The following are excerpts from orchestrator John Morgan's reconstruction notes for the new Marco Polo complete recording of Max Steiner's 1933 score King Kong.

In preparing the music for this new recording of Max Steiner's classic score King Kong, three primary sources were consulted and utilized. First, the music's original audio components, including the complete mixed soundtrack of the original film, acetates of some of the music, and a few recently-discovered optical music stems containing several additional cues. Secondly, the surviving full scores, and thirdly (and most important), Steiner's original annotated sketches, which contain every note he composed for this film.

Sound recording in the early thirties was in its infancy and the limited range of recording reproduction and the under-built orchestras then in use did have negative results such as certain string lines being swallowed up by the brass and percussion, inadequate bass reproduction, and some instruments (particularly woodwinds) having a weak reproductive quality -- especially in the middle register. To partly compensate for these anomalies, Steiner always reinforced the bass line (primarily with two Tubas), and often had up to four saxophones playing woodwind parts, as they recorded with more fidelity and strength. Because of Steiner's legitimate background in music, he generally wrote acoustically (meaning the proper balance of orchestral instruments was written into the music, rather than just turning up a particular microphone), but he quickly learned and adapted to compensate for the idiosyncrasies of recording and used it to his advantage.

There is one cue, and part of an other one that never made it into the final film. The Little Monkey Escapes [Index #6] was originally composed for a sequence detailing Ann and Charlie, the Chinese cook. While they are standing quietly at the ship's railing, Charlie's pet monkey breaks free of his leash and starts running around the deck with everyone but Ann in pursuit, segueing into the familiar "Ann's kidnapping" music (The Forgotten Island). This sequence was completely refilmed (probably to play up the budding romance between Ann and Jack Driscoll), necessitating Steiner to compose a completely new cue.

For this recording, we end the unused cue at the segue point, and continue Forgotten Island where it is in the actual film - as part of Sea at Night [Index #7). Secondly, the first part of Elevated Train Sequence (Index #20) was to include a brief montage of the busy New York streets before Kong's entrance. This montage was removed (as was the music), bringing Kong into the proceedings much faster. After the film was spotted (the term applied to deciding where music will come in and out of a picture), Steiner's method of scoring was to write the music continuously from start to finish of a given section. Many of his cues run ten minutes or more, and since all the reel changes were not yet locked in, he often had to find places in the music to restart a cue for a new reel after the music was composed and orchestrated.

For this recording, our goal was to be as authentic to Steiner's original sketches and intentions as possible, but without the compromises necessitated by budget and sound limitations of the period. At the same time, I didn't want to lose that certain quirky, individual sound the Kong score is known for. Therefore, I retained the use of saxophones and double tuba parts, as well as other peculiarities of instrumentation. Because of the wide dynamic range of this digital recording, I re orchestrated the score from top to bottom in order to maintain a consistency of instrumentation with the somewhat audacious intention of doing it the way Steiner would have if he had the time to orchestrate the music himself, with a full symphonic orchestra and modern recording techniques at his disposal.

It is our hope that this recording will not only please the many fans of King Kong and its music, but will also be a satisfying and enjoyable musical experience on its own. Every effort was made to insure authenticity to Max Steiner's original concepts and desires.

John Morgan