["'Victory at Sea' (1952) - Suite - Richard Rodgers (musical recording)"]
By RM
saturday, august 16, 2025 at 9:50:00 p.m. edt
I've always felt the person really responsible for the unique quality of the Victory at Sea score was the arranger/conductor, Robert Russell Bennett. The orchestration is marked by unusual arrangements with haunting passages and hard-driving rhythms, and doesn't seem like the work of someone whose background is musical comedy/romance! Possibly Rodgers sketched out some melodies, which Bennett fleshed out into something original and amazing.
The original soundtrack was never released, only re-arranged "suites," as in this instance. The music tracks probably still exist in their original form, since the episodes were remixed for home video (and TV), with the narration dialed down to a whisper, and the music blasting!
-RM
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1 comment:
Seems I hit the nail on the noggin-
"Richard Rodgers contributed twelve basic themes for the series..." And Mr. Bennett turned them into music.
The whole story is amazing:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Russell_Bennett
He contributed to the work (and reputation) of a lot of famous composers- the guy was a genius!
His name is on at least one movie as composer, PACIFIC LINER (39). It's RKO, so it probably runs on TCM once in a while. I should watch it again!
-RM
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