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The story of the filming of GREEN MANSIONS is a fascinating one. It was twenty-seven years from the first purchase of film rights by KING KONG's Merian Cooper and RKO in 1932 until the 1959 release by MGM of the film starring Audrey Hepburn as the "bird girl" of the South American jungle who could converse with wildlife in their own tongues.
Music for the film was to be provided by the Brazilian "folkloric" classical composer, Heitor Villa-Lobos. Apparently not fully appreciating the process or difficulty of matching music to film, he composed nearly his entire work in New York from a script "as if he had been writing a ballet or opera" (in the words of Miklos Rozsa). When he arrived in Hollywood with this work, he had yet to see the film. "Of course it didn't fit" (Jerry Goldsmith). The studio, anxious to avoid offending the Brazilian maestro, assured him that the music would be used but that it would have to be rearranged. Actually, veteran composer Bronislau Kaper was hired to take what he could from the Villa-Lobos music, invent what he must and fuse it all into a score which would be true to the spirit of the jungle as represented by the Brazilian.
Kaper borrowed a few of Villa-Lobos's melodies and wove them throughout his score opposite his own original "love theme". Short passages are snipped whole from the Villa-Lobos and used complete. Flutes and piccolos mimic bird calls as in Villa-Lobos's original. Most of the writing, however, is Kaper's alone - dreamy, colorful, romantic-impressionistic writing which beautifully complements the film and probably works better than Villa-Lobos's would have. Some of the music recalls Debussy's "Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun" or Ravel's Daphnis and Chloe. Finally at the film's conclusion, Kaper's love theme is done in "vocalise" reminiscent of Villa-Lobos's famous Bachianas Brasileiras Number 5.
Film Score Monthly has done a wonderful job with this CD release of the Kaper score. The 79 minutes of music sound just great and the 23-page insert booklet is filled with information on the history of the attempts to film the story, the involvements of Villa-Lobos and Kaper and a cue-by-cue description of the music with indications of who wrote what. I highly recommend it as one of 3-4 "must-have" Kaper scores.
PS. Villa-Lobos was, of course, not too pleased by MGM's decision to cut up his music, but all turned out well. He immediately set to work on it afresh, adding some new material and having lyrics written for four melodies which were turned into songs. That reworked version became the symphonic poem, FOREST OF THE AMAZON - his last major work. Anyone who likes this Kaper score should also have that. It is a tremendous stand-alone work.
