Appocalypse Now connection

The current issue of keyboard magazine (september, I don't think its on
newsstands quite yet) has an interview with Ed Goldfarb, the man who
created the additional music for Appocalypse Now Redux for the bits that
never got to be scored before they were cut out of the original release

Mike B sent me privately some good questions on that subject which seem
to be mostly answered in the interview.

Q: Why was the score co-credited to Francis Ford Coppola?
A: he actually hummed and eventually managed to notate theme melodies he
wanted to hear

Q: Why do some bits sound like Tomita?
"As it turns out, Francis' original concept for the score, which is
brilliant, was to have Carmine (Coppola, Francis' dad and Godfather
co-composer) compose the score for orchestra. and then have Tomita
realize it for synthesaizers...

Francis did meet with Tomita to discuss the project, but Tomita was
famous at the time for taking an extraordinary amount of time to
complete new works; when you're doing string serctions by overdubbing
monophonic violin lines, it just takes time, you know? When it became
clear the idea that that idea was just not going to work Francis handed
it off to a bunch of synthesists in the bay area and had David Rubinson
produce the score."

P.S. Goldfarb never mentions Patrick Gleeson who was said to have done
lots of the modular work. He mentions Steiner and the percussion work
of Mickey Hart for what its worth.

he also says

"The biggest help was listening to Tomita records, since it was his
style that the 1979 synthesists were copping." he also mentions how
obvious it was that they were going for the feel of Tomita's version of
"Mars" for one cue in the original score


nick kent

 

>The current issue of keyboard magazine (september, I don't think its on
>newsstands quite yet) has an interview with Ed Goldfarb, the man who
>created the additional music for Appocalypse Now Redux for the bits that
>never got to be scored before they were cut out of the original release
>
>Mike B sent me privately some good questions on that subject which seem
>to be mostly answered in the interview.
>
>Q: Why was the score co-credited to Francis Ford Coppola?
>A: he actually hummed and eventually managed to notate theme melodies he
>wanted to hear
>
>Q: Why do some bits sound like Tomita?
>"As it turns out, Francis' original concept for the score, which is
>brilliant, was to have Carmine (Coppola, Francis' dad and Godfather
>co-composer) compose the score for orchestra. and then have Tomita
>realize it for synthesaizers...
>
>Francis did meet with Tomita to discuss the project, but Tomita was
>famous at the time for taking an extraordinary amount of time to
>complete new works; when you're doing string serctions by overdubbing
>monophonic violin lines, it just takes time, you know? When it became
>clear the idea that that idea was just not going to work Francis handed
>it off to a bunch of synthesists in the bay area and had David Rubinson
>produce the score."
>
>P.S. Goldfarb never mentions Patrick Gleeson who was said to have done
>lots of the modular work. He mentions Steiner and the percussion work
>of Mickey Hart for what its worth.
>
>he also says
>
>"The biggest help was listening to Tomita records, since it was his
>style that the 1979 synthesists were copping." he also mentions how
>obvious it was that they were going for the feel of Tomita's version of
>"Mars" for one cue in the original score
>
>
>nick kent
>
Really interesting, Nick!
Have to grab that issue of Keyboard.
Yes, I think anyone who knows Tomita's work will at least hear a similarity
in some of the cues in the new version.
It's a shame he didn't get to do the actual score like Coppola wanted him
to, that would have been something amazing I'm sure. You know considering
the amount of delays and setbacks that the film had, it might have turned
out that Tomita would have had the time he needed to do the job.

Mike Berman
digiboy at n...