A Talk with composer Dolores Claman by John Mansell
© 2006/2008
John Mansell: You were born in Vancouver Canada; did you come from a family background that was musical?
Dolores Claman: My mother was a professional singer (Gilbert & Sullivan and other operettas).
John Mansell: What are your earliest recollections of being interested in music?
Dolores Claman: After giving up her career when she married my father, she still played and sang at home. I used to sit beside her on the piano bench and afterwards, would try to play some of her songs by ear.
John Mansell: What musical education did you receive?
Dolores Claman: Piano lessons from the age of 6 and then a Fellowship to the Juilliard Graduate School, where we took harmony and composition as part of our studies.
John Mansell: What was your first job as a musician/composer?
Dolores Claman: Playing piano at a down market Ballet School in Queens, New York and subbing in cocktail lounges while I was going to Juilliard. I also composed the ballet score ‘Reve Fantasque’ which won Montreal Ballet Festival. (Is that a job?)
John Mansell: I am sure it counts as a job. I understand that you came to London for a short period early on in your career where you worked on some songs for the West End theatres - what were these and what shows were they from?
Dolores Claman: Mostly musical revues: ‘Airs on a Shoestring’, ‘Fresh Airs’, ‘From Here And There’ and ‘Pieces of Eight’. Also production numbers for the ‘Talk of The Town’. Also a few TV Themes and some jingles.
John Mansell: I also understand that you met your husband Richard in London and after this returned to Canada where you were one of the founders of QUARTET PRODUCTIONS, how did this come about?
Dolores Claman: Richard had been working as a copywriter at an ad agency in London and joined a large Canadian ad agency in Toronto when we arrived. Because the work for theatre and TV was so sparse, we started a jingle business, which was very successful and later became Quartet Productions.
John Mansell: In 1971 you scored CAPTAIN APACHE was this your first full film score, and how did you become involved on this project?
Dolores Claman: I had written the score for a film starring Burl Ives, called variously HEART FARM/THE MAN WHO WANTED TO LIVE FOREVER/THE ONLY WAY OUT IS DEAD. It was shot in Canada. Also, the score and song for A PLACE TO STAND, which won an Oscar for a live short subject in 1968. I had also done scores for quite a few documentaries.
We were taking a long sabbatical in Madrid when Richard and another writer friend went to see Phil Yordan, the producer and Bernie Gordon, head writer of CAPTAIN APACHE and the other films in the series, about getting some work as scriptwriters. It turned out that they wanted a theme song or two for Lee Van Cleef, and it developed from there.
John Mansell: Staying with CAPTAIN APACHE, the star of the movie Lee Van Cleef sang the title song on the soundtrack. Who’s idea was it to get Van Cleef to do this - what was he like to work with and did you coach him for the performances?
Dolores Claman: As I understand it, after Lee Van Cleef heard Lee Marvin singing in PAINT YOUR WAGON, decided that he wanted to sing too. His wife, who was in Madrid with him, had been an opera singer, and encouraged him to have a go. We wrote 2 demos, thinking Yordan and Gordon would pick one, but they decided on both. To be honest, he wasn’t easy to work with. I think he felt out of his depths as a singer, and covered up by being difficult, which, of course, is not unusual. After 2 rehearsals with me on the piano, he said the piano made him sing out of tune, so a roving English guitar player was hired to be on the set and rehearse with Lee when he had a break. Funnily enough, his problem wasn’t so much about pitch, because we got him to speak a lot of the lyrics, but with the fact that he was “rhythm deaf” - not feeling where the phrase begins or ends, if you know what I mean. At the recording, the engineer had to cut up his tape and feed it into the proper places to match the orchestral accompaniment.
John Mansell: I am told that the songs in CAPTAIN APACHE were recorded in London. Was the main score also recorded in England or was this done in Spain?
Dolores Claman: No, they were recorded in Madrid. English speaking singers were very few and far between and not necessarily experienced, so we had to add a LOT of reverb. The score was also recorded in Madrid - but we had a very fine conductor/arranger, Pepe Nieto, with whom we worked on a lot of other projects before and after.
John Mansell: What size orchestra did you use on CAPTAIN APACHE?
Dolores Claman: Not a large orchestra, there was about 24 players as I remember.
John Mansell: On the score for CAPTAIN APACHE there is a piece of music just before Lee Van Cleef sings APRIL MORNING, this contains some whistling, it sounds very much like Alessandro Alessandroni. Did he perform on the soundtrack?
Dolores Claman: No, it wasn’t Alessandro? It was probably Antonio Areta, who sang bass in the backing track and whom we hired quite often when we needed a whistler. He was also a composer of Spanish jingles
John Mansell: The movie has something of a cult following nowadays, but at the time of its release it received some very unkind press, are you surprised that it is still popular now some 35 years on?
Dolores Claman: To be honest nothing surprises me nowadays.
John Mansell: I understand that your husband worked on BAD MAN’S RIVER. Were you involved in any way on this movie, and did you score any other Spanish or Paella westerns?
Dolores Claman: Richard was hired to write the lyrics. They had to use a Spanish composer because of co-production “points”. Actually he was a very good Argentinean born composer, but hadn’t a clue about barber shop quartets (these were used as a Greek Chorus to move the story along). So Richard, with a little help from me, actually wrote the melodies and sang them to the composer. I did some “covers” for another movie - but I can’t remember the name of the film.
John Mansell: Do you own the rights to your own music?
Dolores Claman: Most of it, but not film scores. Usually the production company gets the rights as publisher and can sell them on.
John Mansell: What would you say are the main differences between working in Spain and working in Canada and the UK?
Dolores Claman: In that era, it took a lot more time in the studio, particularly getting the brass right, but it was much less expensive. The musicians were really nice and if they arrived late, (which was usual) they made up the time later.
John Mansell: What composers would you say have influenced you?
Dolores Claman: Bach, Rachmaninov, Ravel, Gershwin, Bernstein, Ellington etc…
John Mansell: Do you orchestrate all of your own music, and do you conduct at all?
Dolores Claman: Conducting? NO, I can handle orchestrating a smallish score myself, but for a large one, I make very detailed sketches of the music on 3 or 4 staves, and work with an orchestrator. Saves a lot of time.
John Mansell: When you work on a film score or a TV score do you have a set way in which you approach the project, i.e. Main Titles through to End Titles, larger cues first or maybe tackle the smaller cues or musical stabs first?
Dolores Claman: Pretty much straight through - from Main Titles to End Titles - leaving out smaller cues and stabs for later.
John Mansell: There was a rumor recently that the songs from CAPTAIN APACHE had been issued during the 1970s on a single 45rpm record for members of the Lee Van Cleef fan club, do you know anything about this recording?
Dolores Claman: No, I don’t, but I’d love to get one, if it were issued.
John Mansell: What is your opinion of the state of film and TV music today, and are there any composers working in the cinema or for television that find particularly interesting or original?
Dolores Claman: There are many really interesting scores, though I am getting tired of wall to wall minimal electronic music and flashy stings. I think they’ve lost their excitement because of over-use.
John Mansell: Do you find it surprising that record companies want to issue your music from CAPTAIN APACHE onto CD, after all this time?
Dolores Claman: Yes. But I think there are a lot of Euro-Western fans who would be prepared to buy it.
John Mansell: What have you been working on recently?
Dolores Claman: Writing music and lyrics for ‘Cabaret’ songs. I like the challenge of telling a story in an oblique way. By the way, getting back to CAPTAIN APACHE - the line “He’s a Redskin in Cavalry Blue” was not ours, I’m happy to say. It was the contribution of one of the Associate Producers, so we had to go with it.
John Mansell: Many thanks to Dolores Claman for her co-operation and answering all of my questions.
[Many thanks to John Mansell for granting permission to post his interview. TB]
A very interesting article ...
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