Film Scores: King Kong (Max Steiner)

Hello, friends. This is Dave Hurwitz, Executive Editor at ClassicsToday.com. I promised, I promised at the end of 2021 that in 2022 we would start talking more about classic film scores, film music, provided, of course, I could get permission to play samples. Because what's the point talking about a film score without samples? I mean, really? Happily, Marco Polo, Naxos Marco Polo, has a wonderful series of film music. Some of the stuff is only available on CDRs and whatnot, which is kind of annoying, but a lot of it's still out there. And I don't care. I'm going to talk about it anyway, because I can play you samples and then you can go and find it however you wish to do so. I'm starting with the first, one of the greatest, one of the most iconic of all film scores, King Kong by Max Steiner. Now, this is a recreation, reorchestration of the complete score, which had never really been done before. One of the big problems with film scores generally, unless they're by Bernard Herman, which is a whole separate thing because he saved everything and scored everything himself and all that stuff, is that, especially the further back you go, getting the actual music is a problem because the actual scores don't exist, for the most part. You can get parts, you can get sketches, you can get, sometimes there's a conductor's score sitting around, if you can find it. A lot of the stuff, you know, has been lost or burnt up or destroyed, and so you have to do some really thoughtful reconstruction work. And in this case, it was done by John W. Morgan, and he is assisted by William Stromberg conducting the Moscow Symphony Orchestra. Now, putting this score back together was a real issue, and the booklet describes in really interesting, frankly, detail just what a project it was and how difficult it was, because the RKO Orchestra, which was the orchestra that plays the original soundtrack, only numbered 46 people, but with insane amounts of doubling. For example, there were six woodwind players, but they played everything. Every player could play every woodwind instrument, and you could use them in any combination. So you could have a whole group of saxophones, or you could have three bass clarinets, which they have in here. And, you know, in order to rearrange it for a modern orchestra, you actually have to increase the number of players accordingly so that you can get all these people, because players today no longer double on parts the way they did back then. And also, you have to keep in mind that King Kong was recorded in 1933. It was one of the first ever movies to employ full synchronization of music to film, and so it was a real historical landmark in that respect. And Steiner's music is just marvelously evocative, as you're going to hear. But I think that, you know, one of the big issues at that point was trying to get a real sense of what the thing was supposed to sound like. You can't really hear it on the original soundtrack. You hear like, you know, dim, clogged up mud music, as we so often do, from recordings of that period. And Morgan has done a splendid job trying to recapture as much of the original sonority of the score as he possibly could based on Max Steiner's sketches, which are quite extensive. I mean, all the music exists. It's just a question of how you arrange it, and how you use it, and how much got into the movie, and how much got cut. And, you know, it's a real labor of love, putting these scores together. And that's why it's such a pleasure to be able to bring them to you. And, oh, what fun it is. Yes, indeedy. Well, we all know the story of King Kong, don't we? And one of the wonderful reasons that, you know, these scores are so great in like B-rated horror movies is because they take place in exotic locations, and they have outrageous situations, and things that really call to be amplified and supported by music. You know, back in 1933, it was thought that you couldn't continuously score a movie, that it wouldn't be believable, as if like operas, you know, you want unbelievable. But they felt that, you know, the movies were supposed to be more realistic, and having music coming all over the place from nowhere was an impossibility that nobody would accept. And it was scores like this to prove them wrong. The other thing that's so amazing about these scores, quite frankly, is just how much good music they contain, given the fact that so much of it was going to be, you know, placed behind dialogue, or buried in sound effects, or not even be audible at all. But the composers were serious guys, and they wrote really good music, no matter how terrible the film was. So I'm going to play you a few examples. First, a bit of the main title. You have to hear the main title, because it immediately sets the scene for what we're about to get into. So here's a bit of the main title. Here's a bit from King Kong. Of course, you know, once you've done the main title, you have to go to, you know, Skull Island, or whatever that place is, where they all are, where there are fabulously politically incorrect aboriginal natives who jump around doing sacrificial dances. Oh yes, let me do a little of that, the aboriginal sacrificial dance. Now, we are not exactly dealing with the Rite of Spring here. Max Steiner was Viennese. His aboriginal sacrificial dance is a bit more Wagnerian than Stravinskyian, but it still gets the job done in appropriately primal and exotic fashion. So here's a bit of the aboriginal sacrificial dance. Yeah, you get the picture, right? And finally, there's that wonderful scene where King Kong is all caged up, you know, and everyone's coming to look at him and he breaks loose and goes rampaging through the city and grabs Fay Wray and jumps up in front of the Empire State Building, whatever happens, you know, it's one of those things. And, oh, it's a wonderful scene of murder and mayhem. And, you know, I mean, there's a love theme in here too, but I mean, you know, do we care? We want to hear the Kong stuff, right? Stomping around. So here is the wonderful scene where King Kong escapes. In fact, I think that's what the cue is called. Yes, Kong escapes. Here he is escaping. Oodles of fun. And like I said, there is quiet music, you know, in between some of these cues, but I just like, I like the pedal to the metal stuff. And really, this is wonderfully recorded, very well conducted, beautiful reconstructions by John Morgan. And I think we're really lucky to start having these. And I really am looking forward to talking to you about some of these and many other classic film scores from the golden age of Hollywood. And there's no shortage of them. And I'm going to on getting permission to play samples from some of the others as well. Wish me luck. Thank you for joining me. Keep on listening, folks. Take care.