Musical selections in The Wizard of Oz

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Publicity still showing music for The Wizard of Oz being recorded -- ironically, for a deleted scene, the "Triumphant Return".
Publicity still showing music for The Wizard of Oz being recorded -- ironically, for a deleted scene, the "Triumphant Return".

The songs from the 1939 musical film The Wizard of Oz have taken their place among the most famous and instantly recognizable American popular songs of all time, and the film's principal song, Over the Rainbow, is perhaps the most famous song ever written for a film. Music and lyrics were by Harold Arlen and E.Y. "Yip" Harburg, who won an Academy Award for Best Song for "Over the Rainbow". Herbert Stothart, who underscored the film, won an Academy Award for Best Original Score, perhaps the only time that the underscoring for a musical film has actually won an Oscar. Some of that underscoring was, of course, based on Harburg and Arlen's songs.

The songs were recorded in a studio before filming. Several of the recordings were completed while Buddy Ebsen was still with the cast. So while he had to be dropped from the cast due to illness from the aluminum powder makeup, his singing voice remains on the soundtrack. In the group vocals of "We're off to See the Wizard," his voice is easy to detect. Ray Bolger (and also Jack Haley, who had a solo but was not in the group vocal) were speakers of a distinct Boston accent and did not pronounce the r in wizard. Buddy Ebsen was a Midwesterner, like Judy Garland, and pronounced the r.

Contents

[edit] 1940 Studio Album

The first record album of music from the film was not a soundtrack album in the sense that the term is used today. It was, instead, a sort of cover version - a U.S. Decca Records four-record 78 RPM studio cast recording of songs from the film released in 1940, featuring Judy Garland as Dorothy, but with the Ken Darby Singers in other roles. The orchestra was conducted by Victor Young, and the musical arrangements were completely different from those used in the film. The two songs Garland sang on the album, Over the Rainbow and The Jitterbug, had already been released as a 78-RPM single in 1939, and were incorporated into the album in 1940. The album was quite a success, and was eventually released as an LP, staying in print throughout the 1950's, even after a genuine soundtrack album of the film was released by MGM Records in 1956. Judy Garland's 1939 singles of Over the Rainbow and The Jitterbug were released on the 1994 Decca box set The Complete Decca Masters (plus), which featured all of Garland's Decca singles and several alternate takes. The Decca single of Over the Rainbow has been released on an MCA compact disc entitled 20th Century Masters - The Millennium Collection - The Best of Judy Garland, among various other compilations; the rest of the 1940 album of The Wizard of Oz has yet to be issued on CD, however.

[edit] First Soundtrack Album

In 1956 - the year that the film was first shown on TV - MGM Records released their own authentic LP soundtrack album from the film, which featured not only most of the songs, but enough dialogue for listeners to be able to follow the story, almost exactly as heard on the movie soundtrack (there were a few minor edits in this 1956 edition, i.e., Aunt Em's two lines "Dorothy, please, we're trying to count!", and "Dorothy, Dorothy, we're busy!" were turned into the line "Dorothy, Dorothy, we're busy! Please, we're trying to count!"). This soundtrack recording eventually supplanted the 1940 studio album. Throughout the 1960s, '70s, and '80s, it was constantly reprinted and re-released, and eventually appeared in an expanded version on CD in 1989, released by CBS Records. The 1989 release also contained the original deleted film version of The Jitterbug, albeit without its full intro, as a bonus track.

[edit] Deluxe Soundtrack Album

Both albums, however, were supplanted in 1995 by Rhino Records's extensive 2-CD soundtrack album featuring not only all the songs, but all of Herbert Stothart's background music from the film, as well as outtake pieces of music, the opening and closing credits music, all of the songs cut from the film during its sneak previews, and demos for the songs - but no dialogue as in the 1956 album. Perhaps the only unfortunate aspect of this album is that, despite the fact that all of the music was included, the one vocal not heard is the Guards' chanting of "O - Ee- Yah, Eoh - Ah!" (what they are really saying, is "Oh we love The Old One") outside the Wicked Witch's castle. A single-disc version is also available containing only the vocal selections, the main title, the Cyclone instrumental, and the score for the final scene where Dorothy goes home. The single-disc still contains all of the vocal outtakes, with the exception of the Over The Rainbow reprise, and extended versions of songs, but discards almost all of the background score. Despite the existence of multi-track recordings, which had been made in order to create a more full and balanced monaural track for the film, none of the music on either release was mixed in stereo.

In 1998, when the film received a complete digital video and audio restoration, including a new stereo mix, Rhino Records released The Songs And Story Of "The Wizard Of Oz", which expanded the 1956 MGM album even further, taking off The Jitterbug, adding the deleted dance music from If I Only Had A Brain, and including additional bits of dialogue absent from previous releases. This was also the first time that the Oz songs were made available on CD in stereo, some in simulated stereo, and some in true stereo thanks to the existence of most of MGM's original multi-track recordings of the music from the film.

Although an orchestra underscores the entire film, approximately the last third of the movie contains no songs. Once Dorothy and her cohorts are handed the task of killing the Wicked Witch, the mood of the film goes a bit darker. This was not originally intended -- the three closing songs in the film, "The Jitterbug," the vocal reprise of "Over The Rainbow," and "The Triumphant Return" were all excised from the film before its official release.

E. Y. Harburg and Harold Arlen. We're Off To See The Wizard (the Wonderful Wizard of Oz) Sheet music cover.
E. Y. Harburg and Harold Arlen. We're Off To See The Wizard (the Wonderful Wizard of Oz) Sheet music cover.

[edit] Music in the film

Vocals composed for the film

Instrumentals in the film:

  • In addition to the well-known vocals by Harburg and Arlen, nearly the entire film was underscored by arranger Herbert Stothart, using a mixture of instrumental-only leitmotifs composed for some of the characters; instrumental references to some of the vocals; and traditional and classical pieces. Much of the following information (which is by no means an exhaustive list) is taken from the Deluxe CD liner notes.

Composed for the film:

  • Opening credits medley: Glinda's theme, dynamic full-orchestra version, played over the MGM Leo the Lion logo; followed by segments of "Ding, Dong, the Witch is Dead" played slowly and majestically, so that the song is almost unrecognizable; they lead into "Over the Rainbow", then we hear "It Really Was No Miracle", "Come Out, Come Out, Wherever You Are" and "It Really Was No Miracle" again, followed by original music while the film's foreword appears on the screen.
  • Miss Gulch's / Witch's theme - repeated every time Miss Gulch or the witch appears. This repeated seven-note motif is actually a "crippled" variation (inverted and compressed in range) of the musical figure for "We're off to see the Wizard".
  • Orientale theme - for Professor Marvel and for The Wizard
  • Glinda's theme - 6-note pattern repeated several times rapidly each time Glinda arrives or leaves in her bubble: G, D, E, B-flat, G, C-sharp.
  • Closing credits medley: Glinda's theme (full orchestra) / Over the Rainbow

Music not composed specifically for the film:

  • "The Happy Farmer", i.e. Fröhlicher Landmann, von der Arbeit zurückkehrend, "The Happy Farmer Returning from Work" from Schumann's Album for the Young - opening scene, establishing scenes in Kansas, and during "ride" in cyclone
  • "My Castle's in the Courtyard" (nursery rhyme) - in sequence leading up to "Over the Rainbow"
  • "The Whistler And His Dog" (by Arthur Pryor) a.k.a. "Oh Where, Oh Where Has My Little Dog Gone?" - when Toto escapes from Miss Gulch's basket as she pedals on her bicycle to the sheriff
  • "In the Shade of the Old Apple Tree" (by Harry Williams and Egbert Van Alstyne) - when Dorothy and the Scarecrow find themselves in an apple orchard
  • Scherzo Opus 16 #2 (by Mendelssohn) - when Toto escapes from the castle
  • "Night on Bald Mountain" (by Mussorgsky) - during chase scenes at the witch's castle
  • "Home! Sweet Home!" (by John Howard Payne and Henry Bishop) - as Dorothy says the words and clicks her heels, and in the final scene in Kansas. In the final moments of this scene, a horn intones "Home Sweet Home" in counterpoint to the final strain of "Over The Rainbow."

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