DamienB
15-04-2002, 20:40
From another (non DVD) forum... dunno where the quote comes from originally though:
Walton's score to be reinstated in 'Battle of Britain' film for his centenary year
By Dalya Alberge, Arts Correspondent
DECADES after a devastated William Walton discovered that only a few minutes of his score for The Battle of Britain would be used and that the rest was to be replaced by another composer’s work, the film classic is being reworked with his entire original music.
Barely four minutes of his 25-minute composition were used in the 1969 war film, which starred many leading British actors of the day, including Laurence Olivier, Trevor Howard and Michael Redgrave as well as most of the world’s Hurricanes and Spitfires.
It was because of protests from Olivier that any of Walton’s music was used, in the “Battle in the Air” section, considered by some to be the most memorable part of the score.
Walton received a joint credit with Ron Goodwin, the composer who was hastily commissioned to write an entirely new score. Now, in the centenary year of Walton’s birth, nearly 20 years after his death, some of the original film-makers are restoring the classic to the way its director had intended it to sound.
Timothy Gee, 65, who was assistant editor on the film, wants to remix the soundtrack with the support of the producers, MGM and United Artists. The original master tracks were rescued by the music mixer, Eric Tomlinson. “When he heard that United Artists had authorised the erasing of the master tracks, he just said, ‘over my dead body’, picked them up, put them in the boot of his car and stored them in his garage,” Mr Gee said.
The director, Guy Hamilton, who later made Diamonds Are Forever and other Bond films, said: “The producers caved in to the demands of United Artists, who wanted to fill every available frame with the standard American movie epic score, thus ruining William Walton’s carefully crafted work. I think the idea of resuscitating William’s tremendous score is entirely valid.”
Walton, who wrote the Coronation March for George VI, and 16 years later for his daughter, the Queen, as well as the scores for Henry V and Hamlet, had been particularly inspired writing music for the film because he had been so devastated by the war, his widow said yesterday. Lady Walton recalled that the pain of rejection was all the more acute because he had been so proud of his work for it. “He couldn’t sleep for weeks,” she said. “Nothing like that had ever happened to him.”
She welcomed plans to issue a DVD with both versions of the score, as well as screenings with the intended score in time for the September commemorations of the Battle of Britain and before the end of this year’s Walton Centenary, when his music is being performed throughout Britain.
The film is transformed by Walton’s music, Mr Gee said. “Walton’s music has a marvellous Elgarian theme that is deeper and more stirring than Goodwin’s, which is more fruity, ‘we won chaps’ and victorious.”
Goodwin, a distinguished film composer whose other scores have included Those Magnificent Men in their Flying Machines and Where Eagles Dare, recalled yesterday that he had written the 50-minute score in two or three weeks.
On being told of the plans to reinstate Walton’s music, he said: “It’s a good idea. It will be a collector’s item.
“I never heard it, apart from the ‘Battle in the Air’ section. I purposely didn’t because it would have been difficult to hear it first and then write a new score.”
Walton's score to be reinstated in 'Battle of Britain' film for his centenary year
By Dalya Alberge, Arts Correspondent
DECADES after a devastated William Walton discovered that only a few minutes of his score for The Battle of Britain would be used and that the rest was to be replaced by another composer’s work, the film classic is being reworked with his entire original music.
Barely four minutes of his 25-minute composition were used in the 1969 war film, which starred many leading British actors of the day, including Laurence Olivier, Trevor Howard and Michael Redgrave as well as most of the world’s Hurricanes and Spitfires.
It was because of protests from Olivier that any of Walton’s music was used, in the “Battle in the Air” section, considered by some to be the most memorable part of the score.
Walton received a joint credit with Ron Goodwin, the composer who was hastily commissioned to write an entirely new score. Now, in the centenary year of Walton’s birth, nearly 20 years after his death, some of the original film-makers are restoring the classic to the way its director had intended it to sound.
Timothy Gee, 65, who was assistant editor on the film, wants to remix the soundtrack with the support of the producers, MGM and United Artists. The original master tracks were rescued by the music mixer, Eric Tomlinson. “When he heard that United Artists had authorised the erasing of the master tracks, he just said, ‘over my dead body’, picked them up, put them in the boot of his car and stored them in his garage,” Mr Gee said.
The director, Guy Hamilton, who later made Diamonds Are Forever and other Bond films, said: “The producers caved in to the demands of United Artists, who wanted to fill every available frame with the standard American movie epic score, thus ruining William Walton’s carefully crafted work. I think the idea of resuscitating William’s tremendous score is entirely valid.”
Walton, who wrote the Coronation March for George VI, and 16 years later for his daughter, the Queen, as well as the scores for Henry V and Hamlet, had been particularly inspired writing music for the film because he had been so devastated by the war, his widow said yesterday. Lady Walton recalled that the pain of rejection was all the more acute because he had been so proud of his work for it. “He couldn’t sleep for weeks,” she said. “Nothing like that had ever happened to him.”
She welcomed plans to issue a DVD with both versions of the score, as well as screenings with the intended score in time for the September commemorations of the Battle of Britain and before the end of this year’s Walton Centenary, when his music is being performed throughout Britain.
The film is transformed by Walton’s music, Mr Gee said. “Walton’s music has a marvellous Elgarian theme that is deeper and more stirring than Goodwin’s, which is more fruity, ‘we won chaps’ and victorious.”
Goodwin, a distinguished film composer whose other scores have included Those Magnificent Men in their Flying Machines and Where Eagles Dare, recalled yesterday that he had written the 50-minute score in two or three weeks.
On being told of the plans to reinstate Walton’s music, he said: “It’s a good idea. It will be a collector’s item.
“I never heard it, apart from the ‘Battle in the Air’ section. I purposely didn’t because it would have been difficult to hear it first and then write a new score.”