Because I was involved with this release, I thought it was hardly fair if I reviewed it, so I have taken a section of Randall D. Larson’s Soundtrack Column, where he reviews the score and with his kind permission have included it here. Many thanks to Randall for allowing this.
The Score from Murder by Decree is available now at Howlin’ Wolf Records.
https://www.howlinwolfrecords.com/storemurderbydecree.html
Howlin’ Wolf Records proudly presents MURDER BY DECREE by Carl Zittrer and Paul Zaza, the world premiere recording of this classic orchestral score. The 1979 film tells the story of Sherlock Holmes’ hunt for Jack the Ripper from the dark streets of Whitechapel to the mighty halls of Parliament.
Bob Clark directed an esteemed all-star cast, including Christopher Plummer as Sherlock Holmes and James Mason as Dr Watson, and features Genevieve Bujold, Donald Sutherland, David Hemmings, and Sir John Gielgud. The film’s version of The Ripper Story follows the Sherlock Holmes and Dr John Watson characters created by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, who are embroiled in the investigation surrounding the real-life 1888 Whitechapel murders committed by Jack the Ripper. However, the movie presents a vastly different version of Holmes from the Basil Rathbone movies of the 1940s, with this Holmes tinged with humanity and emotional empathy. Plummer said he tried to make Holmes more human and caring, saying, “This is a passionate and caring Holmes.” The film’s premise of the plot behind the murders is influenced by the book Jack the Ripper: The Final Solution(1976) by Stephen Knight, who theorized that the killings were part of a Masonic plot and was also partially inspired by Elwyn Jones’s book The Ripper File.
The original music was composed jointly by Carl Zittrer (CHILDREN SHOULDN’T PLAY WITH DEAD THINGS, DEATHDREAM, BLACK CHRISTMAS, A CHRISTMAS STORY) and Paul Zaza (PROM NIGHT, MY BLOODY VALENTINE, TURK 182, A CHRISTMAS STORY). This rich symphonic score, performed by the London Symphony and conducted by Paul Zaza, is layered with dark moods, rousing action, sombre regality, and lush beauty, all wrapped in a fog of Gothic atmosphere. The stereo recordings were preserved over the years by composer Zaza, and this album has been carefully constructed by both composers, featuring exclusive music from the sessions not heard in the film. “MURDER BY DECREE was one of the classiest projects in my career to date,” Zaza told me in a 2009 interview. “Carl got us the job due to his lifetime relationship with the late Bob Clark. Carl instinctively knew that this score would need ‘weight’ with a symphony orchestral score, which he felt I could handle. We flew to London, England, and hired the best parts of The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra to perform my written score.
The soundtrack for MURDER BY DECREE is quite remarkable; it’s quite an elegant score with a variety of musical moments. It’s quite impressive in its many distinguished moments.”
As Carl Zittrer describes in his comments in the album notes, “MURDER BY DECREE’s score was composed and recorded before the film was completely edited. Main themes, textures, atmospheres, intros, and endings were composed and recorded, then edited into the finished film… While Paul Zaza was in his studio fine-tuning, mixing, and combining the London and Toronto recordings, I was across town in the film studio, working with Bob Clark to decide exactly where to start and end the cues. I would then edit the music directly to the film for the final sound mix… The short cues work well in the film because the action on the screen acts as a counterpoint, but we felt that these short cues would be better presented in the album by combining them with some of the longer cues and each other. The result is a less linear but a more satisfying listening experience.” Also included is music composed for but not heard in the final film. The first four cues offer some frighteningly eerie moments as viewers settle into the film’s horror elements with “City of the Dreadful Night,” “This Bloody Business of Butchery,” “Where is Mary Kelly?” and “Ghosts of Whitechapel,” while the pensive “A Bunch of Grapes” (the score’s longest track) proffer a hesitant oboe figure over low strings with a downward pitched bell tone evokes a foggy mist among the darkness, a cue repeated in “Psychic Visions.” At the same time, “A Sordid Episode” carries a similar mood, tinged with harsh piano notes, and carries a cry of “Murder” in the night.
“One reason the music works so well is its subtle presence, even in the more dramatic and violent moment featuring the murders,” writes John Mansell (Movie Music International) in the album’s liner notes. “Lighter interludes, which add warmth and melancholy, are a welcome respite from the tenser moments in the soundtrack. The inventive orchestrations are often wonderfully lyrical, with the end sequence underscored by the haunting ‘Annies Theme.”
The score is both elegant and sordid in its sonic treatment of the murders and their aftermaths and investigations. “Murder And The Morning After” is a particularly resonating, defining the bloodening of one of the murders, followed by an equally dangerous and rising motif for “The Black Cab.” There’s also a splendid theme for Holmes with “221B Baker Street,” as well as a pondering motif in “They? Who Are They?” which carries some percussive weight and harsh brass effects. The character of Annie Crook (Genevieve Bujold) is not the Annie Chapman, who was the Ripper’s second victim, but a helpless woman locked in a mental institution whom Dr. Watson and the medium Robert Lee’s aid, and the composers offer a very pleasing melody for her character in the film. “What The Fog Knows” provides a pretty melody with varied danger motifs. An oboe retakes the fore in the film’s final movement, “The Madmen Unmasked,” a soft and contemplative resolution to the story. The film’s end title is based on the Scottish folk song, “My Last Farwell To Stirling,” a beautiful, haunting melody that Sherlock Holmes plays on his violin and is reprised fully at the end of the movie.
In addition to John Mansell’s liner notes, which include several details about the Ripper murders and their victims, Tim Ayres (Off The Beaten Soundtrack) provides a new, extended interview with composers Zittrer, and Zaza about the score. Randall D. Larson 2024.
MOVIE MUSIC INTERNATIONAL. (MMI) . 