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Review of A Girl Named Sooner (Jerry Goldsmith)

2000 Film Score Monthly

2022 La-La Land

FILMTRACKS RECOMMENDS:

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.

FILMTRACKS EDITORIAL REVIEW:

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.  ***

TRACK LISTINGS:

2000 Film Score Monthly Album:
Total Time: 31:05

• 18. Main Title (3:04) • 19. Sooner Frees the Calf (0:45) • 20. Into Town (0:29) • 21. Mac and Elizabeth (2:08) • 22. Elizabeth Meets Sooner (0:35) • 23. The Bath/Bird's New Perch (2:49) • 24. Becoming a Family/Jumping Rope (2:59) • 25. Isolation (2:19) • 26. Elizabeth Comforts Sooner (2:37) • 27. A Kiss Goodnight (0:59) • 28. Runaway (2:08) • 29. Second Thoughts (1:24) • 30. Tears of Regret (0:54) • 31. Sooner and Granny/Reconciliation (4:19) • 32. Making a Difference (2:14) • 33. End Title (1:00)

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2022 La-La Land Records Album:
Total Time: 31:32

CD 2: • 27. Main Title (3:06) • 28. Main Title - Part II (0:47) • 29. The Town (0:30) • 30. Late Hours (2:10) • 31. Unexpected Guest (0:37) • 32. There's a Difference/New Clothes (2:50) • 33. Love That Catsup/Jump Rope (3:01) • 34. No Excuse (2:21) • 35. Tell Me Who (2:39) • 36. All Alone (1:01) • 37. Empty Grave (2:10) • 38. Idle Time (1:26) • 39. Oh Bird (0:56) • 40. Chores/How It Is (4:21) • 41. Everything Changes (2:16) • 42. End Credits (1:02)

NOTES & QUOTES:

Both the 2000 Film Score Monthly and 2022 La-La Land albums contain detailed notes about the films and scores.

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