Between 1902 and 1904, French film director Georges Melies made Le Voyage Dans La Lune, the world’s first science fiction film. In this CD + DVD project, composer/conductor Robert Ian Winstin has asked four different composers including himself, “Professor Louie Hurwitz, James Guymon and Don Myers to each write their own original soundtracks for this film. The result is four soundtracks that couldn’t be more different - and more effective.
“The key is to create a situation where the director sees his film coming together the way he envisioned it as your piece of the puzzle is put in - that’s how you get a pass-off for a cue….So the process of scoring a film should be the process of breathing life into it.”
- James Guymon
It’s the night before Christmas and Gabe Snow, a tabloid writer haunted by the Ghosts of Christmas past, is investigating a Yule Tide conspiracy. Gabe knows that Flight 1225 was brought down one foggy Christmas Eve, by a flying creature with a “glowing nose”. Now, a bloodsucking Vampire - Santa Claus - has put Gabe on his list and unleashed the demonic fury of the North Pole. An army of zombie elves, who have no interest in Toys or pointy hats or dentistry, are about to turn Gabe’s white Christmas blood red…
On October 28, ERM Media released the Original Motion Picture Soundtrack to Two Front Teeth with a score composed, orchestrated and conducted by James Guymon. Two Front Teeth, released in October of 2007 has enjoyed critical success at many festivals including Horrorfest UK, Spooky Movie Film Festival, and the Utopia Film Festival and has had feature showings at the Seattle True Independent Film Festival. Written by Jamie Nash (Altered and Seventh Moon) and co-directed and co-produced by Nash and David Sckrabulis, Two Front Teeth is destined to become a horror cult classic.
James Guymon is an award-winning composer for film and the concert stage. He studied composition with Robert Ian Winstin, New Mexican composer Michael Mauldin, and commercial composer Ben Carson. Guymon’s first film of critical acclaim was Jacques Thelemaque’s Transaction (2005), which won the prestigious Grand Prix du Jury Prize at the 2006 Clermont-Ferrand Short Film Festival in the experimental category. This was the first time an American film had ever won the top prize in the experimental category, and the first time in ten years an American Film had won either of the two Grand Prix du Jury Awards. Transaction was also an official selection of the 2005 Sundance Film Festival, London Film Festival, Los Angeles International Film Festival, Santa Fe Film Festival, and a BAFTA award winner at the Mill Valley Film Festival.
On June 24, Naxos of America, Inc. begins distribution of ERM Media, the record label of conductor-composer Robert Ian Winstin. Based in the Chicago suburban area and now celebrating its 25th year, ERM Media is devoted to recordings of music by living composers. The label is also known for its many series, which include the 18-volume Masterworks of the New Era; Holidays of the New Era; the Prestige Series (which features one composer per disc and is now in its third volume); and the upcoming Millienium Project: Made in the Americas series.
In addition to his work as a composer, Mr. Winstin is the principal guest conductor and composer-in-residence of the Kiev Philharmonic, recording conductor of the Prague Radio Symphony, and music director and founder of the Millennium Symphony.
The Taliban Dances are extra-musical comments on society, war, and death. They are full of life, devastating in their sadness, surprisingly humorous, and starkly serious. They are both Eastern and Western; composed for violin and orchestra, The Taliban Dances are loosely based on several authentic Arabic scales and modal rhythmic structures, gradually replaced by traditional Western-style harmonies and rhythmic structures.
The work begins with a violin cadenza-a “Call for Prayer,” which is intended to be a ‘prayer’ for all nations, East and West. This cadenza, used as the opening for both the first movement and the finale, serves to unite the work.
The first movement, which represents hope and youthful love, sets the tone for the piece. This movement, the most “Arabic”-sounding of the five, leads to the first of the two haunting lullabies. In the lullabies, movements two and four, Winstin uses many of the same themes with different textures, consistently returning to a more grounded, rhythmic texture. (In the second of the two lullabies, movement four, the textures are more aggressive-literally a musical fight between two cultures.)
Sandwiched between the lullabies is the humorous “Baghdad Bossa Nova” (movement three), complete with an atonal dance section which owes its structure to the more famous Bossa Novas of the early ‘60s and ‘70s, and, indeed, parodies them. It is a poignantly humorous look at war, featuring a surprising descending slide whistle (”incoming!”) and the popping of balloons to signify the dropping of bombs. It is an artistic statement on the absurdity of war.
After the repeated “Call for Prayer,” the Taliban Dances end with a fiendishly difficult solo violin line which whirls its way-in ever-increasing tempi-towards the climax by way of a nursery rhyme, a cacophonous “Dies Irae” (‘Song of Death’) quote and “Dixie.”
Masterworks of the New Era is the 12th volume in the landmark, award-winning series devoted to the music of living composers worldwide. This four-CD set includes new music by Abbott, Bagdazian, Barmor Rose, Bilotta, Blumhofer, Brickman, Clark, Constantinides, Dal Porto, Evans, Field, Garber, Gottschalk, Guthrie, He, Jones, Korneitchouk, McMullin, Olac, Powers, Rudenstein, Sartor, Schroeter, Timpson, Stadig, Walczyk, Winsor, Worthington, and Wylegala.
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Between 1902 and 1904, French film director Georges Melies made Le Voyage Dans La Lune, the world’s first science fiction film. In this CD + DVD project, composer/conductor Robert Ian Winstin has asked four different composers including himself, “Professor Louie Hurwitz, James Guymon and Don Myers to each write their own original soundtracks for this film. The result is four soundtracks that couldn’t be more different - and more effective.
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