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The Conversation
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Composed, Performed, and Produced by:
David Shire
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LABELS & RELEASE DATES
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ALBUM AVAILABILITY
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The 2001 Intrada album was a limited release available only through
soundtrack specialty outlets. Unlike other entries in this Intrada series of
collectibles, this album did not sell out in the first few years after its release.
It was still available for its original price as of 2008. The 2023 Silva Screen
re-issue is a commercial digital release.
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AWARDS
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None.
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Buy it... only if you have an appreciation for this very fine film,
because the score can best be enjoyed by listeners who can place its
unconventional minimalism in context.
Avoid it... if you expect the extensive solo piano work by David
Shire for this score to maintain a consistent tone, due mostly to the
insertion of early synthetic distortion as specific accompaniment to the
story.
BUY IT
 | Shire |
The Conversation: (David Shire) "He'd kill us if he
had the chance." This line, the most memorable from one of the very best
films of the mid-1970's, highlights the Francis Ford Coppola thriller
starring Gene Hackman and a young Harrison Ford. The Conversation
is a film for which sound editing was paramount, because the plot of
Coppola's story revolves around a private investigator (Hackman) whose
life is completely consumed by the controlled environment of his
eavesdropping technologies. The story and its characters are
gut-wrenching in their sorrow, malice, and determination, and the film
has a whopper of twist at the end that left audiences feeling as though
they'd been had. Technologically, the elements of sound are the most
complex feature of the film, with much of its overall production period
spent in the post-shooting process of using the newest electronics to
manipulate the sounds which Hackman's character is heard recording on
his equipment. Composer David Shire, a brother-in-law of Coppola, was
approached to score the film at a time in his career when he was looking
for a big break. When first learning of the opportunity to score The
Conversation, Shire was sure that the Coppola film would afford him
a big budget with which to write for a large orchestra, and his career
would subsequently take off. When he instead discovered that Coppola
wanted the entire score to be performed by one instrument, Shire was
shocked. Little did he know, however, that The Conversation was
indeed destined be the career breakthrough he was looking for after all.
The score is studied even today as an example of minimalistic scoring at
its very finest. The purpose of the music was simply to extend the
introverted persona of Hackman's character, Harry Caul, and it succeeds
very well at this task.
That main character is a painfully lonely man, paid for
audio eavesdropping in a large city environment, and because of this
occupation and setting, Caul has (along with his own sax performances)
visions of his own life in an alternatively jazzy sort of world. To
accompany Caul's emotionally dangerous journey, Shire's score consists
largely of one instrument: the piano. Shire's own piano performances
are, in many ways, the heart of the film, and in the final cut, they are
an elegant way of allowing all the complex layers of sounds from Caul's
work to take the spotlight. The main theme is a simple, but flighty
piano piece with just a hint of jazzy rhythm that is, in its
construction, a very enjoyable albeit slightly atonal piece. But since
the film has such a dark underbelly, that theme turns sour as the story
transforms into a manipulative tale of counterintelligence and Caul is
exploited to the point of madness. To address this side, this score was
one of the earlier experiments in synthesized elements being used to
augment or distort a traditional performance. For the scenes of fright,
as Caul becomes nervous for the lives of those upon whom he is spying
(along with the belief that he is to be their agent of doom), Shire's
music was altered by Walter Murch, the film's editor, to utilize
experimental electronic grinding and distortion techniques, weaving in
and out of mono and stereo presentations. Since the centerpiece of the
spy-like recordings in the story occurs in a crowded park, sounds of
street bands and other audio artifacts were mixed brilliantly with the
lonely themes for Caul, sitting far above it all. Understandably, these
solitary piano solos don't work quite as well as a standalone listening
experience on album. A secondary melodic idea in "Amy's Theme" extends
the crisp, elegant runs of the main theme for a new identity that teases
some brightness in its impressive lines but ultimately succumbs to the
same rather downbeat tone as the remainder of the score.
Because of Coppola's somewhat unpredictable method of
approving the music, some of the temporary mono recordings by Shire
before the film was even shot were used in the final cut of the film.
And with the street sounds integrated with the score so well, they could
not be easily separated for an album release. In its latter half, the
score also contains a significant amount of low-key pounding, rumbling,
and general droning on the piano, representing the frantic pace at which
the jazzy mystique is lost. Only in the final cue does Shire's piano
provide an echo of the Caul character's sanity that existed in the first
six or so major cues. Source music for a clubby jazz band offers a few
momentary breaks from the solace. The 2001 debut album for The
Conversation was the second in the eventually lengthy series of
"Special Collection" releases from Intrada Records. It had been a
frequently requested score on CD for many years. Its incredible use in
the film proves that minimalism can indeed work to perfection, and
because the film is studied by students across the globe, the score was
naturally in demand. To listen to the album in its entirety, though, is
difficult, because without knowing the immediate context of the visuals
on screen, the lesser-engaging sequences of Shire's performances are
indistinguishable from the distorting sound effects. Ironically, the
best cue on the album is one that was never used in the film. Shire
recorded his title theme with a small ensemble to give it a fuller
personality, and that final track on the album is not surprisingly the
highlight. The same presentation was released digitally by Silva Screen
in 2023, the Intrada CD having long gone out of print. You simply must
have an appreciation for this movie to be able to enjoy this score, and
even if you are an enormous fan it, only ten minutes or so of the score
is all that is required on album. Nevertheless, it is still an important
work, not only in its relation to the fine production as a whole, but
also in that it led to countless other assignments for its obviously
talented composer.
*** @Amazon.com: CD or
Download
All Albums Tracks ▼ | Total Time: 37:22 |
1. Theme from The Conversation (3:30)
2. The End of the Day (1:36)
3. No More Questions/Phoning the Director (2:16)
4. Blues for Harry (Combo) (2:38)
5. To the Office/The Elevator (2:37)
6. Whatever Was Arranged (2:06)
7. The Confessional (2:18)
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8. Amy's Theme (2:48)
9. Dream Sequence (2:32)
10. Plumbing Problem (2:51)
11. Harry Carried (2:44)
12. The Girl in the Limo (2:23)
13. Finale and End Credits (3:52)
14. Theme From The Conversation (Ensemble) (2:27)
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The insert of the 2001 Intrada album contains extensive notes from the
director, editor, and composer. There exists no official packaging for the digital
2023 Silva Screen re-issue. An excerpt from Francis Ford Coppola's note in the 2001
album is as follows:
"The Conversation falls in the category of a 'personal film'. This was the holy
grail for film students, the notion that one could write and ultimately make a
personal film rather than a Hollywood or industry film. Even then, over 25 years
ago, the distinction was clear: A personal film could be about something that
meant something to you; that did not depend on big stars and tremendous action
sequences, but was more introspective, more evocative; it was about things you
had feelings for. The Conversation was a script I worked on for several years. I
wanted to make it my first for American Zoetrope, our new independent film
company.
Ironically but not surprisingly, it took The Godfather to get The Conversation
made. The Conversation was only made at all as an inducement to make a 2nd
Godfather film. The script was really inspired by Michangelo Antonioni's Blow
Up, conceived as a thriller to have some small commercial appeal, but designed
to explore an inner, lonely part of myself. For all these reasons, I stressed to
David Shire that I did not want a large orchestral ensemble, but something
simple, haunting and lonely as I imagined Harry Caul was himself.
David, of course, had the equipment to write and orchestrate a film score as
good and big as any composer, so I worked with him almost as an actor, to move
him to try something daringly simple, that did not show off all his great
talents and abilities. Eventually I thought that a single voice would be the
most appropriate solution for what I had in mind‹a single piano, recorded with
the greatest simplicity; something that had a slight jazz figure to it, as Harry
was a frustrated jazz 'wanna-be' ‹but to avoid the obvious, like using a sax or
trumpet.
Of course David couldn't believe that this wasn't just a first step and that
later we'd surely orchestrate it, bring in strings, show off a little. But the
first sketches David played were so effective, capturing the mood of the story
so well, that I resisted further decoration. I think of David Shire's score for
The Conversation as one of the most effective, most successful film scores that
I've had."
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