann’s music was the best, and Goldsmith’s music is a small-scale sign of things to come.” Admittedly, if you can’t stand smaller ensembles or if you desire any kind of happiness in your music, this (with a few cheerful exceptions) probably won’t be your cup of tea.
Season 1 (1959-60) - Silva 40th + McNeely recording + Tribute
What a murderer’s row of talent for the period! Herrmann and Waxman were scoring superstars. Rosenman’s career had taken off a few years prior. Goldsmith was only a “TV composer” back then.
Herrmann’s output is the most consistently listenable from Season 1. ‘Walking Distance’, with its achingly lovely string music, is the high point and is reason enough to pursue the McNeely album. The alternating chords in his main titles are appropriately eerie and anticipatory (McNeely takes the tempo a tad slow), though one can perhaps see why producers pivoted the next year to the now-iconic Constant library music. ‘Where Is Everybody?’ will appeal to fans of his gloomier dramatic works, while ‘The Lonely’ mixes twinkling sounds, muted brass, and the occasional organ.
Herrmann’s output for Season 1 places in his top 15 scores. Beyond that, the Outer Space Suite is sort of a Herrmann “greatest hits” collection with hypnotic harps and unique woodwind clusters, while ‘The Hitch-Hiker’ somewhat foreshadows Cape Fear with its four note descending motif.
The suite from ‘The Sixteen-Millimeter Shrine’ is catnip for Waxman fans. Sax solos! Turbulent psychological tones with the occasional piercing flute! Jazz piano on top of gradually unsettling dissonance! Mournful solo cello! Mournful solo violin!
One of the loveliest themes comes from ‘A Stop at Willoughby’ by Nathan Scott. However, this is also the THIRD work in my collection that quotes Stephen Foster’s ‘Beautiful Dreamer’, and hearing it for the first time did yank me out of the experience. Van Cleave’s scores for ‘Perchance to Dream’ and ‘A World of Difference’ are appropriately sinister, but the shrill electronic experimentation could cause headaches. His ‘Elegy’ is an easier pill to swallow. The Rosenman episode channels gradually-building anxiety (rumbling piano, uneasy militaristic solo brass), but might be the least memorable of the episode scores represented.
As for Goldsmith (since this IS a follow-up to a rundown of his career, after all), ‘The Big Tall Wish’ is an intriguing warm-up act to the harmonica concertos that Jerry would write for various American dramas throughout the 1960s.
Season rating: ****1/2
Herrmann material: ****1/2
Waxman episode: ****
Scott episode: ****
Van Cleave episodes: ***1/2
Rosenman episode: ***1/2
Goldsmith episode: ***1/2
Season 2 (1960-61) - Silva 40th
On the whole, it’s still a very good two hours of music (all the jazz stock music by Goldsmith & Garriguenc helps), but unlike Season 1 it’s not exactly better than the sum of its parts.
Goldsmith’s material impresses largely by how diverse each episode score is. ‘Nervous Man in a Four Dollar Room’ doles out anxious jazzy energy and an effective percussive ticking clock, along with plenty of jagged piano effects he would deploy to greater effect later in his career. ‘Dust’, with its plaintive harmonic and guitar duets, anticipates the quieter moments in Goldsmith’s future Westerns. The demented fiddle in ‘The Invaders’ suggests some of his bonkers devilish horror to come, although the dissonance is a bit challenging to listen to. ‘Back There’ works from some of the same building blocks as his tortured psychological music of the 60s and 70s, but given its austere sensibilities it may be the least engaging of Goldsmith’s episode scores. With all the similarities with Goldsmith’s later, better takes on this material, I can understand why some listeners may not feel the need to seek out such “embryonic” music.
‘Eye of the Beholder’ is similar to a few of Herrmann’s Alfred Hitchcock Hour scores in that it stays at a low boil before unleashing different music for a final reveal, and also in that it uses different instrumental groups for different realities. Alas, like those scores, most of this episode’s music isn’t terribly engaging as a standalone listen; the structural intelligence is nice, but this doesn’t hit the highs of Herrmann’s Season 1 work.
Fred Steiner’s music (the strongest of Season 2) is somewhat Herrmann-esque, especially all the grim low winds dominating ‘King Nine Will Not Return’. In between the charming harmonica bookends of ‘A Hundred Yards Over the Rim’ we find a groove that produces one of the most powerful, energetic musical moments of the whole series.
Jeff Alexander’s sole score is a mix of jazzy source music, chamber-sized Americana, and standard suspense material; there’s nothing wrong with it, but it’s nothing special.
Season rating: ****
Steiner episodes: ****
Goldsmith episodes: ***½
Herrmann episode: ***½
Alexander episode: ***
Season 3 (1961-62) - Silva 40th + McNeely rerecording
Less than an hour of music from this season has been released, and thus it is a struggle to compare this against the 2+ hours of music from Season 1 that have been released. And the stylistic inventiveness of Goldsmith’s Season 2 work is somewhat missed.
Still, there are some joys. And unlike, say, The Man From U.N.C.L.E. with its wild stylistic changes each season, the musical tone is fairly consistent from year-to-year, so if you liked what you heard in earlier years you’ll probably like Season 3’s music too.
Van Cleave’s work in general sounds less experimental than his Season 1 music and as a result is vastly more enjoyable as a standalone listen. His ‘Two’ is alternatingly stark and sensitive, with horn solos and military drums subtly hinting at the postwar plot. It’s really good, but it can’t hold a candle to the whimsical, loving melodies in ‘I Sing The Body Electric’, one of the musical high points of the series and the rare case where the electronic accents are an asset.
Herrmann’s ‘Little Girl Lost’ gets some interesting sounds out of his unique flute ensemble. And the massive harp sounds set amidst rapid vibraphone notes create an extremely effective sense of mystery and interdimensional unease, especially when juxtaposed with the haunting solos of the viola d’amore, an instrument Herrmann previously used to great effect in his score for On Dangerous Ground.
Steiner’s ‘The Passerby’ continues the chamber-sized approach from his Season 2 episodes, though your attention may waver throughout the low-key, grim proceedings.
Season rating: ****
Van Cleave episodes: ****
Herrmann episode: ****
Steiner episode: ***1/2
Season 5 (1963-64) - McNeely rerecording
Only Herrmann music has been released, and it falls somewhere between the quality of his Season 3 and Season 2 material. The increasingly animated bass clarinet in ‘Living Doll’ is a nice asset, and with only celeste and harps being used it feels like a demonic instrumental trio. But it lacks the magnificent heights of his earlier episodes.
‘Ninety Year Without Slumbering’ has a greater diversity of instrumental colors (lots of woodwinds!), and should appeal to anyone who likes Herrmann’s distinctive use of those instruments. But you also get an “oh, that’s it?” feeling at the end of it, sort of like the effect produced by ‘Eye of the Beholder’.
Season rating / Herrmann episodes: ***1/2
Up next in the Goldsmith Collection Expansion Chronicles: let the people decide! I’ll pick whatever of the below 5 options gets the most votes from respondents.
- Film recording of a work I already had an album recording of
- Late career action drama
- More television! (Goldsmith and others)
- Mid career action thriller
- More television! (just Goldsmith)
| 
