The Day the Earth Stood Still
Label: Fox Records
Catalogue No: 07822-11010-2
Release Date: 8-Nov-1993
Total Duration: 35:33
UPN: 0-7822-11010-2-8
The fifth release in Fox Records’ commendable first set of “Classic Series” soundtrack restorations is one of Bernard Herrmann's best scores. The first composer’s outright science fiction score, this 1951 cautionary tale contained the first electronic science fiction score of the decade, and one that remains to this day a landmark of genre film music. As Hermann's biographer explains in the CD booklet, “The result was a scoring milestone that anticipated the era of electronic music with its unheard-of instrumentation for electric violin, electric bass, two high and low electric theremins, four pianos, four harps, and what Herrmann called a very strange section of about 30-odd brass.”
Herrmann's music underlines the film’s sense of otherworldly strangeness. Despite the ordinariness of much of the film's scenes, the impressionistic music literally wraps the film in claustrophobic sense of the bizarre and unsettling. The film has no real themes, instead built around the kind of two-note chord progressions that characterized Herrmann’s suspense and science fiction music. The high-powered tone of dual theremins give these plodding chords a tremendous power and an eerie, extraterrestrial undulation. The fast-paced piano motif of “Radar” embellishes the urgent bustle of the military radar room that first glimpses the approaching spacecraft. The cavernous groans accompanying the appearances of Gort, the robot, echo deeply with the same two-note progressions, punctuated by irregular drum beats, low-end piano and the hypnotic, wavering trill of the theremin. The score's only light moments occur during the scenes at Arlington Cemetery and the Lincoln Memorial, where Herrmann pauses for quiet horns over organ, respectful yet sorrowful.
Seven cues re-recorded by Herrmann for his London Phase-4 collection, The Mysterious Film World of Bernard Herrmann were the only excerpts from the film previously available. With this CD, producer Nick Redman delved into the 20th Century Fox vaults to unveil the original soundtrack recording, including one cue never used in the film, ”Solar Diamonds”, meant to accompany the jewels Klaatu presents to Billy, a quiet glittering arrangement of the predominant two-note choral motif.
Fox Records’ Classic Series is probably the best thing to happen to vintage film music since RCA's Classic Film Score Series. THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL, one of the most sought-after Hermann scores, is splendidly preserved on CD. The sound quality of the 40-year old tapes is outstanding. Liner notes by Steven Smith and Jon Burlingame provide back ground data on the composer and the film.
Randall D. Larson – Originally published in Soundtrack Magazine Vol. 13 / No. 49 / 1994
