Restoring Hollywood's Musical Treasures

Some of the greatest American music of the 20th century was composed for Hollywood films of the 1930s-'60s, an era now regarded as the "Golden Age" of the film industry. While many fine scores were written to provide supportive ambiance to dramatic scenes in otherwise non-musical films, Hollywood musicals showcased their many songs in opulent orchestral arrangements that featured much larger orchestras than could possibly fit in any Broadway pit. These magnificent orchestrations were created by a number of brilliant, classically-trained arrangers employed in the music departments of Hollywood’s elite studios; among the most prolific were Maurice De Packh, Edward Powell, and Herbert Spencer at 20th Century Fox; Leo Arnaud and Conrad Salinger at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer; David Raksin, who worked extensively at both Fox and M-G-M; and Ray Heindorf at Warner Brothers.

Although the superb arrangements created by these geniuses were well-served by Hollywood’s first-rate orchestras and singers, technological limitations of the 1930s and '40s allowed for the scores to be recorded only in low-fidelity monaural sound. As a result, the lush, multi-layered orchestral performance that the players would have enjoyed while recording on the scoring stage translated into a one-dimensional shadow of itself on the film soundtrack, with only a fraction of the original richness and detail ultimately heard by audiences. Furthermore, following a scoring session, the full score and instrumental parts were relegated to the studio’s music library and — in almost every case — never played again.

Tragically, many of these original film orchestrations are now lost forever, in large part due to negligence by the very studios that commissioned them. The most infamous case of wholesale film music destruction occurred at M-G-M in the late 1960s, when the sole existing copies of full score manuscripts and instrumental parts for virtually every film the studio had made up to that point — including many classic musicals — were loaded into a dumpster and deposited in a landfill. The only materials spared (for copyright purposes) were condensed piano/conductor scores that omitted massive amounts of information needed for an orchestra to actually play the music. Yet M-G-M was not the only studio cleaning house at the time: for example, although the music survival rate is generally much greater for 20th Century-Fox’s classic films, all Fox full scores and parts logged prior to July 21, 1942, were discarded, and the remaining scores rescued only by sheer luck and the dedication of one studio employee. Because of these and other purgings, it is impossible today for orchestras to perform many beloved film songs in their original (and often best) arrangements, as the music no longer exists. 

I first learned of the "M-G-M Holocaust" (as it has come to be known in film music circles) while still a child in the late 1980s. One night, my father called me to the television to watch a segment on the MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour (that can be found here at the 47:30 mark) about the Society for the Preservation of Film Music, and I was immediately delighted to hear music that was very familiar to me: both the "Main Title" and "Cyclone" cues from my favorite film, The Wizard of Oz. However, my excitement soon turned to horror when I learned that the music I loved had been needlessly thrown out by short-sighted studio bosses without regard for its tremendous musical and cultural importance — an importance that seemed abundantly obvious to a mere eight-year-old.

Today, my mission is to restore the orchestral scores to some of Hollywood's greatest films so that they can be played for audiences today and in the future. (For information about the music restoration process, please see Liner Notes.) My work has been recorded by the BBC Concert Orchestra, and performed live in concert by the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestra Pasdeloup, the Philly POPS, and the PKF-Prague Philhamonia.

In October 2021, conductor David Charles Abell and I collaborated with the BBC Concert Orchestra, the BBC Singers, and soloists Scarlett Strallen, Clare Teal, Jimmy Taylor, and special guest Michael Feinstein to record a 2-disc program of songs from 20th Century-Fox films of the 1940s-50s for the Dutton Epoch label. This comprehensive anthology features 41 restored original film arrangements, including the world premiere stereo recording of the score to Rodgers & Hammerstein’s State Fair (1945). The album was released in March 2024 and is now available!