On CD: NINE HOURS TO RAMA & THE LION - ORIGINAL FILM SOUND TRACKS

[julian_craster]

Malcolm Arnold

NINE HOURS TO RAMA and THE LION - ORIGINAL FILM SOUND TRACKS



Dutton Vocalion:



Malcolm Arnold and Orchestra

Nine Hours to Rama – Original Filmtrack Recording, conducted by the composer

ORIGINAL LP LK 4527 (1963)



Train coming into Delhi – The astrologer predicts (Arnold)

Das warns Gandhi (Arnold)

Natu’s father dies (Arnold)

Natu and Prahlad – Natu meets Rani (Arnold)

Wedding dance (Arnold)

Rani’s theme (Arnold)

Natu tells Rani of his oath (Arnold)

Indian concert (Arnold)

Malabar Hill (Rani’s theme) – The Swiss Hotel (Natu and Rani) (Arnold)

Mourning Gandhi (Arnold)

The fire (Arnold)

Indian concert – Drums (Arnold)









Malcolm Arnold and Orchestra

The Lion – Music from the film, conducted by the composer

ORIGINAL EP DFE 8507 (1962)



Opening title music (Arnold)

Tina’s theme (Love theme) (Arnold)

Running through the jungle – Drum dance – Tina at night (Arnold)

King – Dance of happiness (Arnold)

Drum messages – Death of King – Tina’s theme – End title (Arnold)



Malcolm Arnold’s score to the 1963 British film ‘Nine Days to Rama’ is heard on this Vocalion release. Arnold was an uncommonly versatile composer, who has taken his rightful place amongst the pantheon of great British composers of the 20th century. His works ranged from film scores such as this to chamber music to full-scale classical concert works to recording in the 1970s with legendary British rock band Deep Purple. Starring Horst Buchholz, José Ferrer and Robert Morley, ‘Nine Days to Rama’ depicts the life of Nathuram Godse (Horst Buchholz), the man who assassinated Mahatma Gandhi. Filmed almost entirely on location in India , Arnold ’s superb score underlines perfectly the film’s tension and drama as well as capturing India ’s mystique.



Also included is the equally rare Decca EP of selections from Arnold ’s score for the film ‘The Lion’ (1962) starring Trevor Howard, William Holden and Capucine.



Remastered from the original analogue tapes.

[cretancorrespo]

Is this the same pair of recordings as on the Artemis CD release ART-F 009 in mono, do you know?

[julian_craster]

Is this the same pair of recordings as on the Artemis CD release ART-F 009 in mono, do you know?



You could e-mail Dutton Vocalion to ask , from here :

Contact us





As the recordings date from 1962/63, I am very surprised the the original Decca master tapes are only in mono......do no stereo tapes exist ? [the ROBBERY S/T CD is in Stereo ]

[cretancorrespo]

Thanks. I've asked Dutton Vocalion and will post their reply.

[cretancorrespo]

I've now heard back from Dutton Vocalion as follows:



Many thanks for your enquiry. Our Malcolm Arnold release is officially

licensed from Decca, and is remastered from the original tapes. Only mono

tapes were available. Ours is a vast improvement on the Artemis release, in

all respects, especially in terms of sound quality.

[cretancorrespo]

I have now received the Vocalion disk (superfast dispatch) and can confirm that an amazing job has been made of the remastering process. Apart from the mono sound, it is hard to believe that the recordings date from 1962.



Comparing this release with the earlier Artemis recording, in Nine Hours to Rama the Original Main Title music has been moved to the end. The Parade Ground music, a re-use of the main bagpipes theme from the earlier Tunes of Glory, is omitted as are the couple of tracks which contain speech excerpts - The Assasination of Ghandi and Nehru's speech. The talking sounded incongruous in the Artemis recording, divorced from the film itself and the new recording benefits musically from not including them. The Lion was anyway, a very good transfer in the Artemis release, so less of an improvement is apparent in this work.



Two quibbles. Although, as stated, the Vocalion disk is mono, no reference to this is made on the sleeve. One naturally assumes that disks are stereo unless otherwise stated and not to make this clear is a bit naughty. The two works represented were composed close together and are musically related. Both rely heavily on drumming motifs, Indian in Rama and African in The Lion which do neither work any favours when the disk is played through. Better had another dissimilar coupling been available.



These are only quibbles though and it's great to have both these idiomatic and important Arnold scores in the mainstream catalogue. Recommended.

[darrenburnfan]

Re: The Lion (1962). I have the Decca soundtrack EP, DFE 8507 and an Australian Decca pressing of the 1962 soundtrack LP, which states on the labels that it is a Decca UK recording. But I have never come across the UK pressing of this LP in all my many years of collecting, nor even an image of the picture sleeve. Does anyone know if it ever existed and if so, what the catalogue number was? The fact that a soundtrack EP was released with extracts from the score would seem to suggest that there was an LP from which the tracks were taken. But was there?