{"id":5875,"date":"2012-12-06T16:52:45","date_gmt":"2012-12-06T21:52:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/?p=5875"},"modified":"2012-12-06T16:52:45","modified_gmt":"2012-12-06T21:52:45","slug":"cd-wings-1927","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/?p=5875","title":{"rendered":"CD: Wings (1927)"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Return to<\/strong>:\u00a0Home <\/a>\/\u00a0Soundtrack \u00a0Reviews<\/a> \/ <\/em>V to Z<\/a><\/p>\n

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\"\"<\/a>Rating: Very Good<\/p>\n

Label: La-La Land Records<\/a>\/ Released: April 30, 2012<\/p>\n

Tracks & Album Length: 32 tracks \/ (76:27)<\/p>\n

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Special Notes: 24-page colour booklet with liner notes by Jeannie Gayle Pool \/ Limited to 2000 copies.<\/p>\n

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Composer: J.S. Zamecnik<\/p>\n

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Review:<\/p>\n

Timed for the DVD and Blu-ray editions of Paramount\u2019s Best Picture Oscar-winner of 1927, La-La Land\u2019s CD features the restored edition of J.S. Zamecnik\u2019s score, performed by a mix of orchestral and MIDI elements. A prior edition of the film on home video featured an original organ score by Gaylord Carter (which has been retained for the 2012 home video edition) and Carl Davis also recorded a new score (still unreleased in full form), but LLL\u2019s CD marks the first time Zamecnik\u2019s music has been available in complete form.<\/p>\n

The timing is oddly perfect, given Ludovic Bource\u2019s Oscar-winning score for The Artist <\/a><\/strong>[M<\/a>] (2012) rekindled some interest in silent movies, if not the music written for the films. It’s music that’s rarely heard because part of the extensive restoration process, and more importantly, sorting through music clearance issues, since many silent scores included bits of classical, folk, and popular music with a few original themes.<\/p>\n

Zamecnik\u2019s music is perhaps typical of the era\u2019s epic scores \u2013 an all-encompassing work that blows through a bevy of musical emotions as characters are thrust through romantic, tragic, and combative circumstances within a specific time period. Centered during WWI, Wings<\/strong> mandated the incorporation of marches and source music, and original themes tied to specific characters \u2013 none of which is new to contemporary listeners, but it\u2019s the compression and varying tempi of moods which makes Wings<\/strong> a unique listening experience.<\/p>\n

The most striking quality is the frenetic pace of the action cues which blow through classical themes by Mendelssohn and Wagner, with goosed percussion that\u2019s evocative of the era, yet quite contemporary in its bass-friendly sonics and rhythmic textures. The quick switches to romantic material or nationalistic music (like George M. Cohan\u2019s \u201cOver There\u201d) is fluidly orchestrated, and certainly as a sampler of late twenties scoring style, Wings<\/strong> is a great intro to the energy and melodrama that was designed to affect audiences quite sharply.<\/p>\n

The only qualms with the restored score is the use of MIDI elements which were necessitated due to Paramount’s tight restoration schedule and budget, and it\u2019s perhaps another example where a studio may have wanted to mount a classy restoration to celebrate an important anniversary (in this case, Paramount’s centenary), but kind of skimped on the music budget \u2013 a common problem in current productions when visual elements get the lion\u2019s share of attention + funds.<\/p>\n

Dominik Hauser\u2019s arrangements and orchestrations are gorgeous, as are the performances of soloists, but listeners will note a shift from mostly orchestral to a heavier MIDI usage around the 1\/3 mark; it\u2019s not radical and could be judged as evocative of vintage organ scoring, but there\u2019s a lingering sense that the full impact of Zamecnik\u2019s writing and arranging would\u2019ve been more powerful had the score been performed by a full orchestra.<\/p>\n

LLL\u2019s CD features superb liner notes by Paramount Music Department head Jeannie Gayle Pool, who provides a breezy chronology of the film\u2019s production, release, and score restoration \u2013 a fitting bookend to the home video release.<\/p>\n

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\u00a9 2012 Mark R. Hasan<\/p>\n

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External References:<\/p>\n

IMDB <\/a>— Soundtrack Album<\/a> — Composer Filmography<\/a><\/p>\n

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Return to<\/strong>:\u00a0Home <\/a>\/\u00a0Soundtrack Reviews<\/a> <\/em>\/\u00a0V to Z<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Return to:\u00a0Home \/\u00a0Soundtrack \u00a0Reviews \/ V to Z . Rating: Very Good Label: La-La Land Records\/ Released: April 30, 2012 Tracks & Album Length: 32 tracks \/ (76:27) . Special Notes: 24-page colour booklet with liner notes by Jeannie Gayle Pool \/ Limited to 2000 copies. . Composer: J.S. Zamecnik . . Review: Timed for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[20],"tags":[451,1693],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8nuyW-1wL","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5875"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5875"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5875\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5879,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5875\/revisions\/5879"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5875"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5875"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5875"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}