Edgar Beach writes:

>I am wondering, have the composers and/or arrangers ever taken a film score
>and retructured it in symphonic or sonata form, thereby allowing it to stand
>on its own.  If so, do you agree with such restructuring and are there any
>recordings of such music you can recommend? Thank you for your help?

Ralph Vaughan Williams took his score for Scott of the Antarctica and
turned it into his 7th Symphony, 'Sinfonia antarctica.  Fantastic piece of
music, and I haven't even seen the movie.  My favorite part is the Andante
maestoso from the first of five movements; it has a powerful theme.

Just because the music isn't molded into an established form doesn't me
it can't be free standing.  For example, John Williams' scores to the
Star Wars movies are great listening without the movie (I'm sure much to
Dave Lewis' disgust).  If you're anti-Williams, other good examples of
stand-alone-able film scores include Miklos Rosza's Ben Hur, James Horner's
An American Tale, Jerry Goldsmith's Star Trek scores, the music of Elmer
Bernstein (To Kill a Mockingbird, The Ten Commandments especially).
Overall film music is just as fun away from the movie as it is with the
movie.  Typically, the overture, and the main and end title music from
movies are more structured (and more fun).

Joseph Sowa
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