John Scott: Shogun Mayeda (1991) / Hungarian State Opera Orchestra

ABOUT THE SCORE: 1991's "Shogun Mayeda" (aka "Journey of Honor" or "Kabuto", among other international titles) is an odd-ball mixture of Samurai tale and swashbuckling seafaring adventure film. Little seen, it boasts a nonetheless intriguing international cast (Toshiro Mifune, Christopher Lee, John Rhys-Davies and others) and, of course, a marvelous and expansive swashbuckling score from John Scott. Written during a highly fruitful period in which Scott was regularly contributing ambitious and varied scores for mostly irrelevant films, "Shogun Mayeda" stands out as a particularly ambitious effort that can be viewed, essentially, as his career equivalent to Williams' "Indiana Jones" scores (and a precursor to his much later, and arguably superior, "Robin Hood" silent film score.
Anchored by a heraldic "Indiana Jones"-type fanfare (heard near the outset of this suite on horns), this isn't so much an 'Eastern'-style melody as the character of the film may indicate, but rather a classically European melody built on the Korngold model. And indeed the music gets very 'Korngoldian' at times; look no further than a dueling sequence at 24:00, replete with dancing castanets and peppy fanfares, for perhaps the most distinctly Old-School Hollywood piece of action music of Scott's career. John Scott is, of course, no strange to the art of variation and it is the multifarious means by which he shakes up the harmony, tempo and ornamentation of the central theme that his gifts are allowed to shine. From the requisite march format to lush string iterations with added grace notes to instill drama or uncertainty (see the passage beginning circa 16:30, replete with stormy interludes during a sea-faring adventure scene), to more expansive pastoral iterations on low strings (see 17:59; the low-celli/oscillating high-string combination here is a John Scott orchestration staple) or propulsive action-variations that render the theme via unrecognizable down-tempo inversions (see the fantastic variation at 31:36, inverting the theme on horns over marching percussion and flourishing trumpets). The fanfare theme may be much 'simpler' than Scott's usual predilection toward long-lined and inventive melodies, but the means by which he intelligently modulated its contours and character ensure his genius in nonetheless on full display; see 20:46's colorful and imaginative orchestration of the theme for a pastorale sea-faring interlude as a testament to Scott's creativity with the ensemble (a la his 'Cousteau' documentary scores).
While the central theme is predominant, the globe-spanning nature of the film allowed Scott to ensure much variety to accompany it; throughout this suite one will 'musically' find themselves moving from Feudal Japan to Spain and then Morocco, with colorful nods to these locales filtering through the symphonic language (14:08 even allows a chamber-sized moment of reflection for flute, harp and light percussion). A swooning, stately love theme is introduced at 11:42 and will be heard often hereafter; it's a lovely bit of scoring that may not quite as rapacious as Scott's grandest romantic melodies but nonetheless provides tuneful, classy respite from all the adventurous Strum-und-Drang surrounding it. Those who enjoy Scott's 'lighter' dramatic efforts like "The Scarlet Tunic" or "Mill on the Floss" will greatly appreciate the sensitivity of this swooning secondary theme.
The score was recorded in Budapest at Mafilm Studios with the Hungarian State Opera Orchestra, an ensemble with a less-than-stellar reputation at the time thanks to Jerry Goldsmith's frustration with these players while recording his 1987 score to "Lionheart" (no relation to the film of the same name scored by John himself). Scott expressed trepidation around recording with these players, though the resultant performance is mostly perfectly acceptable and sometime even excellent; Keith Grant's expansive recording and John Richards' mixing further help the music shine. The composer relayed an amusing anecdote to me wherein he expressed anxiety to the film's producers around using the Hungarian musicians; when said producers checked in with Jerry Goldsmith about the validity of Scott's claims, Goldsmith informed him they wouldn't be able to handle a more sophisticated composer as himself but that for John Scott, they would be "more than good enough". Oh, Jerry...

[@marksweet3580]

One of John Scott's very best

[@miguelmorales3016]

Otra hermosa joya de Partitura del gran John Scott!
Música llena de melodías y matices! Nunca decepciona!
Gracias por compartir.

[@helloandris_]

This is absolutely remarkable, and magnificent!

[@MyTroubadour]

Bobbengan nous ravit à nouveau pour la diffusion de cette excellente partition signée John Scott. Compositeur parfois bien négligé des médias mais qui propose une discographie bien séduisante. C'est très bien de mentionner le nom de l'orchestre.