STORY ON PAGE ONE, The/ REWARD, The

RE-ISSSUE OF INTRADA Special Collection LIMITED RELEASES. Official CD-R release.
The world premier release of two original motion picture soundtracks by one of the greatest legends in the business.
The Story on Page One and The Reward offer two distinct sides of Elmer Bernstein. The two scores are night and day, apples and oranges. Yet despite the musical gulf that separates them, they’re not without ties. Unmistakably, they’re written by the same composer. Both are sparse, economical. Both illuminate characteristic solo writing that highlights so much of Bernstein’s work. In both scores, solo flute appears, outlined with just a touch of percussion. Together, these scores showcase different facets of one of the greatest American voices in music.
The Story on Page One is scored for full orchestra. Opening the score is a powerful main title, one of the composer’s most dynamic. Twin pianos and percussion are forceful highlights. Two thematic ideas recur throughout the score; interestingly, both are drawn from the same motivic germ. The first consists of three notes characterized by a wide rising leap, which blossoms into the primary love theme. It’s a melody full of yearning, of passion in the shadows, of illicit love that strives to be. The same three notes held over rich major chords form the second important idea. This one represents a world of lawyers and courthouses, the other facet of this stark, realistic drama.
The Reward is primarily scored for guitars and flute with a few woodwinds, cellos and basses filling out the orchestral palette. Bernstein composed a handful of brief cues to suggest a desert locale, where, in such grim, dry surroundings, ideas are sparse and people are at their greediest. A scale-like guitar motif identifies the desert, as a handful of percussive figures pick at the landscape. Still, trademarks of the composer do appear, particularly in a sliding cello motif first heard during THE GRAVE and in the distinctive minor to major guitar chords of THE BODY.
*Excerpt from INTRADA HP.

Story On Page One
01. Main Title / Freeway 3:00
02. Bad News 1:00
03. Maybe Violets 2:15
04. Jo’s Indifference 1:31
05. Night Rendezvous 3:26
06. Justice 0:18
07. Londonderry Air / The Letter 0:49
08. Memory Charred 1:40
09. Waiting 0:19
10. End Title (Some Damage) 2:11

Bonus Tracks
11. Cafe Juke Box: The Best Of Everything (Alfred Newman) 2:21
12. Cafe Organ: Temptation (Nacio Herb Brown) 2:11

The Reward
13. Lopez / In the Desert / The Grave 4:26
14. The Desert / The Camp / Ruins of Hacienda 2:32
15. Joaquin Plays Flute - Parts I & II 1:33
16. Song for The Reward 1:28
17. The Body / Lopez Goes After Horse 2:29
18. End Title and Cast 0:48

Bonus Tracks (Stereo)
19. Recorder no.1 - 3 2:31
20. Piccolo no.1 - 3 2:41

Bonus Tracks (Mono)
21. Main Title 2:57