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Dragon's Domain Records presents THE ERNEST GOLD COLLECTION, VOLUME 2, featuring music composed by Ernest Gold (ON THE BEACH, EXODUS, SHIP OF FOOLS ) from several projects in his rich filmography for the very first time. THE ERNEST GOLD COLLECTION, VOLUME 2 includes music from the Western TOM HORN and the historical television mini-series LINCOLN.
LINCOLN, also known as Gore Vidal's LINCOLN, aired in March, 1988 in two parts on the NBC network. LINCOLN focused on Abraham Lincoln's first days in office, contending with generals who refused to fight in the Civil War and politicians who schemed to usurp his power. After the death of his son, a death that drove his wife, Mary, to the edge of madness, and a war more ferocious and bloody than anyone could imagine, Lincoln would live long enough to his dreams realized before a bullet would end his life. Directed by Lamont Johnson, starring Sam Waterston as Lincoln, Mary Tyler Moore as Mary Todd Lincoln and a cast that included Richard Mulligan, Steven Culp, Ruby Dee, Jerome Dempsey, Jeffrey DeMunn, Jon DeVries, Robin Gammell, James Gammon, Thomas Gibson, Cleavon Little, John Houseman and Glenn Faigen as John Wilkes Booth.
Anchored by a singular infectious theme, Gold's music for LINCOLN is brimming with period songs, African-American spirituals, Christian hymns, and historic musical references using an encyclopedic stable of Civil War-era instruments including banjo, fiddle, jaw harp, spoons, fife, tenor drum, tack piano, saxophone, acoustic guitar, and brass. LINCOLN would be Gold's last major scoring assignment.
Released in 1980, TOM HORN introduces the audience to the legendary American frontier scout, cowboy, soldier, gun-for-hire, and tracker who assisted in capturing the infamous Apache raider Geronimo. Directed by William Wiard, written by Thomas McGuane and Bud Shrake, starring Steve McQueen as Tom Horn, along with Linda Evans, Richard Farnsworth, Billy Green Bush, Slim Pickens, Elisha Cook, Roy Jenson, Geoffrey Lewiis, Bobby Bass and Mickey Jones, the movie loosely chronicles the final year of Horn's controversial life in which his violent vigilante lifestyle finally comes home to roost. Horn embarks on a one-man crusade to kill or otherwise expel anyone rustling cattle owned by his benefactors. His violent methods force the local townsfolk to revolt against him. In an effort to restore their tarnished image, the cattle ranchers who hired Horn begin plotting his demise...
Ernest Gold was no stranger to westerns. Over a prolific career, Gold penned scores for over a dozen Western films and television episodes. Gold's daring orchestral accompaniment harkens back to the rough, raw, and rugged ways of the wild west, beginning with his main theme for Horn. The score also includes a beautiful love theme for the relationship between Horn and Glendolene. TOM HORN remains an under-appreciated gem in Gold's storied filmography.
Ernest Gold came to the United States from Vienna in 1938, prompted by Hitler's invasion of Austria, and started working as a piano accompanist and as a popular songwriter in New York City. Growing disillusioned by songwriting, Gold headed west in 1945, following an interest in writing music for Hollywood films. Within two weeks of his arrival in early July, Gold was quickly put to work scoring THE GIRL OF THE LIMBERLOST for Columbia Pictures. He would score forty B-movies of all types for numerous studios through the late 1950s for a variety of studios. Gold never lost track of his Viennese musical heritage and contributed first-rate musical scores to dozens of films big and small.
He began studying with composer George Antheil in 1947, early in his Hollywood career. During the 1950s he began orchestrating Antheil's scores, and when Antheil began scoring Stanley Kramer's pictures, Gold came along with him. When Antheil died before finishing the score for Kramer's next film, the post-apocalypse drama, ON THE BEACH (1959), Gold assumed his role as Kramer's primary composer, scoring such films as INHERIT THE WIND (1960), JUDGMENT AT NUREMBERG (1961), and Kramer's blockbuster comedy, IT'S A MAD, MAD, MAD, MAD WORLD (1963). Meanwhile, his association with Kramer led to other A-list movies, including Otto Preminger's EXODUS (for which Gold won an Academy Award for best score and two Grammys for best soundtrack album and best song) and Sam Peckinpah's war movie CROSS OF IRON (1977). Gold's contributions were recognized with four Academy Award nominations and three Golden Globe nominations. His work for ON THE BEACH also won Gold a Grammy Award. His classical works also included a piano concerto, a string quartet, and a piano sonata.
Dragon's Domain Records presents THE ERNEST GOLD COLLECTION , VOLUME 2 featuring music composed and conducted by Ernest Gold, appearing for the very first time on compact disc for LINCOLN and TOM HORN. The music has been mastered by James Nelson at Digital Outland and the liner notes have been written by author and composer Brian Satterwhite.
- BSX
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