{date: 12 September 2004, Trafalgar Square, London}
Performed by Pet Shop Boys and Dresdner Sinfoniker
Conducted by Jonathan Stockhammer
Orchestrations by Torsten Rasch
Staged by Simon McBurney at Complicité
As some of you remembered or probably not, I did a previous discussion post on here about Pet Shop Boys’ Battleship Potemkin score, a fan sent me the songs, but now I officially own the CD and gotten a better and clear explanation and also had an art history class, ironically in my spring semester back in school. I will be using facts from the Battleship booklet, A New History of Documentary Film (my college book) and bits from Catalogue and other text. And I will have my previous discussion on this post too so you can all see what I thought before actually knowing much than I know before. Just to mention, I only saw 54 minutes of the film/score on YouTube.
But before we got into the score, it’s good to know the origin of material. "Documentary is one of three basic creative forms in film other two are narrative fiction and experimental avant-garde. Propaganda is information, ideas, or rumors deliberately spread widely to help or harm a person, group, movement, institution, nation, etc. Propaganda became a key concern of Russian communist leader Vladimir Ilyich Lenin (1870-1924) Following the October evolution of 1917, the new in Russia-the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (U.S.S.R.)- was the first to make sustained, extensive, and coordinated peacetime use of film propaganda. Modern interest in propaganda is related to the intellectual disciplines of sociology, social psychology and political science." (A New History of Documentary Film p. 5 and Dictionary.com) So in other words, this is when art and political science or history are conjoined together as one to portray the meaning or give the idealistic scenario of what is going on. Battleship Potemkin is basically a propaganda film really. Here’s why.
“Battleship Potemkin is a fiction film based on historical fact of the 1905 abortive Russian revolution (U.S.S.R., 1925, Sergei Eisenstein)…Potemkin has five acts. If that makes it like a classical tragedy, as Einsenstein suggested, it is a tragedy with only a chorus; it is not about a particular men or women of high station as in the Greek plays.” (A New History of Documentary Film p. 40-41) Still not convinced? Here’s what two artistic musicians that are known as Pet Shop Boys have to say.
‘“I’ve read a lot about Russian history and when we started this I said, ‘of course it’s really just a propaganda film,’ says Tennant. And Chris pointed out that it’s an ideal really. It’s just an ideal of revolution. It’s a romantic film of people struggling against oppression to find freedom. And that’s why I think it works totally outside the communist context. It’s a very stirring film, and I think we’ve tried to bring out the stirring and idealistic quality in the music.’’’ (Battleship Potemkin booklet and was by Chris Heath, July 2005) I think that’s a good brief explanation on how any it’s a propaganda film.
Mind you that Battleship Potemkin is also a silent film, which explains why it’s necessary that the music would be the chorus or voice portraying the visual. Einsenstein wanted a traditional formula of where every generation/decade have a new soundtrack of his piece. Famous composers like Beethoven, Tchaikovsky and later on in Berlin and specially-written by the radical composer Edmund Meisel. (Battleship Potemkin booklet)
In April 2003, Philip Dodd, the director of Institute of Contemporary Art in London (Where Pet Shop Boys made one of their first live appearances) asked Neil and Chris to write a new score for the classic 1925 silent film Battleship Potemkin by Russian director Sergei Einsenstein, and performed it as a free concert in London’s Trafalgar Square with the film as a backdrop. Einsenstein’s film describes the mutiny of the sailors on the battleship Potemkin in 1905, an event that involved local population in Odessa and formed part of Russia’s 1905 revolution. Its celebration of political dissent has made it one of the most powerful films of all time…the group composed music that would be released under the names ‘Tennant/Lowe’ surnames. They asksed German composer Torsten Rasch to orchestrate the work after hearing his song cycle Mein Herz Brennt, based on the music of the rock group Rammstein. (Catalogue p. 303/Battleship Potemkin booklet) Of course, other keynotes and information can be found on Catalogue page 303, Battleship Potemkin CD booklet, and A New History of Documentary of Film)
When I saw bits from the movie on YoutTube, it really was intense and quite convincing. I mean focusing on little noises like plates shattering noices on “Our Daily Bread” or the part where the guy on the piano and his foot hitting the keys on “Nyet” or even the gunshot noises in “After All( The Odessa Staircase) “actually gives it the sense of what it was like in the silent cinema. I find the film ironic because it’s a battleship but it’s a war between the authorities and sailors over a bowl of soup. I would be going nuts too, if I were forced to eat meat with maggots in them and what have you. It was really sad because a sailor was slain for it. Then the people of Odessa saw him lying there in what it be like a shrine like area where the sailor lie dead. When the revolution broke on the Odessa staircase, it brought tears to my eyes because of how a mother had to see her child getting walked on and then later gotten killed while she was holding him. The sound did fit for this generation, and if you thought silent films weren’t worth a watch, I’d suggest you give this score and movie a look see. I’m pretty sure that it had different tones because of previous composers. But I know how most are into the now and this would probably fit you, unless you’re really into art. It’s quite strange, and oddly I can listen to the soundtrack without the footage but with it, it makes much more sense. Personally it’s very dynamic because you have a contrast of something of the last century and a new century sound to convey its purpose. And also have different versions of songs on here and what I found out recently that “No Time For Tears” is a b-side but it fits so well with this soundtrack to the film. Now I also understand why the titles are the way they are. Some of them (from the 54 minutes I had seen) matched some of the song titles. I will see the hour and fourteen minutes of it and update this post) I just thought I give a better review on this post because I have proper information and the CD soundtrack. Then next paragraph below it, is my previous post about it. I still maintain what I think about the songs, this is just an addition to it. I wished I was around to see it live, but oh well I was too young.
When someone sent me the audio of Battleship Potemkin, I was extremely excited to hear it because, if I thought The Most Incredible Thing was fantastic, then something they did previous must really sound phenomenal! "Comrades!" starts off with drums being banged and then come with this soft feel of being in the ocean where you see the open waters and sun towards the evening. Then it gets all digital like on the second song "Men and Maggot", but the feel changed only a bit. Then I hear fast drums playing and sounds like trance mixed with some fast jazz maybe? Then you can tell they were playing random notes on there after that. Our Daily Bread was an intriguing because The Most Incredible Thing on track twelve, one of the Clocks songs, you would hear the Ten Commandments being spoken by some computerized man's voice, so that's a major similarity there. Then when I hear "Our Daily Bread", it sounds like it was influenced by some Asian sounds, even though this is this is the Lord's prayer they used a few lines from. "Drama in the Ha" (Actually it’s Harbour, the person who sent it to me either had made the typo or it was downloaded like that. ) sounds like some kind of multi -genre sound in one song, I can't even think of the genres at the moment. By the album color, the red definitely this would have some tension in it. Digital and violins in a collision damn near other colors white and black title and name description represents the calmness of it, in my opinion. It definitely must have trance in this piece because the feel of being vertigo and hearing horns and violins was like a bonus. "Nyet" remind of something funny, I don't know what it means but sometimes it sounds like "Ah, shit" It cracks me up when I hear it. To the Shore reminds me a bit of their song "King of Rome" because it sounds like it's in the same mellow soft tune, minus the percussion sounds, it also sounds like a calm version of "To the Battleship"(which is one of my favorites). "Odessa" is like a continuation of Comrades, but it sounds so lovely and sad at the same time. Unlike The Most Incredible Thing, Neil Tennant's voice can be heard more than one song in this piece such as: "Our Daily Bread", "No Time For Tears”, "After All(The Odessa Staircase)", and "Freedom." Some of the songs are repetitive but I think it's mostly continuations of the previous songs. My favourites: "No Time for Tears", "To the Battleship", "Night Falls", "Full Steam Ahead" and "Our Daily Bread." These have certain moods that truly depict the feel of tension as well as calmness more than others. "To the Battleship" sounded like a brief instrumental of "No Time for Tears", then it comes back a strong version and continuation of "To the Shore"; it would make sense because of the "To The" in the title. Then "To the Shore" goes back to the "No Time for Tears" instrumental bit, it sounds heavenly. "After All" reminded me of bits of "Please Stay" a song by Mekon featuring Marc Almond, it’s the "digital percussion type sound" that sounds quite similar. "Stormy Meetings" have a calm feel to it, which is ironic for the title. I would think it would have loud thumping like sounds to it. "Night Falls" and "Full Steam Ahead" have this eerie type of feel that I adore, its like a posh version of Mannheim Steamrollers' Halloweens themes album. I just feel like it just so haunting, I can hear this playing of some off horror movie or show. "The Squadron" reminded me of a darker version of "All Over the World" is some odd way. I also love the indistinct voice in it. Then the tempo speeds up a bit then it sounds like a mix of a lot of their songs I can't explain properly. At two minutes and fifty seconds of it, it reminded me of the beats in "Vulnerable." Then finally, "Freedom" sounds like a final continuation of "No Time For Tears" but it ends with a soft bang if you will. All in All, this is another astonishing piece of work that the Pet Shop Boys did, its definitely worth listening too, I wish I was there when they did it live. There are some similarities to Battleship Potemkin and The Most Incredible Thing, I will discuss that more soon.
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