East Of Eden film music

  1. Martin Jonas
    Martin Jonas
    Leonard Rosenman (1924-2008): East Of Eden (Main Theme)

    This is the main theme from the soundtrack of the 1955 movie "East Of Eden" with James Dean and Julie Harris. My recording is based on an arrangement for mandolin orchestra from the now-defunct Nakano site. I've played all instruments, multi-tracked in Audacity.

    To get a bit of the grand cinematic sweep of the original film music, I've doubled the first mandolin. The mandocello plays both the mandocello part and the double bass part (with some of the notes lifted by an octave).

    Mandolin 1: 1890s Umberto Ceccherini
    Mandolin 2: 1915 Luigi Embergher
    Mandola: 1925 Zimmermann waldzither
    Mandocello & bass: Suzuki MC-815
    Guitar: Ozark tenor guitar



    Martin
  2. Martin Jonas
    Martin Jonas
    I first recorded this classic movie theme back in 2014. My new recording uses the same arrangement, but is I think a considerable improvement in the playing as well as the recording and balance of instruments. It's also rather faster overall and played with rubato where appropriate.

    It's a full orchestral arrangement with six parts, with the melody alternating between the first mandolin and the mandola (octave mandolin). I have chosen the OM as the lead for my recording, overdubbing the other instruments onto the video soundtrack of my OM playing.

    Leonard Rosenman (1924-2008): East Of Eden (Main Theme)

    Mandolins 1&2: 1898 Giuseppe Vinaccia mandolin
    Mandola: Mid-Missouri M-111 octave mandolin
    Mandocello & bass: Suzuki MC-815
    Guitar: Vintage Viaten tenor guitar

    As it turns out, the original theatrical trailer for "East Of Eden" is exactly the same length as my recording, so I have taken the opportunity to experiment with a Picture-in-Picture presentation -- you may want to watch this in full screen.


    https://youtu.be/WfKOsyEyqVc

    I've uploaded the score from the Nakano site here.

    Martin
  3. Jill McAuley
    Jill McAuley
    That was the business Martin! Really lovely, and also enjoyed the East of Eden trailer, haven't seen that film in years!
  4. John Kelly
    John Kelly
    Lovely presentation, Martin. The inclusion of the trailer from the film is such a fine touch.
  5. John W.
    John W.
    An interesting diversification Martin.
  6. Martin Jonas
    Martin Jonas
    Thanks, Jill and Johns W and K. This is a great piece for ensemble playing and apart from the guitar part not particularly tricky. It's been in our group repertoire since 2014, but as we don't have a proper classical guitarist any more who can read the guitar part we haven't played it much in recent years. I need to see if we can simplify the guitar to a waltz rhythm on the chord progression.

    Some trivia:

    1. This was Leonard Rosenman's very first movie score, and he got the job because he was sharing a house with James Dean (both unknowns then) who introduced him to director Elia Kazan. He went on to a long movie career, including consecutive Oscars in the 1970s for the soundtracks of "Barry Lyndon" and "Bound For Glory".

    2. The arrangement is based on a setting of Rosenman's theme which appeared on the original 1955 soundtrack album (link), recorded by Victor Young, but was not used in the film itself. The melody was used in the opening credits (and elsewhere in the film), but in a rather different setting and played quite a bit faster than Young's version on the album. My tempo is about halfway between the two.

    Martin
  7. Frithjof
    Frithjof
    A masterpiece with really balanced voices, Martin.
  8. Gelsenbury
    Gelsenbury
    What a successful experiment, Martin! Really nice.
  9. Martin Jonas
    Martin Jonas
    Thanks, Dennis and Frithjof!

    Martin
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