Even with all this attention from the fans, not to mention a
consistent level of respect from members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and
Sciences, North failed to win the Oscar that year. In fact, even with North's
plentitude of Academy Award nominations over his career, he would never win the
award for any particular score (though he did, in 1986, become the first composer
to receive a lifetime achievement award from AMPAS). In terms of scope, the score
for
Cleopatra was conceived in proportion to the other production elements
of the film, allowing North the luxury of composing for and recording with an
orchestra of unprecedented size. By luck for North, his score for
Spartacus
in 1960 had dealt with almost the same exact era of the Roman Republic/Empire (and
even included some overlapping character references), so listeners who had become
fans of
Spartacus heard North resurrect half a dozen motifs and percussive
elements from that score for use in
Cleopatra. It was a practical move which
suited both the composer and the film. Even with this overlap, North eventually
wrote almost three hours of music for
Cleopatra, a stunning amount of
material even by today's standards. North's music for the film was very typical of
the swing towards "modernism" in film music that would influence composers of the
Silver Age (and especially Jerry Goldsmith). A typical North score for this genre,
of course, would have rooted its spirit in the exotic use of percussion. From
1960's television documentaries such as
Africa to cult sci-fi films of the
1980's such as
Dragonslayer, North would maintain a proud status as the
master of percussive personality, usually exploring atonality without boundaries.
Whenever possible, North chose to inject his scores with the performances of rarely
known percussive instruments. Later collectors of film music (those who grew up in
the bronze Age of John Williams' valiant melodies and themes) find North's more
obscure methods of presenting his ideas to be disorienting.
The most interesting aspect of his
Cleopatra score is its
combination of classic Hollywood romance and his more modern percussive
experimentation. The exotic location, period, and sets of the film are balanced by
an undeniable pair of love stories (which were enhanced, of course, by the
off-screen behavior of its stars), and some film music scholars have described the
Cleopatra score as having a tense, raw sexuality in its tone. This is an
interesting observation, because this lust in the music is the direct result of the
bridging of the Golden Age of Hollywood romance themes with the more edgy,
unconventional, Silver Age period of cross-genre exploration. As the suicide scenes
at the end of the film reach their climax, North unleashes some of the most
engaging and harmonic material of his entire career. There has always remained a
debate about which of the two love themes of the film is superior, though it seems
that opinions sway favorably towards "Antony and Cleopatra" in the second half of
the film over "Caesar and Cleopatra" from the first. Even with the romance of the
film agonizingly played out by the strings of the orchestra,
Cleopatra is
still not a score that will be easily accessible to the soundtrack collectors of
the Digital Age. If you seek an epic score from the same period that provides more
blatant thematic material, then Maurice Jarre's 1962 work for
Lawrence of
Arabia is a safer bet. But Alex North has a very healthy following of fans,
even in the decades after the end of his career. After the original LP record
disappeared from the stores, North's score for
Cleopatra was largely unknown
to new film score collectors up to and after his death. Then, in the late 1990's, a
limited edition (and what some would call a bootleg) of the score was issued to
soundtrack specialty outlets by the Tsunami label in Germany. The Varèse
Sarabande label mistakenly advertised its 2001 remastering as the first ever
release of the music on CD; the Tsunami limited edition of the score, despite its
less than official status, sold relatively well on the market for years.
Unfortunately, Tsunami albums suffer from poor sound quality and their
Cleopatra release was limited to 2222 numbered copies.
To the credit of the Tsunami album, it didn't simply copy the
straight contents of the LP; it offered several cues that had been previously
unavailable on album at the time, making for a total of over 74 minutes of North's
music on CD. The limited album also featured a uniquely designed jewel case, with
the logo and other artwork actually painted onto the exterior of the front of the
plastic jewel case (an extreme rarity). An intact and undamaged jewel case of this
product is actually considered a collector's item by some of North's fans. In any
case, the Tsunami release was rendered completely moot by the 2001 remastered
edition of
Cleopatra by Varèse Sarabande. For the 2001 album, the
process of digging up the original masters of
Cleopatra's music and
arranging them into listenable cues was an incredible task. Even if you are no fan
of the music, the impressive level of effort put into the care of this score is
worth your notice. When North recorded
Cleopatra, the composition was so
complex that he had several different tapes of the guitars, strings, percussion,
brass, etc, all made separately for final mixing at the end of the process. Much of
the restoration required the careful piecing together of these raw elements using
digital technologies, and, except for two or three wobbles (or slowing of tapes,
causing the pitch of the music to become distorted), the sound quality is
impressive. North's score is highlighted by its intimate string performances,
guiding the two main themes for the two couples, and these moments feature
particularly dynamic sound. More challenging are the fanfares, battles, and the
overture and entr'acte, which sometimes reveal the age of their masters beyond
digital correction. The mere quantity of music provided (two fully packed CDs) is
more than enough compensation for these minor flaws, however. The packaging of the
Varèse Sarabande album is superb, with more information from Jeff Bond about
the movie, score, and concurrent documentary about
Cleopatra than you could
ever need. Indeed, this film and score are a story in and of themselves, and this
kind of labor-intensive treatment for both is spectacular. Even if you're not an
enthusiast of North's unconventional, percussive styles, the scope of this score
and album warrant your interest.
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