Distributed bygBRRecord, MUSICAL SCORE BY TOSHIRO MAYUZUMI • CONDUCTED BY FRANCO FERRARA • ORCHESTRA CINEFONICA 1TALIANA • CHORUS CARAPELLUCCI
S 4184
ORIGINAL MOTION PICTURE SOUNDTRACK ALBUM
TPEBIBIE
Some of the most inspiring and eloquent language in the entire body of English
literature is found in The Bible. This recording includes the
opening passages from the Book of Genesis — the moving account of
The Creation — as read by director John Huston. Accompanied by the musical score taken
from the soundtrack of the film, Mr. Huston’s sensitive
reading reflects the simplicity and poetry of The Bible as it describes the
beginnings of man’s great adventure on earth.. . .
SIDE "1”
THEME FROM ’’THE BIBLE".3:02
CREATION OF ADAM. .. . ..2:35
CREATION OF EVE.4:14
CAIN AND ABEL.3:50
NOAH’S ARK.4:05
40 DAYS AND 40 NIGHTS.3:18
STEREO
SIDE ”2'
NEW BEGINNING.5:12
TOWER OF BABEL.4:10
ABRAHAM (Scene of Love).2:11
SODOM .2:13
FINALE .2:11
THE CREATION - Read by John Huston.. .8:24
All music published by Robbins Music Corp. — ASCAP
TT-EBIBIE
... In The Beginning
Screenplay by CHRISTOPHER FRY
Produced by DINO DE LAURENTIIS
Directed by JOHN HUSTON
MUSICAL SCORE BY TOSHIRO MAYUZUMI
The Cast in Order of Appearance
MICHAEL PARKS AS ADAM
ULLA BERGRYD AS EVE
RICHARD HARRIS AS CAIN
JOHN HUSTON AS NOAH
STEPHEN BOYD AS NIMROD
GEORGE C. SCOTT AS ABRAHAM
AVA GARDNER AS SARAH
PETER O’TOOLE AS THE THREE ANGELS
ZOE SALLIS AS HAGAR
GABRIELE FERZETTI AS LOT
ELEONORA ROSSI DRAGO AS LOT’S WIFE
PRODUCED IN 70MM
COLOR BY DE LUXE
20th Century-Fox Presents The
DINO DE LAURENTIIS
Production of
“DISCOVERING”
COMPOSER MAYUZUMI
by JOHN HUSTON
Originally, we had wanted to use Igor Stravinsky’s music
for "The Bible’’— some of the works already composed and
some new things he was to write. In spite of Stravinsky’s
willingness, we ran into copyright difficulties and were unable
to proceed. So another composer had to be found.
I heard Mayuzumi’s music through a chance encounter
with a man who was in Rome on a musical mission of his
own. The question of who might do the music for "The
Bible” came up. Out of the goodness of his heart, he sent
me a number of little-known recordings of the more avant-
garde composers: American, German, English, Dutch,
French, and — Japanese.
I used to play these records in my hotel room when I’d
come back from the studio at night. One evening I put a
record on — and there it was — a new sound — like the voice
of silence.
I had taken the record out of the envelope and put it on
without looking at the label and I stood over the turntable
entranced until it was time to turn it over and play the
other side. Then I saw it was “The Nirvana Symphony” by
Toshiro Mayuzumi.
I took the record to the studio with me the next morning
and Dino De Laurentiis heard it. His reaction was as strong
as mine. That same afternoon, we had Mayuzumi on the
telephone in Tokyo. Yes, he was available; and yes, he would
come to Rome. It wouldn’t have mattered, really, whether
he had done films before but, as a matter of fact, he had
— Japanese films . . . among them the music for the official
picture the Japanese put out on the Olympic Games.
Three or four days later he appeared, his wife and small
son with him.
He is surely one of the most beautiful human beings I
have ever laid eyes on, with features of extraordinary
delicacy, lighted by intelligence — a rare combination par¬
ticularly in a man. There was a quality of perfection about
him — his movements, his accents, his choice of words.
Mayuzumi saw “The Bible”. Where we’d have music and
where not — that’s all we discussed. Nothing was said about
the kind of music . . . where it was to be a full orchestra or
single instruments or winds or strings or electronics. Dino
and I had agreed beforehand that this would be left entirely
to Toshiro.
Some weeks later he was ready to record. We — Dino and
I — went to the session without having heard a single bar.
Our hopes were very high but we weren’t prepared for what
occurred there that morning. It was a revelation.
Composing for the screen is a highly specialized proposi¬
tion. Bars must be measured to a tenth of a second. This
can be limiting if not actually inhibiting to the free flow of
a composer’s expression. But Mayuzumi’s music, although
perfectly adapted to the requirements of the screen, might
have been written simply for itself. Indeed, the score exists
quite independent of the picture.
I’m lost in admiration of him and it!
John Huston
Additional Production and Editing by Robert Thiele and Peter DeAngelis
PRODUCTION AND FILMING NOTES
The completion of THE BIBLE marks the culmination
of five long years of creative planning and effort, overcoming
obstacles which, from the outset, seemed so insurmountable,
few shared Producer Dino De Laurentiis’ unwavering con¬
viction that THE BIBLE would reach the screen.
Now at last motion picture audiences the world over have
the opportunity to see for themselves a film unlike any
before it. Directed by John Huston and covering the first
twenty-two chapters of Genesis, THE BIBLE is the first film
to tell, in continuous sequence, the stories of The Creation;
Adam and Eve; Cain and Abel; Noah and the Flood; The
Tower of Babel; The Destruction of Sodom and The Saga
of Abraham.
In writing the screenplay, famed poet-playwright
Christopher Fry was advised on theological considerations
by leading representatives of Protestant, Catholic and
Jewish faiths.
It was determined from the start to avoid set patterns of
past films which had used Biblical narrative as a source.
Says De Laurentiis, “We did not want stilted figures posing
in a series of tableaus. We wanted our Biblical characters
to be men and women with whom contemporary audiences
could identify. In that way, the story of mankind’s beginnings
would have significance for the people of our modem world.”
The idea for THE BIBLE first occurred to De Laurentiis
while he was producing Barabbas. It was in checking the
script of that earlier film against references in Biblical text
that he conceived of a film which began with the opening
chapter of the Book of Genesis and continued in narrative
sequence.
From the outset, De Laurentiis believed Fry was the perfect
choice for bringing to the screen the poetic beauty of the
Biblical text while avoiding all that was stodgy and
stereotyped.
When Fry’s script was completed, De Laurentiis con¬
sidered using several directors, but none envisioned the film
as the producer himself saw it.
"Then,” says De Laurentiis, "I sent a copy of the script
to John Huston who was making a film in Mexico. When
I heard he was interested, I went to Mexico to see him.
We talked for an hour, and it was as though we had been
talking about this picture for a year.” As a result, Huston
became sole director on the film.
Huston was determined from the start to avoid type cast¬
ing, seeking instead actors who could bring an added dimen¬
sion of reality to the characters they portrayed. In THE
BIBLE, Peter O’Toole portrays not one, but three Angels of
the Lord. Ava Gardner brings her great beauty to the role of
Sarah, wife of Abraham, portrayed by George C- Scott.
During the course of the picture, the couple ages more than
fifty years. Stephen Boyd is almost unrecognizable behind
the dark beard and gold eyebrows he wears as Nimrod, King
of Babel. Richard Harris endured physical discomfort and
actual danger to enact Cain with almost fanatical realism.
And then, of course, there is the role of Noah which
required an actor with an unusual rapport for birds and
animals similar to that possessed by Huston. When no actor
could be found to bring to the role quite the quality the
director had in mind, De Laurentiis persuaded Huston to
portray Noah himself.
Adam is played by Michael Parks, a young actor rapidly
emerging into stardom. For Eve, THE BIBLE introduces
a nineteen-year-old Swedish beauty named Ulla Bergryd.
Miss Bergryd won the role after a furor was created by the
casting of a brunette in the part. All the famed representa¬
tions of Eve in art have depicted her as a blonde and the
image has so strongly been implanted that a cry of protest
was raised at the idea of a brunette Eve. As a result, the
young anthropology student won the coveted role after hav¬
ing been discovered by Huston’s assistant, Vana Caruso,
while viewing an exhibit of art in Gothenberg, Sweden.
For Huston and his art director, Mario Chiari, the filming
of THE BIBLE proved an endless series of creative chal¬
lenges, not the least of which is to be found in the opening
words of Biblical text: “In the beginning God created the
heaven and the earth.”
The possibility of using animated drawings to depict The
Creation was considered and rejected. Huston felt the im¬
portance of reality in the visual images chosen to depict
this very first sequence.
Then Huston, who was well acquainted with the work of
famed still photographer Ernst Haas, heard that Haas was
contemplating a book of photographs of natural phenomena
illustrating his theory that the world is in a state of con¬
tinuing creation. As this outlook reflected the beliefs of
De Laurentiis and Huston, they agreed that herein lay the
key to handling The Creation in their film.
Ernst Haas was invited to bring his brilliant talents to
the production. Heading a ten-ma,i crew, he began an
unusual eighteen-month odyssey, roaming the world, filming
erupting volcanoes in Iceland; the strange animal, bird and
fish life of the Galapagos Islands; the mountains of Ecuador
and other far-flung locales. The venture resulted in some of
the most startling photographic footage ever recorded,
illustrating in fascinating and vivid terms the six days of
Creation as they are recorded in Genesis.
In the original Garden of Eden, flowers bloomed per¬
petually and grass grew thick and green. To create this lush
beauty for the film required the services of twenty nursery¬
men working around the clock. Each day, additional
thousands of fresh flowers were brought in by the truckload.
It took fifty animal trainers, with the assistance of thirty
laborers, to care for the birds and beasts populating Paradise.
Because Huston envisioned a stream winding through the
Garden of Eden, a special river-bed had to be dug some
twenty-feet wide and several feet deep.
An unusual problem was also posed by the "mark of
Cain,” for Biblical text offers no description as to its shape.
Then Fry remembered having read that a man struck by
lightning is often left with the mark of a blasted tree on
his body. The image intrigued Huston and it was chosen
to considerable effect for the film.
The recreation of Noah’s Ark was one of the mammoth
construction tasks to be faced by art director and architect,
MANUFACTURED BY CAPITOL RECOROS, INC., HOLLYWOOD At»0 VINE STREETS, HQLLYWOOO, CALIF. • FACTORIES! SCRANTON, PA., LOS ANGELES, CALIF., JACKSONVILLE. ILL.
TOSHIRO MAYUZUMI
Mario Chiari. It proved a major shipbuilding feat. Biblical
text gives no description of the ark other than its measure¬
ments and the material of which it was fashioned. Chiari
envisioned it as crudely designed because Noah had no
experience as a shipbuilder. And yet it was necessary also
to capture the gracefulness of a seaworthy vessel capable
of enabling Noah, his family and his unique menagerie to
survive the Deluge.
Chiari decided to base his design on the earliest boats
depicted on friezes and tombs in the Middle East as these
had probably been in use for hundreds of years without
having undergone significant changes.
Altogether, five arks were built for the production: one
for major exterior scenes, one for major interior scenes and
the additional three to facilitate close-ups and also to show
the construction of the ark as it progressed.
Because Noah must have had a forest at hand from which
to garner the necessary lumber for his mighty boat, a forest
of more than a thousand trees was created for the film.
Hundreds of animals and a thousand birds were required
for the Noah’s Ark sequence. More than 200 species are
represented in pairs. Directing their entry into the ark, two
by two, was perhaps the most difficult feat of Huston’s long
and impressive career as a director, a task further complicated
by Huston’s appearance in the film in the role of Noah.
Fortunately Huston proved to have a way with animals
shared by few others. They responded to his voice and his
complete lack of fear. When Huston decided to try shooting
the scene of the animals entering the ark, the head trainer
objected, stating the animals needed weeks more of training,
with handlers walking them on leashes. But Huston sensed
the animals were ready. He slipped on his Noah costume
and walked down the line of animals, talking softly to each.
As he came to the head of the line, he signalled for the three
cameras to roll, picked up his double rams horn and marched
off toward the ark. To the complete astonishment of all the
trainers, the animals, led by the temperamental zebras fol¬
lowed Huston as if it were the most normal thing in the
world to do. Noah himself could hardly have done better.
Another construction as challenging as Noah’s Ark was
the Tower of Babel. When construction on the tower first
began, spectators thought a new sound stage was being
constructed or perhaps a skyscraper. In a sense, this latter
impression was correct, for the Tower of Babel is indeed
the first recorded skyscraper.
Chiari’s concept for the Tower found its basis in the
Ziggurat, a tower-like structure built by the ancient Baby¬
lonians in pyramidal form with outside staircases leading to
a shrine at the top.
Because thousands of extras had to swarm over this tower,
it had to be constructed as solidly as any modern building.
Anchored in huge concrete foundations, the structure was
erected on the edge of a ravine to allow for more spectacular
camera angles in filming the sequence.
Since this is a film chiefly of exterior scenes, many other
panoramic, natural locations were used dramatically by
Huston to fit the mood of each story. On 25 acres of lava-
strewn slopes of Mt. Etna, a still active volcano in Sicily,
the remnants of the destroyed Sodom were reconstructed. In
this stark landscape, fragmented and overturned monolithic
statues and huge stones block the archways and stairs of
devastated temples, palaces and houses. It is through this
awesome setting that Abraham walks with his son Isaac as
a prelude to the sacrifice scene.
The crater of the dormant volcano, Vesuvius, which wiped
out Pompeii nearly 2,000 years ago, was chosen by Huston
to serve as a desolate backdrop for the first murder recorded
in history - the story of Cain and Abel.
Rolling hills and vast wastelands of the Sahara Desert
provided vivid settings for showing the scope of construction
on the Tower of Babel; the great camel caravans of Abraham
and Sarah going into the land of Moriah; and the exciting
battle scenes when Abraham rescues his nephew Lot from
rival tribes.
Rounding out their intent to treat Biblical text with
fidelity, respect and distinction, De Laurentiis and Huston
engaged many other creative artists and craftsmen for three
years of work in research before a camera ever turned. Among
these were: the famed Katherine Dunham, who choreog¬
raphed dances depicting the end of Sodom; Toshiro
Mayuzumi, one of Japan’s leading composer-conductors, who
wrote a brilliant and moving musical score for the film;
Maria De Matteis, one of Europe’s best known costume
designers for stage and screen, who handled with simplicity
and charm the difficult task of conceiving the types of cloth¬
ing, shoes and jewelry worn by early man; and Italy’s highly
regarded photographer-cameraman, Giuseppe Rotunno, who
framed each scene in keeping with the dramatic simplicity
of the people and events of the Bible.
The Bible was filmed in 70mm and DeLuxe Color.
90932
One of Japan’s foremost composers,
Toshiro Mayuzumi
was born in Yokohama, February 20, 1929.
He studied composition, harmony
and counterpoint, orchestration,
piano and conducting at the
Tokyo University of Art and Music,
from which he graduated cum laude.
He later received a scholarship
from the French government and studied
composition at Le Conservatoire de Paris.
He returned to Japan and pioneered
there in the field of contemporary music,
at the same time studying
traditional Japanese musical forms.
In 1960-61, Mayuzumi was awarded a grant
from the Ford Foundation
and spent six months studying
in New York and California.
Graphic Design by ARW Productions, Inc.
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