Alternative Underscore

[Caliburn]

Cloudschatze's mention of the two scores for the film Legend (the original by Jerry Goldsmith and its U.S. replacement by Tangerine Dream) in this thread had me curious:

What other opportunities are there to hear two different film scores in context?  I've heard of the Legend example before, but thus far have never seen the film at all, though I might just for the sake of this unusual opportunity.

There's a whole slew of rejected scores in the history of film music, a few of which are even commercially available, like Alex North's original score for 2001: A Space Odyssey, but you can't generally hear these with the film, unless perhaps you're really good at synching up the CD and you aren't worried about dialogue and sound effects.

So the only other things I can think of are:

Joe Hisaishi was asked to re-orchestrate his own music for Castle in the Sky when it was released in the U.S., but the older orchestration is also available on the same disc.  Obviously this isn't quite as different as hearing two different scores, but he does make a few different musical decisions that are interesting to compare.  (Mostly, he adds music to places that were formerly silent, almost certainly at Disney's behest.  And in one place, he takes solo trumpet source music and adds a little guitar harmony underneath, perhaps also for similarly pandering reasons.  Whether the changes are good isn't the point, it still helps to make evident why each choice is good or bad.  Not to mention, orchestration does make a difference.)

The opening sequence of Touch of Evil has been restored to remove the Henry Mancini music in favor of Orson Welles' original intention to have only source music that constantly shifted with the travelling camera.  It's still practically the difference between score and silence, but it's interesting.  Unfortunately the DVD only has the restored version available.  To hear the other in context you'd probably need to track down some old out-of-print copy or film stock itself.

Any others you all can think of?  I doubt there's an embarassment of riches here, but even little alternatives are interesting.

-Luke

[Cloudschatze]

What other opportunities are there to hear two different film scores in context?

Dark Side of the Rainbow <cough>

 

I've heard of the Legend example before, but thus far have never seen the film at all, though I might just for the sake of this unusual opportunity.

I recommend it. It's an interesting example of Hollywood mentality.

I recall reading an interview in which Edgar Froese, of Tangerine Dream, discussed the Legend score. Tangerine Dream was apprehensive to re-score the film because they thought Goldsmith's score admirable. Hollywood, however, considered the original score too slow, and wanted something that would appeal more to teenagers. While there seems to be be equal regard and disregard for the result, what isn't apparent is that you're not hearing the entirety of what Tangerine Dream intended, due to some careless editing.

Froese also mentions the fact that the "Unicorn Theme" was never intended to have vocals. Without any consultation or input from the composers, Jon Anderson (of Yes fame) was brought in to sing over the top of the music, which thereafter became known as "Loved by the Sun." This one song is the single-most derisive complaint I've read in comparisons of the two scores. A lot of people feel that it introduced an un-necessary "music-video element."

I, personally, like and own the soundtracks for both scores. My preference, however, leans toward the Tangerine Dream score, and I await the day that they are able to buy back the rights to their work, and release the full, intended score.

[NewRisingSUn]

"The Neverending Story". Klaus Doldinger wrote a full orchestral score, which was only used in the German version. The English version uses it partially, but replaces many pieces with some synth pop by Giorgio Moroder, and worst of all, that stupid song with that female male vocal by Limahl.

[Cloudschatze]

...and worst of all, that stupid song with that female male vocal by Limahl.

Haha. That song defines more than a few childhoods, for some reason.

Take this SBEmail for example:

"The never-ending sooodaaaa, Ah-a-ahh, ah-a-ahh, ah-a-ahh..."

It brought tears to a friend's eyes. 

[Alistair]

In game music terms, Sonic CD's two different scores spring to mind- Japanese and US/European.

I can ask my movie score friend if you like, he's from Hungary and writing a book on rejected/alternate scores.

- Alistair

[Ari]

and worst of all, that stupid song with that female male vocal by Limahl.

Whaaat!!?? 
That's, like, the song of the 80's, man!

Speaking of which, I once found a very nice Roland D-50 rendition of "Bastian's dragon flight" on some website.
You can find it here, labeled "voyager_sequence.mp3" for some reason.

[Tom]

A movie that springs to mind (because I just watched it) is the made-for-television series premiere/pilot movie called "Babylon 5 The Gathering".  The original soundtrack was kind of new-age and rock.  Christopher Franke (who scored most of the B5 music) later wrote an entirely new and fully orchestrated soundtrack for the movie...which was used on the DVD release (and was far better, imo.)

[Zemus]

The 20th. anniversay DVD of Alien comes with both the original score and the one that ended up in the movie. Both are available isolated with the original score having on-set production sounds in the live action shots. For some reason, it's not available on the DVD that's a part of Alien Quadrilogy.

[Marten]

The 1984 version of the movie "1984" in the original release featured a score by Eurythmics, but the true original score was restored later.

See:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1984_(1984_film)#Controversy_over_the_musical_score

[Caliburn]

The 1984 version of the movie "1984" in the original release featured a score by Eurythmics, but the true original score was restored later.

Interesting.  I've seen the movie (John Hurt is one of my favorite actors, and I loved the book), but only on DVD, so I had actually never heard about this score-swapping controversy before.  I couldn't tell from the linked description on Wikipedia whether the entire original score by Dominic Muldowney was replaced, or just large chunks of it, but it sounds from these two reviews I found here and here as if at least some of the Muldowney score was still present in the theatrical release.  Is this correct, does anyone know?

The 20th. anniversay DVD of Alien comes with both the original score and the one that ended up in the movie. Both are available isolated with the original score having on-set production sounds in the live action shots.

Really?  By "original score" do you mean the way Jerry Goldsmith wrote it before Ridley Scott went and edited it?  Sweet.  I should check that out.

-Luke

[Marten]

The references to NeverEnding Story and the US/Japanese Sonic CD differences reminded me of a friend in the Netherlands who was complaining one day because he was watching the American version of Fern Gully and he was irritated at the voices; he liked the Dutch actors better, and while fussing about that, he mentioned that the musical score was different as well and again, he preferred the Dutch version.

Oh well

[mace]

"Sex crime, dudududududu sex crime"

Horrible.....  Does not fit the movie at all. 

Anyway, I think Annie Lennox once said that working on 1984 was the work she was the least proud of, but I cant remember where I read that.

[Zemus]

Really?  By "original score" do you mean the way Jerry Goldsmith wrote it before Ridley Scott went and edited it?  Sweet.  I should check that out.

-Luke

Yeah. I think it's available on CD now as well.