Re: GG: Slaughterhouse 5

[Arin Murphy <la_murph@alcor.concordia.ca>]

Salutations, Tim:

Gould actually served as the musical  director for the movie - by the 
way, was it any good?

Interestingly enough, Gould didn't like Vonnegut's book - or the resultant
film. He said, `I find it difficult to comment objectively on this
picture. Since I worked on it with so many of these remarkable craftsmen,
and tailored my own contribution to match a concept of cinema with which I
really cannot agree, my admiration for it as a technical achievement
remains undiminished, but my concern about it as a fairly representative
product of contemporary American filmmaking grows apace' (Page, 442 - a
CBC commentary). 

The director wanted Gould and Bach, so he edited in Gould's recordings
originally - before they had met and without permission. He managed to get
Gould to agree to the bits that had already been used and to work on some
tough spots - did anyone notice the Concerto in D Major edited into the
Fourth Brandenburg? (Think about that for a moment - they're in different
keys!) Gould had enormous ideas about writing variations on Bach and using
it, but the director (Hill) wanted simple stuff - with clear-cut edges. No
fading in and out! 

Gould really didn't have as much control as he would have liked -
apparently he recorded the Bach on a piano and a harpsichord, and, after
not caring for a while, suddenly expressed a strong preference for the
latter - which Hill ignored, and used the piano recordings.  (Gould was the
*musical* director - you don't *do* that to a musical director!)

Things got worse - when Gould was recording with the NY Philharmonic, the
film tracker was off, so the music wasn't synchronised with the film and
had to be done over again. Well, Hill gave Gould all the credit anyway,
which Gould felt was his due after all the muck he'd put up with. In fact,
as you pointed out, the film gives *all* the credit to Gould. (Bach? Did
he work on this film?:)) Apparently, or so a NY critic says, the score 
lasted all of fifteen minutes.

Gould's Goldbergs were used in _The Terminal Man_, and he was asked to do 
the original music for Timothy Findley's _The Wars_. Of course he ended 
up collecting a lot of neat stuff instead that was familiar to the 
viewers - Brahms, Strauss and so forth. Lots of hymns. He directed the 
choral pieces and actually did compose a low string piece for it. But 
what he was best at was taking pieces of existing music and transforming 
them into something different, something almost larger than life, somehow. 
There's an amusing anecdote recounted in Friedrich's  _Life 
and Variations_ about Gould's problem with a dead horse in the movie - 
very Gould. And yes, Gould liked the book this time around!

Hope this was infomative - amusing at the very least. Sorry I can't tell 
you what instrument that was in _SH5_.

Arin Murphy
Concordia University, Montreal
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The absolute requirements of literary labour not unfrequently compel an 
irregular distribution of time, and with it irregular social and moral 
habits. (J.W. Kaye)