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Wichita Town

Added on Monday, October 22, 2018   Posted by Philippe Mouchon

Wichita Town

Disques Cinémusique release digitally the complete stereo soundtrack album to the TV series Wichita Town (1958-1959). This is one of the few original Hans J. Salter recordings that was released on vinyl record, in this case thanks to the film historian and producer Tony Thomas. Better known for his horror movie scores, sometimes co-written with Frank Skinner, Slater was actually a master of every genre. As a common practice at the beginning of his career, much of his output was used as stock music.

Disques Cinémusique release digitally the complete stereo soundtrack album to the TV series Wichita Town (1958-1959). This is one of the few original Hans J. Salter recordings that was released on vinyl record, in this case thanks to the film historian and producer Tony Thomas. Better known for his horror movie scores, sometimes co-written with Frank Skinner, Slater was actually a master of every genre. As a common practice at the beginning of his career, much of his output was used as stock music.

Excerpts from the LP album liner notes by Tony Thomas:

The job of scoring Wichita Town went to Hans J. Slater, long a master of providing music for every kind of motion picture. He had in fact scored Joel McCrea’s feature film Wichita in 1955, which doubtless had some bearing upon his being chosen fo the television series. But Salter by that time had already scored several other McCrea westerns, including Frenchie, Black Horse Canyon, The Oklahoman, Gunfight at Dodge City, and had developed a personal as well asan image rapport with the actor.

The career of Hans Salter forms a particulary interesting segment on the history of film scoring. Born in Vienna before Born in Vienna before the turn of the 20th century, he began his livelihood on music right after completing his education at the University. (…) Salter arrived in California in 1937 and managed, after much effort, to get his foot inside the doors of Universal studios. After doing a number of unofficial jobs for the head of the music department, he was out under contrat and out to work. At the time he joined Universal the studio was churning out an average of seventy pictures a year, largely inexpensive programmers but all requiring music. The composing departement consisted mostly of Salter and Frank Skinner, a handful of orchestrators, and orchestra of about thirty players and an ever insufficient budget.

Salter recalls that in his first few years at Universal he barely had a day off and thai in 1942, for example, he provided music for more than thirty films. He became a specilalist in scoring Universal’s horror pictures; most of the Frankeinstein, Dracula and Wolf Man films were hel together with Salter music. But he slso found time time to score Deanna Durbin musicals, plus sundry comedies and westerns.

It may seem somewhat ironic that a Viennese composer should become adpt at scoring westerns, until one realizes that American West, as exemplified by Hollywood, is reaaly a form of mythology and that one doesn not have to be a native to either enjoy and write about it. Like other kinds of myths, its qualities are universal in their texture and appeal. The job of the film composer is to provide settings and comment on every kind of location and human experience, and Salter feels it is not difficult to write music about the Wild west. He enjoyed this kind of film even as a youngster.It is amusing to remeber that another Viennese composer, Max Steiner, and the Russian Diitri Tiomkin also excelled in scoring westerns. Between them, these composers practically set the standards in writing music for cowboys, wagon trains and awesome landscapes.


More info at: Disques CinéMusique



 



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