Pictures at an Exhibition (1966 version)

Discussion in 'Tomita' started by KimbaWLion, Oct 23, 2008.

  1. KimbaWLion

    KimbaWLion New Member

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    Anyone else familiar with Tomita's first arrangement of Pictures, for orchestra? It was done as the soundtrack to a film by Osamu Tezuka, available on an Australian DVD: Madman Anime. It foreshadows his synth arrangement in many ways, and at the same time sounds a lot like his Jungle Emperor score. A great piece, and a great supplement to the more familiar synth album.
     
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  2. ndkent

    ndkent Moderator

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    Yes, I've seen movie, but didn't know it was out in an Austrialian DVD collection. It does have some quite eccentric arrangement choices very fitting with the image.

    It's worth noting that the composition was composed for solo piano by Mussorgsky in 1874. They were a musical depiction of a stroll through a gallery viewing the works of a recently deceased artist friend, Viktor Hartmann. The gate on the Japanese album cover is redrawn based on one of the actual drawings.

    Maurice Ravel, whom many consider having the finest orchestration skills of the 20th Century orchestrated the works in 1922. He generally did not tackle other people's compositions, but I presume did it as an interesting challenge on commission. Others have also orchestrated the pieces over the years as for one thing, Ravel's sound choices have few connections to 19th Century Russia. Tomita's Moog version is partly influenced by Ravel, but isn't shy to go off and do it's own thing.

    Another Tomita film score a couple years later, "Black Lizard" includes some original and unusual Bach arrangements
     
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  3. simon12265

    simon12265 New Member

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    Hello!

    I've just finished my first viewing of this on a Japanese Laserdisc which I fell upon quite by accident!

    It is absolutely brilliant, the animation, the score arrangement, and the laserdisc quality is out of this world.
     
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  4. KimbaWLion

    KimbaWLion New Member

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    The Tezuka DVD with "Pictures" and 12 other films is now going to be released in the US. This link is for the Amazon.com page about the DVD.

    http://tinyurl.com/NewTezukaDVD
     
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