Samaritan: The Mitch Snyder Story

Track Listing Legend:
* - Traditional, arr. Craig Safan

Dragon's Domain Records presents Samaritan: A Mitch Snyder Story, featuring music from the original score composed by Craig Safan for the 1986 television drama directed by Richard T. Heffron, written by Clifford Campion, starring Martin Sheen, Roxanne Hart, Joe Seneca, Stan Shaw, Cicely Tyson, James Avery, Guy Boyd, Janet Carroll, Brett Cullen and Conchata Ferrell.

Samaritan: A Mitch Snyder Story made its CBS broadcast debut on May 19th, 1986. The film is based on the true story of Mitch Snyder, a veteran of the Vietnam War and Washington crusader for the homeless. Working for the Community for Creative Non-Violence, Snyder became outraged at the number of homeless people who had been dumped on the Washington streets without shelter from mental institutions and other care facilities. Snyder and his supporters fought for the homeless, and before long, their tenacious campaign forced the issue into the national consciousness.

The music for Samaritan: A Mitch Snyder Story was composed by Los Angeles native Craig Safan and the assignment came during a hectic period for the composer, in between scoring episodes for The Twilight Zone, the feature film Remo Williams: The Adventure Continues, two episodes of Amazing Stories, the National Geographic documentary, Secrets of the Titanic and another feature film, Lady Beware.

Safan's music for Samaritan: A Mitch Snyder Story was performed by a small orchestra. According to the composer, "I probably had about 35 musicians for Samaritan, a beautiful little orchestra with a nice string section, a solo trumpet, and one horn. I didn't need a lot of woodwinds, so I had one of each woodwind because they're almost always solo. And then I gave it a warm string sound because real strings have such a beautiful feeling when you hear them." The trumpet parts were played by Malcolm McNab, who played first trumpet on the composer's score for The Last Starfighter and would go on to play on many legendary film scores for composer John Williams and others. Safan's score is built on two themes that filter through the storyline. The first is subtly higher in tempo, while the other is moodier, possessing more tension as it maintains a slow build. Each is used purposefully as the drama unfolds. In addition, the composer chose to incorporate the use of Protestant hymns. The composer considers this score to be his favorite of his television film projects.

Dragon's Domain Records presents the premiere release of Samaritan: A Mitch Snyder Story on compact disc, featuring Craig Safan's music mastered by James Nelson of Digital Outland. The booklet contains liner notes written by author Randall Larson and includes comments from the composer.