I keep reading that the music used in The Witch's Tale is "Orgie and the Spirits" by Leginski. However, I seem to be able to find nothing regarding either that piece of music or the composer based upon those spellings. If anyone has any additional information in this regard, I would appreciate hearing from you.
By the way, I apologize for my months' long absence. All I can say is that being employed sometimes gets in the way of fun stuff like this.
I commented here some years ago on this subject. What I wrote then seems now to have disappeared.
ReplyDeleteAs to the composition itself and it's composer, the mystery is solved. What is not, however, is the pianist's identity who made the recording per se, for the creepy Witch's Tale introduction.
The correct titling of this work of Alexander Ilyinski's (1859-1920) is "Orgie des Espirits" for the French; "Orgie der Geister" für den Deutschen; Orgy of the Spirits for the English and having been published first in Russia naturally would have been in Cyrillic thus -- Оргия духов.
With regard to our subject, Wikipedia on it's page for this composer, offers this following:
"Orgy of the Spirits, an excerpt from The Fountain of Bakhchisaray, was used in the scores of the film East of Java (1935) and the adventure serials Tim Tyler's Luck (1937) and Flash Gordon's Trip to Mars (1938). It was also used as the theme music for the radio serial The Witch’s Tale."
Read all about it here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Ilyinsky
Christopher at this site/page, has much to add to the subject of our composition and it's usage:
http://www.unsungcomposers.com/forum/index.php?topic=507.0
A tasty sample as come from his pen:
"There is known to be another recording of one of Ilyinsky's works: "Orgy of the Spirits" (which is another part of the Noure et Anitra Suite) was recorded by Universal Studios for use in some of their 1930s films, as I found on the following 2 websites: . . ."
Go there and you can read them, plus much more.
"Unknown," we have still the annoying question re the pianist as executant. I've no idea from whence your "Leginski" came but, a hazarded guess would be that, somewhere/somehow composer Ilyinski got mixed up with . . . drum-roll . . . cymbal-crash . . . ETHEL LEGINSKA!!
Now, have we evidence as-in "knowledge certain and true"? No but, she was there at the time; her name was mostly recounted by yourself AND she was a crack-virtuoso pianist who was famously very quirky plus, being in that same area in that era. (Being myself a long-time accumulator of recordings of pianists of greater than lesser renown, I can assure you whoever it was truly who waxed that Witch's Tale intro, was way-more than an ordinary studio pianist. It was a technique nearly second to no other.
As to the proposed mixing, Christopher offert too this insight:
"Life is not helped by the fact that Ilyinsky (Ильинский) can also be transliterated from the Cyrillic as Ilinsky, Ilinski, Ilynsky, Iljinsky, Iljinskiy, Iljinskij, Ilinskiy, Ilynskiy, Ilyinsky, Ilyinskiy, etc etc….making internet searches quite complex!"
Excellent. How true!
Also, to add yet-more excitement to this ending witch's tale, is the fact that I possess a photograph of Ms. Leginska appearing very, VERY WITCHY! It's all there except for the heard-cackling! (If poor Emerson -- her first and only remains of a husband -- had been shown it, surely he would have agreed with my naughty little character attribution?)
Well, short of getting hold-of an actual shellac of the supposed Leginska waxing, that should put both mysteries to more-or-less-rest nicely.
JMM