23 October, 2010

Let me get this straight, Fiver...

Last Friday I exposed my 11-year-old housemate to what is essentially the whole of my childhood- Watership Down. My sister and I had a game, we would name a line in the movie and the other would have to give the next line.  The loser either couldn't name the next line, or named the wrong line.  (The script, by the way, can be found here.)  That should give you an idea of how many times we watched that movie.  A lot.  And yes, on a few occasions we did manage to recite the entire movie from memory, a feat that I am sure I could repeat today.  Oh yes, and the lines also included the heavily-accented cockney spoken by the human characters at the start of the movie and during the farmhouse scene. 
I was glad to share this experience with my current foster family, as well as fill them in on any lines that they missed (and explain the Warren of the Shining Wire, which I don't think that the movie did a few good job of covering, we can't all be perfect.)  While watching this movie for an iteration that I am sure went into the triple digits, I was struck by how lovely the score was, one aspect of the movie that I had never really highlighted as one of it's charms.  Anyway, I got to thinking how nice it would be to be able to do a sort of medley on the flute.

Anyway, a quick search of "Watership Down Score" showed that no such was available.  No score is for sale.  The soundtrack is also out of print and very pricey.  I figured that I could pick it out myself, but I have a lousy ear and plus I wanted to have the option of piano accompaniment.  Anyway, just when I was about to give up, I found someone who shared the thing.  I got a copy, and I will start to work on a flute solo transposition straightaway, but first I thought that I would share it here:

Download a version of the Watership Down score.

It's not the actual score, I think that someone had my idea of putting together a medley, but they did it with a full orchestra.  Anyway, if you, like so many others, have been searching, enjoy!  And please leave a comment about the book, movie, or the score, as both are truly amazing.  (The TV show sucked however.)  If you haven't heard of this and would like to check it out, then use one of the links below as I get money from Amazon when people buy off my site.

And remember: "What is, is what must be."

1 comment: