: (John Williams) The product of a feature
film-sized budget with a theatrical release in Europe, the 1968
adaptation of the classic novel "Heidi" was heavily advertised by NBC
for its initial broadcast in America. Immense in its cinematography and
music, the project took advantage of the trend towards mega-scoped
movies and mini-series for the small screens when most viewers still had
black and white sets in their homes. The tale of
is about
as innocuous as one could imagine, a young orphan sent to live with her
grandfather in the high pastures of the Alps while also tasked with
helping another family's daughter learn to cope with a physical
disability. Through the magical ambiance of the mountain location, the
orphan finds peace and the latter girl begins her recovery. The film
embellishes a number of aspects of the novel's base tale, including the
grandfather's backstory and the guardians of the second girl. It became
the most watched event in American television history, and it was highly
acclaimed by critics and awards bodies. But nobody remembers
for that. Instead, NBC was set to air the movie after an
extremely high-profile football game between the Oakland Raiders and New
York Jets. Despite that game being one of the most exciting in the
history of the sport and running long, NBC switched to
on
schedule, cutting off the last minute of gameplay in which two
touchdowns and a lead change occurred. After the studio switchboard was
overwhelmed by angry football fans, New York's emergency telephone lines
were also brought down by callers complaining to the police. The game
has been affectionately termed the "Heidi Bowl" since, and it forever
changed how networks show live sports games. Needless to say, a
substantial portion of America was not happy to hear wholesome John
Williams music suddenly start playing as a horse-drawn carriage is shown
in the first scene of
; it may be the single most cursed cue
of the maestro's career considering how many people in bars and living
rooms lost their shit over the start of the movie, but the score did
earn Williams a Emmy award for his troubles. That audience anger could
have been directed at Jerry Goldsmith instead, who had been attached to
the project originally but could not ultimately fit it into his
schedule.
Williams was eager to use this opportunity to record his
first score outside of America, in this case with musicians of the
Hamburg Opera and using a studio with superior recording capabilities.
He specifically sought to the make the musicians proud of their work for
the movie, describing his music at the time as a "big, sort of Mahlerian
score." By comparison to his later orchestral efforts,
Heidi
isn't actually anywhere near the composer's largest works, but as of
1968, it did represent an important turn towards orchestral prowess and
complexity that
The Reivers and another television triumph,
Jane Eyre, reinforced in his career during the following two
years. There are trademark Williams techniques all over this score, his
sensitive dramatic capabilities and flowing romanticism maturing
throughout its length. The score expresses increasingly complicated
orchestral layering relative to his comedy-centered music as "Johnny
Williams" just a few years before. While most casual listeners will
remember the grand ensemble performances of the two most memorable
themes, the score has more hints of the composer's future success than
just that mode during the vista scenes. Light comedy cues are akin to
playful moments eventually explored in the
Harry Potter scores,
dancing lightly through "Goat's Milk," "Dinner Table," and "Stealing
Rolls." The composer also previews his broad religious mode, conveyed at
the climax of the story in the latter half of "Klara Walks." (The cue is
arguably too monumental and may seem out of place amongst the rest of
the music, but it does show Williams' chops in that area.) The film
recording for
Heidi has always been fairly robust for its age,
but it was supplemented by a unique album presentation for the LP
record, which was rushed out in anticipation of the movie and score's
big success. Two additional cues were arranged and recorded in London by
the composer at the time, and the record added these to grossly
rearranged tracks from the film with added dialogue from the two leads.
Both presentations are of interest to any enthusiast of this score.
Although
Heidi utilizes several clearly delineated themes, the
score isn't always faithful to them in its more conversational or
troubled moments, and listeners should be prepared for a significant
amount of the work's midsection and climax to explore ideas not
substantially reliant upon any of the themes.
This score may be something of a narrative letdown for
listeners expecting the more tightly woven thematic tapestry heard in
The Reivers and other equivalent Williams scores thereafter.
Still, it's hard not to appreciate Williams' main theme for this movie,
one built upon the melody of its song adaptation, "A Place of My Own,"
performed by the girl's character on screen. This idea's brightly
optimistic, waltz-like mannerisms exude total innocence, defined
structurally by the repeated ascending trios of notes at its opening. It
builds out of Williams' secondary alpine fanfare with great anticipation
at 0:47 into "Overture," its secondary lines explored on strings at 1:18
and a major brass rendition at 1:40 offering crashing cymbals and high
nobility before the melody informs the fanfare again to close the suite.
The waltz-centered secondary lines stew at the outset and in the middle
of "Arrival in Dörfli," but the main melody again soars on strings
at 2:16 with timpani rolls underneath. The main theme is soft at 1:12
into "To the Alm," slight in fragments during "At the Church," somber
during "The Bedroom," and informs indirectly at 1:22 into "Return to
Dörfli." It tickles in the happiness throughout "Montage," dwindles
at the forefront early in "Waiting With Grandfather," and shines through
the haze on winds at 2:19 into "Separation." The distinct mix of the
original album presentation offers far better brass presence in the
layering of "Main Title and Overture," this resounding quality reprised
straight to conclude "Finale and End Title." That album also added the
London-recorded "A Place of My Own" song, a very pretty vocal rendition
with acoustic guitar and celesta added. The very wet ambience of that
album's presentation especially applies to the vocals here, which sound
as though they're being performed on an open mountaintop somewhere and
defy the recording's age. This theme is the score's one true calling
card, the primary performance tracked in as needed. The secondary themes
of
Heidi are a bit more fleeting, but they do hold some
attraction. The alpine fanfare for the location opens "Overture" with
exuberance from trilling flutes and wild triangle. The horns carry the
idea with even more wholesome clarity at 0:15 into "Arrival in
Dörfli," and this idea goes dormant until it explodes at the start
of "Return to Dörfli" with glorious enthusiasm, multiple renditions
following later in the cue. On the original album presentation, this
music was concentrated in the track "The Alm" with the main fanfare
without the narration overlay, and the fantastic performance really
shines with the additional reverb in the latter half of the track.
Williams composed a love theme for the disabled girl's
adult guardians, but you may not even notice it at first pass. It
consists of three ascending four-note phrases using the same basic
interval as the main theme, first developed by strings, woodwinds, and
harp throughout "Library Talk." It opens "Separation" tentatively and
builds to some ensemble agony and other various guises later. The idea
stutters in fragments early in "The Farewell" and informs some of the
counterpoint lines in the climax of "Klara Walks." Interestingly,
Williams fleshed out this identity for the London recordings dedicated
to the album, isolating and extending the rather repetitive theme in
"Love Theme From Heidi," a performance highlighted by a soaring bridge
sequence on horns. Finally, the material for the grandfather of the tale
is reflective and introverted, teasing in "Arrival in Dörfli" but
consolidating at the start of "To the Alm." It opens "Meditation Rock"
with more gravity, provides some darkness early in "The Bedroom," sours
the mood with extended renditions in the middle of "Waiting With
Grandfather," and rambles at the outset of "Klara Walks." This side of
the score is barely audible on the original album because it appears
under narration. On the whole,
Heidi is a noteworthy and decent
score, but a suite of thematic highlights will suffice. Only about 20
minutes of music in the film is permanently lost on album ("Stealing
Rolls" went unused because the scene was dropped and is the only
rejected cue on album), and three CD releases have provided the best
available material. A quasi-legal Label X album in 1995 offered the
original LP music with the extensive narration removed, but this only
exposed the significant looping and other rearranged edits that were
sometimes annoying. A 2013 Quartet Records album provided the film
version of the score along with a cleaned-up version of the LP's
presentation with the narration. In 2023, that same label slightly
expanded the same general ordering but used newly found, superior
sources for the film version. The 2023 product has the added benefit of
an expanded
Jane Eyre on a second CD as well, and Williams
collectors will be best served by that option. The mix on its film
version is excellent, and that of the original LP album with narration
has the fantastic emphasis on the brass over that on German recording;
the same technique is applied to the two London-only tracks as well.
Sadly, the narration is presented too dry and forward in that mix,
though, affirming its destiny as an annoyance on album. In the end, the
bright highlights of
Heidi make it a sentimental favorite for
older Williams collectors, along with
Jane Eyre. Just remember to
imagine the angry dudes in the bars throwing beer at the televisions in
1968 when this music first debuted.
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- Music as Written for the Film: ****
- Music as Heard on Album: ***
- Overall: ****
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(in 91 reviews)
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