2-CD release of entire classic Miklós Rózsa fantasy soundtrack in stereo, coupled with first CD release of United Artists 1974 soundtrack album from genuine first generation stereo masters!
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2-CD release of entire classic Miklós Rózsa fantasy soundtrack in stereo, coupled with first CD release of original United Artists 1974 soundtrack album from genuine first generation stereo masters recently located in vaults in Italy! All previous CDs used heavily-processed LP sources for album program while expanded tracks were transferred from mono film stems, thereby reproducing all truncated edits, awkward films assemblies contained therein. Intrada release finally presents cues in full from new stereo elements including precious, newly-discovered actual three-channel scoring session masters, original two-track stereo tapes plus small handful of restored 35mm stereo stems courtesy Columbia Pictures and skilled engineers at Chace Audio. Gordon Hessler follow-up to famed 7th Voyage Of Sinbad again showcases legendary stop-motion talents of Ray Harryhausen with stars John Philip Law, Caroline Munro, Tom Baker amongst the live-action characters. Brian Clemens scripts, Charles Schneer produces with Harryhausen. Rózsa pulls out all stops, provides lavish, magnificent score with equal parts epic adventure, rousing action. Main theme is sweeping nautical idea for Sinbad, replete with a distinctive "tri-tone" (the unstable augmented fourth interval) in its melodic shape. Sinister villain Khoura also displays same interval but now plays to menace and evil. Other themes are replete with swirling Oriental colors of Arabian Nights fantasy, still others bring extraordinary animated creations of Harryhausen to frightening life. Witness vivid cues for Homunculus, Siren, Kali, Gryphon and Centaur. Inventive, imaginative scoring! Newly-expanded selections now offer complete versions of many film cues that had endings dialed out or sections truncated entirely for finished film and previous CD releases. Pinched sound of actual recordings plus small number of myriad room noises (including brief low level "thumps" during "The Storm") were present on all masters and could not be avoided. But incredible discovery of so much new material in stereo being made available on CD for the first time ever more than compensates. Hearing many cues play without abrupt film edits is a delight. In addition to entire score and original album presentations, Intrada 2-CD set also provides all surviving three-channel scoring session cues, offering dynamic, detailed audio as never before heard anywhere! Amongst these are variety of full source cues scored by Rózsa in his typically colorful, highly original period style. Also great fun to hear rousing set-piece "Sinbad And Crew Fight Siren" in such crisp sound from three-channel masters! All cue titles come from Columbia scoring session paperwork. Spectacular flipper-style cover package design by Joe Sikoryak offers both original United Artists album graphics and richly drawn international campaign artwork. Informative liner notes from Frank DeWald plus detailed comments about various restorations, assemblies of cues and extensions from edited film versions also appear in lavish booklet. Miklós Rózsa's 70's masterpiece in all its glory at last! Miklós Rózsa conducts the Rome Symphony Orchestra. Intrada Special Collection 2-CD set available while quantities and interest remain!
CD1 Original 1974 United Artists Soundtrack Album
01. Prelude (1:31)
02. Arrival Of The Homunculus (2:42)
03. The Dream (1:16)
04. The Storm (1:57)
05. Marabia Beach (1:25)
06. Koura’s Pursuit (1:49)
07. The Destiny (2:48)
08. Night Time (3:06)
09. The Siren (3:24)
10. The Chart (4:44)
11. Making Of The Homunculus (2:46)
12. Temple Of The Oracle (3:17)
13. Escape From The Temple (2:44)
14. Sinbad Discovers Koura (1:52)
15. Sinbad Fights Kali (3:27)
16. Fountain Of Destiny (2:28)
17. The Centaur And The Gryphon (3:58)
18. Death Of The Centaur (1:35)
19. Koura’s End (3:41)
20. Sinbad’s Decision (3:48)
Total 1974 Album Time: 55:17
Complete Soundtrack – Part 1
21. Main Title (1:33)
22. Homunculus Drops Tablet On Sinbad’s Ship (2:42)
23. Sinbad’s Dream (1:16)
24. Storm (Koura Calls)/Marabia (3:16)
25. Koura Chases Sinbad To Vizier’s City (1:50)
26. Koura’s Castle/Vizier Receives Sinbad Into Palace (1:31)
27. Vizier – Sinbad Enter Lower Chamber (0:46)
28. Lower Chamber (2 Tablets & Map) (2:28)
29. Belly Dance (Sinbad’s Ship) (0:34)
30. Lower Chamber (Homunculus Explodes) (1:29)
31. Sinbad In Hakim’s Market (1:01)
32. Sinbad Throws Hakim’s Bodyguard (0:30)
33. Sinbad Meets Margiana/Vizier
- Margiana Board Sinbad’s Ship (3:42)
34. Haroun Appears On Deck (0:42)
Complete Score – Part 1 Time: 24:13
CD1 Total Time: 79:36
CD2 Complete Soundtrack – Part 2
01. Koura – Sinbad’s Ship At Night/Sinbad – Margiana In Cabin (6:01)
02. Koura Guides Siren To Chart (3:22)
03. Sinbad And Crew Fight Siren (4:43)
04. Haroun’s Lute (0:22)
05. Lemuria – Part 1 & Part 2 (1:07)
06. Making Homunculus (2:43)
07. Sinbad – Koura Land On Lemuria (3:13)
08. Lute Stinger/Sinbad Arrives At Temple/Medium Speaks (3:46)
09. Oracle Appears/Oracle Speech/Oracle Disappears (3:27)
10. Koura Lights Fuse And Temple Explodes (0:23)
11. Escape From Temple Of The Oracle (2:42)
12. Green Men Capture Koura (0:48)
13. Koura To Green Men’s Temple (0:56)
14. Kali Walk Dance (1:52)
15. Koura Challenges Sinbad To Fight Kali/Kali Fight/Green Men Put Margiana In Pit (5:06)
16. Green Men Put Margiana In Pit/Horn (Green Men) (2:19)
17. Centaur Appears (2:37)
18. Koura’s Prayer Brings Down Rocks (2:40)
19. Koura Enters Cave/Fountain Of Destiny (2:28)
20. Koura Praying By Fountain (0:35)
21. Centaur Attacks Sinbad (5:28)
22. Sinbad Fights Invisible Koura/Crown Of Many Riches And End Title (7:21)
Complete Score – Part 2 Time: 64:57
The Extras (Three-Channel Stereo Session Mixes)
23. Vizier – Fanfare (Early Unused Take) (0:10)
24. Koura’s Castle/Vizier Receives Sinbad Into Palace (Complete) (1:59)
25. Vizier – Sinbad Enter Lower Chamber (Complete) (0:47)
26. Belly Dance (Sinbad’s Ship) (0:34)
27. Sinbad In Hakim’s Market (1:02)
28. Haroun’s Lute (0:24)
29. Lute Stinger (0:05)
30. Sinbad And Crew Fight Siren (4:43)
31. Lemuria – Part 1 & Part 2 (1:07)
32. Making Homunculus (2:43)
Session Mixes Time: 13:53
CD2 Total Time: 78:58
Tech Talk From The Producer…
The history of attempts to bring a definitive release of Miklós Rózsa’s spectacular soundtrack to The Golden Voyage of Sinbad to the CD marketplace has been long and frustrating, and although remaining somewhat elusive, the score is finally being presented on CD for the first time from recently discovered stereo elements— including the original album masters. Previous releases have been produced using heavily processed copies of the vinyl record album and mono stems from the film’s soundtrack, thus reproducing all of the edits and often awkward assemblies therein. But this newest release from Intrada finally offers the CD premiere of the first-generation stereo album masters produced by United Artists Records for release in 1974 and recently located in storage vaults in Italy, courtesy Sony Music. The liberal amount of reverb added to the album back in the day was, no doubt, intended to help mask the pinched recording studio acoustics and could not be removed. Happily, aside from a few room noises inherent in the original recording, particularly some low-level “thumps” near the end of “The Storm” (CD1, Track 4), these album masters survived in pristine condition. Boasting a 55-minute duration, an incredibly generous playing time for a record in those days, this program is presented on CD1 just as it appeared in 1974.
In addition to presenting the album from proper masters, we are including the complete score as well, this time drawn from restored stereo music stems prepared by Deluxe Media Audio Services (Chace) in 2009, and also from surviving ½ ̋ three-channel stereo scoring session masters, ¼ ̋ two-channel stereo mixes and 35mm full-track transfers. While some compromises still exist between the disparate elements due to age and respective usage over the decades, they are collectively a vast improvement over what was available previously. Sadly, additional ½ ̋ rolls of the scoring sessions continue to be missing in action, but the cues thus far located are all included in this 2-CD set and offer the most detailed and dynamic audio quality that this score has ever received (even including the sound from the original album master). With the generous assistance of Deluxe Media Audio Services (Chace), having all of these restored and combined audio elements allowed us to present everything in stereo with many of the expanded sequences appearing in complete form, including final bars that are often dialed out in the film. In some cases, having certain cues from the ½ ̋ three-channel and ¼ ̋ two-channel masters allowed us to even include a few bars of music otherwise dropped from the picture entirely.
For the complete score portion, we have retained many of the film assemblies where they were performed musically, but in certain instances where large portions of the affected cues were literally dialed out prematurely, had bars edited or were married to other cues for purely editorial reasons, we have used the full cues as Rózsa originally recorded them.
Specific unsatisfying film edits and truncated sequences of particular note and our subsequent assembly details are as follows: “Lower Chamber (2 Tablets & Map)” (CD1, Track 28) was one heavily edited cue that was dialed out, back in and then out again for the film. Separated from the visuals, this mangling of the cue no longer made musical sense. In this instance, we have retained the single complete cue as recorded. For “Sinbad Meets Margiana/Vizier – Margiana Board Sinbad’s Ship” (CD1 Track 33), only partial stereo elements survived, necessitating this sequence be partly reconstructed from the 35mm full-track (mono) masters. The film uses just a short portion of “Medium Speaks” (CD2, Track 8), dials it out, back in again for a mere few seconds, and then dials it out for good, ultimately losing most of the cue. In this instance, we have chosen to include the entire cue as recorded. For “Koura Lights Fuse And Temple Explodes” (CD2, Track 10) the stereo elements were only partial, necessitating a reconstruction that included the 35mm mono elements.
The last portion of what Rózsa wrote for “Koura Challenges Sinbad To Fight Kali/Kali Fight/Green Men Put Margiana In Pit” (CD2, Track 15) is dialed out of the film and percussion material from the very next cue is substituted instead. We have retained Rózsa’s concluding bars as he originally intended. Then for the subsequent action sequence, “Green Men Put Margiana In Pit/Horn (Green Men)” (CD2, Track 16), the music is assembled in the film from the Green Men percussion material heard where intended but then married to edited portions of “Sinbad And Crew Fight Siren.” In this particular instance, we have retained the truncated assembly of the latter cue as it appears in the film since the complete version already plays as Track 3 on this second disc.
In the most egregious example of non-musical editing, for the “Centaur Attacks Sinbad” (CD2, Track 21), the filmmakers chose to abruptly edit and repeat numerous bars throughout the cue during postproduction, ironically retaining the exact length of what Rózsa originally recorded but transforming his musical architecture. Our restoration retains the full-length sequence as Rózsa recorded it, yielding a magnificent five-minute sequence.
For many listeners, the original album experience was a strong and generous representation of Rózsa’s superb score. Heard now, for the first time from the original 1974 masters since the appearance of that LP, this new release will be most welcome. For listeners wanting to enjoy the entire 89-minute score as a genuine, newly restored stereo experience, this release should leave them delirious. Whichever listening experience you seek, it is here for you to enjoy!
