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Thread: Lara's Theme

  1. #1
    Registered User Sherry Cadenhead's Avatar
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    Default Lara's Theme

    I found some really old posts for this piece and just PM'd a guy named Jacob who had offered to send someone the sheet music. His last post was in 2014, so I'm not hopeful.

    Martin, John, and others, would love to hear you play this. And, if you have the music, please post it If you can. If not, I'll see if I can find it.

  2. #2
    Registered User DavidKOS's Avatar
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    Default Re: Lara's Theme

    Here you are, Sherry.

    This is fun to play on mandolin or balalaika:

    Click image for larger version. 

Name:	238401172-Lara-s-Theme-From-Doctor-Zhivago-pdf copy.pdf 
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Name:	280845909-Lara-s-Theme copy.pdf 
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    As far as playing it, my big moment was when I got to be the mandolin soloist with the New Orleans Summer Pops in the late 70's for a performance of "Lara's Theme".

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  4. #3
    Registered User Martin Jonas's Avatar
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    Default Re: Lara's Theme

    I made this recording a couple of years ago -- this is the arrangement we use with our group. Two mandolins and tenor guitar.



    1890s Umberto Ceccherini mandolin
    1915 Luigi Embergher mandolin
    Ozark tenor guitar

    Martin

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  6. #4
    Registered User Sherry Cadenhead's Avatar
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    Default Re: Lara's Theme

    Thanks, David. Is that video with the NOSP available? Martin, haven't had a chance to listen to your version yet, but it's on my to-do list!

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  8. #5
    Registered User Rodney Riley's Avatar
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    Default Re: Lara's Theme

    One of the first shows I took my wife to when first started dating. Probably the main reason I love the Mandolin. Laura’s theme and Maggie May

  9. #6
    Joe B mandopops's Avatar
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    Default Re: Lara's Theme

    This used to be in my standard repertoire from my early strolling Mandolinist days. I might have learned the main theme from Jethro. I think later in one of the Mandolin trios, we would play both parts.I would play it with the 6/8 or straight waltz feel. Great tremolo tune, easy to dress up with double stops like in David’s arrangement. Hard to resist schmalzing it up. Don’t know if Apollon recorded it, but it would have been likely he would have played it.
    Joe B

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  11. #7
    Registered User DavidKOS's Avatar
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    Default Re: Lara's Theme

    Quote Originally Posted by Sherry Cadenhead View Post
    Thanks, David. Is that video with the NOSP available? Martin, haven't had a chance to listen to your version yet, but it's on my to-do list!
    I don't think I even have a program from that night, I wish I did.

    Quote Originally Posted by mandopops View Post
    Don’t know if Apollon recorded it, but it would have been likely he would have played it.
    Joe B
    I don't think Apollon recorded it....it would have been great.

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    Innocent Bystander JeffD's Avatar
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    Default Re: Lara's Theme

    Thanks for the music Dave. Its a good piece to have when your aunt introduces you to her Mahjong club as "the mandolin player".
    A talent for trivializin' the momentous and complicatin' the obvious.

    The entire staff
    funny....

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  14. #9
    Registered User Martin Jonas's Avatar
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    Default Re: Lara's Theme

    Quote Originally Posted by DavidKOS View Post
    Here you are, Sherry.

    This is fun to play on mandolin or balalaika:
    Thanks, Dave. I'm a bit confused by the rhythm in the first leadsheet you have posted -- I haven't seen the tune notated in cut-time before and I'm not sure that it's helpful to the accompanist to write it like this. Our version is in 6/8 with the guitar playing a fairly fast strummed triplet rhythm for most of the tune.

    Sherry: send me a PM with your email address if you're interested in the score we use.

    Martin

  15. #10
    Registered User DavidKOS's Avatar
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    Default Re: Lara's Theme

    Quote Originally Posted by Martin Jonas View Post
    Thanks, Dave. I'm a bit confused by the rhythm in the first leadsheet you have posted -- I haven't seen the tune notated in cut-time before and I'm not sure that it's helpful to the accompanist to write it like this. Our version is in 6/8 with the guitar playing a fairly fast strummed triplet rhythm for most of the tune.
    Martin, it's just how the most common printed piano versions were originally printed - in 4/4 but lots of use of triplets. That follows the older piano right-hand pretty well. The left-hand version matched the older piano version - the right hand IS the new piano version and it was been re-worked into 6/8. "Somewhere My Love" was a common alternate title.

    Frankly, the version I first played on gigs was written in 3/4 as a waltz!

    Treating it as 6/8 would work well - as would rewriting it in 12/8.

    As long as the feel is triple meter, it doesn't matter how it is notated, except some versions would be easier to read.

    I honestly do not recall how they wrote it in the Jarre arrangement the pops orchestra used, as it was about 1977-8 or so.

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  17. #11
    Registered User Sherry Cadenhead's Avatar
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    Default Re: Lara's Theme

    Quote Originally Posted by Martin Jonas View Post
    I made this recording a couple of years ago -- this is the arrangement we use with our group. Two mandolins and tenor guitar.



    1890s Umberto Ceccherini mandolin
    1915 Luigi Embergher mandolin
    Ozark tenor guitar

    Martin
    I enjoyed this, Martin, and am anxious to try your version and David's.

    Dr Zhivago is the only movie I've seen as much as 5 times.

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  19. #12
    Registered User Russ Jordan's Avatar
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    Default Re: Lara's Theme

    I always loved hearing Red Rector play Lara's Theme. Here he is with Jethro Burns on guitar:

    Russ Jordan

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    Default Re: Lara's Theme

    Just thought you should know that Leonard Davis is the balalaika player on the soundtrack of Dr. Zhivago playing "Lara's Theme". I played in the Balalaika and Domra Society of New York under Leonard's direction. He was just elected to the Balalaika and Domra Association of America's Hall of Fame. He is over 90 and still playing!
    David Herman

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  23. #14
    Registered User DavidKOS's Avatar
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    Default Re: Lara's Theme

    Quote Originally Posted by domradave View Post
    Just thought you should know that Leonard Davis is the balalaika player on the soundtrack of Dr. Zhivago playing "Lara's Theme". I played in the Balalaika and Domra Society of New York under Leonard's direction. He was just elected to the Balalaika and Domra Association of America's Hall of Fame. He is over 90 and still playing!
    Was he part of the group they found at an Orthodox church?

  24. #15
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    Default Re: Lara's Theme

    This article claims that Edgar Stanistreet of Philadelphia was the uncredited balalaika player on the Dr Zhivago soundtrack.

    http://dbut.net/edgar/pages/allfrets.htm

    Obviously, more research is needed.

    Mark
    Mark Lynch

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  26. #16
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    Default Re: Lara's Theme

    Quote Originally Posted by MarkELynch View Post
    This article claims that Edgar Stanistreet of Philadelphia was the uncredited balalaika player on the Dr Zhivago soundtrack.

    http://dbut.net/edgar/pages/allfrets.htm

    Obviously, more research is needed.

    Mark
    Leonard Davis had many stories about being with Maurice Jarre who wrote "Lara's Theme".
    One funny story which I can't remember was about Jarre's wife! We even did a concert where we paid tribute to the arranger of the balalaika music in the film, Al Rikke.
    David Herman

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  28. #17
    Sheri Mignano Crawford Mandophile's Avatar
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    Default Re: Lara's Theme

    just thought I'd throw mine into the pot. The original score is composed in 4, probably more like a fox trot but most people play it as a waltz. I've attached both of my arrangements. The version in 4 has an M1 part and an arpeggio-style Guitar accompaniment. The version as a waltz, is really just a lead sheet for M1 with chord symbols. Both arrangements are in G major with the bridge in g minor.
    Attached Thumbnails Attached Thumbnails Lara's Theme - waltz_G.pdf   Lara's_Theme_in_4_M1_G.pdf  

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  30. #18
    Registered User DavidKOS's Avatar
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    Default Re: Lara's Theme

    Quote Originally Posted by Mandophile View Post
    just thought I'd throw mine into the pot. The original score is composed in 4, probably more like a fox trot but most people play it as a waltz. I've attached both of my arrangements. The version in 4 has an M1 part and an arpeggio-style Guitar accompaniment. The version as a waltz, is really just a lead sheet for M1 with chord symbols. Both arrangements are in G major with the bridge in g minor.
    Again, it's that 4/4 version with almost constant triplet 8th's that give it that "waltz" effect.
    Thanks.

  31. #19
    Sheri Mignano Crawford Mandophile's Avatar
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    Default Re: Lara's Theme

    yes, the triplets deceptively entice the performer to think it's 1-2-3. sure you can pull it off that way but you're not acknowledging the composer's intention. so many poorly performed versions out there...I strong urge musicians to listen to the authentic movie score so that you're not misled into thinking you've nailed it as a waltz.

    So, you may ask, why did I upload two versions? 'Cuz I found that many musicians have a terrible time playing it in 4 due to exclusively relying on their ear. That's the sad state of affairs. When people opt to use TAB! (Grrrrrr) or simply refuse to learn musical notation, well, you end up with hack jobs! Sorry to be so blunt here.
    Last edited by Mandophile; Apr-10-2018 at 11:12am. Reason: it's always something...

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  33. #20
    Registered User DavidKOS's Avatar
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    Default Re: Lara's Theme

    Quote Originally Posted by Mandophile View Post
    yes, the triplets deceptively entice the performer to think it's 1-2-3. sure you can pull it off that way but you're not acknowledging the composer's intention. so many poorly performed versions out there...I strong urge musicians to listen to the authentic movie score so that you're not misled into thinking you've nailed it as a waltz.
    Sad to say, I first learned the tune in a wedding band and the arrangement was in 3/4 and played as a dreary waltz.

    It was only after I saw the movie and heard the soundtrack that I learned how the tune really goes!

    Quote Originally Posted by Mandophile View Post
    So, you may ask, why did I upload two versions? 'Cuz I found that many musicians have a terrible time playing it in 4 due to exclusively relying on their ear. That's the sad state of affairs. When people opt to use TAB! (Grrrrrr) or simply refuse to learn musical notation, well, you end up with hack jobs! Sorry to be so blunt here.
    I'm with you. With a vengeance.

    As far as I am concerned, the only instruments that should be in TAB are the ones from the Renaissance and Baroque eras that were always written in TAB, like the lute, cittern, 4 course guitar, etc. - and the modern lap steel due to the various tunings involved.

    But I still prefer to read staff notation on all of them (well, maybe not lute).

    For a mandolinist, only using TAB is a crutch and a not very good one, as there is so much more rich material from the mandolin's long tradition that is only available in staff notation.

    If it's Old-time or BG music, you learn by ear. If it's Italian folk music, or jazz, or Klezmer, etc., you learn by ear and sheet music. For classical music, you NEED to read music.

    Besides, in my over 40 years of gigging, I have never been handed a sheet of TAB at a rehearsal, only score.

    Stop being lazy, mandolin world, learn to read music!

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