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| Goldsmith |
QB VII: (Jerry Goldsmith) At a time when the
concept of the television mini-series was just starting to emerge,
Columbia Pictures and the ABC network decided that the topic of author
Leon Uris' "QB VII" was best suited for a two-night extravaganza on the
small screen rather than a feature film. The length of the story largely
dictated the medium, Uris using the opportunity to convey a
fictionalized 1970 telling of his legal battle against Polish doctor
Wladislaw Dering over his portrayal in Uris' famed novel and subsequent
film, "Exodus." In 1974's
QB VII, the names of the two parties
are changed but the outline of their backstories and legal challenge
remained somewhat intact. The doctor, Adam Kelno, is the plaintiff and
Abraham Cady is the author who allegedly defamed him by claiming that
Kelno conducted medical experiments on 17,000 Jews in a Nazi
concentration camp. The series explores the backgrounds of the two men
and their relationships, including their travels about Europe and the
Middle East that helped catapult them towards their courtroom battle. In
the end, Kelno prevails, but as in real life, the award is extremely
minimal because the win is largely moot. Uris had exaggerated the number
of victims rather than conjuring the story from thin air, and the court
saw no difference in the damage to the doctor's reputation if the number
of victims was two dozen or thousands. The series remains one of the
most respected views of early Israel and the Jewish faith, and it was
precisely this aspect that drew composer Jerry Goldsmith to the
assignment. There were several high-profile Jewish composers in
Hollywood at the time, but Goldsmith was uniquely positioned because of
his career ascendance and absolute insistence that topics such as this
be handled only by a Jewish composer to truly capture the essence of the
plight shown in screen. Both
QB VII and 1981's
Masada
(also a television mini-series split into two parts) were therefore
immensely personal projects for the composer, but especially the former,
which remained among his favorites for years. Unlike the later score,
Goldsmith handled
QB VII entirely himself, writing more than an
hour and a half of music and tackling the subject with significant
orchestral and choral majesty.
The scope of
QB VII eclipses that of most of
Goldsmith's feature film assignments in the early 1970's, the Rome
symphonic recording robust from end to end. Specialty instruments
include cimbalom, mandolin, bouzoukis, and organ, though the composer
doesn't rely too heavily upon any of these elements. Most memorable from
QB VII is Goldsmith's handling of the choral portions. He had
explored varied choral work a few times in his career, and what he
produces for this score is closer to his "Christus Apollo" concert work
from 1969 than later scores of choral fame like
The Omen. His
adaptation of the Kaddish, the traditional Jewish prayer for the dead,
is the emotional heart of this score, a payoff for the journey guided by
the composer's many other themes prior to the choral representation of
the Jewish faith that completes the picture. There is a touch of British
source music contained in "Sir Adam Kelno" for the knighthood of the
doctor, but otherwise Goldsmith provides the score with original
material. His set of themes may seem at first to overcomplicate the
narrative, but they ultimately form a satisfying representation of three
separate types of concepts in the story: four themes for individual
characters, four themes for locations in part or all of the story, and
finally the Kaddish theme for the Jewish faith. Goldsmith spends the
most time in
QB VII developing the themes for the two main
characters. The Adam Kelno theme for the doctor is an evocative,
surprisingly gentle waltz with progressions emulated by the animated
musical
Anastasia decades later. It is introduced at 0:14 into
"QB VII - Main Title Part 1" with its full interlude phrasing included,
but it quiets at 1:19 into "Escape" on solo accordion, a frequent
performer of the idea. The Kelno theme then dominates all of "A New
Life," whimsically with its first four notes only before accordion takes
the rest. In that cue, the theme is reduced to tentative woodwinds in
the middle and a string quartet later, a cimbalom providing some Eastern
European tones to the idea late. It is accelerated on woodwinds and
strings in the brief "Kelno at Home," interjects at the end of "Stay Out
of the Desert" on accordion and cimbalom, and overtakes the pompous
source material in "Sir Adam Kelno" with a stately performance retaining
the same character as that which just came before.
As the narrative of
QB VII shifts towards the
author, Abe Cady, Goldsmith alters the Adam Kelno theme towards its
gloomy destiny. The idea is fragmented and suspenseful early in "Abe
Cady," and its first four notes are suggested in sighing choral
discomfort at the start of "The Holocaust." The idea shifts to different
instrumentation in "QB VII - Main Title Part 2" and is expressed with
tortured sorrow in "Suing Cady," where it alternates with the Cady
theme; the second half of this cue contains some poignant performances.
The Kelno theme struggles mightily to escape its first notes in "I'm
Your Attorney, Not Your Confessor," taking a melodramatic tone with
brass blurts late. It is repressed at 0:56 into "Return to the
Courtroom," twisted into a haze of despair in "The Witnesses," and the
first four notes and descending vocal sighs from "The Holocaust" haunt
"Jadwiga Relived." This altered progression continues in the sparse
tension of "The Medical Journal," and those notes shift ominously dark
in the climax of "Kelno Recalled," continuing for a moment early in "A
Sorrow of Two Fathers." By comparison, the Abe Cady theme is the more
assertive of the two character themes. Goldsmith debuts the idea at 1:00
into "QB VII - Main Title Part 1" in minor mode on flute, then
transitioning to the full ensemble with force. He returns to it at the
start of "I Cannot See My Love" in a slow flute and harp performance for
the courtship of the scene, for which the theme is shifted into the
major key, including lofty string renditions. That optimistic and
charming mode carries over at the beginning and end of "Hollywood"
before Goldsmith turns it back to minor mode in the slower, quiet
turbulence of "Breaking Up," including a solo piano at the cue's end.
The Cady theme is hinted at 2:20 into "The Holocaust," again in minor,
seems to reprise the same instrumentation in "QB VII - Main Title Part
2," and flows with heart out of the Kelno theme a minute into "Suing
Cady" and mingles with it later in that cue. It is strained early in
"The Chagall Windows," bubbles at 0:47 into "Oxford" with moderate
confidence, including the theme's full interlude sequence, bloats to
dramatic ends as the early backing of "Return to the Courtroom," and
informs a fleeting and short piano and flute rendition in "Father &
Son." Interestingly, while these themes form the bulk of Goldsmith's
opening titles for both parts and are extensively referenced in between,
they are completely replaced in the end titles by the flashier Kaddish
death theme.
Of less importance to
QB VII are Goldsmith's
themes for Cady's two love interests. The Samantha theme is sinewy and
meandering at 1:30 on woodwinds into "I Cannot See My Love" and brighter
on violins at 0:47 into "Hollywood." Before long, though, it is
deconstructed to become nearly unrecognizable in the middle of "Breaking
Up." In the second part, the Margaret theme is airy and somewhat lacking
in substance in "Free to Love Again," though it affably foreshadows
Goldsmith love theme traits from later in his career. The composer's
themes for locations are the hidden treasure in
QB VII, often
overlooked in favor of the more frequently accessed identities. The
court fanfare is an exception to that rule, though, its unique meter for
the brassy motif highly distinctive throughout both parts of the series.
This idea brazenly opens and closes both "QB VII - Main Title" versions,
begins "Abe Cady" briefly in a slower tempo, and interjects at 0:30 into
"I'm Your Attorney, Not Your Confessor" with abrupt snare vitality. It
opens "The Courtroom" and recurs at 0:42 and 1:17 into "Return to the
Courtroom," suddenly bursting into the tense atmosphere at 0:26 into
"The Medical Journal" as well. It's a rather underdeveloped idea that is
used more like a location stinger of simplicity, perhaps by intent to
show the unshakable integrity of the courts. The more attractive themes
exist for three nations in
QB VII, starting with an identity for
Poland that is punctuated by minor third alternations on brass
immediately in "Poland" before woodwind echoes reverberate through the
middle of the cue and the solemn brass returns at the cue's end. This
theme retains its form at the outset of "Gustav Tukla" but takes a
lighter, fleeting turn, and it shifts to a more dramatically pensive
stance in "Tessler is Dead" prior to closing cue in its original brass
form. Goldsmith's two thematic variants for Kuwait are fantastic, both
using descending figures with stereotypical exoticism that yield the
highlights of the score in one concentrated section. The main Kuwait
theme opens "Journey into the Desert" after a unique fanfare and repeats
a few times. That fanfare returns at the outset of "Visit to the Sheik"
but Goldsmith moves on to a related, more upbeat theme thereafter, along
with the previous Kuwait theme in tow. The two ideas intertwine
extensively and seamlessly here, and the performances in this cue are
ambitious and loud, previewing some of the regional force of
The Wind
and the Lion and
The 13th Warrior (and perhaps Goldsmith's
Lawrence of Arabia in an alternate universe). Both of them
continue their dance in "A Night in the Desert/Stay Out of the Desert"
but disappear at that point as necessary.
Also a gem in
QB VII is the Israel theme, a
bright, folksy dance tune that interrupts the Kaddish theme at 1:13 into
"The Wailing Wall." Its percussive and brass accompaniment almost
resembles Goldsmith's Westerns, and a more ethnic rendition closes that
cue with low flute. This idea opens "Rekindling the Flame of Jehovah"
with charm on accordion, harp, and mandolin, and it wafts through the
Kaddish theme at 0:31 into "The Chagall Windows." The Jewish Kaddish
theme doubling for death is a weighty identity eventually sung to the
words of the Kaddish and considered the main theme of
QB VII. It
is vaguely previewed in deconstructed form in "ID Parade," including its
opening thumping motif, and it is formally introduced orchestrally in
"Papa's Burial," where Goldsmith eventually teases the choral version.
It opens "The Wailing Wall" on strings and explores several different
modes in the diverse cue prior to a grandiose choral rendition at the
end. The death theme emerges midway through "The Holocaust" and informs
the monumental conclusion to that cue as well. It is formally developed
for choir in "Theme From QB VII - A Kaddish for the Six Million," in
which phrases from ancient Aramaic text are synchronized to the melody.
This cue is repeated at the end of both parts of the series. In the
second part, the death theme takes over the Israel theme as something of
an interlude in "Rekindling the Flame of Jehovah," briefly reminds at
0:30 into "Suing Cady," consistently steers "The Chagall Windows" in
more subtle shades, and references its plucking motif at the outset of
"Jadwiga Relived." The theme arises in the middle of "A Sorrow of Two
Fathers" in quiet but resolute statements and carries over into "Cady's
Speech," yielding to a large finale. It's an impressive score on the
whole, especially in the resonance of the death theme and vibrance of a
few of the secondary ideas. The two main character ideas are somewhat
stale at times, as is the court's theme in nearly all renditions. On
album, Intrada Records released only 35 minutes of the original Rome
recording in 1995. After Tadlow impressively re-recorded five
QB
VII cues (14 minutes) for their immense treatment of
Exodus
in 2009, they re-recorded the complete
QB VII for release by
Prometheus in 2013. The City of Prague Philharmonic and Chorus performed
the best reconstruction that learned ears could determine from the film,
and this presentation finally adds the Poland and secondary Kuwait
material on album. Obviously, the sound quality of the re-recording is
infinitely superior, but the original Intrada album might offer better
coloration on the woodwind and specialty instrument solos. Goldsmith
purists will want both albums for this remarkable and important score.
**** @Amazon.com: CD or
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| Bias Check: |
For Jerry Goldsmith reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 3.24
(in 132 reviews)
and the average viewer rating is 3.27
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The inserts of both albums contain detailed notes about the
series and score, including quotes from Goldsmith about the work.
