Music Composed & Conducted byBrian May

Music Studio AAV AustraliaEngineer Roger SavageMusic Assistant Russell Naughton

The Producers acknowledge the co-operation of

Val Pyers and the Melbourne Chorale

In their DVD commentary, neither producer Antony Ginnane or director Rod Hardy can recall which orchestra Brian May used. They think it might have been a mix of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra or the ABC Show Band, and they seem to think that the music was recorded in Sydney.

But the credits for Melbourne-based Roger Savage and AAV Australia would suggest it was done in Melbourne, as would the credit to Val Pyers for the contribution of the Melbourne Chorale. It's also likely that it was an orchestra rounded up for the occasion, using session musicians from assorted ABC-related orchestras.

Born 28th July 1934, Brian May began life in music studying piano, violin and conducting at the Elder Conservatorium in Adelaide. He joined the ABC in 1957, and formed the ABC Adelaide Big Band, and when he was 35, he moved to Melbourne to take charge of the ABC's Show Band there, making his radio debut with the band in 1969.

May started to record television underscore, most notably arranging and recording George Dreyfus's score for the ABC goldfields drama Rush.

May became interested in composing for feature films, and The True Story of Eskimo Nell was his first score. It also marked the beginning of a collaboration with director Richard Franklin, perhaps most successful in the 1977 thriller Patrick. In turn, this led to other film scores for producer Antony Ginnane, including Snapshot andThirst, and perhaps most importantly to the score for Mad Max (though cultists will have a soft spot for Turkey Shoot in 1982).

The story goes that Bryon Kennedy and director George Miller were convinced there was no one in Australia who could compose the score for their film, but when they were having dinner one evening with Franklin, Miller asked what Bernard Hermann score was playing on Franklin's stereo.

It turned out that it was May's score for Patrick, and so May got the gig. May would also do the score for the second Mad Max, but Universal preferred to go with Jerry Goldsmith when they gave the chance of making Psycho II to Franklin. May also lost to out Maurice Jarre for the third Max Max, and turned to writing the score for the TV mini-soap Return to Eden in 1986.

May did write a few more horror film scores, but his later titles were not as appealing as his early work.

His wiki is here, but at the time of writing, it failed to mention his first feature film score - an important step in his career. The wiki is also careless with chronology.

There is a sympathetic study of his work here in the form of an obituary.

(Below: composer Brian May)

A feature of the score is the choir, which is credited to Val Pyers and the Melbourne Chorale.

Val Pyers OAM founded the Melbourne Chorale, which in 1993 became the Victoria Chorale. The Victoria Chorale remains active and had anactive web site as of November 2013 here. The Chorale made a significant contribution to the chorale work in the score.

"In 1956 Pyers was appointed to the Yallourn High School, where he taught English and History. He soon became involved in the schools extra curricular music program, especially its annual production of a Gilbert and Sullivan opera," Ms Goulding said."In the same year, Val Pyers founded the Yallourn Madrigal Singers, a small group of gifted singers whose work soon earned them a loyal following in the Latrobe Valley as well as in Melbourne. It gives him much pleasure to know that the choir is still an active and important element in the musical life of the Valley."In 1965, Mr Pyers founded the Melbourne Chorale, and in 1993 left to form his present group, the Victoria Chorale. In its eight years of activity, the choir has become well known both in Melbourne and country Victoria," Ms Goulding added. (here)(Below: Val Pyers in 2006, and a story about him and the MelbourneChorale in The Age, 4th April 1983)

Cultists over the years have valued Brian May's score for Thirst. After his score for Snapshot, aka The Day After Halloween was released as an LP, it was rumoured that both Citadel and Varese Saraband would release the score for Thirst on LP. However the only version that went into print was a CD released by 1M1 CD 1003, which though rare can still be found for sale:

Main Title (3'26")Someoneʼs Watching (1'27")Full Cream Blood/The Brotherhood (4'05")The Blood Farm (3'07")Kate Escapes (3'56")Vampire Ceremony (2'23")Injected (2'39")Kate Hallucinates (2'40")Blood Shower/Kate As A Child (2'33")Evil Forces (1'50")Kate Gives In (2'14")Initiation Ceremony (3'57")Kate Thirsts (1'15")Dr Fraser Helps/End Titles (6'03")

Phillip Powers wrote this note for 1M1, where the disc is stilllisted for sale here, at a reasonable price:

Brian May wrote this spine-tingling score for a 1979 film that has hardly been heard of outside of Horror Film Festivals and film school clubs, and yet has not only some good horror moments, but some rather edgy,

suspenseful scenes as well and very good performances by David Hemmings and Chantal Contouri. Brian May's score, including a choir which moves from eerie and etheral, to chanting whispers like worshippers of the devil, is cleverly devised.

A small orchestra, of a few dozen players, builds palpable suspense and tension. For fans of Brian May, this is a definite 'must' to add to the collection; and for those who like film music in the fantasy genre, it will no doubt be enjoyed as well, in the style of scores like Pino Donaggio for films like Piranha and The Howling, and the numerous eerie horror scores Ennio Morricone has written. This score stands in its own right, however, when compared with other scores in the genre, and the film itself was directed by Rod Hardy who in recent years has become better known for directing some of the more unusual and stylised episodes of The X-Files.

Leonard Maltin may not have realised the effectiveness of the score to the film's success, but it is in large part to Brian May's music that he was able to write, "Strange, stylish, thoroughly chilling tale of secret society trying to brainwash Contouri and transform her into a baroness-vampire. Minimum of plot and characterization but maximum suspense in this well-directed shocker."