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Buster Keaton's "The General" with 1987 Carl Davis Score
Posted: Mon Oct 13, 2014 8:26 am
by Michael Bush
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ncapCvk ... gbQLNZU_K3
The tuba is very well played in this soundtrack. Anyone know who it was, or who might know?
Re: Buster Keaton's "The General" with 1987 Carl Davis Score
Posted: Sat Oct 18, 2014 3:10 pm
by Tom
I have presented "The General" with Carl Davis' score with the orchestra I was managing at the time.
There is no tuba part. The score does call for bass trombone, but the tuba you're hearing is actually a Yamaha DX-7 with the "tuba patch." This score (like a lot of Carl Davis' silent film work) has an extensive DX-7 book. The hardest part of doing this show was finding a DX-7 with a working drive and then rounding up all of the cartridges with the sounds called for in the book, but we pulled it off.
It was a cool show.
Re: Buster Keaton's "The General" with 1987 Carl Davis Score
Posted: Sat Oct 18, 2014 3:16 pm
by UDELBR
Tom wrote:This score (like a lot of Carl Davis' silent film work) has an extensive DX-7 book.
I know his "Ben Hur" score has a monster tuba part.
Re: Buster Keaton's "The General" with 1987 Carl Davis Score
Posted: Sat Oct 18, 2014 3:37 pm
by Tom
Yes, he certainly has written tuba into some of his scores. I did not mean that he never does, just that in quite a few cases he turns to DX-7 to fill out a lot of parts. I believe he has scored for 50 or so different silent films, so there is a wide variety of instrumentation in his scores.
One of his scores (The Eagle) even calls for Ophicleide as the intended instrument though there is a note indicating performance on tuba is acceptable.
I haven't presented a silent film with one of his scores for some time now...maybe it's time to explore doing some with my current orchestra...hmmmm.
Re: Buster Keaton's "The General" with 1987 Carl Davis Score
Posted: Sat Oct 18, 2014 4:13 pm
by UDELBR
Tom wrote:
I haven't presented a silent film with one of his scores for some time now....
I've done them with him conducting several times. Seems a superhuman feat to hit the cues perfectly every time, but he did.
Re: Buster Keaton's "The General" with 1987 Carl Davis Score
Posted: Tue Jan 09, 2024 5:22 pm
by geomiklas
Tom wrote: ↑Sat Oct 18, 2014 3:10 pm
I have presented "The General" with Carl Davis' score with the orchestra I was managing at the time.
There is no tuba part. The score does call for bass trombone, but the tuba you're hearing is actually a Yamaha DX-7 with the "tuba patch." This score (like a lot of Carl Davis' silent film work) has an extensive DX-7 book. The hardest part of doing this show was finding a DX-7 with a working drive and then rounding up all of the cartridges with the sounds called for in the book, but we pulled it off.
It was a cool show.
How did you cover the harmonica part?
I just received the harmonica part for the Carl Davis arrangement. Please don't tell me that it was another DX-7 patch.
It takes a harmonica player who can read!