Kritzerland Promises Swashbuckling Adventure With Elmer Bernstein’s “The Buccaneer”
Kritzerland’s final release of 2013 is sure to be one of its most talked-about. Today, the label announced an expanded and remastered CD presentation of Elmer Bernstein’s score to The Buccaneer. The 1958 Paramount Picture starred the King of Siam himself, Yul Brynner, opposite Claire Bloom, Charles Boyer and Charlton Heston in a rip-roaring adventure tale loosely based on real life and set during the War of 1812.
Director Anthony Quinn’s film was a remake of Cecil B. DeMille’s 1938 movie of the same name. The legendary DeMille had planned to direct himself, but with his health failing, he turned to his then-son-in-law Quinn to take the reins. Both versions tell the story of Jean Lafitte, a French privateer who aided General Andrew Jackson in the Battle of New Orleans. For his sole film as a director, Quinn’s company was led by Brynner as Lafitte, with Heston playing the key supporting role of Jackson. (This was Heston’s second motion picture portrayal of Jackson; he previously played him in 1953’s The President’s Lady.) The score was written by the prolific Elmer Bernstein in the same year he also scored pictures including Kings Go Forth and Some Came Running. A fixture on Kritzerland, Bernstein just appeared on the label’s recent John Wayne at Fox compendium which featured his 1961 soundtrack to The Comancheros.
Kritzerland describes Bernstein’s score as “a beauty…filled with big and bold music and classic Bernstein themes. The ‘Main Title’ begins with a wonderful Bernstein fanfare leading into a glorious and heroic theme, more fanfares, and then an exquisitely beautiful theme followed by more fanfares – it’s everything you’d want in a main title from a time when composers really knew how to set the tone of the film in its first minutes. The rest of his marvelous score is loaded with drama, romance and intrigue, all in the unique and colorful Bernstein style.”
After the jump: what never-before-released music will you hear on the new Buccaneer?
The Buccaneer was released on LP by Columbia Records in 1958, and that 13-track program was reissued on CD including in an edition from Varese Sarabande in 1988. Kritzerland’s new release offers the score in complete form for the very first time, derived from the original three-track session scoring masters and the original 15 IPS three-track album master. All have been newly transferred and remastered. As a bonus, Bernstein’s original source music and a number of never-before-issued piano demos from the composer have also been included.
This limited release of 1,000 units is due to ship in the first week of February, but orders placed directly with the label frequently arrive an average of four weeks early. You can pre-order The Buccaneer below!
Elmer Bernstein, The Buccaneer: Music from the Motion Picture (Kritzerland KR 20027-4, 2014)
- Main Title*
- Jackson Hisself/Pirate’s Market
- Honest Dominique
- The Lady and the Pirate
- Governor Arrives/Captain Brown
- The Corinthian Departs/Barataria
- Mutiny*
- Raven’s Pursuit/The Hanging
- Vulcan Music Box
- Back to Barataria
- The Knife*/Lafitte’s House
- British Men-of-War/British Exit/Claiborne’s Mansion
- Lovers United
- The Bayou
- Treachery at Barataria*
- Jackson’s Study
- The Pardon
- Lafitte’s Arrival
- Elmer’s Virginia Reel
- Get a Rope
- Finale*
- Finale (Album Version)
- New Orleans Dock (Version 2)
- Bagpipe and Drum Medley
- Jackson’s Exit
- Polka
- Waltz No. 1
- Waltz No. 2*
- Allez à l’eau (Traditional, arr. Brynner) (Yul Brynner, vocal)
- New End of Prelude
- British Toast and Dock
- Love’s Departure
- Pirate’s Market
- Love in the Market
- Yankee Doodle in Barataria
- Nocturne
- Celebration No. 1
- Celebration No. 2
- First Waltz
- Second Waltz
- Third Waltz
(*) Contains “Love Song from ‘The Buccaneer’ (Lovers’ Gold)” by Elmer Bernstein and Mack David
Some music first released on The Buccaneer, Columbia LP CS 8096, 1958
Tracks 22-29 are various bonus tracks; Tracks 30-41 are piano demos by Elmer Bernstein
The Second Disc 
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