As a rule, I avoid reviewing non legitimate releases of scores, but for once I'd like to make an acception. After Jaws, but before Star Wars, John Williams was busy writing some impressive scores that are fairly unknown generally and perhaps the best of these is Black Sunday. This policical thriller staring Bruce Dern and Robert Shaw involves a Rambo style disenchanted ex-serviceman and Middle Eastern terrorists who set out to wreak havoc, culminating in an attempt to kill thousands of people at a football stadium using a bomb attached to a blimp. By all accounts this was a tense and gripping enterprise and one I shall endeavor to see at some point. If trying to pinpoint an overall style, the best comparison would be to the darker elements of Jaws from the previous year combined with not a small amount of Goldsmithian 70's thriller style. Indeed, some of the Williams bends the threatening, deep string shark material and turns it into perfect suspense and tension building music, albeit with a less primal and more sophisticated edge.
Whereas Jaws occasionally diverts us with some more jaunty material, Black Sunday makes no such allowances, this is a persistant and intense thriller, much of the sort that Jerry Goldsmith was producing at the time. There are still many obvious Williams mannerisms for the two composers to be mistaken, but this kind of gritty, terse score is not something that Williams does very often, at least in the years since Star Wars. The first half of the album alternates between turbulent, but not overbearing action cues and moments of suspense, but in the second half the music comes together more toward the exciting finale. The two versions of the Preparations Fugue certainly bring back fond memories of Williams' fugues for aforementioned shark film and sequel. It is certainly a form that works very well during a montage sequence with an end result - ie. the building of a cage for battle with a shark or for whatever preparations are required for a blimp bombing! There doesn't seem to be a huge difference between the two takes, but it is always interesting spotting the minor differences that a composer makes. From the fugue, Williams winds up the tension and action toward the inevitably explosive conclusion.
As far as I know, no legitimate release of the score is available which is a great shame since it's a score very much worth hearing. I am unsure as to the completeness of the version I have, but the sound is generally excellent and certainly no worse than any other score recorded around that time - it is often better sounding than the original (short) Jaws album. There are a few tracks which are only in mono, but I would hope that stereo masters for the entire score exist somewhere and I only hope that some enterprising company would be so good as to release it. Not a hugely famous film or often noted score, but one that deserves quite a high place in Williams' filmography, particularly as a great example of his film music mastery before Star Wars and subsequent success. If you want to hear a sampling, Silva's recent Close Encounters compilation has a 10 minute quite, performed pretty admirably that gives a good idea of what the score is like. It's also a great illustration of the edginess that Williams can really exert in his music when required. Here's hoping everyone gets to hear it eventually.
Rating ~ 
Total Time ~ 47:13