Filmtracks Traffic Rank: #2,335
Written 8/27/24
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Buy it... if there is no limit to your adoration for Jerry
Goldsmith's sensitive character themes, this television score featuring
a pair of his lovely identities for a small ensemble.
Avoid it... if you cannot overcome highly dissatisfying sound
quality that sometimes causes distracting distortion to the soundscape
in fuller cues.
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| Goldsmith |
A Girl Named Sooner: (Jerry Goldsmith) Delayed
countless months because the producers insisted that their film appear
in a most favorable prime time slot on network television, A Girl
Named Sooner ultimately missed its chance for Emmy consideration in
1975. It was a somewhat typical family drama for the small screen,
telling of a maladjusted orphaned girl, Sooner, in rural Indiana of the
1930's who is placed into the foster care of new parents who have much
to learn about the girl and themselves. Sooner is conflicted between
this new family and returning to her previous life with an old
bootlegging woman in the woods, eventually running home to that
surrogate parent upon the death of a pet bird. As the story progresses
toward a county fair where the bootlegger, foster family, and local
authorities are destined to converge, Sooner ultimately finds her proper
place, but not without more death and despair. It's a rather depressing
tale overall, but it was finely made and performed well in the time slot
it eventually secured. The producers and director were successful
veterans of these projects on the small screen, and they specifically
wanted composer Jerry Goldsmith to such a degree that they were willing
to hold up the entire production until Goldsmith could be available in
his hectic schedule. The film presented the opportunity for the composer
to reprise his mode from 1973's Emmy award-winning score for The Red
Pony, and had A Girl Named Sooner been released at the
optimum time for awards consideration, it very well could have received
similar attention. This despite a rather predictable formula from
Goldsmith for the occasion. There is nothing in his work for A Girl
Named Sooner that didn't fit squarely into his small-scale Americana
methodology at the time, though his writing techniques continued to show
that despite being at the tail end of his career in writing music for
television music for 20th Century Fox, he wasn't skimping on the
quality. For this score, he employed a 40-member orchestra featuring 32
strings, four woodwinds, keyboard, percussion and two notable soloists:
harmonica and harp. No synthetics were utilized despite the composer's
fascination with their exploration at this time. Most listeners will
remember this score for its notable harmonica presence, the instrument's
performances conveying the folksy attitude of the tale perfectly. The
personality of the score is generally pleasant and accessible, with "No
Excuse" the darkest moment of dissonant dread in the troubled midsection
of the story.
Thematically, Goldsmith constantly develops three
identities in
A Girl Named Sooner. The main theme for harmonica
is very wholesome, one of the composer's most innocent character
representations of rural settings. It retains some of the swing to the
progressions familiar to
The Wild Rovers, and it is heard
immediately on harmonica and harp in "Main Title," shifting to woodwinds
before returning to the harmonica after the adjoined happiness theme on
high strings. The tune is accelerated and playful in "The Town," a cue
very distorted in its recording, unfortunately. This main theme then
begins "There's a Difference" on harp, mingling throughout, and features
on flute in "New Clothes." It softly guides "Love That Catsup" and opens
up in its secondary phrases in "Jump Rope." The main theme slowly breaks
through the trepidation of "Tell Me Who" on harmonica, starts "All
Alone" on tentative flutes, and vaguely guides "Idle Time." It finally
returns with heart on woodwinds and harmonica in "Everything Changes"
and reprises its original performances in "End Credits." The happiness
theme is more appealing than the main theme and in better tune with
Goldsmiths' subsequent dramas. Using the same descending phrasing, it is
placed as a string interlude to main theme at 1:07 into "Main Title" and
continues on flute and plucked strings at 2:44. This melody guides "Main
Title - Part II" with more pluckiness, provides hope at 1:19 into
"There's a Difference," and struggles to enunciate itself late in "All
Alone." Violins prevail with the idea for a positive turn at 1:45 into
"Everything Changes," and it continues to serve as an interlude to the
main theme at 0:26 into "End Credits." A far more elusive parenting
theme rounds out the score, intentionally nebulous and untethered on
woodwinds and strings in "Late Hours," its tone carrying over to
"Unexpected Guest." This theme interjects early in "There's a
Difference," offers thoughtful string ambience to "Love That Catsup,"
emerges painfully late in "No Excuse," and takes a lighter stance in
"Tell Me Who." Its full ensemble exploration in "Empty Grave" suffers
from distracting aural distortion, but the idea shifts in purpose in the
lighter drama of "Oh Bird" and offers a stoic environment to "Chores/How
It Is." The mono sound of this score's album presentations is severely
inhibiting, though collectors accustomed to such limitations will find
the two brighter themes to be highly attractive. The same contents were
released twice, first by Film Score Monthly in 2000 and then by La-La
Land Records in 2022, both as part of compilation albums with other
Goldsmith music. It's a pleasant, workmanlike score begging for a
vibrant resurrection.
*** @Amazon.com: CD or
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Bias Check:
For Jerry Goldsmith reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 3.23
(in 140 reviews) and the average viewer rating is 3.25
(in 154,785 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.
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