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| Goldsmith |
The Going Up of David Lev: (Jerry Goldsmith) To
celebrate the 25th anniversary of the creation of Israel, a variety of
filmmakers and the Israeli state itself sought to create a major
television movie shining positive light on the country and its culture.
In part financed by Israel Film Center and sanctioned by the country's
government,
The Going Up of David Lev was fashioned as the
journey of self-discovery for a young Israeli boy but, for the most
part, the movie was meant to showcase the lovely scenery of the nation's
landscape via extensively broad cinematography. It only showed once on
NBC in 1973 and promptly disappeared, its story not attractive enough to
generate a following greater than that of documentary films. The boy and
his mother are haunted by the death their father and husband in the Six
Day War of 1967, and while the mother is tormented by visions of the
loss, the boy sneaks away from his Tel Aviv home to seek out the true
answer about his father's fate in Jerusalem. His journey is aided by a
cab driver who provides the movie's only star power; Chaim Topol, famed
Israeli who amazingly starred for many decades as Tevye on stage and
screen in
Fiddler on the Roof, shuttled the boy across the
country and, of course, sang two songs. One of these songs is a
traditional Hebrew piece, but the other is an original entry
specifically for this film that made good use of the performer's
soothing baritone voice. Neither of the songs had anything to do with
the original score of
The Going Up of David Lev, which was a
project of passion for Jerry Goldsmith. The composer had long harbored a
desire to score movies of Hebraic tradition, his Jewish faith causing
him to believe strongly that only Jewish composers could tackle movies
about the Israeli state. This assignment came chronologically before his
powerhouse duo of
QB VII and
Masada over the following
eight years, and there's no doubt that you can hear the origins of his
ideas for those scores in this work. In fact,
The Going Up of David
Lev, despite its obscurity, is recommended as a commendable
companion score to those later favorites. For Goldsmith personally, his
work on this movie came just prior to his own honeymoon with his wife,
punctuating a period of immense satisfaction for the composer.
Much of Goldsmith's score for
The Going Up of David
Lev is dominated by the musical styles of the region and its
traditions, the general tone serving as a clear precursor for the
Israel-related themes in
QB VII. A moderate orchestra is
supported by solos from recorder, viola, clarinet, guitar, accordion,
and electric harpsichord, most of these elements, when combined with
plucky strings and seemingly echoplexed harp, extremely saturated in
Hebrew folk mannerisms. The composer's metallic percussion is vital to
the soundscape, the tambourine, small chimes, and triangle keeping the
soundscape well-rounded. There is suspenseful dissonance with
militaristic snare in "Last Thoughts" and "Thoughts Again," but these
cues of torment for the mother do not persist, and the score becomes
generally more energetic and enthusiastic as it moves along and the boy
discovers his own country. Like many of Goldsmith's best ethnic works,
the score for
The Going Up of David Lev is most attractive when
the composer maintains rhythmic propulsion under tender themes, as in
"The Old City," a hidden gem of a cue that may resemble the composer's
Under Fire for some listeners. The score largely revolves around
three themes, all of them developed to satisfying levels though
sometimes occupying only specific portions of the narrative. The main
theme for the boy is the most impactful identity in the narrative. Heard
immediately on recorder and guitar in "Main Title From The Going Up of
David Lev," the theme leads to secondary lines carried by woodwinds over
the remainder of the cue. It opens "Ask the Doctor" on overlapping viola
and recorder, lightly guiding whole cue, and lightly informs the start
of "Accepting Reality" in woodwind fragments. It appears as counterpoint
to the Israel theme in "Don't Miss the Bus" and is teased amongst the
Kibbutz thematic meanderings in the tense "No Information." A lovely
string rendition of the boy's theme at 0:10 into "The Old City" is
arguably the top highlight of the score, representing Goldsmith
melodicism at its best when multiple lines join in, especially at the
cue's end. The theme finally adopts some of the propulsion and
instruments of the Israel theme in this cue, but the idea is mostly
replaced by the other two thereafter in the score, the boy's own
identity musically usurped by the broader representations of his
homeland, likely by design.
The other two themes of
The Going Up of David
Lev approach the location of the tale from two different directions.
The theme for the country itself is jaunty, dance-like, and hopeful,
building to full performance at 0:49 into "Accepting Reality" and
greatly brightening the narrative at that juncture. Minimized on
woodwinds at the start of "Don't Miss the Bus" over parts of the boy's
theme, the Israel theme develops into a spirited performance for full
ensemble as the scenery comes into play. It is reduced to solo cello at
the outset of "Sleepy Boy," influences the tone of the boy's theme in
the middle of "The Old City," and explodes in flighty excitement during
the theft scene at the outset of "A New Friend," conveying several
upbeat lines with pounding timpani and full ensemble strikes. The idea
is reduced to troubled solace from woodwinds and accordion throughout in
"A Sin Against God" and opens "The Legend" on high-range solo piano
before spreading to the rest of the ensemble. A swell at 2:52 into that
cue takes the idea into more depressing territory, but the theme returns
to its jaunty form at 3:27. At its side, the Kibbutz theme is a tool of
joyous discovery for the township ideals that the boy encounters in the
middle of the story. From traditional Middle Eastern chord progressions,
this idea may be a technical adaptation of the Israel theme, a more
rambunctious version of that tune in the Hebrew folk dancing of "The
Kibbutz," which is a lengthy exploration of this plucky variant that is
the most steeped in Jewish culture during the film. It opens "Last
Thoughts" briefly on solo viola and returns to conclude the cue with
more support, informs the entirety of "The Kibbutz" in various guises,
emerges at 1:13 into "Sleepy Boy," quietly guiding much of the cue in
subdued form. The Kibbutz theme then consolidates in the middle of "No
Information" with slight worry and follows the extensive Israel theme
closure at 4:35 into "The Legend" with a spirited climax. Together,
The Going Up of David Lev isn't substantial enough as its own
work to support a sustained listening experience, but it is a reliably
worthy addition to
QB VII's Israel-related material. Fifteen
minutes of compelling ethnic drama and spirited dancing highlights the
27-minute work, its archival sound somewhat restrictive on its lone,
limited but readily available 2010 album from BSX Records. The Topol
songs are an added bonus, presented in film order. This music meant the
world to Goldsmith personally, and it has a distinct, respectful charm
all its own.
*** @Amazon.com: CD or
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For Jerry Goldsmith reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 3.23
(in 136 reviews)
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(in 154,447 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.
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The insert includes notes about the score and film.
