Press Release from Dragon's Domain:
Dragon’s Domain Record presents the PAUL CHIHARA COLLECTION, VOLUME 5, featuring music composed and produced for three films by Paul Chihara (PRINCE OF THE CITY, CHINA BEACH) from his lengthy filmography.
Composer Paul Chihara has had one foot in film scoring (having composed scores for over 90 motion pictures and television series) and the other in concert music for more than 45 years. Among his efforts in Hollywood film scoring are the three films that make up this fifth collection of Chihara’s film music, which are presented here on CD for the first time.
Released in 1985, THE BAD SEED is an American made-for-television horror flick based on the film made in 1955 which featured Patty McCormick as the evil child. THE BAD SEED originated on Broadway as a successful play with many of the actors from the play recreating their roles for the film. The TV remake was directed by Paul Wendkos and starred Blair Brown, Lynn Redgrave, David Carradine, and Carrie Wells. The plot revolves around a precocious nine-year old girl named Rachel (Wells) who masks her murderous exploits behind a winsome smile, puppy-dog eyes, and an adorable lace-adorned dress. After random folks within Rachel’s sphere mysteriously die, her mother Christine (Brown) investigates further uncovering a river of psychological deviancy flowing to a distant relative. THE BAD SEED was originally conceived as a TV pilot but then became a movie for television instead.
Chihara’s classical training is on full display in this score as he skillfully develops fragments and motifs from “Für Elise” by Ludwig van Beethoven throughout the score. This quasi-theme represents the young girl’s innocence while Chihara’s original material extracts Rachel’s evil lurking within.
Released in 1988, KILLER INSTINCT is an American made-for-television dramatic film directed by Waris Hussein, starring Melissa Gilbert, Kevin Conroy, Fernando López, and Woody Harrelson. KILLER INSTINCT tells the story of a young attorney named Charlie (Harrelson) who, with assistance from clinical psychiatrist Dr. DaVito (Gilbert), is assigned to keep a violent mental patient named Freddy (López) from being released into society. Forced by her superiors to emancipate Freddy, Dr. DaVito becomes persona non grata after Freddy is released and commits murder.
Although wrought during a period of prolific imitation, Chihara’s music is quite extraordinary. Some cues rely heavily on electronic drum loops and synthesized sounds simulating guitar, marimba or piano while others spotlight solo acoustic instruments including flute.
>P>Released in 1985, WITH INTENT TO KILL was written and directed by Mike Robe, starring Karl Malden, Paul Sorvino, Holly Hunter, Shirley Knight, Catherine Mary Stewart and Alex McArthur. WITH INTENT TO KILL focuses on a high school football hero named Bo (McArthur), who is accused of murdering his sweetheart Lisa (Stewart) after experiencing a total blackout of consciousness. Bo is found not guilty by reason of insanity and placed in a mental institution for four years. Meanwhile Lisa’s father, Tom (Malden) and her sister Wynn (Hunter), battle to put Bo away for the remainder of his natural life. Matters become more complicated when Bo is released and Tom and Wynn decide to take matters into their own hands...
Chihara’s music is a schizophrenic concoction of intense bombastic bass and percussion cues intercut with relaxing strains of strings and synthesizers led by a solo trumpet. In true film music fashion, the score almost doesn’t make musical sense until you learn the elements of the story it accompanies in which it makes perfect narrative sense.
Paul Chihara is a pioneer in the use of synthesizers morphed with traditional orchestral instruments to create compositional hybrids. Often imitated but never duplicated, his unique musical sound blurs the boundaries between electronic and acoustic instruments. He was a prolific and speedy composer able to churn out large volumes of music in relatively short periods of time. This made him a popular commodity in Hollywood.
Dragon’s Domain Records is excited to bring Paul Chihara’s music for THE BAD SEED, KILLER INSTINCT and WITH INTENT TO KILL to compact disc for the first time on THE PAUL CHIHARA COLLECTION, VOLUME 5, mastered by James Nelson at Digital Outland with exclusive liner notes by author and composer Brian Satterwhite, including the participation of the composer.
