- Date: 1969
- Composer:
Leslie Bricusse - Period: Contemporary (1950- )
Review
With both music and lyrics by Leslie Bricusse, this 1969 film is director Herbert Ross' musical remake of director Sam Wood's 1939 black-and-white film with Robert Donat and Greer Garson; both pictures were based on James Hilton's 1934 novel. The plot follows the career of an initially shy and reserved Latin professor (Arthur Chipping nicknamed "Mr. Chips," played by Peter O'Toole) at an English boys' school who gradually learns to mix reasonable discipline with inspiring teaching techniques. But he really becomes popular with his young charges after a vacation when he meets and falls for an outrageously extroverted show girl (Katherine Bridges played by Petula Clark). She lifts his spirit and he starts cracking jokes in class. He learns from his students and also helps them both as teacher and morale-uplifter. The film follows Mr. Chips through the rest of his life including his wife's passing.Bricusse produced 18 excellent songs for this production which earned him an Academy Award nomination for Best Score of a Musical Picture.
"And the Sky Smiled" is a lyrical tune to be sung in a quasi rubato manner that flows with a remarkable elasticity, switching smoothly between duple and triple meters and between pitch modes (Phrygian, Dorian, chromatic) with rich harmonies. "Fill the World With Love" is a lovely haunting melody in the Mixolydian mode, with a hint of a Leonard Bernstein Candide-like atmosphere, that moves from the intimate, questioning ("was I brave and strong and true?"), and prayerful, toward a positive and repeated affirmation "to fill the world with love my whole life through." "Walk Through the World" is a love ballad built on descending arpeggios of velvety major seventh and ninth chords. The bridge has just the right amount of restrained minor key passion to make a fitting contrast with the major key main melody. "What a Lot of Flowers!" is a sumptuously modal tune with a simple, direct melody built mostly on arpeggiated major seventh and ninth chords. The bridge shifts momentarily into an Andalusian mode (the natural minor scale with a minor second) when describing "red roses, orange marigolds...indigo, lilac...," and then moves into the Dorian mode for "violets, violets." "You and I" is a love song about developing a life together ("We may never get to heaven, but it's heaven at least to try") and has a simplicity of melodic gesture that makes the tunes memorable and capable of being led by the singers into vivid personal interpretations. The end of the verse is a particularly well-developed emotional arch where the same melodic figure is repeated over harmonies that vary the tension toward a high point then smoothly back to a calm assurance. Other tunes include "Roll Call," "Would I Had Lived My Life Then," "Schooldays," "That's a Boy," "Where Did My Childhood Go?," "Boring," "Take a Chance," "When I Am Older," "The Miracle," "A Day Has a Hundred Pockets," "When I Was Younger," "Goodbye Mr. Chips," and "London Is London." ~ All Music Guide
Albums with Excerpt Performances of the Work
| Title | Date |
| Songs from the Silver Screen | 1998 |
