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| Delerue |
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| Horner |
Something Wicked This Way Comes: (Georges
Delerue/James Horner) It had long been the dream of author Ray Bradbury
to work with Walt Disney in the production of a film and, separately,
adapt the story of
Something Wicked This Way Comes that had so
long eluded the big screen. At the outset of the 1980's, Bradbury got
both wishes fulfilled at once, though like the townspeople of his
fantasy tale, the granting of these desires came with undesired side
effects. When Disney picked up
Something Wicked This Way Comes,
Bradbury offered a screenplay that told of redemption and dark magic, a
story of a mysterious carnival of evil that rolls into an American town
one October night and thrills the people of the area in more ways than
they could have imagined. The master of the carnival, "Mr. Dark," along
with his shady associates, can sense the deepest fears and regrets of
others, and his attempts to work his wicked magic on two young boys give
an embattled but ultimately redeemed father played by Jason Robards the
chance to shake his own demons while resisting the forces of evil that
tempt him. Director Jack Clayton's film was perhaps destined for
post-production problems, for Bradbury's story was a tricky balance
between the traits of wholesome youth in a 1920's Americana setting and
the always uneasy and sometimes terrifying malice of the carnival's
atmosphere. The production did indeed experience significant alterations
after principal photography was finished, partly due to a nervous studio
after at least one poor test screening, and its debut was delayed a
year. As is so typically the case in such studio panics, the composer of
the film is among those to be summarily dismissed, and this is
unfortunately what happened to European romance master Georges Delerue.
When Disney's own choice for the assignment, Jerry Goldsmith, was
unavailable on short notice because of his work on
Twilight Zone: The
Movie, Clayton actively sought services of the young James Horner,
who had just recently wowed audiences with his sudden and impressive
emergence for
Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan.
Despite an extremely busy year for Horner, the composer
agreed to give Disney the score the studio believed was a better fit for
the post-production rearrangements that changed the flow and, to a
lesser extent, the demeanor of
Something Wicked This Way Comes.
Perhaps one irony in the post-production mayhem involving this film was
the eventual realization that the music by Delerue and Horner wasn't too
terribly dissimilar in terms of instrumentation and tone. The two scores
both earn significant respect from the collectors of their composers,
and, at the end of the day, either soundtrack would have sufficed for
the picture. For Delerue, this score would join the later
Platoon
as two of his highest profile efforts of the 1980's, despite (or perhaps
in part because of) the fact that both were undeservedly rejected. In
both the composer and the studio's defense, however, the primary
reported reason why Delerue's music was removed here was because of the
extensive special effects and other alterations to the finished cut,
requiring fresh recordings. The composer was devastated by his removal
from the project because it came at a time when he was eager to move
part-time to Los Angeles and tackle Hollywood productions on a regular
basis. He was also close friends with Clayton. For enthusiasts of
Delerue's music, an even greater irony revealed itself when Disney
considered his work for the film to be too dark, a descriptor completely
at odds with the composer's usual reputation. Indeed, the romance
writer's music for the film remains one of his most mysterious works,
with short bursts of fright quite unusual for him. An eerie atmosphere
prevails in his score, floated by disembodied female chorus and an
increased amount of dissonant lines of counterpoint to his primary
ideas. His main theme for the film is, however, vintage Delerue, led by
absolutely gorgeous solo flute in trademark fashion. This theme of both
innocence and wonderment is heard in several places throughout his work,
including the mesmerizing and hypnotizing gypsy scene involving the town
barber, but the end credits cue allows the remainder of the ensemble to
join the flute and string accompaniment for a fluid conclusion of the
idea that is as attractive as the composer's most hearty drama
themes.
Outside of the prominent statements of the standard,
lovely Delerue main theme in
Something Wicked This Way Comes, the
score loses the same flighty spirit, with the carnival offered a
five-note motif (sometimes extended to a sixth note) that ominously
broods in the bass region. This theme is first heard immediately in the
opening bars of Delerue's score, menacing in its bass brass and pipe
organ deliberation as the title is scrawled and the train approaches.
The idea stubbornly dies out after the conclusion of the climactic
confrontation at the magical, age-altering carousel, a faint echo on
solemn trombones that still shows no regret in its tone. The use of
atonal female vocals, sometimes shrill in their application, creates a
generally forbidding ambience. The explosive brass rhythms of the final
confrontation are a side of Delerue not often heard. Because of the poor
condition of the known surviving sources for Delerue's original score,
it took a long before a satisfying album release of this music
prevailed. For a long time, the only available copies of Delerue's
session tapes broke the score into so many short cues, sometimes only 10
seconds in length, that it was difficult to appreciate. Widely
distributed bootlegs with the innumerous short cues circulated for many
years, many of which containing a handful of source recordings (of
mostly carousel organ) and problems with shifting mono/stereo dynamics.
In 2011, a little over half an hour of the score's highlights was
finally pressed officially by Universal France, though the source for
this CD was the composer's personal tape of poor quality. Even here, the
atrocious sound quality makes this recording difficult to enjoy outside
of a collector's intellectual study of the music itself. The Universal
CD also suffers from a terrible cut in the music at 3:30 into "Mirror
Maze," at which point a sequence of music is arbitrarily missing. After
Disney finally discovered the full master tapes for the score, Intrada
Records issued a proper 74-minute presentation in a much-improved sound
in 2015, complete with numerous alternate takes. For those seeking the
absolute best sound quality, however, Delerue rearranged and conducted
an attractive suite from the rejected score as part of a fantastic
collection known as "The London Sessions" in England in 1989.
Released by Varèse Sarabande at the time and again
in 2001 as part of a comprehensive set,
Something Wicked This Way
Comes was often considered a highlight of "The London Sessions"
despite some complaints from purists regarding the choice of material to
perform and distinct differences in tempo at times. For the
re-recording, Delerue conducted and produced four cues from
Something
Wicked This Way Comes, starting with the final confrontation and
shifting to a short, filler performance of the title theme for the boys
and town. After a significantly rearranged version of the cue for the
gypsy/barber scene, Delerue concludes with his triumphant end credits
cue. While it would have been nice to have heard the opening credits and
associated train arrival music, which would have given (and
necessitated) a representation of the creepy choral aspect of the score,
the twelve minutes that are heard in that suite are more than enough to
suffice for casual listeners. Two faint hints of the carnival's theme of
evil do exist in the second section of that suite. The gypsy music, set
to alluring varied percussion, is the highlight of the suite, extended
from its original form and largely replacing the wild, accelerating
crescendo in the film version with an undeniably lovely performance of
the main theme at 7:15 that makes the piece more tolerable for
entertainment purposes. On the whole, for those looking for just a taste
of Delerue's
Something Wicked This Way Comes, the superior sound
quality and pleasant arrangements of the "London Sessions" re-recording
is a definite recommendation. It was once speculated in a discussion
about the director's career that Delerue's score was better tuned to the
film that Bradbury had originally intended to create but that Horner's
alternative ultimately better fit the version of
Something Wicked
This Way Comes that Disney released. Clayton reportedly literally
pursued Horner with a cassette tape of Delerue's score, insisting that
he give the production his attention. After a rushed recording process,
Horner's work for the project ultimately better addressed the sense of
warmth and heart that the two boys brought to the story, infusing a more
personal environment in much the same way he would accomplish when
replacing Elmer Bernstein's larger-than-life score for
The Journey of
Natty Gann a few years later.
Horner conjured for
Something Wicked This Way
Comes a satisfying theme for woodwinds and strings that is heard
shortly into "Main Titles" and eventually prevails in "End Titles," by
which time the idea has received harmonica treatment. There are
similarities between this theme and the many that the composer would
write for his children's scores of the early 1990's, especially in the
fluffy woodwind figures and tingling percussion. It doesn't have the
same attractive personality of the theme for
The Journey of Natty
Gann, nor is it as lofty as Delerue's main theme, but it suffices.
Horner's carnival theme is a step in the right direction, however. Some
joke about this Horner construct representing what the composer might
have written had he accepted the assignment of
Harry Potter and the
Sorcerer's Stone, for the elegant, minor key progressions here have
basic similarities to John Williams' Hedwig theme for that franchise.
Others mention that it sounds like a variation of Williams' Imperial
March from
The Empire Strikes Back, which is a little more
accurate given that Horner's idea is a slight inversion of the opening
progression. This theme is present in many places throughout the score,
including a prevalent influence in "Dark's Pandemonium Carnival," but
never does it really receive a second muscular performance on brass to
rival the announcement of its arrival in the first minute or so of "Main
Title" (nor is it as playful again, either). In "The Carousel," you hear
a slight hint of the pipe organ rendering of this theme that mimics what
Delerue had attempted. The theme's translation to extremely high strings
in "Magic Window" is particularly unnerving. Otherwise, Horner's
carnival theme is mostly restricted to slight woodwind performances that
create a sense of wonder instead of wholesale fear. As per usual for
Horner in the early 1980's, a propulsive rhythm section highly unique to
his career serves as a highlight. First heard in the final minute of
"Miss Foley in the Mirror" under the carnival theme, this rhythm
suddenly erupts at about 1:30 into "Discovered," brutally following the
pursuit of the boys in what remains one of the most effective moments in
the score. This motif, when combined with the disembodied female vocals
that pierce several moments in the work with their atonality, suggest a
reference to the Dust Witch played by Pam Grier in the story.
The use of tapping cymbals, pounding piano, and
violently chopping strings in "Discovered" previewed many of Horner's
future cues for panic, almost matching the similar action and suspense
material in
Brainstorm in intensity. An interesting singular cue
from Horner is "Side Show," which owes quite a bit to Delerue (one must
wonder if Horner had heard how the veteran composer had tackled the
scene and imitated it), though instead of leading the flute and
percussion to an ominously descending string figure, Horner utilizes the
eerie female vocal effects. The use of unconventional vocal techniques
in film scores of that era was a byproduct of Goldsmith's success with
The Omen, and the crying and wailing in Horner's score
foreshadows dissonant techniques heard better in
Willow. Another
area in which Horner didn't differ much from Delerue was in the
employment of organ tones for the carousel itself, though only in "The
Carousel" does the seemingly manipulated source recording work its way
(with great difficulty) into Horner's score. The remainder of Horner's
recording is standard to his career, "The Boys Buy a Lightning Rod"
extending the effortless theme for the boys and "Magic Window" equaling
the minor suspense music (with swooshing percussion to imitate the wind)
that would exist in the composer's later children's scores. The second
score for
Something Wicked This Way Comes will be a worthy
addition to a Horner collection, predictable in its tone but
unpredictable in its tools and structures of suspense. Neither score was
officially released until Intrada Records worked with Disney's technical
gurus to restore a digital master tape of Horner's score in 2009,
resulting in a 45-minute presentation of impressive clarity on par with
the label's remastering of
The Journey of Natty Gann not long
after. In 2024, the label used the same source to expand the
presentation back into its original ordering and add a slew of source
pieces composed by orchestrator Greig McRitchie. As mentioned before,
Intrada had already treated the Delerue score to the same degree in
2015, supplanting the awful bootlegs and 10 to 15-minute suites on
foreign compilations. Both are fine works, though Delerue's retains an
edge in terms of memorable tone. Fans regularly disagree on this, so use
your affinity for one composer over the other in general to guide you in
the right direction.
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- Music as Written by Georges Delerue for the Film: ****
- Music as Written by James Horner for the Film: ***
- Music as Heard on All Bootlegs: **
- Music as Heard on the 2009 and 2024 Intrada (Horner) Albums: ***
- Music as Heard on the 2011 Universal (Delerue) Album: **
- Music as Heard on the 2015 Intrada (Delerue) Album: ****
| Bias Check: |
For James Horner reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 3.15
(in 108 reviews)
and the average viewer rating is 3.23
(in 203,346 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.
|
The bootlegs contain no uniform packaging. The inserts of the 2009, 2015, and 2024 Intrada
albums include information about the score and film. That of the 2011 Universal product includes
detailed information about the circumstances of the rejection of both of the scores included,
presented in French and English. Sufficient information about the crews on the latter product
(for the recording and the album) is lacking.
