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Citadel Records, a division of BSX Records, presents TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD, featuring music composed by Elmer Bernstein for the beloved 1962 drama directed by Robert Mulligan, written by Harper Lee and Horton Foote, starring Gregory Peck, John Megna, Frank Overton, Rosemary Murphy, Ruth White, Brock Peters, Estelle Evans, Paul Fix, Collin Wilcox Paxton, James Anderson, Alice Ghostley, William Windom, Crahan Denton, Richard Hale, Phillip Alford, Mary Badham and Robert Duvall.
Released in 1962 and based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel written by Harper Lee, TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD is both an important legal drama and a very special coming-of-age story that captures a certain period of time in a child's life, the transition from the innocence of childhood to the reality of the world around us. Small town lawyer and single father Atticus Finch (Peck) defends Tom Robinson (Peters), a black man who is on trial for the rape of a white woman in this small Southern town. The events of the film are seen simultaneously through the eyes of his children, Scout and Jem, as they learn about racism and the true character of their father as he struggles to maintain his client's innocence and keep his family safe.
This recording of TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD was conducted by the composer and performed by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in 1976 and originally presented as part of the composer's classic and important series of film music recordings from the 1970s. The score was reconstructed from Bernstein's piano conductor parts by Christopher Palmer and Anthony Bremner. The recording was made at Olympic Studios, London, England, in October 1976.
TOCCATA FOR TOY TRAINS was composed for a film by Ray and Charles Eames in 1957, continuing a relationship between the Eameses and Bernstein which had started in 1953 with a film called A Communications Primer. The Eameses had been collecting old toy trains for some years and in 1957 they conceived the idea of a short film to display, with some virtuosity, the beauties and nostalgia of these remarkable toys.
This recording of TOCCATA FOR TOY TRAINS was also conducted by the composer and recorded in 1975.
In the history of film music, Elmer Bernstein is among the iconic and the legendary. With a career that spanned an unparalleled 5 decades, he composed more than 150 original movie scores and nearly 80 for television, creating some of the most recognizable and memorable themes in Hollywood history: the driving jazz of THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN ARM, the rousing Western anthem of THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN, the lyrical and quietly moving music of TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD, and the jaunty, thumb-nosing march of THE GREAT ESCAPE. His impact is still felt, and his presence missed by moviemakers and moviegoers alike.
From 1974 to 1979, composer Elmer Bernstein, a great believer in preserving the film music of the past, indulged an expensive whim: Re-recording excerpts from memorable scores by esteemed colleagues ranging from Alfred Newman and Miklos Rozsa to Alex North and Bernard Herrmann. This collection would span fourteen LPS and include many previously unreleased film scores, including the first recording of Herrmann's lost score to TORN CURTAIN. Later, these historic recordings were released on compact disc by Film Score Monthly in 2006 in a limited edition box set that has continued to become scarce over the years.
Citadel Records, a division of BSX Records, is proud to bring these recordings back into the marketplace, under license from the composer's estate with the music newly remastered by James Nelson at Digital Outland and retaining the original liner notes written by Christopher Palmer and Hermann von Moltke.
- BSX
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