Themes! - Alfred Newman

Invitation

Themes!
Alfred Newman
Dean Of Motion Picture Music Conducts
Produced by Ralph O'Connor
Violin solos throughout the album by Louis Kaufman and Lou Raderman
Capitol Records
T 1652 & ST 1652
1962

From the back cover: In a formal presentation in 1954, the American Society of Composers and Conductors cited Alfred Newman for his "outstanding contribution to American music." The award was an official expression of the high esteem in which Newman has always been held by his colleagues.

The movie community's own regard for its preeminent musical director if perhaps best evidenced in the record total of eight Oscars and 41 nominations it has bestowed upon him. Look magazine called Newman "the acknowledged master of Hollywood mood music." Hollywood Citizen-News writer George Pratt said simply, "He has built music the world cheers and cherishes."

Haunting, romantic melodies from Alfred Newman's screen scores have enriched music for countless films – the often-recorded Street Scene, Withering Heights, How Green Is My Valley and The Song Of Bernadette, to name a treasured few. In this album, Newman offers sumptuous performances of five personal favorites: Pinky, poignant theme from a 1949 drama that starred Jeanne Crain; Anastasia, regal, Old World refrain form the film which brought Ingrid Bergman back to the American cinema; The Pleasure Of His Company, debonair air from 1961's sophisticated comedy hit starring Fred Astaire; The Moon Of Manakoora, exotic ballad from Samuel Goldwyn's South Sea island epic, "The Hurricane"; and Catana,  sensuous evocation of Old Spain from the swashbuckling historical romance "Captain From Castile."

Each dramatically illustrates Alfred Newman's uncanny feeling for period, locale and character, and his stunning gift for transmuting these diverse elements into beguiling, original and unforgettable melodies.

In addition, Newman conducts seven memorable themes by distinguished fellow composers. David Raskin is represented by his enduring lovely Laura and The Bad And The Beautiful; Bronislau Kaper by Invitation; Frank Skinner by Back Street (the 1961 version starring Susan Hayward); and Dorothy Squires by Tammy, Tell Me True. Newman's brother Lionel contributed Again, the popular song hit from a 1948 melodrama, "Road House". And from Newman's Academy Award-winning score for Love Is A Many Splendored Thing comes the Oscar-winning titled song by Paul Francis Webster and Sammy Fain. 

Here are the twelve richly orchestrated themes – each a thing of imperishable beauty, each illuminated by the lavish interpretative gifts of Alfred Newman, master musician who has made an unsurpassed contribution to a unique art form; the motion picture score.

Laura (Arrangement and alto sax solo by Benny Carter)
Cantan from "Captain From Castle" (Arranged by Bernie Mayers/Oboe d' Amore solo by Gordon Pope)
Invitation (Arranged by Jack Marshall/Flute solo by Justin Gordon)
Tammy, Tell Me True (Arrangement and guitar solo by Jack Marshall/Harmonica solo by George Fields)
Again from "Road House" (Arranged by Milt Raskin/Tenor sax solo by Babe Russin)
Love Is A Many Splendored Thing (Arranged by Bernie Mayers/Tombone solo by Dick Nash)
The Bad And The Beautiful (Arrangement and alto sax solo by Benny Carter)
Anastasia (Arrangement by Bernie Meyers/Vocal solo by Louie Jean Norman)
The Pleasure Of His Company (Arranged by Herb Spencer/Trombone solo by Dick Nash/Piano solo by Jim Rowles)
Back Street (Arrangement by Pete King/Soprano sax solo by Russ Cheevars)
The Moon Of Manakoora from "The Hurricane" (Arrangement by Bernie Meyers/solo by trombone section)
Pinky (Arrangement by Benny Carter/Tenor sax solo by Babe Russin)