Fantasy Projects For Carl Davis

I was listening to the new Carl Davis soundtrack CD and it got me to
thinking. His re-recording of the "City Lights" score is so powerful on
my surround sound stereo that it is now my favorite Chaplin film. It's
the way it should have sounded (and the way Chaplin heard it) back in
1931, unfortunetly, the sound technology wasn't availible to capture
it's true essance. It feels like a completely NEW film and at times
adds even more emotion to an already powerfully emotional film.

We are all aware of the fantastic 1925 version of "The Gold Rush"
located in the M2K DVD set. It's about the best version of the original
edition that we are ever going to see. It's soundtrack is pretty great
too, but I think Charlie's 1942 score IS superior. Would Carl Davis
ever consider recording a new soundtrack for "The Gold Rush" using
Chaplin's melodies from the 1942 version (without narration of course)?
How about re-recording the "Modern Times" soundtrack for DVD release?
How AMAZING would that sound in digital stereo?

I think all the other films that Chaplin recorded scores to still hold
up today, as most of them were recorded in the 1970's (The Kid, The
Circus..etc), but "Modern Times" and "The Gold Rush" could most
certainly use the update that Davis gave to "City Lights".

Thoughts?

wrote in message

>I was listening to the new Carl Davis soundtrack CD and it got me to
> thinking. His re-recording of the "City Lights" score is so powerful on
> my surround sound stereo that it is now my favorite Chaplin film. It's
> the way it should have sounded (and the way Chaplin heard it) back in
> 1931, unfortunetly, the sound technology wasn't availible to capture
> it's true essance. It feels like a completely NEW film and at times
> adds even more emotion to an already powerfully emotional film.
>

There have been many discussions on this here in the past.

> We are all aware of the fantastic 1925 version of "The Gold Rush"
> located in the M2K DVD set. It's about the best version of the original
> edition that we are ever going to see. It's soundtrack is pretty great
> too, but I think Charlie's 1942 score IS superior. Would Carl Davis
> ever consider recording a new soundtrack for "The Gold Rush" using
> Chaplin's melodies from the 1942 version (without narration of course)?

I believe he did this already, for the "live presentation" of the
restoration.

> How about re-recording the "Modern Times" soundtrack for DVD release?
> How AMAZING would that sound in digital stereo?

Davis performed this score live back in either 1999 or 2000. The sound
effects track was preserved on the film but the music was performed live. It
toured in the United States in a number of major cities but I was never able
to see it so I can't comment on it. Davis' conducting of the new score was
never recorded as far as I know, although I believe he did record selected
tracks at an earlier date as part of a Chaplin score compilation album.

>
> I think all the other films that Chaplin recorded scores to still hold
> up today, as most of them were recorded in the 1970's (The Kid, The
> Circus..etc), but "Modern Times" and "The Gold Rush" could most
> certainly use the update that Davis gave to "City Lights".
>
> Thoughts?
>

I was hoping that for the DVD releases through Image, since they had to
re-work the soundtracks from the original elements a bit, that they could
have used the original stereo recordings before they were mixed down to mono
to go out to theatres (assuming, that is, that they would have been
originally recorded in stereo). But yes, the DVD soundtracks are a vast
improvement over the VHS.

The question is whether or not re-recording the scores that have served the
films so well for so many years just to suit our tastes 60-70 years later
should be done at all, and if so, under what conditions?
--
Matt Barry
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