Intrada Soundtrack Forum

INTRADA Presents:



SIR GAWAIN AND THE GREEN KNIGHT
Music Composed and Conducted by RON GOODWIN
INTRADA Special Collection Vol. 196

For the 1973 MGM film Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, British composer Ron Goodwin composed an exciting, mysterious and highly colorful symphonic fantasy. In acknowledgment of the story’s period setting, there is some small-group writing highlighting guitar, mandolin and solo lines for trumpet and oboe. And while not authentically medieval in the historical sense, they do convey a charming “medievalism” which resonates with popular
imagination. The brunt of the score, however, is robustly orchestral, with plenty of forceful dramatic writing for brass and strings. Goodwin furnishes an abundance of thematic ideas to accompany Gawain on his quest. The music here is destined to thrill and enchant, but that's a common experience when listening to the music of Ron Goodwin.

In the preparation of this 2-CD set featuring the complete music for Sir Gawain And The Green Knight, Intrada was given access to the original ¼˝ two-track stereo masters made at Anvil Studios and retained by the composer. Under his own baton, Goodwin recorded over an hour of music at Anvil Studios in February 1973, with Eric Tomlinson as his engineer.

Of all the tales of King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table, the story of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is surely among the strangest and most vivid. In it, a mysterious figure rides into Camelot: a bearded giant of a man, bearing a grim axe; his clothing and entire person colored a shocking, supernatural green. When he throws down his challenge—to allow any knight a blow at his unguarded neck, if they will allow him to repay in kind—only Gawain is bold enough to accept. To the young knight’s dismay, beheading scarcely slows down the fearsome figure; Gawain is given a year to prepare himself, and charged to seek the green chapel that is the mysterious warrior’s home.

INTRADA Special Collection Vol. 196
Retail Price: $24.99
Available Now
For track listing and sound samples, please visit
http://store.intrada.com/s.nl/it.A/id.7474/.f