Tis’ the season! Bruce Broughton score for Paramount’s holiday gift for Christmas 1991 gets attention at last!
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Tis’ the season! Bruce Broughton score for Paramount’s holiday gift for Christmas 1991 gets attention at last! Harley Jane Kozak, Jamey Sheridan are divorced mom and dad, Ethan Randall and then 9-year old Thora Birch play the kids (Ethan and Hallie), Kevin Nealon, Lauren Bacall, Leslie Nielsen (as Santa Claus) provide the sweet-sentimental support. Warm, funny film is the kind in which, in Broughton’s own words, “You like the people and you like what happened and you like the result, and it came out pretty much the way you hoped that it would.” Broughton scores for orchestra with several ideas ranging from heartfelt strings and guitar reflecting the love story, cues for the seasonal atmosphere appropriately scored for piano, sleigh bells, glockenspiel, celesta, triangle, upper woodwinds and vibraphone to more dramatic - even exuberant - full orchestral sequences. There are also gently playful ideas for “Snowball”, the white mouse, Hallie’s beloved pet. ”The scoring needs of the picture were economical and the cues often necessarily short, but even with the briefest of cues, Broughton ensures they have thematic unity and play as complete pieces, much like an extended “divertimento” for orchestra. He got the assignment from the director based on his work for Silverado and his approach here offers similar nods to an open-air Americana musical vernacular. The entire original score appears, mastered from the complete digital two-track session elements courtesy Paramount Pictures, mixed by veteran scoring engineer Armin Steiner. Sessions were held at the 20th Century Fox Scoring Stage in October 1991. An album on the Curb Records label was issued at the time of the film’s November 1991 premiere and divided between original songs by David Foster and Linda Thompson, traditional Christmas music by various artists and six score selections. This Intrada CD focuses solely on the complete score by Broughton plus the source music he either wrote, arranged with orchestrator Don Nemitz or conducted during his sessions. Broughton did prepare an instrumental arrangement of Foster’s gentle song for one scene in the picture and it is premiered on this CD as well. Graphic presentation by Kay Marshall. Notes by Tim Greiving include numerous quotes from newly-interviewed director and composer. Don Nimitz orchestrates, Bruce Broughton composes, conducts. Intrada Special Collection CD available while quantities and interest remain!
01. On The Street (1:03) 02. Meet Michael (0:49) 03. At The Museum (1:08) 04. Station Goodbye (0:26) 05. What’re We Gonna Do? (0:48) 06. I’m Getting Married (0:49) 07. Going To Macy’s (2:35) 08. Ethan And Hallie (0:25) 09. The Snowball Ploy (2:18) 10. Thickening The Plot (1:04) 11. Working Out Perfectly (0:36) 12. Tony In The Truck (1:58) 13. Way To Go, Hal! (0:40) 14. All I Want – Instrumental (David Foster/Linda Thompson) (1:43) 15. Favorite Adventure (0:46) 16. Together Again (1:40) 17. Playing In The Snow (2:40) 18. The Christmas Gift (Revised) (3:38) 19. Thank You, Santa! (3:42) Total Score Time: 29:00
The Extras – Instrumental Source Music Conducted by Bruce Broughton 20. Mall Medley (Traditional, Arranged by Don Nemitz) (3:15) 21. Eine Kleine Nachtmusik (Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart) (2:05) 22. Hark! The Herald Angels Sing (Felix Mendelssohn, Arranged by Bruce Broughton) (1:22) 23. Waltz Of The Flowers (Pyotr Illich Tchaikovsky) (0:46) 24. Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas (Hugh Martin/Ralph Blaine, Arranged by Don Nemitz) (2:09) Source Music Time: 9:39
Additional Music by Bruce Broughton 25. The Santy Song – Piano Solo (2:43) 26. Pet Shop (0:13) 27. The Christmas Gift (3:20) Additional Music Time: 6:20
Tech Talk From The Producer…
Bruce Broughton’s original score for All I Want for Christmas is relatively modest in length (approximately 40 minutes), but indelibly intertwined with the warm seasonal mood and feel of this sweetly sentimental film. Within these confines, Broughton managed to compose an amazingly wide array of ideas that play throughout, including a beautiful, heartfelt theme featuring strings with guitar. There are also cues appropriately scored for piano, sleigh bells, glockenspiel, celesta, triangle, upper woodwinds and vibraphone, as well as more dramatic—even exuberant—sequences for full orchestra. Many of the cues are very short, as per the needs of the picture. However, being the consummate artist he is, Broughton ensured that even the briefest of these cues still utilized his primary thematic material and play as complete pieces, much like an extended “divertimento” for orchestra. The entire score was recorded over four sessions held at the Twentieth Century Fox Scoring Stage with Broughton conducting. His engineer of choice, Armin Steiner, helmed the console. All of these cues appear on this CD in the main program.
A number of songs by various artists also play on the soundtrack, as do both traditional and new arrangements of familiar Christmas music. The instrumental arrangements made especially for the film were prepared by orchestrator Don Nemitz and Broughton. The arrangements were recorded during the first session and the original scoring was completed over the remaining three. All of the new arrangements appear on this CD as well, and can be found in the “extras” section. However, the vocals and various segments of traditional Christmas music by other artists were not part of Broughton’s contributions and do not appear here.
That said, one of those unrelated vocal sequences, “All I Want,” was written by David Foster and Linda Thompson and is used both during the film and again for the end credits. However, for one scene in reel nine of the picture, Broughton recorded a gentle orchestral arrangement of the tune for use as part of the background score per the producers’ wishes. As such, this is included during the main program on this CD.
A song album was released on the Curb Records label in 1991. Six selections from Broughton’s score appeared on that album as well. To present all of the music Broughton prepared for All I Want for Christmas, newly transferred and mastered, courtesy of Paramount Pictures, Intrada was provided access to the digital scoring session masters, mixed directly to two-track stereo by Steiner as each cue was being recorded. As is customary for this engineer, the resulting audio is crisp and clean, with astonishing detail and rich dynamic range.
Whatever the season may be, this sensitive and rewarding score is timeless. Let Bruce Broughton and his music for All I Want for Christmas now be, in fact, just what you wanted!
—Douglass Fake
Composed and Conducted by DAVID CAMPBELL. Recorded on October 4th, 7th and 8th, 1991 at The Newman Scoring Stage, Century City, California.
VIOLIN Kathleen Lenski
Joseph Brooks
Andrea Byers
Darius Campo
Tamara Chang
Michael Ferril
Ronald Folsom
Pamela H. Gates
Jeffrey Gauthier
Julie Gigante
Harris Goldman
Patricia Johnson
Peter Kent
Connie Kupka
Dimitrie Leivici
Brian Leonard
Rene Mandel
Gordon Marron
Jayme Miller
Irma Neumann
Robert Peterson
Stanley Plummer
Barbara Porter
Rachel Robinson
Sheldon Sanov
Daniel Shindaryov
Eve Sprecher
Spiro Stamos
Robert Sushel
Kimiyo Takeya
Roger Wilkie
John Wittenberg
Harold Wolf
Shari Zippert
COPYISTS Robert Bornstein (supv.)
Tom Calderaro
Julia Eidsvoog
Jeffrey Jones
Margaret Maryatt
Roberta McIntosh
Victor Sagerquist
Howard Segurson
VIOLAS Pamela Goldsmith
Dmitri Bovaird
Kenneth Burward-Hoy
Brian Dembow
E. Marcy Dicterow
Marlo Fisher
Richard Gerding
Roland Kato
Linda Lipsett
Margot MacLaine
Cynthia Morrow
Carole Mukogawa
David Stenske
Kimberly Wilkins
CELLI Douglas Davis
Dennis Karmazyn
Matthew Cooker
Larry Corbett
Marie Fera
Todd Hemmenway
Armen Ksajikian
Roger Lebow
Earl Madison
J. Michael Mathews
David Shamban
Harry Shlutz
FLUTES Susan Greenberg
Sheridon Stokes
David Shostac
LIBRARIAN Emmet Estren
BASSES Arni Egilsson
David Young
Timothy Barr
James Hughart
Stephens LaFever
Edward Meares
Paul Zibits
ORCHESTRATORS David Campbell
Donald Nemitz
David Slonaker
OBOES Thomas Boyd
John Winter
Barbara Northcutt
CLARINETS Dominick Fera
James Kanter
Emily Bernstein
Gary Gray
BASSOONS Michael O'Donovan
David Riddles
Kenneth Munday
FRENCH HORN James Thatcher
Richard Todd
Mark Adams
Jeffrey DeRosa
Todd Miller
Kurt Snyder
TRUMPETS Maario Guarneri
Malcolm McNab
TROMBONES William Broughton
A lan Kaplan
Craig Ware
DRUMS/PERCUSSION Larry Bunker
Kenneth Watson
Thomas Raney
Jerry D. Williams