Press Release from Dragon's Domain:
Dragon’s Domain Records presents CHRISTOPHER YOUNG: THE SHORTS, featuring music composed by Christopher Young for three short films from his extensive filmography.
A defining trait of composer Christopher Young’s early career has been his unwavering engagement with the experimental musical languages of the postwar avant-garde. Few composers brought these idioms into the Hollywood system as boldly or as consistently as he did. As he began to earn recognition as a mainstream composer capable of delivering accomplished and influential large-scale scores, he also looked for opportunities to experiment, which he found in more obscure and independent projects. Many of these smaller projects offered a rare opportunity to explore new facets of his writing, without any pressure from producers, studios, etc.
CHRISTOPHER YOUNG: THE SHORTS includes suites from three such highly diverse scores that were composed either for a television series such as VIETNAM WAR STORY or short student films such as THE MINSTREL’S SONG and THE TOWER. All three showcase his distinctive voice, though each emphasizes a different dimension of his style. From the merging of electronics with acoustic Japanese instruments and the development of polyrhythmic structures, to a taste for colorful instrumentation and semi-stylized historical pastiche, to the dissection and transformation of waltz-like melodic material.
VIETNAM WAR STORY originally aired on HBO between 1987 and 1988 and was an anthology series based on short stories written by U.S. veterans of the Vietnam conflict. Young contributed scores to two of the series’ nine episodes. His music for VIETNAM WAR STORY is a hybrid work in which he used electronics along with a wide range of acoustic instruments of Japanese origin. Originally released in 1993 by Intrada Records as part of a collection, the composer has returned to VIETNAM WAR STORY to revisit his work.
THE MINSTREL’S SONG was a graduation short film directed by Chris C. Hopkins, an aspiring filmmaker who would later become a noted prop artist and set designer. The music was composed and recorded by Young during his UCLA years. Also released on the same collection as VIETNAM WAR STORY, his music for THE MINSTREL’S SONG draws it’s influences from the Renaissance era, with the music played by a small ensemble.
THE TOWER was a short film marking the directorial debut of music editor E. Gedney Webb and holds a special place in Young’s heart. Webb is the composer’s nephew and they had collaborated on scores such as THE DARK HALF and DREAM LOVER. The film tells the story of a burned-out forty-year old man who encounters the ghost of a woman imprisoned in the tower of his summer home by Lake Michigan. Released by Intrada in 2002, THE TOWER was initially presented as forty-minute chamber symphony in five movements. Years later, the composer would return to the material and revise it into the current suite, inviting guitarist, songwriter and longtime friend Mark Hanson to provide lyrics for the principal melodic ideas. The orchestration includes string quartet, piano, harp, solo female voice and electronics.
Golden Globe-nominated composer Christopher Young has scored over 100 films, including films such as HELLRAISER, JENNIFER 8, MURDER IN THE FIRST, COPYCAT, SPECIES, THE HURRICANE, SWORDFISH, THE SHIPPING NEWS, THE HURRICANE, THE CORE, THE GRUDGE, THE EXORCISM OF EMILY ROSE, SPIDER-MAN 3, UNTRACEABLE and the forthcoming films, THE UNINVITED and DRAG ME TO HELL. Born in Red Bank, New Jersey, Young graduated from Massachusetts Hampshire College with a BA in music and did post-graduate work at North Texas State University, studying big band writing and classical composition before moving to Los Angeles in 1980. While enrolled at UCLA, he studied with famed film composer David Raksin. In addition to his career as a film composer, he has also taught composition at UCLA.
Dragon’s Domain Records presents CHRISTOPHER YOUNG: THE SHORTS, featuring music composed by Christopher Young for VIETNAM WAR STORY, THE MINSTREL’S SONG and THE TOWER. The music has been newly remastered by Digital Outland. The liner notes have been written by Andrea Bruno and provide important information about each project, with the composer’s participation.
