IHS E-Newsletter January 2016

This month, we have the pleasure of presenting a double-interview issue, inspired by the Star Wars mania taking over the world. Both our featured subjects have illustrious activities outside of their studio work, making it fascinating to see how they do it all. Terry Johns is a prolific writer as well as distinguished horn player - you will be amazed at all he has seen and done in his decades-long career in the UK. Australian-born Andrew Bain, the fearless co-host of our most recent symposium as well as principal horn in the LA Philharmonic, has just led the horn section in the latest Star Wars adventure. Read on and learn what it was like to be a part of it! (May the Force be with you, of course) :-) -KMT

Kristina Mascher-Turner: Terry, during your illustrious career at the heart of the London horn scene, you have played on numerous movie soundtracks. Which scores stand out for you?

Terry Johns: The sixties was an amazing decade for music in Britain. The Beatles conquered America in 1964 and every international conductor wanted to have a London Orchestra. Andre Previn came to the London Symphony Orchestra in 1968, he brought “classical” music to a vast new audience with his TV series “Andre Previn’s Music Night ” and many American film composers were coming to London to work in the studios at Denham and Shepperton. Though I didn’t know it at the time, I was very fortunate to have been a part of all this, having left the Royal Academy in 1965 and joined the Royal Philharmonic.

The first film sessions I was invited to were at Shepperton studios for “The Blue Max” – they began a few days before my 22nd birthday in April 1966 and it wasn’t solely because of the occasion that it stayed in my memory. I’ve listened to the sound track again recently. Jerry Goldsmith’s score is brilliant and the horn writing terrific. I think it’s one of the best things JG ever did, and I found out later that he thought so too. The music has been performed quite a bit in the concert hall I believe but the film is hardly ever seen on TV now. I’m sure I don’t know why. It’s a terrific film with a great cast – George Peppard, Ursula Andress and James Mason – and a powerful story about a German fighter pilot on the western front during world war one. For the record, the horns were Alan Civil, Jim Brown Jim Buck (jnr) and yours truly.

I do remember being amazed by the sound and the sight of the orchestra assembled for the film “Oliver” that was released in 1968. It was, by necessity a mixture of jazz, light music and orchestral players in large numbers not often seen in a studio, even in the London of the sixties. The great John Green conducted all the sessions, winning an Oscar for his “ best musical adaptation score” of Lionel Bart’s music.

Kristina Mascher-Turner: The first question on everyone’s mind is, how long did it take you to recover from hosting #IHSLA2015?

Andrew Bain: I think I'm still recovering! It was such a wonderful week that I've been living off the memories for quite a while. Thank you to everyone who came to LA for the event.

KMT: In addition to your playing duties in the Los Angeles Philharmonic, you’ve been an active Hollywood studio musician. What are the most memorable movie soundtracks you’ve recorded?

AB: Well... Star Wars was AMAZING! I also really enjoyed the Good Dinosaur, Creed and Rwanda and Juliet which were recorded over the Summer. Other's that come to mind are Godzilla, Minions and Night at The Museum 3 which were all fun and terrific music.


KMT: You’ve recently played on the soundtrack to Star Wars: The Force Awakens. How does it feel to be involved with such a legendary project?

AB: It was honestly a dream come true to work with John Williams and play this incredible score. As horn players we grow up listening to John Williams' music and the Star Wars soundtracks. It was a thrill each day to go to the studio to record The Force Awakens. I still can't believe I was lucky enough to be involved.

KMT: How far in advance did the musicians receive the music?

AB: The recording took place over a number of months and many sessions so we received the music to each session 3-5 days prior to the recording date.


KMT: Start to finish, how long did it take to record the whole soundtrack? How many hours did you spend in each session?

AB: The whole project was from June to mid-November which is quite unusual for a film recording. I'm not sure of the exact number but I think we recorded over 20 and 30 sessions of 3 hours’ duration. Sessions were usually grouped in 2 per day and 2-3 days at a time.

Here is my photo of Maestro Richard Watkins, on April 2nd, 2012 at Abbey Road Studio One, having just recorded the music at the start of Prometheus.

The session started at 10:00am with a HUGE orchestra and a new pile of music by Harry Gregson-Williams, who was also conducting. Everyone was sightreading and Richard had just arrived and taken off his coat (so, no warm-up). I was sitting next to him.

Right at the very the start of the session Harry said,"Hey, Richard, there's some horn solo stuff in this. Shall we do it first to get it out of the way?

"Okay, sure", said Richard.

Richard played it perfectly first time. It's not often that a studio orchestra breaks into applause, but they certainly did that day.

Harry and the technicians could find no fault with Richard's solos but asked for them all again, anyway, I suppose just so they could make sure they hadn't misheard. Richard played it all again - and then again - all perfect, with rapturous applause after each recording.

As I had my camera with me I thought it important to record this historical event.
....not that this was anything particularly special for Richard. He seems to do that kind of thing most days...

 東京交響楽団首席ホルン奏者

Engish version Jonathan Hammill - the Tokyo recording studios

東京在住のプロフェッショナルミュージシャンとしての醍醐味は、幅広いスタジオレコーディングの機会に巡り逢えることです。日本では、メジャー映画、ビデオゲームサウンドトラック、コマーシャル、ジングル、Jポップの大半は東京でレコーディングされます。日本が世界に誇れるもう一つのエンタテインメントのカタチ。それは「アニメ」と称されるアニメーション映画で、日本では大人気です。毎年製作されるアニメの数は、東京在住のミュージシャンに多くのレコーディング機会を与えてくれます。映画、テレビ特番、連続ドラマ、DVDシリーズ、子供のためのアニメ、大人のためのアニメ、ありとあらゆるアニメが製作されています。私は幸運にも2004年以降、子供に限らず世代を超えて大人気のアニメ、「ドラえもん」のファーストホルンを全て担当しています。作曲家沢田完氏による楽曲は楽しく、まるでハリウッド映画のような、壮大で、早くて激しく、荘厳華麗なホルンソロパートが散りばめられているところは大好きです。

大人向けアニメ「TIGER&BUNNY」や「神撃のバハムート」の音楽担当池頼広氏もまた素晴らしいスコアを書かれる作曲家です。ぬいぐるみのようなふわふわのタイトルとは裏腹に、「TIGER&BUNNY」の力強い楽曲に向かうには、相当な体力を要します。「神撃のバハムート」についてはとにかく吹きっぱなしで、ホルンのあらゆる可能性を追求されます。このアニメ2作品は圧倒的な人気でしたので、レコーディングはもちろんですが、それぞれについてコンサートを3度もやりました。大きなコンサートホールで開催されたコンサートは、完売でした。熱狂的なファンの皆さんは、大好きなアニメキャラクターのコスプレをして来場し、映画のクレジット等で私たちの名前をチェックしてくれたのでしょうか、終演後は楽屋口で、時折名指しで演奏家の私たちを目当てにサインを求めて来ます。