Sure would like the music from JOURNEY OF NATTY GANN... (1 Viewer)

[Dick]

Elmer Bernstein originally scored this, and his music was rejected. James Horner's stuck, but was never released commercially. I wonder why we can't get this music out on the shelves - it's so jaw-droppingly gorgeous! (Just pay attention to the layering of strings during the climactic sequence where Natty Gann and her father are reunited. Part of this cue was actually re-used for an earlier sequence of LAND BEFORE TIME). Would also love to hear what Bernstein would have done with it. Relatively few Horner scores remain unavailable (in or out of print), and Disney's holding back three of the best - GANN, SOMETHING WICKED THIS WAY COMES, and HONEY, I SHRUNK THE KIDS. Why?

 

[GlennH]

They apparently don't think very much of NATTY GANN in general, because the DVD of the movie is an atrocious P&S abomination.

 

[Christopher Jay]

James Horner's score for The Journey Of Natty Gann has exists on CD as a composer promo(or it could certainly be a boot disguised as a composer promo). I imagine copies of it fetch a high price among Horner collectors. Other than it being 17 tracks and about 38 min., I don't know much else about it.
As for Elmer Bernstein's rejected score, it has a release of dubious legality on the Rejoice label. 28 tracks, about 64 min., and judging from the track titles it would seem to have been finalized as to where they would have been heard in the film.


As for why Horner's score isn't available on a commercial CD, the short answer is re-use fees. From the FilmScore Monthly website:
"Why aren't some soundtracks on CD? For scores entirely unreleased, the main obstacle is the union re-use fees. Whenever a score is recorded with a union orchestra in Los Angeles — which is most of them — a fee has to be paid to the session players, a percentage of their original salaries, if the music is to be released on an album. This fee is so significant—anywhere from $20,000 to $100,000+ depending on the ensemble and number of minutes released —that no label can afford to pay it on such scores as Journey of Natty Gann (Horner), etc...."

 

[Jim Ware]

Thanks to a recent deal with the AFM, re-use fees can be greatly reduced for limited editions of 3000 copies or less. This has allowed Varese Sarabande and other labels to release scores that would have been prohibitively expensive otherwise (Die Hard, Predator and Ghostbusters for example).

I suspect that the problem with this particular score (and Something Wicked This Way Comes) lies with Disney, and their refusal to issue the score themselves or license it to another company for release (Paramount and Universal are the same, for the most part).

Horner's score for Honey I Shrunk the Kids, on the other hand will probably never see the light of day for legal reasons. Horner's use of Raymond Scott's Powerhouse and Nino Rota's Amarcord caused a few problems.