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•	2012 Lambro Album

•	1995 Goldsmith Album

•	2016 Goldsmith Album

•	2012 Lambro Album

•	2012 Goldsmith Album

•	1995 Goldsmith Album

Already at the top of his game and popularity was composer Jerry Goldsmith by 1974, and while he is known for having several works rejected through the years, Chinatown represented, along with Air Force One, one of the composer's most famous replacement assignments. Goldsmith commented that Lambro's music was thrown out "because the composer wasn't right for the movie in the first place." Perhaps not surprisingly, Lambro spent several decades going to extremes to defend his music for Chinatown and trash everyone who was involved in the production, including Goldsmith. He went so far as to write extensively about it, though some of his assertions were debunked. Goldsmith, meanwhile, stepped in with only ten days to write and record a replacement score, and he provided far less music for the movie than Lambro had, opting to leave several vital sequences unscored. He received acclaim for his short but memorable work, including nominations for all the major industry awards. Interestingly, though, despite the heartache and mudslinging involved with the music for Chinatown, neither score could be considered a classic, and they likely would have equally served the film if Lambro's action material had been dialed back in the mix. (He became irate at the editor for doing just that, in fact, and he later claimed that this fight was the real reason he was fired.) The truth is that both Lambro and Goldsmith's scores approached the topic from the same perspective, the composers identifying the need for similar noir romance and dissonant, percussive suspense. The difference between the two is that Lambro threw into the mix some ethnic Chinese material for three cues and was generally harsher in all facets of his work. His saxophone theme of noir appeal in "Main Titles" exists over a jumble of incongruent lines of piano and other instrumentals, creating a nightmarish ambience that sets the mood but does so with intentionally disturbing and uneasy atmospherics. His suspense material is more fully orchestral than Goldsmith's, but it is plain obnoxious in its absolute unpleasantness. His take on the Noah Cross villain is not much different from Goldsmith's, but Lambro is content to slather dissonant violin lines on nearly everything without really needing to. His action music, as in "Orchard Chase," is competently terrifying, and it's in cues like this where his breadth of percussive coloration really serves the concept well.

As with Goldsmith's score for Chinatown, the highlight in Lambro's work is his more accessible romantic element, summarized by the disarming piano and string tonality in "One Night With Evelyn." This music is reprised in true noir agony in "Forget It Jake," and the hanging chord to conclude that cue is superb. The Chinese cues, led by "Welcome to Chinatown" and "End Titles," offer their own theme, and their applications seem cheap. The use over the end credits is Lambro's most considerable mistake, as this cue definitely needed to expand upon the agony of the tortured romance material. It's not difficult to imagine that the opening and closing titles are where Lambro's music ultimately sunk him, and Goldsmith didn't make that same mistake. The key difference between the two scores is Goldsmith's ability to provide a truly appealing and sultry main romance theme, and this dominant, bluesy identity is expressed well throughout his replacement work. As was always a concern at the time, the studio wanted to sell albums, and Goldsmith's "Love Theme" from the film, used obviously in not only the "Jake and Evelyn" romance cue but also the opening and closing of the film, was positioned to sell the album. It captures the sleazy demeanor of the film far better than Lambro's equivalent, and this theme alone likely earned Goldsmith his recognition. The notable solo trumpet performances in this theme, provided over the composer's usual bed of piano and strings, are highly acclaimed, their lazy but respectful attitude vital in reinforcing the personality of the narrative. Goldsmith adapts this theme well in the suspense portions of his work, reprising it at satisfactory intervals, though don't expect this majority of the score to strongly appeal. The composer relies upon a minimal ensemble for Chinatown, his trumpet and strings joined by a handful of pianos, harps, and percussion for a rather sparse atmosphere. The piano is often prepared in a way to give it an otherworldly, thumping tone. His take on the Noah Cross villain is more subdued and reliant upon sinister percussive rhythms to convey the menace of conspiracy. One of the more intriguing aspects of Goldsmith's recording is how dry the suspense passages sound compared to the relatively wet trumpet performances. This may be an intentional reference to the role of water in the story of the film, the dry literal environment inspiring Goldsmith to use techniques he had utilized for arid Western settings in the past.

Overall, neither Lambro's score or Goldsmith's replacement music for Chinatown will impress you if you are not enamored with the film itself. Very little of the Lambro score translates well onto album, and Goldsmith's 31-minute work can be very effectively condensed down to a ten to fifteen-minute suite. Also to consider are three source cues of vintage jazz and blues that better match the replacement score. The Lambro work was released by Perseverance Records in 2012 under the title "Los Angeles, 1937," and though it was limited to only 1,000 copies at a low price point, the product did not sell out and escalate in value in the first ten years of its release. That presentation also appends four tracks from Lambro's concert pieces, "Structures for String Orchestra" and "Music for Wind, Brass & Percussion," that were either tracked into the movie originally or inspired Polanski to hire him for the project. The concert pieces are in stereo while the original score is in mono. The editorial arrangement of the music for the film's trailer is an interesting attraction, though the rest of the work struggles outside of purely intellectual appreciation on album. The Goldsmith score has enjoyed far more availability, not surprisingly, starting with its original LP presentation. That stereo arrangement was long the domain of the Varèse Sarabande label, which pressed that short selection to CD in 1995 and then, after that product became out of print, as a limited CD Club item in 2012. The latter was a point of substantial dissatisfaction from film music enthusiasts, as it was a straight re-issue without additional material or even improved sound quality. The Varèse albums both provided an overly flat sound that disregarded nuance in the recording, and between this flaw and the lack of missing material (and film versions of several cues), the label's promotional description of the product as "definitive" was widely ridiculed. In 2016, Intrada Records finally offered the proper presentation of Goldsmith's Chinatown, starting its single CD with a more balanced stereo version of the album arrangements and then providing the film version of the score, including two or three pivotal narrative moments, in the best mono sound available and with the source material properly sequenced. While Chinatown will not appeal to all Goldsmith collectors, the Intrada product is an absolutely superb representation of his score and renders all previous releases moot. Still, don't let the hype oversell either score for this film, for both entries are somber, introverted, and challenging experiences.   @Amazon.com: CD or Download

• Music as Written by Phillip Lambro for the Film:  ***
• Music as Written by Jerry Goldsmith for the Film:  ***
• Overall:  ***

Bias Check:

For Jerry Goldsmith reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 3.22 (in 141 reviews) and the average viewer rating is 3.24 (in 154,884 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.