The Riddle of the Sands

Featuring Michael York, Simon McCorkindale, Francesca Annis, Alan Badel. Directed by Tony Maylam

Concert version of title see op.538

The long opening title sequence of the film lent itself to a song of some sort and Howard suggested a soprano and contralto chorus to sing a part-song with full orchestral accompaniment, rather in the classical period style of the early nineteen-hundreds. This was agreed with director Tony Maylam and Howard asked his friend and German literature expert Christopher Geer if he could write a period-style lyric in German describing the dawn and seascape in the North German islands where the film was shot.  He produced ‘Das Geheimnis des Sandes’ and Howard set and scored it. It was recorded at CTS Studios Wembley on 18th September 1978 by The John Alldis Singers with The National Philharmonic conducted by the composer. However a new and somewhat over-zealous voice-coach unfortunately started a totally irrelevant  argument in the studio about pronunciation and this made director Tony Maylam nervous. He requested that another version of the start and and titles be made without singers and this was the version that was finally adopted for the finished film. The vocal version can be heard however on CD AIRSTRIP ONE – the scores of Ridley Scott’s THE DUELLISTS and Tony Maylam’s THE RIDDLE OF THE SANDS