kooke
05-25-2014, 09:30 AM
A FUNNY THING HAPPENED ON THE WAY TO THE FORUM
Original MGM Motion Picture Soundtrack (1966)
Songs by Stephen Sondheim
Music direction and incidental score by Ken Thorne
──────────────────────
A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum is a successful stage production that premiered in Broadway in 1962 with music and lyrics written by Stephen Sondheim, and preceded the 1966 comedy film of the same name (wikipedia article (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Funny_Thing_Happened_on_the_Way_to_the_Forum_(fi lm))). The film soundtrack was released at the time in an LP with six songs of Sondheim and additional score by Ken Thorne (Inspector Clouseau, Superman II & III), and reissued by Ryko as CD in 1998.
In this post I've ventured to write some personal comments on the tracks, just for those who, like me, didn't watch the movie, don't undertand very well the spoken or sung English and have plenty more of enthusiasm than musical sapience. The remaining buddies can safely skip this.
The first track begins with a "Tiba Solo" that makes you rise an eyebrow for a few seconds and seriously fear the rest of the album. Whatever that was, it walks away soon, probably followed by a small herd of animals, and the cheerful sound of Broadway musicals begins with Zero Mostel singing "Comedy Tonight".
"Search for Mare's Sweat" is a short cue driven by old wind and string instruments, percussion and chimes that suggests advance towards something. And was used in the movie for that particular search.
The next track, "Lovely", is just like that: sweetly sung first by a girl, interspersed with an innocent dialog and completed as a duo. Beautiful arrangements and nice performances that bring images of romantic old musicals.
The ancient instruments come back with additional harp, drums and chimes in "Tintinabula's Dance", able to take you to times as remote as the epoch of Conan the Barbarian; to be much astonished a few seconds later when you're suddenly kicked into the 20th century by the jazzy rhythm and brasses of "Vibrata's Dance".
The short incidental "Roman Emmisary" begins with a fanfare and precedes the wishful singing of another composition of Sondheim, now about a timeless aspiration of human race: the guys sing "Everybody Ought To Have A Maid" expressing their wishes of "someone who's efficient and reliable, obedient and pliable and quieter than a mouse".
<img align="left" src="
"/>More descriptive Roman music of Thorne follows with continuous movement on "Riot at the Funeral", and again a song: "My Bride", by a magnificent baritone singing so commandingly that he induces a stream of admiration from the chorus halfway into the cue. I for one consider those few seconds of overflowed intercourse one of the heights of choral perfomances ever, and good enough reason to keep the album. Most probably, our fellow shriner millesgloriosus likes the track too.
The short "Erronius Returns" is again incidental music in that ancient sound, the same as "Orgy Music, Roman Style", although the latter would picture better the activities of tradesmen in a village market than an orgy. This must have been done on purpose to trivialize the scene.
And the reprise of "Lovely" begins. Only that this time you don't hear the sweet voice of a girl but a man singing it to a second, troubled man. Well... you assume it's some friendly reassurance of the sort of the speech of Gene Wilder in The Young Frankenstein when he calls the monster "handsome"; or like The Ghost Of Christmas Present encouraging Scrooge to enjoy life. But the more you listen to it, the more you suspect there's something else about that self-proclaimed loveliness. In the end curiosity wins, you search for the video of that scene and decide to include it in the set, because it's a must to be played more than once.
"In the Arena" begins with atmosphere of Roman menace and the presence of the orchestra's strings, brasses and drums, communicating tension and some fight. And the baritone sings again in "The Dirge", now more restrained and accompanied by dark chants of the chorus. While you may find interesting the harmony, this gloomy cue maintains that slow mood all the time and, let me put it this way, it's not love at first sight. May be better appreciated with information of the movie scene.
After the previous has set the tone quite down, the next track rises your spirit again, starting with "The Rescue of Phila", where Thorne moves from dreamy notes of Lovely to a triumphal happy-ending resolution. And then begins what came to be my favorite: "The Chase". This one develops variations of the melody of Comedy Tonight and evolves for five minutes in a symphonic classical style that, you notice, sounds very familiar, like the work of some famous composer. But which one? Mozart, Beethoven, who? As the old saying goes, Asking gets you to Rome (through the extense system of imperial Roman roads), and so laohu replied that "It's a Mozart inspiration", andDad Petros found additional similarities with works of Beethoven, Brahms, Rimsky-Korsakov and Tchaikovsky. Do you have an opinion too?
Finally, in the last track "Comedy Tonight" brings again the sound of Broadway, with short lines of the main performers and all-cast singing, to continue with the joyful style of musicals in the instrumental "Playout" and its links to Everybody Ought To Have A Maid and a few Roman-ish textures. Bright brasses to close the album.
In all, an eclectic mix of styles with ancient instruments, round sound and songs of musicals, jazz ensemble and classical orchestra whose music direction and original compositions earned Ken Thorne an Oscar for Best Music, Scoring of Music, Adaptation or Treatment in 1967. In the liner notes he says that it was such a big work that he deserved the award "Purely on labor only, mind you".
The archive of the OST has a good MP3-320 encoding of this Super Audio CD, its multimedia track (an MPEG-1 video with the trailer of the film), the lyrics of the stage production and scans, except for the disc, that would be very welcome.
It's only 36 minutes long and the movie didn't use all the songs that Sondheim did for the stage but the fans of musicals have in a separate archive the Original Broadway Cast of 1962 in FLAC (featuring Zero Mostel and Jack Gilford in the same roles) and the revival of 1995 in M4A/AAC-128 format, along with the lyrics and two pdfs with the libretto and score.
(http://musicbrainz.org/release/d6b3607d-149b-467b-9539-63ee47990732/cover-art)
Forum members celebrating the latest sessions.
The tracklist of the three albums follows in the spoiler below.
A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum
:::::: Original MGM Motion Picture Soundtrack ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
01 - Tiba Solo / Comedy Tonight (Zero Mostel & Company) [3:32]
02 - Search For Mare's Sweat (Ken Thorne) [0:43]
03 - Lovely (Annette Andre & Michael Crawford) [2:51]
04 - Tintinabula's Dance (Ken Thorne) [1:02]
05 - Vibrata's Dance (Ken Thorne) [0:49]
06 - Roman Emissary (Ken Thorne) [0:38]
07 - Everybody Ought To Have A Maid (1) [2:55]
08 - Riot At The Funeral (Ken Thorne) [1:28]
09 - Domina Returns (Fanfare) / My Bride (2) [2:41]
10 - Erronius Returns (Ken Thorne) [0:50]
11 - Orgy Music, Roman Style (Ken Thorne) [1:09]
12 - Lovely (Reprise) (Zero Mostel & Jack Gilford) [2:20]
13 - In The Arena (Ken Thorne) [1:42]
14 - The Dirge (Leon Greene & Company) [3:44]
15 - The Rescue Of Philia / The Chase (Ken Thorne) [6:02]
16 - Comedy Tonight / Playout (Company / Ken Thorne) [3:30]
17 - Multimedia Track FORUM.mpg [1:33]
(1) Michael Hordern, Zero Mostel, Jack Gilford & Phil Silvers
(2) Ken Thorne / Leon Greene & Company
:::::: Original Broadway Cast (1962) :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
01 - Overture (Orchestra) [3:14]
02 - Comedy Tonight (Zero Mostel & Company) [5:00]
03 - Love, I Hear (Brian Davies) [2:51]
04 - Free (Zero Mostel & Brian Davies) [3:35]
05 - Lovely (Brian Davies & Preshy Marker) [3:08]
06 - Pretty Little Picture (Zero Mostel, Brian Davies & Preshy Marker) [2:53]
07 - Everybody Ought To Have A Maid (1) [3:50]
08 - I'm Calm (Jack Gilford) [2:52]
09 - Impossible (David Burns & Brian Davies) [2:33]
10 - Bring Me My Bride (Ronald Holgate, Zero Mostel, Courtesans & Soldiers) [3:22]
11 - That Dirty Old Man (Ruth Kobart) [2:15]
12 - That'll Show Him (Preshy Marker) [1:49]
13 - Lovely (Reprise) (Zero Mostel & Jack Gilford) [2:56]
14 - Funeral Sequence (Zero Mostel, Ronald Holgate, Courtesans & Soldiers) [2:05]
15 - Finale (Company) [1:21]
(1) David Burns, Zero Mostel, Jack Gilford & John Carradine
:::::: Original 1996 Broadway Cast Recording :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
01 - Overture (Orchestra) [1:51]
02 - Comedy Tonight (Nathan Lane & Company) [6:53]
03 - Love, I Hear (Jim Stanek) [2:22]
04 - Free (Nathan Lane, Jim Stanek) [3:17]
05 - The House of Marcus Lycus (1) [8:33]
06 - Lovely (Jessica Boevers, Jim Stanek) [2:37]
07 - Pretty Little Picture (Jessica Boevers, Nathan Lane, Jim Stanek) [2:55]
08 - Everybody Ought to Have a Maid (2) [4:02]
09 - I'm Calm (Mark Linn-Baker) [1:31]
10 - Impossible (Lewis J. Stadlen, Jim Stanek) [2:14]
11 - Bring Me My Bride (Cris Groenendaal, Nathan Lane, Soldiers & Courtesans) [3:03]
12 - That Dirty Old Man (Mary Testa) [2:04]
13 - That'll Show Him (Jessica Boevers) [1:36]
14 - Lovely (reprise) (Nathan Lane, Mark Linn-Baker) [2:47]
15 - Funeral Sequence (Cris Groenendaal, Nathan Lane & Mourners) [2:41]
16 - Comedy Tonight (finale) (Nathan Lane & Company) [1:15]
(1) Pamela Everett, Nathan Lane, Mary Ann Lamb, Susan Misner,
Stephanie Pope, Ernie Sabella, Lori Werner, Leigh Zimmerman
(2) Mark Linn-Baker, Nathan Lane, Ernie Sabella, L.J Stadlen
Download links:
Original MGM Motion Picture Soundtrack (http://ulozto.net/xH9i9S5o/fthwf-7z) of 1966 [MP3] (137.9 MiB).
Original Broadway Cast of 1962 + 1996 revival (http://ulozto.net/xCN5GWKw/fthwf-bc-7z) [FLAC+M4A] (317.9 MiB).
Type funnyforum to extract the files.
Thanks to ToTheLastShot for providing the lossless set.
Enjoy.
My request: a lossless rip of the OST or the extended release of 2012 (Quartet).
Original MGM Motion Picture Soundtrack (1966)
Songs by Stephen Sondheim
Music direction and incidental score by Ken Thorne
──────────────────────
A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum is a successful stage production that premiered in Broadway in 1962 with music and lyrics written by Stephen Sondheim, and preceded the 1966 comedy film of the same name (wikipedia article (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Funny_Thing_Happened_on_the_Way_to_the_Forum_(fi lm))). The film soundtrack was released at the time in an LP with six songs of Sondheim and additional score by Ken Thorne (Inspector Clouseau, Superman II & III), and reissued by Ryko as CD in 1998.
In this post I've ventured to write some personal comments on the tracks, just for those who, like me, didn't watch the movie, don't undertand very well the spoken or sung English and have plenty more of enthusiasm than musical sapience. The remaining buddies can safely skip this.
The first track begins with a "Tiba Solo" that makes you rise an eyebrow for a few seconds and seriously fear the rest of the album. Whatever that was, it walks away soon, probably followed by a small herd of animals, and the cheerful sound of Broadway musicals begins with Zero Mostel singing "Comedy Tonight".
"Search for Mare's Sweat" is a short cue driven by old wind and string instruments, percussion and chimes that suggests advance towards something. And was used in the movie for that particular search.
The next track, "Lovely", is just like that: sweetly sung first by a girl, interspersed with an innocent dialog and completed as a duo. Beautiful arrangements and nice performances that bring images of romantic old musicals.
The ancient instruments come back with additional harp, drums and chimes in "Tintinabula's Dance", able to take you to times as remote as the epoch of Conan the Barbarian; to be much astonished a few seconds later when you're suddenly kicked into the 20th century by the jazzy rhythm and brasses of "Vibrata's Dance".
The short incidental "Roman Emmisary" begins with a fanfare and precedes the wishful singing of another composition of Sondheim, now about a timeless aspiration of human race: the guys sing "Everybody Ought To Have A Maid" expressing their wishes of "someone who's efficient and reliable, obedient and pliable and quieter than a mouse".
<img align="left" src="
"/>More descriptive Roman music of Thorne follows with continuous movement on "Riot at the Funeral", and again a song: "My Bride", by a magnificent baritone singing so commandingly that he induces a stream of admiration from the chorus halfway into the cue. I for one consider those few seconds of overflowed intercourse one of the heights of choral perfomances ever, and good enough reason to keep the album. Most probably, our fellow shriner millesgloriosus likes the track too.The short "Erronius Returns" is again incidental music in that ancient sound, the same as "Orgy Music, Roman Style", although the latter would picture better the activities of tradesmen in a village market than an orgy. This must have been done on purpose to trivialize the scene.
And the reprise of "Lovely" begins. Only that this time you don't hear the sweet voice of a girl but a man singing it to a second, troubled man. Well... you assume it's some friendly reassurance of the sort of the speech of Gene Wilder in The Young Frankenstein when he calls the monster "handsome"; or like The Ghost Of Christmas Present encouraging Scrooge to enjoy life. But the more you listen to it, the more you suspect there's something else about that self-proclaimed loveliness. In the end curiosity wins, you search for the video of that scene and decide to include it in the set, because it's a must to be played more than once.
"In the Arena" begins with atmosphere of Roman menace and the presence of the orchestra's strings, brasses and drums, communicating tension and some fight. And the baritone sings again in "The Dirge", now more restrained and accompanied by dark chants of the chorus. While you may find interesting the harmony, this gloomy cue maintains that slow mood all the time and, let me put it this way, it's not love at first sight. May be better appreciated with information of the movie scene.
After the previous has set the tone quite down, the next track rises your spirit again, starting with "The Rescue of Phila", where Thorne moves from dreamy notes of Lovely to a triumphal happy-ending resolution. And then begins what came to be my favorite: "The Chase". This one develops variations of the melody of Comedy Tonight and evolves for five minutes in a symphonic classical style that, you notice, sounds very familiar, like the work of some famous composer. But which one? Mozart, Beethoven, who? As the old saying goes, Asking gets you to Rome (through the extense system of imperial Roman roads), and so laohu replied that "It's a Mozart inspiration", and
Finally, in the last track "Comedy Tonight" brings again the sound of Broadway, with short lines of the main performers and all-cast singing, to continue with the joyful style of musicals in the instrumental "Playout" and its links to Everybody Ought To Have A Maid and a few Roman-ish textures. Bright brasses to close the album.
In all, an eclectic mix of styles with ancient instruments, round sound and songs of musicals, jazz ensemble and classical orchestra whose music direction and original compositions earned Ken Thorne an Oscar for Best Music, Scoring of Music, Adaptation or Treatment in 1967. In the liner notes he says that it was such a big work that he deserved the award "Purely on labor only, mind you".
The archive of the OST has a good MP3-320 encoding of this Super Audio CD, its multimedia track (an MPEG-1 video with the trailer of the film), the lyrics of the stage production and scans, except for the disc, that would be very welcome.
It's only 36 minutes long and the movie didn't use all the songs that Sondheim did for the stage but the fans of musicals have in a separate archive the Original Broadway Cast of 1962 in FLAC (featuring Zero Mostel and Jack Gilford in the same roles) and the revival of 1995 in M4A/AAC-128 format, along with the lyrics and two pdfs with the libretto and score.
(http://musicbrainz.org/release/d6b3607d-149b-467b-9539-63ee47990732/cover-art)Forum members celebrating the latest sessions.
The tracklist of the three albums follows in the spoiler below.
A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum
:::::: Original MGM Motion Picture Soundtrack ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
01 - Tiba Solo / Comedy Tonight (Zero Mostel & Company) [3:32]
02 - Search For Mare's Sweat (Ken Thorne) [0:43]
03 - Lovely (Annette Andre & Michael Crawford) [2:51]
04 - Tintinabula's Dance (Ken Thorne) [1:02]
05 - Vibrata's Dance (Ken Thorne) [0:49]
06 - Roman Emissary (Ken Thorne) [0:38]
07 - Everybody Ought To Have A Maid (1) [2:55]
08 - Riot At The Funeral (Ken Thorne) [1:28]
09 - Domina Returns (Fanfare) / My Bride (2) [2:41]
10 - Erronius Returns (Ken Thorne) [0:50]
11 - Orgy Music, Roman Style (Ken Thorne) [1:09]
12 - Lovely (Reprise) (Zero Mostel & Jack Gilford) [2:20]
13 - In The Arena (Ken Thorne) [1:42]
14 - The Dirge (Leon Greene & Company) [3:44]
15 - The Rescue Of Philia / The Chase (Ken Thorne) [6:02]
16 - Comedy Tonight / Playout (Company / Ken Thorne) [3:30]
17 - Multimedia Track FORUM.mpg [1:33]
(1) Michael Hordern, Zero Mostel, Jack Gilford & Phil Silvers
(2) Ken Thorne / Leon Greene & Company
:::::: Original Broadway Cast (1962) :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
01 - Overture (Orchestra) [3:14]
02 - Comedy Tonight (Zero Mostel & Company) [5:00]
03 - Love, I Hear (Brian Davies) [2:51]
04 - Free (Zero Mostel & Brian Davies) [3:35]
05 - Lovely (Brian Davies & Preshy Marker) [3:08]
06 - Pretty Little Picture (Zero Mostel, Brian Davies & Preshy Marker) [2:53]
07 - Everybody Ought To Have A Maid (1) [3:50]
08 - I'm Calm (Jack Gilford) [2:52]
09 - Impossible (David Burns & Brian Davies) [2:33]
10 - Bring Me My Bride (Ronald Holgate, Zero Mostel, Courtesans & Soldiers) [3:22]
11 - That Dirty Old Man (Ruth Kobart) [2:15]
12 - That'll Show Him (Preshy Marker) [1:49]
13 - Lovely (Reprise) (Zero Mostel & Jack Gilford) [2:56]
14 - Funeral Sequence (Zero Mostel, Ronald Holgate, Courtesans & Soldiers) [2:05]
15 - Finale (Company) [1:21]
(1) David Burns, Zero Mostel, Jack Gilford & John Carradine
:::::: Original 1996 Broadway Cast Recording :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
01 - Overture (Orchestra) [1:51]
02 - Comedy Tonight (Nathan Lane & Company) [6:53]
03 - Love, I Hear (Jim Stanek) [2:22]
04 - Free (Nathan Lane, Jim Stanek) [3:17]
05 - The House of Marcus Lycus (1) [8:33]
06 - Lovely (Jessica Boevers, Jim Stanek) [2:37]
07 - Pretty Little Picture (Jessica Boevers, Nathan Lane, Jim Stanek) [2:55]
08 - Everybody Ought to Have a Maid (2) [4:02]
09 - I'm Calm (Mark Linn-Baker) [1:31]
10 - Impossible (Lewis J. Stadlen, Jim Stanek) [2:14]
11 - Bring Me My Bride (Cris Groenendaal, Nathan Lane, Soldiers & Courtesans) [3:03]
12 - That Dirty Old Man (Mary Testa) [2:04]
13 - That'll Show Him (Jessica Boevers) [1:36]
14 - Lovely (reprise) (Nathan Lane, Mark Linn-Baker) [2:47]
15 - Funeral Sequence (Cris Groenendaal, Nathan Lane & Mourners) [2:41]
16 - Comedy Tonight (finale) (Nathan Lane & Company) [1:15]
(1) Pamela Everett, Nathan Lane, Mary Ann Lamb, Susan Misner,
Stephanie Pope, Ernie Sabella, Lori Werner, Leigh Zimmerman
(2) Mark Linn-Baker, Nathan Lane, Ernie Sabella, L.J Stadlen
Download links:
Original MGM Motion Picture Soundtrack (http://ulozto.net/xH9i9S5o/fthwf-7z) of 1966 [MP3] (137.9 MiB).
Original Broadway Cast of 1962 + 1996 revival (http://ulozto.net/xCN5GWKw/fthwf-bc-7z) [FLAC+M4A] (317.9 MiB).
Type funnyforum to extract the files.
Thanks to ToTheLastShot for providing the lossless set.
Enjoy.
My request: a lossless rip of the OST or the extended release of 2012 (Quartet).
