CHILD’S PLAY/FIRST BORN – Composed and Conducted by Michael Small

Premiere release of original soundtracks by Michael Small to pair of dramatic Paramount films. First up is intense, pulsating 1972 score from Sidney Lumet thriller Child’s Play, starring James Mason, Robert Preston, Beau Bridges. Tale of gym teacher at Catholic boy’s school at odds with other staff, finding himself amidst culture of violence, mysterious happenings inspires composer to create unassuming choral theme to anchor. As listener heads down quasi-religious path, composer then turns everything upside down with slashing, dissonant music for strings that unsettles, tears at the soul. Both styles of music compete throughout with edge going to aggressive, dissonant material. Second score plays under 1984 dramatics of First Born, directed by Michael Apted, starring Peter Weller, Christopher Collet, Teri Garr. Young actors Sarah Jessica Parker, Robert Downey, Jr. also feature. Modest family-setting is broken into intense world of drugs, violence when Teri Garr allows boyfriend Weller to move in, disrupting lives of her two sons (Collet, Corey Haim). Small anchors with meld of hip, youth flavor of the eighties and warm piano melody, then brings in dissonant electonic ideas as true character of violent Weller character unfolds. As sons finally fight back, Small joins forces with them, brings in dynamic orchestral material for powerful finish. Interestingly, Small roots much of score in his signature thriller mode by recording orchestral music straight, then adding layer of unstable electronic shadings to keep music slightly off pitch. Unusual musical approach to drama is notable. CD also features several alternates. Both scores presented in stereo from original vault elements housed at Paramount Pictures. Michael Small conducts. Intrada Special Collection release available while quantities and interest remain!

Child’s Play (1972) is based on the play of the same name by writer Robert Marasco, concerning demonic goings-on at a Catholic boarding school for boys and was directed by Sidney Lumet. Paul Reis (Beau Bridges) returns to his Roman Catholic alma mater as the new physical education instructor and finds that things have gone horribly wrong in his absence. Young men are committing acts of depraved violence with increasing frequency and none of the priests—neither the dour Fr. Mozian (Ron Weyand), the paternal Fr. Griffin (Charles White) nor the sardonic Fr. Penny (David Rounds, reprising his stage role)—can offer a convincing explanation. 

Michael Small’s main theme is a Latin song for treble chorus with keyboard and harp accompaniment, well suited to a traditional parochial school. But this fleeting impression of holiness merely serves as a pivot into the score’s darker half, consisting of music that might have drifted up from the very pit of Hell. For the majority of the film, the violent and blasphemous doings of the boys take place either off screen or obscured by shadow. Music is allowed to be the primary signifier of dark forces at work, and to this end Small holds nothing back.

The phrase “impending evil” could easily have been used twelve years later to describe Firstborn (1984). Directed for Paramount by Michael Apted and shot in New York, it tells the story of Jake Livingston (Christopher Collet), a teenager who finds himself looking out for his mother, Wendy (Teri Garr), and younger brother, Brian (Corey Haim), following his parents’ divorce. On learning of his father’s engagement, Jake’s despondent mother hooks up with a new suitor named Sam (Peter Weller). Jake mistrusts Sam and is suspicious of the way he insinuates himself into the family with gifts and easy charm. Jake has good instincts.

Small initially plays things straight, with sensitive keyboardled writing that highlights piano and synthesizer. His blend of orchestral and electronic elements is extremely characteristic of the period and is arguably more responsible for the vibe of the picture than the source music. The music flows smoothly between major and minor, with a touch of subtle anxiety in the way Small returns to and develops repeating half-step gestures. Once Sam enters the picture— and particularly after Jake discovers the hiding place where the drugs are kept—an undercurrent of dissonance and sonic strangeness creeps into the score.

For this premiere release of both scores, Intrada presents Child’s Play from ¼” tapes in Michael Small’s collection. Most tracks come from a stereo album mock-up the composer made. All other
tracks are from monaural rolls of album outtakes. Firstborn is presented from two-track ¼” stereo mixes made at the time of the film and—for selected cues not mixed to stereo in 1984—new mixes from the 24-track 2″ multitrack masters.

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