A Few Words About A few words about...™ The Sound of Music -- in Blu-ray (2 Viewers)

[Mark Oates]

I've been led to believe that until relatively recently, soundtrack albums for movies were recorded as completely separate sessions to those used to produce the movie soundtracks themselves. I'd be fascinated to know when this practice ended and albums started being edited from the soundtrack stems.

 

[John Skoda]

Sometimes yes, sometimes no. I think it had to do with Union rules. If an album is to be released from a film scoring session, they have to pay all the musicians a second time for their work on the "album" and royalties are sometimes involved too. For instrumental scores, many composers preferred to rerecord the score as an album since they had to pay for the musicians anyway. Also, they often saved money by using fewer musicians for the LP.

For musicals, though, they usually bit the bullet and used the film tracks (or something close) because people would notice if the album had wildly different vocals than the versions heard in the film.

I don't know if the rules are still this way, but I'm pretty sure that's the way they were in the 60s.

 

[Rob_Ray]

A few other things to consider...

Before the advent of home video, few people watched and rewatched a film over and over to the point of memorizing it. For that reason and others, soundtrack albums were often produced with more of a sense of how the album would work as a stand-alone listening experience rather than being an exact replication of the orchestrations heard in the film.

It could be that the original instrumental opening of before "the hills are alive" was felt to work better as listenable music reflecting the Broadway original, rather than what is heard in the film, which seems to follow the visuals better. The truncated Sixteen Going on Seventeen dance heard on the original album also reflects this. What is heard in the film might have been seen as too "mickey-mousey" for records (meaning the film music was designed to follow the visuals rather than work as a song on a record.). Though I deplore that abrupt ending!

And time was also a factor in those days. The LP of The Sound of Music has tracks that are pretty jam-packed at nearly 25 minutes per side. Hence the omission of most of the reprises and the early version of Edelweiss. And because the tracks were so compressed together, the order of the songs on the album was drastically reworked to take advantage of the fact that the outer tracks on the album had better fidelity range than the smaller tracks close to the center.

The vocals mostly sound identical to what's heard in the film with a one or two exceptions. I notice that Dan Truhitte holds the note much longer on "totally unprepared are you" on the album than in the film. I wonder if this was changed in post-dubbing to match a case of poor lip-synching during filming?

 

[Douglas Monce]

It was not uncommon even up until the late 70's for soundtrack albums to be re-recordings rather than the original tracks used in the film. John Williams soundtracks for Jaws, The Fury, and Dracula were all re-recordings. The same is true of Jerry Goldsmith's scores for Outland and Capricorn One. Most of Henry Mancini's famous soundtrack albums from the 1960s were in fact re-recordings, not the original tracks used in the films.

The Star Wars soundtrack was actually a bit of an anomaly in the 70's in that it used the actual tracks from the film. But that may have had something to do with the contract they had with the London Symphony Orchestra.

Doug

 

[Douglas Monce]

Originally Posted by John Skoda
Sometimes yes, sometimes no. I think it had to do with Union rules. If an album is to be released from a film scoring session, they have to pay all the musicians a second time for their work on the "album" and royalties are sometimes involved too. For instrumental scores, many composers preferred to rerecord the score as an album since they had to pay for the musicians anyway. Also, they often saved money by using fewer musicians for the LP.

For musicals, though, they usually bit the bullet and used the film tracks (or something close) because people would notice if the album had wildly different vocals than the versions heard in the film.

I don't know if the rules are still this way, but I'm pretty sure that's the way they were in the 60s.

The rules are actually more restrictive now, which is one reason that many films are going to Eastern Europe to have their scores recorded. The score for Open Range for example was recorded, if I recall correctly, in Czechoslovakia. They are able to pay a flat fee for the recording and never have to worry about rights issues again. As a result American musicians have been loosing work for years. Thanks for nothing Musician's Union!

Doug

 

[Robin9]

Originally Posted by Douglas Monce
It was not uncommon even up until the late 70's for soundtrack albums to be re-recordings rather than the original tracks used in the film. John Williams soundtracks for Jaws, The Fury, and Dracula were all re-recordings. The same is true of Jerry Goldsmith's scores for Outland and Capricorn One. Most of Henry Mancini's famous soundtrack albums from the 1960s were in fact re-recordings, not the original tracks used in the films.

The most glaring example of this is Pal Joey. Sinatra's performances in the movie and on the soundtrack album are completely different. So are the tempi and the arrangements.

 

[David Mahlan]

Originally Posted by Mark Oates
I've been led to believe that until relatively recently, soundtrack albums for movies were recorded as completely separate sessions to those used to produce the movie soundtracks themselves. I'd be fascinated to know when this practice ended and albums started being edited from the soundtrack stems.

I can't confirm this, but I seem to remember reading (perhaps in the album liner notes) that "Funny Face" (1957) was the first soundtrack album to use the recordings from the actual soundtrack rather than re-recordings done in a separate session.

 

[Joe Caps]

Funny Face is far from the first actual soundtrack. All of mgms musicals on the mgmg label, starting with Till the Clouds Roll By (1947 !!)
were from the actual soundtracks. So were their background scores done at this time such as Madame bovary (1949), Ivanhoe and Plymouth Adventure (both 1952).

 

[David Mahlan]

Quote:

is also credited as one of the first motion pictures to have a soundtrack album released concurrent with the film arriving in theaters. The soundtrack was produced by MGM Records. The album originally contained four 78-rpm records featuring various artists and songs from the movie and front-cover artwork by Lennie Hayton. Later this album was released on LP.

I'll need to dig out my "Funny Face" soundtrack and what it is that they were claiming...

 

[Mark B]

Originally Posted by Robin9
Pal Joey. Sinatra's performances in the movie and on the soundtrack album are completely different. So are the tempi and the arrangements.

"I Didn't Know What Time It Was" has a pre-recorded verse which was ditched for a live on set vocal, but once the band comes in it reverts to the same prerecording used on the soundtrack. Other than that I am not aware of any vocals on the soundtrack that differ from those which were used in the film.

 

[Brian W.]

The soundtrack to "Snow White" was released concurrently with the film in 1938, on RCA records, complete with dialogue and sound effects from the film, and an unused verse from "The Silly Song." (Sneezy had his own verse that was cut from the film.) It was released in its original format on CD in the late '80s or early '90s by RCA, complete with the missing verse. I own a copy.

 

[RobertSiegel]

That reminds me of the very end of the overture on the original Mary Poppins soundtrack, it had an extra minute or two of music (Jolly Holiday) that wasn't in the film at the very end of the overture....It has not been on the last several CD releases. If you have an LP release it is there.

 

[Matt Hough]

Originally Posted by RobertSiegel
That reminds me of the very end of the overture on the original Mary Poppins soundtrack, it had an extra minute or two of music (Jolly Holiday) that wasn't in the film at the very end of the overture....It has not been on the last several CD releases. If you have an LP release it is there.

Here's another example of a shortened overture behind the main title: Gypsy does that too though the cut is in the middle of the overture rather than at the end.

 

[FoxyMulder]

Originally Posted by RobertSiegel
It is a shame that there aren't surviving alternate takes. Julie said that they did about 12 takes of that scene and wished they would put them on the disc. I'd love to see those. Also, if you watch the pre-release trailer, you will see different camera angles that were used, I noticed a different one in the bedroom when the captain discovers her and the kids singing, a different camera angle. Also in that trailer, she sings My Favorite Things differently as they are throwing the pillows around the room, listen for that, different vocals...they must have done the singing track over again. Also in that trailer, different takes that were not used before she sings The Hills are Alive. Kind of fun. It's either the pre-release trailer or one of the first few trailers.

Has anyone noticed this: When the camera is zooming in on Julie in the opening scene and she's walking towards the camera before she sings The Hills are Alive, that at one point she lifts her right hand up to her face, to me it looks like a signal. This is just done once about 3 measures before she sings. I know Robert Wise was in the fake forest giving her cues, I wonder if this wasn't some kind of cue for the cameraman or pilot to let her know she was about to do her twirl?

IMDB Trivia has the answer for you.

During the filming of the opening shot of Julie Andrews taken from a helicopter, Julie Andrews relates that although she tried digging her heels into the ground and bracing herself, on every take she was knocked over by the powerful helicopter downdraft. After more than a dozen takes, she attempted to hand-signal to Robert Wise to have the helicopter make a wider pass, but the response she got was a thumbs-up - he was finally satisfied with the shot.

 

[MatthewA]

The death of the eldest of the Von Trapp children had me thinking: it seemed as though Charmain Carr was being prepped for a big career in fil
because of her role as Liesl (I had read that Fox considered her for a role on TV's "Peyton Place" but Robert Wise nixed it). What happened? I haven't read her book, so I'm not sure of all the facts. Of all the actors to play the Von Trapp children in the movie, I'm surprised most of all by her lack of post-Sound of Music acting work.

 

[FoxyMulder]

Originally Posted by MatthewA
The death of the eldest of the Von Trapp children had me thinking: it seemed as though Charmain Carr was being prepped for a big career in fil
because of her role as Liesl (I had read that Fox considered her for a role on TV's "Peyton Place" but Robert Wise nixed it). What happened? I haven't read her book, so I'm not sure of all the facts. Of all the actors to play the Von Trapp children in the movie, I'm surprised most of all by her lack of post-Sound of Music acting work.

I haven't read of her dying, when did that happen. ?

I agree that she was excellent in The Sound Of Music and seemed to have a great career ahead of her, apparently she married someone and had kids and decided to raise them rather than continue the acting career.

 

[RobertSiegel]

I haven't read of her dying, when did that happen. ?

I agree that she was excellent in The Sound Of Music and seemed to have a great career ahead of her, apparently she married someone and had kids and decided to raise them rather than continue the acting career.

She actually went into interior design, (Charmain Carr)and has done very well at it. I have read both of her books. She did the design work for Michael Jackson's home. He was very good friends with her and picked her not only because of her design work but because it was one of his favorite movies of all time. So that gives you an idea of how good she was at it. I don't recall why she stopped acting though, I will have to read it again, for those of you who are fans it is great reading, and her 2nd book Letters to Leisl is great but just fan letters, the first book is the most informative.

 

[RobertSiegel]

IMDB Trivia has the answer for you.

During the filming of the opening shot of Julie Andrews taken from a helicopter, Julie Andrews relates that although she tried digging her heels into the ground and bracing herself, on every take she was knocked over by the powerful helicopter downdraft. After more than a dozen takes, she attempted to hand-signal to Robert Wise to have the helicopter make a wider pass, but the response she got was a thumbs-up - he was finally satisfied with the shot.

Thanks. I figured it was a que. Reading the trivia, it's hard to believe that Mary Martin made $8,000,000 from the film and Julie Andrews only $225,000. I knew about the $225,000 salary but did not know the extent of Mary Martin's percentage. This seems so unfair to Julie Andrews. Luckily she did get a percentage of the soundtrack album and it has been said she has continued to make very good money from it. It's a soundtrack that will never die.

Also in the trivia, the story about the farmer cutting the grass on Melweg mountain is fun, but more insight is that the opening shot (closing in on Julie) was done at a different time (several weeks apart) then when she actually starts singing "The Hills are Alive." Notice when the camera zooms in it's like a field with flowers and long wheat. When she sings "The hills are alive" the grass is freshly cut. The farmer was angry that they upset his cows who stopped producing milk, so not only did he cut the grass but also broke the hand-made brook, which they had to rebuild.

 

[Matt Hough]

Mary Martin's husband produced the stage show (with others), but it was her idea originally to option the book and have it made into a play and that must have contributed to why she got a cut of the film's profits: profit participation for the producers of the stage show.

 

[RobertSiegel]

Originally Posted by MattH.
Mary Martin's husband produced the stage show (with others), but it was her idea originally to option the book and have it made into a play and that must have contributed to why she got a cut of the film's profits: profit participation for the producers of the stage show.

Still, Julie really got the short end of the stick.