BATTLE OF BRITAIN Film Soundtrack OST LP 1969 RON GOODWIN Walton Michael Caine
  £   23
  $   30

 


£ 23 Sold For
Feb 27, 2016 Sold Date
Feb 7, 2016 Start Date
£   28 Start price
1 Number Of Bids
  Great Britain Country Of Seller
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Description

Here I have for sale the original soundtrack to the 'Battle of Britain' by Ron Goodwin.

The Battle of Britain – Ron Goodwin and William Walton

Label: United Artists UAS 29019
Year: 1969
Country: UK
Vinyl: NEAR MINT. No marks or scratches on visual inspection. A supreme example. Plays fine.
Cover and sleeve: MINT. Colours are unfaded and no tears on the sleeve. Glossy sleeve.  Very fine.

Track listing:

Side A
1. Battle of Briatin Theme (01:23)
2. Ace High March (03:32)
3. The Lull Before the Storm (01:37)
4. Work and Play (02:27)
5. Death and Destruction (01:22)
6. Briefing the Luftwaffe (01:14)
7. Prelude to Battle (03:20)
8. Victory Assured (02:12)
9. Defeat (01:26)
10. Hitler's Headquarters (00:55)


Side B
11. Return to Base (00:44)
12. Threat (01:23)
13. Civilian Tragedy (01:08)
14. Offensive Build-Up (03:43)
15. Attack (00:58)
16. Personal Tragedy (00:41)
17. Battle in the Air (04:51)
composed by sir William Walton, OM
18. Absent Friends (01:03)
19. Battle of Britain Theme—end title (02:54)


Review:

The original soundtrack to the movie Battle of Britain was one of the most controversial movie scores of the 1960s.

Sir William Walton, who had previously written the music for the film First of the Few (aka Spitfire), not to mention Sir Laurence Olivier's three major Shakespearean films, wrote a score for Battle of Britain only to have it dropped by the film's producers.

At the time, United Artists Records, the music division of the movie's distributor, was having particular luck with orchestral pop-type releases, such as John Barry's James Bond scores, and Walton wrote a complex, serious music score that sounded like it came from the concert hall.

The producers replaced his music with a much simpler, more conventional movie score, authored by Ron Goodwin and built around various brass-heavy march tunes, interspersed with a romantic theme or two.

Then Olivier, who (with Michael Caine, was the star of the epic film, threatened to have his name taken off the credits of the movie over the snub of his composer friend's music. A compromise was worked out, wherein Walton's scoring for the climactic "Battle in the Air" was kept in the movie; mostly, it was the presence of the five-minute "Battle in the Air" theme that kept the Battle of Britain soundtrack in print (the movie was a notorious failure) for years.

The Walton "Battle in the Air" stood apart from Goodwin's relentless march themes in no uncertain terms, surging up gradually, through the lower strings, the reeds, and winds, with the brass adding punctuation while the violins play running scales.


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