[78-L] Wizard of Oz in hidef

Cary Ginell soundthink at live.com
Mon Aug 10 13:35:05 PDT 2009


I'm working on a piano/vocal songbook edition of Oz that will be published next month by Alfred Music Publishing. The book will have arrangements taken directly from the piano/conductor's score from 1938, before most of the cast was set. None of the songs has ever been presented as they were performed in the movie. "Over the Rainbow," for example, reflected the sheet music edition, which was scored in a different key than what Judy Garland sang it in in the film. Plus, it included the verse, which was never used in the movie. When Garland was cast, the key for "Rainbow" had to be changed from Eb to Ab to suit her range. Also, the Munchkinland sequence will now be presented as it was in the film - as a sung-through operetta - with rhymed recitative and reprised songs. I've also included the excised "Jitterbug" number as well as Herbert Stothart's musical cues for The Wicked Witch (entitled "Miss Gulch"), Toto (taken from the opus 16, No. 2 Fantasy by Mendelssohn), and The Wizard (titled "Crystal Gazing").

 

Incidentally, the Decca 78rpm album set, which was issued in 1940, fetches hundreds of dollars on hoo-Ha, whenever it is listed. This was the only "soundtrack" version available until MGM finally took the soundtrack itself and issued on LP in 1956.

 

The full orchestral score for "Oz" and many other MGM movie musicals were lost in what is being called "The MGM Holocaust" of the late '60s, when invaluable scores were destroyed in order to "save space" in their vaults. Fortunately, Stothart's piano/vocal scores were saved and it is these that we are working from.

 

Cary Ginell 
 
> Date: Mon, 10 Aug 2009 13:35:49 -0500
> From: jsalerno at earthlink.net
> To: 78-l at klickitat.78online.com
> Subject: [78-L] Wizard of Oz in hidef
> 
> coming to a theatre near you perhaps
> 
> 9/23 only
> 
> details:
> 
> http://www.ncm.com/Fathom/Premiere/WizardofOz_Exclusive.aspx?utm_source=TCM&utm_medium=exclusiveblast&utm_campaign=WizardofOz
> 
> _______________________________________________
> 78-L mailing list
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