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Music Film A History
Music Film A History
FILM MUSIC
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ISBN 1-903047-63-3
2 4 6 8 10 9 7 5 3 1
Acknowledgements
Glen Aitken, Steve Bartek, Jonathan Broxton, James Cox, Paul
Duncan, Keiron Earnshaw, Robin Esterhammer, Michael
Giacchino, Rudy Koppl, Ian Lace, Geoff Leonard, Paul Lewis,
Dick Lewzey, Carl Ogawa, Matthew Peerless, Steve Race,
Deanne Scott, Elliot Thorpe, Robert Townson, Michael Voigt,
Mark Walker, Debbie Wiseman, the British Academy Of Composers And Songwriters, Garrett Axford Public Relations And
Marketing, Mum, Dad, and all the directors/composers who
have inspired my writing.
As much to the crew of the Enterprise, I owe you my thanks.
CONTENTS
reco rds an au dience reaction that w as cas ually ind ifferent to the experience.
Th e followin g y ear the studios sig ned the Big Five Agreement to delay the
in trodu ction of synchro nised so und until they agreed on one sys tem and
were confid en t o f its us efu lness . Fortu nately they were almo st immediately
reas sured o n all counts. M ere mon ths later, Warner again made histo ry with
th e words Yo u aint h eard n oth ing y et bursting fro m Al Joh nson in The
Jazz Sin ger (192 7). It was a s traightforward demo nstration o f simple microph one placemen t, bu t it laid the gaun tlet fo r the in dustry. Wh ile d irectors
like Alfred Hitchcock langu ish ed in attempts to h ide reco rding eq uipment in
flo werp ots fo r Blackmail (19 29), the idea of a fully s ynchron ised talkie
was s uddenly po ssible and d es irable. It s eems inconceivable today that
Leon ardo DiCaprio and Kate Win slet might have b een left mo uthing sweet
no things w hile a screencard interrupted to ann ounce: Iceberg , roigh t
ahead!
Classical pieces were the easies t musical ap plication with sou nd techn olog y in p lace. At th e s tart of Un iversals reign o f h orror greats, Bela Lugo sis
Dr acula (19 31) benefited from the s oulfu l strain s of Tchaik ovsk ys Swan
Lake. Some studio s went a step furth er and asked con temp orary class ical
compos ers to write pieces to be ad ded later. Stravinsky an d Hols t both
work ed o n s cores that never s aw the ligh t of d ay, but Sho stako vich graduated from years as an improvisin g pian ist to being as ked to write something
to perfo rm alo ngside New Ba bylon (1 929). T hen he scored A lone (19 30),
which was h is n ative Russ ias first soun d film.
The real turnin g point came co urtesy of Austrian-born Max Stein er,
affectionately dub bed the Father of Film Mu sic. He arriv ed in Hollywo od
at the end o f a s treak of M usicals , which were one way the ind ustry had
emb raced the use of s ound . At the start of th e 3 0s there w as still a co mmonly held con cern that cinema au diences wou ldnt u nderstan d where a full
musical underscore wou ld b e comin g from. It to ok the bravery of RKO produ cer David O. Selznick to get past that and instru ct Steiner to co mpo se one
for Symph ony Of Six M illion (19 32). Th e result sh ook those no tio ns apart
and almos t immediately led to th e creation of mus ical departments within
th e majo r stu dio s. As res ident musical director o f RKO for several years
(before moving onto Warn ers ), he had his pick of projects . It was his King
Kong (1 933) that s ign ified the dawn o f a n ew era. Wh en ev er thanked by
admirers fo r in venting film mus ic, Steiner wo uld brus h co mpliments away
and point them in the direction of late German roman tic co mp oser Richard
Wagn er (whos e work had ap peared in film as early as 19 15 with The Birth
Of A Nation). In his op inion Wag ner would hav e been the fo remost film
compos er. All of which is in referen ce to the leitmotif th e idea o f linking
th e appearan ces of a p ers on, place, or thin g togeth er with a recurring mu sical p hras e. It may seem commonplace an d commo n s en se to day, but for
film it began with Kon g. T he apes th ree-note motif is as simple an idea as
Jo hn Williams wou ld later create for Jaws . We feel and fear h is p resen ce
when not actually on screen becau se of this mo tif. We su spend dis belief for
th e sto p-motion pup pet because of its p ower an d no bility. Its importance for
th is film, an d the craft from then on cann ot be s tressed en ough . It gave
licen ce for the opening of a film to featu re a mus ical overture introducing
principal themes. It also meant a brief repris e cou ld accompany the au diences exit, b ack in a Go lden Ag e when th ere were no long lis ts o f names to
read .
10
11
refers to u p to a dozen names. Where Steiner is seen to have been influenced, co urtesy of Flynns career, is in th e style ins tig ated b y fellow
Viennese compos er, Erich Wolfgang Ko rn gold.
Captain Blo od (19 35) lau nched Ko rngolds and Flynns careers and als o
in itiated a new generation o f adventure epics . His style is characterised by
furio usly fast action music domin ated b y b rass , and aching ly bittersweet
lo ve themes domin ated by strings . Its a robu st statement of regal grandeur
combin ed w ith p as sio nate ro mance (in both senses ). The Adventu res Of
Ro bin Hoo d (1938 ), The Private Lives Of Eliza beth And E ssex (19 39) and
The Sea Ha wk (194 0) all carry the style. Wh en John Williams was asked for
a particular s ound in the 70s , it w ould be to these that d irector George Lucas
wou ld tu rn fo r inspiration . Place the main titles of Korngo lds Kings Row
(194 2) next to Sta r Wars (197 7), and you have o ne of the most ob viou s
examples o f stylis tic inheritance. When y ou con sid er h ow much the Sta r
Wa rs trilogy has in tu rn influenced cinematic trend s, Korngo lds s ign ificance sho uld be very apparent. The amazing th ing is he o nly scored a to tal
of 1 6 films, yet these core swashb ucklers affected the careers o f ev ery co mpo ser who follow ed suit.
Alfred Newman w orked on man y co stume ep ics in an enormous career
sp an nin g almost 2 50 s co res . In the immediate wake of the adv en ture epics
po pularity he prod uced Th e Ma rk Of Zorro (1 940), S ong Of Fur y (19 42),
The Black Swa n (19 42), Captain From Cas tile (1947 ), and Pr ince Of Foxes
(194 9) to name only a few. Apart fro m s ustainin g the sy mph onic soun d,
Newman is also respo nsible for so meth ing else Star War s owes a d eb t of
th an ks to. His 20 th Centu ry Fox fanfare h as never seemed more at ho me
th an in p recedin g the s pace trilog y. It was co mp osed du ring h is p erio d as
Head of th e s tudios mus ic departmen t. Like Steiner at RKO, the position
in volved collating co mp osers, instru mentalists, orchestrators and tech nicians togeth er u nder one roof. All this was in ad dition to writing his o wn
scores, where something in the string writing often s ugges ted a religiou s
sp irituality (altho ugh h e w as in fact a non-practicing Jew). In cond uctin g, he
wou ld encourage a great d eal of ex pression an d v ibrato (exaggerated wobble) in the string performan ces. His score to The So ng Of Berna dette (19 43)
came after a long line of s ucces sful work s where th is particu lar s ound can
be h eard, such as : The Pr iso ner of Zenda (1 937), Th e Hurr icane (19 37),
Wuth er ing H eights (1939 ), The Hun ch back Of Notre Dame (193 9), and
12
How Green Was My Valley (19 41). With Ber nad ette however came a turning
po int that touched many things simultaneously.
Res earching th e imp ortant scen e o f a v ision of the Virg in M ary, N ewman
hit upon wh at epitomises his imp res sio nistic s tyle. As op posed to Steiners
more specific leitmotifs, Newman instead drew fro m the mood an d requiremen ts of scenes. The res ult o f th e impress ions comin g together for this
score was an Academy Award, and so meth ing almos t completely unheard of
even as late as the 4 0s: an albu m of th e dramatic underscore. Up to this
po int, it wasn t p oss ible for anyon e to be a s ound track collector. So me
vagu e no tio n of usin g popu lar s ongs in unison w ith a mo vie had begun in
th e Silent era. Th e n otion g rew w ith the su ccess of Dis neys Snow Wh ite
An d The Seven Dwar ves (193 8), which deman ded there be an album o f its
sing-alon g s ongs . Disney w ould also be the first to call an album an Original So undtrack w ith Pin occh io (19 40). Yet no thin g un til th is p oin t actually
deserved that title, becaus e they were all new recordings and no t taken from
what was used in th e film its elf. The S ong Of Berna dette was an importan t
in dication that th ere was a p ublic demand for film music on record.
Ano ther o f Newman s legacies is the family he left to carry o n the go od
work . Brothers Emil and Lionel became Hollywo od compo sers , with the
latter taking o ver as Head of Fox Mu sic when Alfred moved on . Working
to day are h is two so ns David (Bill And Teds E xcellen t Adventure an d G alaxy Q uest) an d T homas (The S hawsha nk Redemption and American
Beau ty), and his neph ew Rand y (The Na tur al and Toy Stor y).
13
14
15
sent back a reply to say h ed ans wer that when s omeon e exp lained wh ere
th e cameras were. As a resu lt, th e scoring duties went to Hug o Friedh ofer.
His style mig ht not neces sarily accord with the swash buckling definition of
bein g G olden Age, yet La ura , The Ad ventures Of Sherlock Holmes (19 39),
Fo rever Amb er (1947 ) and Th e B ad And Th e B ea utiful (1 952) all poss es s
so me of the mo st pleasin gly memorab le melodies of th eir time.
Among st thes e essential years of career composers defining th e Golden
Age with their prolific o utpu t, there were several in dividual co ntrib utions to
be con sid ered. Since so much sto ck is placed in the Academy Awards these
days , its worth mentioning that the first Oscar ceremo ny too k place in
19 35. The Best M usic Sco re categ ory was wo n by Victor Schertzing er and
Gus Kahn for O ne Nigh t Of Love. Schertzing er was also the films director
and his so ng-writing talent mad e a star o ut of Grace Moo re with Ciri-BiriBin. Th e films music was largely an exercise in makin g popu lar the rarefied w orld o f opera, so its interesting to note how right from the s tart d ramatic und ers co re went ign ored by th e Academy. M ax Steiner was
no minated for Th e Lost Patrol over a lis t o f nearly thirty o ther films he
work ed on in th e s ame year, and also over a similarly bus y Alfred Newman.
Perh ap s fin ding its feet for a few years, th e Acad emy g radu ally made
amen ds ack nowled gin g Steiner in 193 6 (Th e Informer ), Ko rn gold in 19 37
(Anthony Ad vers e), and Newman in 1939 (A lexander s Ragtime Ban d) when
th e category was opened out in to three for Original Score, Scoring, and
Song .
Being a Hollywo od v en ture, the Os cars at th at time co uld nt help bu t
ov erlook what was happening els ewhere in the world. In E nglan d, Sir
Arth ur Bliss wrote what is cons idered a major lan dmark in film scorin g with
Thin gs To Come (193 6). For this first fu lly realised cinematic science fiction
(based on H.G. Wells no vel), th e ambitiou s piece was largely written b efore
th e film was made. As such, th e th ree 7 8-rpm reco rds cant qu alify as d ramatic und ers co re to be the first of its kin d releas ed . The cen tral March was
almost immediately divorced from th e film anyw ay and became a concert
hall favourite.
A similar fate often befell the s co res of con temp orary class icists w ho
were cajoled, if only briefly, in to the cinematic limelight. Two more En glis h
compos ers to make fleetin g Go lden Ag e cameos were Ralph Vau ghan Williams whos e Sco tt Of The Anta rctic (1 948) is far b etter k nown as his Seventh Symphon y, and Sir William Walto n who se Shakespearian adaptation s
16
of Henr y V (1943 ) and Hamlet (1947 ) have often been recorded and p erformed as concert s uites . In America, Aaron Copland s directn es s an d folk
tu ne s en sibility led to a handful o f film s cores that made s en se of the word
American a mo re than an y other. Our Town (194 0) is th e quintess en tial portrait of small-town USA, and has been emu lated ever sin ce. Brassy fanfares,
simp le harmonics, and p atriotic prid e were the s taples of his music for both
concert stag e and s creen, and were the perfect fuel for th e nation entering
WWII (especially his non -filmic piece Fan fare For The Commo n Man ).
Sergei Pro kofievs as tonishingly po werful Alexa nder Nevsky (1938 ) was
another example of war propaganda in spiring great cinema. L ike comrade
Shos takov ichs earlier w orks, the Russian epic wasn t wid ely seen in America at the time. The music b ecame far mo re internatio nally familiar in edited
form as a cantata (larg ely vo cal work) for perfo rmance, as op posed to
again st d irector Serg ei Eisensteins awe-insp irin g visuals . Th e 2 visionaries
re-united in 194 2 for the only s lig htly less breathtaking Ivan The Terrible.
Prokofiev s en ergetic tempos coupled with affecting use o f wordles s v oices
may h av e been u nappreciated in its time. It has mo st definitely been red iscovered and paid homag e to in the work of contemporary A-list Hollywo od
compos ers h owever. For example, several of Dann y Elfman and J ames Horners works are rich er thanks to the pairin g of Prokofiev with Eisenstein.
Th ey have had their o wn g reat comp oser/director relationsh ips , as we sh all
see later. This rare working metho d has always produ ced the very best in
film mu sic, an d with no more g littering ly obvious res ults than in the career
of o ne of th e g reatest arch itects of cinemas Go lden Ag e.
The name Bernard Herrmann today comes almost inseparable from
Alfred Hitchcocks. T here was well over a decade of cinema from th e co mpo ser before th ey got together thoug h. A t the very start w as a collaboration
th at had just as pro fo und an effect on the ind ustry. Herrmann had been
work ing w ith Orson Welles for so me time already in radio (think War Of
The World s), w hen Ho lly wood beckoned . Togeth er they crafted the univ ersally accep ted masterpiece that is Citizen Kan e (1 941). Above all others,
Herrmann was the on e compo ser w ho trans cend ed the Ages . No genre of
film was closed to him. He wo uld later tack le a new form o f the swash buckling adventure epic when the fantasy genre was re-invented for mo nster
flick s featuring Ray Harry hausens s top -motion animation such as Jas on
An d Th e A rgona uts (1 963). Yet when faced w ith an indu stry almos t
entrenched in a unifo rm approach to film scoring at th e s tart of the 40s, H er-
17
rman n typically chose to fly in the face o f conv en tio n. The mus ic o f Kane
covers n ew sreel pastiche, an op eratic ex tract, a homely dialo gue scene sp un
acro ss a montag e o f years, an d plen ty of the brooding turmo il characterising
Charles Foster Kane. T he film opens with an explo rative jo urney around the
Xanadu man sion . Th ough darkly lit, it co uld jus t b e a For Sale promo were
it n ot fo r th e guttural brass co mbinin g w ith sighin g and moanin g wo odwinds. In o ne fell swoop , Herrmann to ok the Go lden Age style and applied
it in a shocking n ew way. This was a score for atmosp here.
From the very beginn ing s of h is career, a dark co lour s haded his w ritin g.
In many o f the films he is more pop ularly know n for, th is colour h elped
with the setting an d pre-empting of atmo sph eres. A superb example is Cape
Fear (196 2), w hich was more vis cerally interpreted fo r a modern audien ce
in 19 91 by M artin Sco rsese. Elmer Bernstein adapted the orig inal score for
th e new version. In both it makes fo r a ch illing ride o f terror in the M ain
Titles alo ne. Dark colours were particular to H errman n, b ut co pied by o thers in ch aracterising s omeon es un spok en psycho log ical state (coining the
term Herrmann es que). Simplicity and economy were evid en t in his score
pages, an d as David Rak sin o nce put it, Benny w as a g enius with the repeat
sign. Man y o f h is score pages had the appearance of small cells of mu sic
endlessly falling back on themselves. Non e of this is to say that he revo lutionised music, but he rev olu tio nised its relation ship to the s creen.
Thro ugh the rest of th e decade, H errman n wo rk ed on films that indulged
his musical an d priv ate personality. His 194 2 Os car for All That Money Can
Bu y (a.k.a. The Devil And Daniel Webster) was th e o nly time hed be
ho noured by the Academy, an d w as really in apo logy for not being ab le to
acknow ledge th e politically incorrect Ka ne. The p ro ject was a 1 9th Century
tellin g of the tale o f Faus ts pact with the dev il, and this combination o f p sychological complexity in a his torical settin g suited the co mpo ser p erfectly.
The Ma gnificent Ambers ons (1942 ), Jane Eyre (1943 ), Han gover S quare
(194 5), An na And Th e King Of Sia m (19 46), and Po rtra it Of Jen nie (19 48)
all followed w ith similarly imp res sive resu lts . The Gh ost And Mrs . Muir
(194 7) was his favourite score h owever, summing up every thing Herrmann
wanted to s ay. With th e earlier Jane Eyre, hed fou nd a very person al identification with a time and place. It in spired h im to write his only opera (Wu thering H eights), and it thrilled him to further apply his g othic extravagances
and poetic morbid ities to wh at was really a co mp an ion piece in the gh ostly
tale of Muirs Gull Cottag e. T here are legend ary s tories abo ut Herrmanns
18
gruff irascible manner, but non e surroun d this project. His preoccupation
with solitu de and death are all realis ed in a lyrical b acking fo r th e roman ce
betw een G en e Tierney an d Rex H arris ons gho stly sea cap tain. M ore than in
any oth er of his s cores , Herrmann mak es us e of the leitmotif. Galloping
woo dwin ds pull the tides, clarinets offer nautical whimsy for Captain
Gregg, and s tring s defin e the d oomed lo ve affair. He p layfully referred to it
as his Max Steiner score, thereby acknowledgin g the Golden A ge style in
us e arou nd h im.
19
or even Herrmanns th eremin-rich The D ay The Ear th Stood Still (19 51),
and the w aters get mud dy b ecaus e their sty le leans toward what is d ifferentiated as being Silver A ge. Wh at are being referred to , therefore, are sty les
of music as opp osed to strict timeframes.
The Gold en Ag e style h as never gone away. It has enjo yed s everal period s of renewed favou r. Yet in the 5 0s, record indu stry chang es, th e loo ming
advent of rock n roll, and es pecially w ith television mo nopo lis ing au diences, the orchestral fo rm w as politely asked to take a sid es tep for o thers to
try their h an d.
20
3. Anything Goes
If Gold en Age was tough to d es cribe, Silv er Ag e is even more so. No
later Bronze Age has been id en tified , so p erhaps this second era never really
ended. Silver is a descrip tio n of a particular area of musical sty le clearly differen t from Gold en . The wo rd Age is again mis leadin g, because th e distinction between the tw o is no thing to d o with an y start or stop in time. Fo r the
pu rp oses of chapter break down ho wever, its a happy fact this changeover
happ en ed over a measu rable number of years.
M ovin g in to the 50 s, s ev eral cinematic trends en joy ed a period of fav our
th at encouraged compo sers to find new means of express ion. Film Noir had
appeared in the 4 0s, and as previously mentioned, M ax Steiner helped Bogart immens ely. Th ere were also s ome in ventively dark humoured scores
coming out of Lond ons Ealing Stud ios : Pas spo rt To Pimlico (Georges
Auric) and Kin d Hearts And Coron ets (adapting M ozart for murder) in
19 49, and later for Aurics The La vend er Hill Mob (195 1) and Tristram
Cary s The Ladykillers (1 955). An y trend originatin g from with in the ind ustry could only ho pe to affect s mall chang e at this time. Cin ema as a wh ole
was reeling far hard er fro m an ou tside attack the increasing popu larity of
telev ision.
Exp eriments had been cond ucted all o ver the world , notably in the 20s by
Jo hn Lo gie Baird in Lon don an d Charles Fran cis J en kins in North America.
It took u ntil the 30 s for the pu blic to cau tio usly show interest. While 4 00
sets in th e New York area were receiving broadcasts from the Natio nal
Broadcas tin g Company (NBC) in 1 939, there were many tens of th ousand s
more in Eng land receiving from the British Broadcasting Comp an y (BBC).
All o f which h ad an enormo us impact o n cinema attendance. The o utbreak
of World War II had an even bigger impact for d ifferent reas ons of course,
and resu lted in television p ro duction in America s top ping alto gether. It only
allowed for a temp orary resu rgence of interest in the big screen thou gh. A
po st-war economic b oom 6 y ears later meant th at sales of telev ision s ets
su ddenly soared. T he US figures goin g in to the 50s are truly as tou ndin g.
Th e n umb er o f h ome s ets went fro m aroun d 700 0 sets in 19 46, to 10 million
in 195 0, to 22 millio n in 1952 , then half of all American ho mes just one
year later. Cinema attendance figures drop ped in almos t direct prop ortio n.
Add the fact th at b oth CBS and NBC anno unced they were d ev eloping
colo ur television at the end of the 40 s, Hollywoo d cons idered itself in seri-
21
ou s trouble. Stud ios therefore racked their brains for ways to encourage
audiences back into movie th eatres. Their overall answer remains the same
to this day, and thats to spend obs cene amounts of money on bigger sp ectacle.
It didn t take long to rush the technology into place, an d s o in 19 52 This
Is Cineram a app eared with a cu rved s creen six times no rmal size. It w as a
travelo gue o f the w onders of th e ag e, opening with a black and w hite miniscreen reminder of TV d imen sion s, and th en exploding into colo ur for a
po int of view ro llercoaster ride. Th e mu sic was des igned to be just as awein spiring to remin d v iewers h ow their televis ion s so litary sp eaker paled in
compariso n. Original music was credited to Howard Jack son, Pau l Sawtell,
and Ro y Web b. M usical Director Louis Forbes had M ax Stein er secretly
compos e th e great majority o f th e grand orchestral w ork however. He was
un der con tract to Warner Brothers at the time, but didn t w an t to mis s the
op portu nity to wo rk on yet another hig hly in fluential p ro ject. That same
year, Un iversal unv eiled 3-D with Bwana Devil. Victo r Yo ung had to w ait
for a b roader can vas for Cecil B. DeMilles Os car-win ning The Greates t
Sh ow O n Ear th, wh ich was a year early for Paramoun ts VistaVision. He did
kn ock em d ead later with the introd uctio n of TOD D-AO 7 0mm and
Aro und The World In Eighty D ays th ough .
Golden Remnants
In 19 53 th e real prize for in novation wen t to 2 0th Century Foxs CinemaScope fo rmat (it won a special award O scar for adv ancement in film techno logy ). Fo x mad e the decision to apply it only to films th at would truly
benefit from it. Premiering the garg an tuan screen ratio was The Ro be, a
su mp tuou sly s caled tellin g of Christs life fro m the perspective o f Richard
Burton s Roman trib une. Alfred Newmans score, lik e The So ng O f B er nadette, was an examp le of th e compos er treating religio us su bjects with ab solu te res pect. The result is among his g ran dest acco mp lis hments, with a
principal th eme for the cru cifixion bursting with heavenly g lory fro m chorus an d orchestra. It also benefited from the new 7-track s tereo phon ic sou nd
sy stem that expand ed wh at an aud ience cou ld hear o f an orchestras make
up co nsiderab ly.
The religio us/s word and sandal/his torical cos tume epic was the important genre as far as continuation o f the Golden Age s ymp honic sty le was
22
concerned. Other styles w ere encroaching , but with The Ro be Newman was
again res pons ible for so meth ing for others to follow. The indu strys
respo nse was swift and ov erp owering, leav ing us with enou gh afternoon TV
class ics to literally fill a mon th o f Sun days.
All o f th e Golden Age film compos ers wou ld tackle at leas t one p icture
from the genre after this point, bu t for M ik ls Rzsa it b ecame an area of
career definitio n. Quo Vadis (195 1) preceded the big ger s creen ratios, bu t
followed several sp ates o f his torical/adventu re films. The difference was in
a composer puttin g everything into historical accuracy. Newman would take
pain s th e fo llow ing y ear to res earch ancient Heb raic mus ic for Th e R obe,
bu t for Vadis Rzs a ob tained every pos sible s crap of reference material
from all ov er th e w orld. Th e Roman Empire had never been so co nscientious ly investigated fo r its mu sic. In d oin g so, he effectiv ely created a brand
new so und which 50 years later d efines a time and place, as believ ab ly as
any that is lo st to us. Full of h ymns an d fanfares , it was a blueprint for
method carried through all that fo llo wed o f his o wn (and many others)
work .
He continu ed practicing the metho dolo gy with Ivan hoe (195 2). 12th
Century sources were eq ually hard to come by, yet h e managed to perform a
similar miracle in definin g the Sax ons an d No rmans in thrillin g battle
scenes. Then it w as b ack to the Senate fo r Julius Caesar (19 53), which he
chos e to in terpret in Elizabethan terms like a co ntemporary stage pro duction
of Sh ak es peares p lay. Th en back-to -b ack in 19 56 came 16 th Century
romance for Kin g Hen ry II in Dia ne, and eas ier to research back groun d for
th e 19th Century life of Vincent Van Gogh in Lus t Fo r Life. A ll o f these
applied R zs as Golden Age thin kin g, but in the eyes of enth usias ts of the
craft th ey merely pav ed th e way for what is inarguably o ne of the mos t
impo rtant s co res of all time Ben-Hu r (195 9).
It is the best repres ented o f all film scores o n record (in all fo rmats ), and
th at has aided its reputation en ormo usly. Its influ en ce is to b e admired with
so me awe too. Sev eral extracts w ere ad ap ted into hymns for church choir,
and there are endles s examples of d erivativ e fanfares an d march es us ed for
sp ortin g events and processional o ccasions . With in the in dus try, it stand s
alon gside the heroic s co res of Korngo ld as being most influ en tial when anyon e wan ts to elicit regal splend our or military mig ht. Once ag ain we can
sk ip ahead to Star Wa rs and s ee stylistic compariso ns. With Th e P hantom
Menace (199 9), the compariso n of Williamss Flag Parade w ith R zs as
23
Parade Of The Charioteers is unmis takeable. George Lucas was specifically emulatin g one o f his fav ourite mov ies after all. Fo r nearly a decad e the
in dus try had been building toward stag ing something on the s cale of this
Tale Of The Christ. Jus t shy of 4 ho urs long , the film employed 50,0 00
actors, constructed an eighteen-acre set, ap peared in a ratio w ider th an anyth ing seen before, and su cceeded in res cu ing M-G-M Studio s from bankruptcy. R zs a laboured fo r an incredib le year and a h alf on the score, wh ich
is ev ery b it as epic as the movie. Th ere are half a dozen marches, endles s
fanfares for stages of the ch ariot race, a magnificent Christ theme utilising
pipe org an , powerfully strident music for Ro man might, and softer Jewis h
material for J udah Ben-Hurs love story w ith Esther. So many sequences
illus trate the v ery best that mu sic can do for a film. Theres an ex ample of
Mickey-Mo usin g (caricatu ring s omethin g in mu sic) with a musical portrait of a galley sh ip accelerating to ramming s peed. Th e Christ theme is
us ed to remind u s of him w hen he is nt th ere, draw compariso ns with Charlto n Hes ton when h e offers him water (mirrorin g an earlier ev en t), and even
act as his vo ice w hen distance prevents us from hearing h im g ive the Sermon from the M ount. For all these reasons and many more, Rzsa fully
deserved h is O scar among the un precedented eleven wo n by the film.
The 5 0s w ere a decade of luxury fo r R zs a in allowing h im to ind ulge in
histo rical research. So its no t s urprising he su bsequ en tly cons idered it a
mistake to immed iately follow Ben-Hur with King Of Kings (196 1), wh ich
covered extremely s imilar territory. The score is nevertheles s a rich wo rk of
Greco-Ro man melo dies, with fou rteen th emes co mpo sed in just a few
weeks! It w orks almo st in tand em with h is oth er popu lar Heston epic from
th e s ame year El Cid. Culminating in Th e Las t Days Of S odom A nd
Gom orra h (1 962), th is was a perio d of eno rmous o utp ut for the compos er.
Th e h istorical epic h as never attained su ch heigh ts s ince.
Rzsas tale has tak en us beyo nd the Silver Age starting poin t, b ut we
can return to it by pausing at o ne mo re s word and sandal ex travaganza from
th e end of the decade. Spa rta cu s (1960 ) w as director Stanley K ubricks contribution to th e genre and was ev ery bit as sp ectacularly o versized as th ose
th at preceded it. The sch izophrenic score from Alex North is con sidered
another of the finest ever written fo r film (in fan opinio n, a close cousin to
his Cleopatra of 1963 ), and happ ens to be the all-time favourite o f Steven
Spielberg . Altern ating betw een metallic and staccato (s hort separate burs ts)
rhythmic march es and a bittersweet three-note lov e theme, its a wo rk that
24
collides in tricate complex ity with delicate simplicity. Depicting the barb aris m of th e glad iatorial ring, No rth uses percuss ion to show the s ame emotional detachment as the aren as on loo kers . It d emon strates the so rt of
in tellectu al process th at had attracted him to K ubrick, an d by which we can
travel back a d ecade to pinpoint on e of the clear in dications of film mu sic
enterin g its Silver Age.
25
26
Silver On Record
Bern stein s Go lden Ar m receiv ed a full albu m and s tayed in the charts for
several w eeks . Th e idea th at cin ema could s upport, promote, and b en efit
from popu lar mu sic was extremely d es irable for the stu dios . Still feeling the
effect of television, they were k een to try any meth od of reco upin g costs.
Es pecially since bigger screen fo rmats w ere potentially o nly o f short-lasting
in teres t to v iewers cons tantly awaitin g the next techno logical develo pmen t.
One thin g prick ing up theirs and every one els es ears was the advent of
rock n roll. Ch ro niclers even cite its b eg innings in so me part to cinema.
When Bill Haley And The Comets released (Were Go nna) Rock Arou nd
Th e Clock in 1954 it hardly made an imp act. When it app eared in th e titles
of The Blackboa rd Jungle the fo llo wing y ear how ev er, there were riots of
enth usias m. It hit th e Number 1 pos ition immediately, s pawned a mo vie
named after the so ng and a whole sub-genre devo ted to teens. This was als o
th e year the RCA label in trodu ced stereo to vin yl recordin gs.
Hollyw ood h ad been payin g atten tio n thro ugh all th e p hases of p op
music and its commercial pos sib ilities. Since the Silen t era thered been
on e-off ex amples o f a film so ng find ing an ex tra leas e of life on rad io and
reco rd. As far back as 1 928 people were caugh t u nawares by the su ccess of
Ra mona, whos e title song (a w altz for th e tale of racial prejud ice) wo und up
with fou r co ver vers ion s simu ltaneou sly in American charts. J ust prior to
th e rock n ro ll explosio n, United Artis ts had a tas te o f the larger ex ploitative poten tial with Russ ian compos er D imitri Tiomkin s H igh No on
(195 2). Thanks to a delay in openin g the film, his b allad completed its
reco rd negotiations and was released in ad vance. A pair of v ersions retained
th e film title, bu t throu ghou t the picture its b etter k nown as Do Not Forsake M e, Oh My D arling. This was the first succes sful ex ample of a mo vie
bein g p ro mo ted b y s ong. It w as als o the first time one was used so frequ en tly and p ro minently in a film. Almost every time Gary Coo per s trolls
alon g th e street it seems to be filtering o ut o f someones wind ow. The lyrics
and mo urnful ton e are a constant remind er that th e 90-minu te runn ing time
is all he has befo re a sho oto ut to the death . Tiomkin worked within the timeframe an d general s tyle o f a Gold en A ge compo ser, but his p hilo sop hy
belo nged v ery much to the Silv er Ag e.
After winnin g tw o Oscars for High Noo n (So ng and Score), he s ubsequ en tly won tw o years later for the character stu dy on a doomed p lane that
27
was The H igh And The Mighty. At the Award ceremony, he b oldly
anno unced, I wou ld lik e to thank Beeth oven, Brahms, Wagn er, Straus s,
Rimsky -K orsakov Anyo ne else on that lis t was los t to the sou nd of
up ro arious laugh ter from th e au dience. T his was a co nsid erable fau x p as as
far as h is co ntemporaries were concerned. Clas sical p urists w ere o ffered an
in dication they were right all along an d film music merely plun dered the
class ics. It was just p lain sp eaking, not arrogance on Tiomkin s part. In all
aspects of his career h e demo nstrated it by being a cann y s elf-p ro mo ter and
bu sin es sman . Earlier s ucces ses includ ed romantic an d wh imsical scores for
Fran k Kapras films Lost Horizon (1 937), M r. Smith G oes To Washington
(193 9), and Its A Won derfu l Life (19 46). He als o scored four o f H itchcocks
films , namely: Sh adow O f A Do ubt (1943 ), Strang er s O n A Tr ain (195 1), I
Confes s (1 953), and Dial M For Mu rder (1 954). Later s till, he wo uld have
th e dubious hono ur of scorin g what would be th e last o f the Sword and Sandal epics with the appropriately named The F all Of The Roman E mpire
(196 4). The others were too early fo r marketing by son g, as was h is firs t
epically s caled Western, Duel In Th e Sun (1 946). Fo r that, he endu red more
th an his peers wo uld by waiting o ut an audition process fo r produ cer David
O. Selznick to find the perfect composer. Unable to turn d own a p ro ject,
Tio mkin ins tig ated a lasting asso ciation with th e Western gen re. Red River
(194 8) follo wed, th en H igh Noo n, The Big S ky (195 2), Gunfigh t At The O.K.
Corr al (1 957), Rio Bravo (1959 ), The Ala mo (19 60), an d th e immens ely
po pular Rawhide TV series th eme. Throug h all th es e, his catchy melod ies
with unexpected rhythms (and cro ss-rhythms) s hine throu gh, an d w herever
a single o r album was p ossible h ed pursue it ten acio usly.
High No on really ch an ged H ollywood pro ducers id eas and motiv ation s
abou t the co mmercial v iability o f movie related mu sic. They began asking
compos ers to craft marketable s ongs regardles s of wh ether o r n ot one was
su itable for the film. A s ong on radio b efo re a films releas e was great promotion. It only co st a little mo ney to mak e a lot back, so wh o cared if the
so ng had little to do with the film? It would take a few mo re years for this
new p hiloso phy to tak e hold. Th an kfully there w as plen ty more go ing on in
th e mid-50s fo r co mp osers no t to be overly concern ed jus t y et.
Big screen adaptatio ns of Broadw ay M usicals were pop ular ag ain, havin g had on ly marg inal s ucces s since the untoppable Th e Wiz ard Of Oz
(193 9). The new wave was ano ther way the stu dio s tried th e sp ecu late-toaccu mu late approach to w in back view ers lost to TV. T his was a reassu ran ce
28
th at mus ic was an imp ortant part of at least one genre of film. O ften yo ud
fin d one of the comp osers alread y mention ed h idd en away in the arrangemen t cred its of a M usical, such as David Rak sin on The Harvey Girls
(194 6) and A lfred Newman on S outh Pacific. Th e big record album successes o f the decade were Oklaho ma! and The King And I in 1 956, an d Gig i
alon gside Sou th P acific in 1958 . Incidentally, this ch apters title tak es its
name from the 1956 Bing Crosb y film of Cole Porter s earlier Broadway
sh ow.
29
30
up s to Dra cula an d Fr ankenstein con tin ued in to the 60 s, d uring which time
he als o brou ght to life The Gorg on (19 64), Sh e (1 965) w ith a trance-like
ethereal th eme, The Plague Of Th e Zo mbies (1 966), and The Devil Rides
Out (196 8) with so me genu inely unnerving b acking for Satanic worship.
At Hammers entry p oin t in th e mid-50s , it was q uite a novelty fo r international films to be s o h ap pily chang ing hands acro ss the ocean. Britis h
prod uct o ccasio nally foun d favour in America, but Hollywo od s tudios were
still jealous ly gu arded o f th eir territory. Thos e that did find dis trib ution
began to ch ange that. RKO managed to piq ue curios ity abou t J ap an es e cinema by dis trib uting Akira K urosawas Ra shomo n in 1952 , with a g en tle
score by Fu mio H ay as ak a full o f ethn ic instrumentatio n that fas cinated the
Wes tern ear. In many ways it was T he King Of T he M ons ters w ho made
enou gh noise fo r cult fan dom to deman d mo re in tern ation al fare. Godz illa
(195 4) was insp ired by The B ea st From 2 0,000 F ath oms from the y ear
before, bu t was unlike any mon ster seen b efore. T he guy -in-a-s uit approach
mad e fo r a cheesy cin ema experience, but you cou ldn t help bu t take a lo t of
it s erio usly d ue to th e straig ht-faced mu sic from A kira Ifuku be. Later
du bbed Th e J ohn Williams Of The J ap an es e Film World, his imperiou s
God zilla M arch b ecame the th eme for th e s till o ngoing s eries of films .
At the end o f the d ecade, an oth er examp le o f cin ematic immigration
began fillin g U S theatres with the begin ning s of the French N ew Wave. In
19 59, th e release of Francois Truffauts Les Quatre Cents Co ups (Fou r
Hun dred Blo ws) and Jean-Lu c God ard s A Bou t De S ouffle (Breathless )
tu rned eyes and ears toward Europe. Poss es sed of a cas ual, detached manner in their character o bservatio n, th e genre s at perfectly alon gside the
rebellion o f James Dean an d rock n roll.
Its important to note th e beginnings of the genre here in the con text of
changes contributing to th e birth of th e Silv er Age. Well return to international film and the great directo r/co mp oser relationsh ips that formed and
cemented in the 60s in Chapter 4. Now, courtes y of mentionin g Truffau t,
with wh om Bernard Herrmann w ould scorch won ders for Fahren heit 4 51
(196 6), we can tu rn to the most important collab oration in film mu sic.
31
Silver Psycho
Alfred Hitch co ck had been fligh ty in associating with co mp osers
th rough out his career. Weve cov ered lots o f th ose n ames b efo re Herrmann
already, but its worth s tressing at th is halfway p oint in th e chron olo gy of
film mus ic that these tw o men jointly influenced th e ind ustry far more than
is generally realised. Th eir firs t collab oration w as for The Troub le With
Har ry (19 55), a jet black co medy about Shirley M acL aine and friends desperately trying to dispos e of a corpse. Fo r his o ne and on ly co medic score,
Herrmann had fun mimickin g th e p ratfalls and macab re sh enanigans . The
sens e of humour fit bo th th eir perso nalities perfectly, cementing their relations hip. Hitchcock w as un ab le to thin k of working with another composer
for the next decade. T hey to tted up ano ther seven films in th eir 11 years
to gether.
With Vertigo (195 8), the directo r and co mp oser made us e of many similar tricks, an d even invented so me n ew ones. Its th e mo st pers onal film for
th em b oth. Themes of ob session an d death were app ealing, and fou nd
romantic expression in wh at is regard ed as on e of the greatest motion pictu res o f all time (des pite bein g mildly maligned in its day). Scottie Ferguso ns ph obia, lon elines s, an d infatuation are ex plain ed to u s almos t
exclu sively th rough mu sic s ince there are long sequences w itho ut dialo gue.
At the climax of th e thrilling roo ftop ch as e that opens the film, the firs t d isplay of J ames Stewarts v ertigo is illustrated with o verlappin g harp glissando s (rap id s lid ing up and down scales). In th e ex tended s eq uence trailing
M ad eline (Kim Nov ak ) aroun d San Francisco, its en tirely d own to the
music that were drawn into th e my stery of whats happening instead of
bein g bored b y a silen t car tour of the city. The art gallery scene is a brillian t
sh owcase of Herrmann man ipulatin g ou r understan din g of w hats going o n.
Th e portrait o f Carlotta bears ph ysical resemb lance to M ad eleine, so is she
su pernaturally pos sessed o r jus t in sane? The score prov ides b oth an swers
simu ltaneou sly. The mo st famo us cue from the score, en titled Scene
dAmour , has in spired coun tless references and spo ofs, such as a great
visual gag in co rp orated in to Twelve Mon keys (1 995). N ovak reappears as
Ju dy, and th en magically tran sforms back into M ad eline. T he magic is
evok ed as much throug h s urreal co lou r saturation an d imagery as by o ne of
Herrmann s mo st heartfelt compositio ns cap turing the very ess ence of
yearnin g and desire. Nex t came a remake of th e d irectors own w ork with
32
The M an Who Kn ew Too Much (1956 ), with James Stewart an d D oris Day
emb roiled in th e wo rld of kidnapp ing and es pion ag e. Alth ough Herrmann
wrote a comp aratively sho rt score, h e was g iven one of the most promin en t
on -s creen cameo s any film comp oser has had. Du ring an as sassination
attempt at The Royal Albert Hall, the camera lin gers on a p oster adv ertising
his name, befo re cuttin g to show him autho ritatively con ducting the Lond on
Symphon y Orchestra. His appearan ce is a vis ual cue fo r the films finale to
begin an d the stage/screen music becomes n arrato r for the action . It was a
strong indication Hitch co ck appreciated the contribution of Herrmanns
music. Use of the s ong Qu e Sera, Sera w as an in dication that even the
great d irector was subject to th e beginn ing s of stud io pressure to plug co mmercial song s. Th e same year they released The Wrong Man , with Henry
Fond a reliv ing a true s tory of mistaken id en tity. Taking the characters job
as a jazz b as sis t to beg in w ith , th e score is co ld an d claus troph obic, managin g to infer the co nfines of impriso nmen t. Although the film may b e ov ersh ad owed by what follo wed, it has many scenes illustrating the way mu sic
can pre-empt danger and tell an au dience what a ch aracter is thinkin g.
Paramount Stu dio s d idn t s ucceed in persuading Hitchcock to make use
of a son g fo r Vertigo than kfully. Althoug h h e wanted to su stain that p rincipal fo r Nor th B y Nor thwest (19 59), th e interlu de mu sic (a rep rise of th e love
th eme) became a reaso nably popu lar tune. It was certainly a better idea than
a song called The Man On Lincoln s Nos e. The film is cons tantly on the
move, either literally or b y p lot twists carry ing audien ces dizzyingly alon g.
What Herrman n did for the chase movie w as have fun with it. Th e fand an go
of th e main titles is an u npredictab le piece built on rh ythms that swirl
around one an other witho ut reso lution, and are th e fo undation to a motif
equally elus ive and ton gue-in-cheek. There are two s cenes within the film
performing o ppos ite functions to o ne an other. Scrabbling o ver the face of
M ount Ru shmore fo r the finale, the action con tin ues withou t dialogue for
so me time. Its left to the score to mak e this interesting (in the same way as
Scotties pursuit o f Maddy in Vertigo ), and this is where the titles fand an go
pays o ff as a mu sical device. Hand-in -hand, Cary Grant and Eva Marie
Saint skip an d climb the ro ck face, and the ed iting maintains a rhythm to
which the furious dance is perfectly s uited . T he other in famous s cene is of
Grant being ch as ed down by a crop du ster, which is d ev oid of mu sic. Directo r an d composer agreed a heigh tened reality was achieved b y allowin g natural s ound effects to guide the ear. Only when the plane cras hes do es the
33
music strik e up. Knowing wh en to tell the mus ic to shu t up later led to their
big experiment in us ing none at all for The Birds (19 63).
So we come to Psycho (19 60), a film that perhaps more than an y other
sh ows how film music can live outsid e th e film. Reg ard less of whether
th ey ve seen the film or not, kid s of all ages k now wh at soun d to make when
th ey tease abo ut stabbing one ano ther. TV adv erts, movie spo ofs, an d ho mages hav e k ep t th e s hower murder mus ic aliv e in po pular culture. What a lo t
of p eo ple do nt kn ow is that Hitch co ck did nt want mu sic for th e scene, and
th at Herrmann wrote and record ed the p iece in s ecret. W hen th e director
mad e the cho ice to sho ot in b lack-an d-white (despite studios by then insistin g on co lou r to make subs idiary sales to telev ision easier), Herrmann made
an intellectual leap to compos ing a black-and-white score by restricting
hims elf to on ly using the s trin g s ection of an orchestra. Fo r the mu rd er,
which required w hat he adroitly called terror, the sh rieking effect came
from part of a v iolinists tuning-up routine. So simple a dev ice has beco me
th e most mimick ed mus ical effect in cin ema his tory. The res t of the score
work s to the pictures benefit just as well however. Herrmanns unn erv ingly
chaotic op en ing title mus ic actually insp ired the animation from Saul Bas s.
M uch more importantly, the script left long sequences witho ut d ialog ue and
on ce ag ain the directo r/comp oser in tended the mus ic to act as an emo tio nal
and psycho log ical narrator. Mario ns anxio us d rive having stolen so me
money is a s eq uence often cited by mus icologis ts fo r this technique. Switch
off the vo lume, and th e s hots of Janet L eigh at the wheel could be taking her
anyw here. Tu rn the v olu me back u p, and the u rgen t score makes it qu ite
clear that the movie title is goin g to pay o ff so on.
The film was re-made in 1997 by G us Van Sant, an d that allowed for a
brand n ew digital recordin g of the s co re. It w as affection ately adapted by
Herrmann s b igg es t fan w orkin g to day, Danny Elfman, to who m well
return in detail in later chapters w hen loo kin g at influences in contemporary
scoring.
There are several factors to blame for the eventu al sp lit between H errman n and H itchcock, an d un fortunately music had a lo t to do with it. After
th e experimen t o f Th e Bird s, and th e all-round failu re of Mar nie (19 64),
everyth ing came to a head with Torn Curta in (1966 ). The stu dio s h ad been
nibbling away at Hitch to get him to stick commercial song s s omewh ere in
his films. On top o f th at, hed g one from being respectfully grateful of the
exten t to which Herrman ns music improv ed h is work, to being do wnrigh t
34
resentful. It all ex plod ed at th e Curtain reco rding s es sio ns when the mu sic
tu rned out to be as far away fro m the pop s tyle reques ted as pos sib le. Everyon e thou ght they were ind ivid ually right, and for s uch a mediocre movie its
a sh ame non e o f them were.
Thro ugh this transition al Silver Age perio d, Herrmann h ad contributed to
th e start o f the alien invasion genre w ith on e of its b est films and scores
The Day The Ea rth Stood Still (19 51). Hed also contribu ted to the religiou s
epic genre with The Egyptian (195 4), sp littin g cues b etween hims elf and
music d ep artment ch ief Alfred Newman. It proved to be his mos t prolific
perio d, and was ro unded out by boisterou s fun for a b rief flirtation with
mons ter movies in the su b-categ ory of the fantasy genre. Th e Seventh Voyag e Of S inb ad (19 58), Jou rney To Th e Centre Of Th e Earth (19 59), The
Three Wo rld s O f Gulliver (1 960), Mysterious Island (1961 ) and Jaso n A nd
The Argo nauts (1963 ) mus ically defined on e mons ter or anoth er, su ch as the
xy loph one for the skeleto n warriors in S inba d.
When y ou add together rock n roll, new technologies in s ight and
so und, the influ en ce of in ternatio nal mus ical styles , flavou r-of-th e-month
exploitation g en res , the start and end of Hitch co ck and H errman n, an d the
fact th at 195 5 was the year v ideo tape was in trodu ced, what yo u get is a
perio d of ch an ging styles thats clearly differen t from the more self-contained so und of the Golden Ag e. Enterin g the 60s , the Silv er A ge gradually
pu shed away what s omeo ne like Herrmann could offer. Th e seeds h ad been
so wn, largely o ut of financial necess ity with the stu dio s, and now they
wanted as commercial a prod uct as p oss ible.
35
4. Commercial Instincts
One of the b etter things to come from 50s tech nolo gical advan cemen t
was bring ing intern ation al film into greater focus outsid e its coun try o f origin. The previously men tio ned French N ew Wav e w as one of the bes t examples since it was con sid ered a tren dsetter in its reb ellious nature toward s
so cial and filmmaking attitu des. D uring th e course o f the 60s, whenever
Hollyw ood couldnt en co urage new mu sical sou nds it h eard fro m overseas
in to its o wn films, it encouraged the co mp osers to cros s ov er themselves.
Georges Delerue was on e migr from France. A fter a coup le of years w ork,
his career was lau nched with S hoot The Pian o Player (1960 ) fo r director
Fran o is Truffau t. It began a ten-picture collaboration. Th eir secon d, Ju les
An d Jim (19 61), has remained their most admired an d well known with its
collis ion of carefree meets catas troph e. D eleru es carnivalesqu e M ain
Title wo uld go on to help define the co medic writing sty le b oth in its o wn
decade, and again in the 8 0s (see Dann y Elfman, Chapter 6 ). Their relationsh ip continued with Love A t 2 0: An toine And Colette (19 62), The Soft S kin
(196 4), Such A Gorgeou s Kid Like Me (1971 ), Two English Gir ls (19 71),
and o n to their oth er most affection ately revered p iece, D ay F or Nigh t
(197 3), with its stunning chorale (h ymn-lik e tu ne) for an aerial view montage o f the set fo r fictio nal film M eet Pamela.
Ano ther ho me tu rf s ucces s th at similarly p layed the film-within-a-film
id ea was director Jean-Luc G odards Contemp t (1 963). Deleru e provided
stormy emotional turmoil fo r strings as we watch the disso lution of a marriage o n set. Jus t b efore Ho lly wood en ticed h im away completely, the
decade also heard some delig htful period E nglish mus ic for th e h istorical
tales A Man Fo r All Season s (196 6) an d Anne Of The Thou sand Days
(196 9). Th ro ugh all these works , he display ed not ju st an ear for instru mentation and locale, but that h e was o ne of the finest melo dy writers film mu sic
ever knew. It was this hed be called upo n repeatedly for in th e 70s an d 80 s
on American pictures like Oliver Sto nes S alvado r and Plato on (both 19 86),
and Steel Magn olias, B ea ch es, and B ilo xi Blu es (all 1 988).
As a French ambassado r, h e was sligh tly beaten to it by the charming
antics o f comic genius Jacques Tati. Mon sieur Hu lots Holida y found an
in ternatio nal aud ience in 19 53, an d with it seemed cemented forev er the
asso ciatio n of pian o, accordion, and guitar w ith the French . This was care of
compos er Alain Romans wh o went on to co -s core Tatis My Un cle (19 58)
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with Fran ck Barcellin i. A decade later, Francis L emarque remin ded the
in dus try of the comedy stereoty pe with Playtim e (1 967).
The Cannes Film Festival b ecame the place to make foreign territory d iscoveries. It took abo ut 20 years for Ho lly wood to pay seriou s attention to
th e event, but when A Ma n And A Woman won the Palme dor in 1 966 it
changed th e careers of d irector Claud e Lelo uch and compos er Fran cis Lai.
Th ey too would carve out a lasting working relations hip, with Live For Life
(196 7), And No w My Love (1974 ), Bolero (1 981), and two s equels to A M an
An d A Woman. Its extremely popu lar score album las ted in US charts fo r 93
weeks! Clearly s omething in the combination of d a-b a-da-ba-da lyrics and
acco rd ion fell righ t in to p lace with the new wave of po p music listen ers . Lai
was an other to end up w orking on American films, with his big gest succes s
bein g Love Story (1970 ), w hich sp awn ed several vers ion s of Wh ere Do I
Begin? and won h im his only Academy Award.
Eclipsing the award s in Hollywo od and France, the ch art s uccess es, the
leng th of ten ure with a d irector, and p opularity with pu blic and critics alike
is Nino Ro ta. Th e Italian compos er began wo rking with Federico Fellin i in
19 52 on Th e White S heik, an d led to six teen films o f which at least six are
cons idered mas terpieces of cinema an d its mu sic. Th e brightest jew el has
always been La Do lce Vita (196 0), wh ich fo llo ws a jo urnalis t observing
Rome high life. Ro ta offers an enormous mu sical rang e fo r scenes of a b ustling metropo lis contras tin g with decadence behind closed doo rs . Th e jazz/
po p fusion foun d immed iate fav our with th e s ocial type it portrayed, and the
audience who asp ired to th at lifes tyle. Next came 8 (19 63), autobiographically depositin g the life o f a film director into an un predictable dreamworld. Of all th e co mp osers circus-styled march es , th ose here have
remain ed th e mos t admired and influential. Along with Delerues Ju les A nd
Jim, it wou ld co ntribute much to the co medies of the mid -80s. Going on to
th e variable su ccess es of Juliet Of Th e S pir its (1965 ), Satyr icon (19 69), The
Clowns (197 0), R oma (1972 ), Am arcord (1 973), and Ca sano va (19 76), the
compos er and d irector wou ld end u p having sh ared n early 30 years of
screen time.
His work in Europ e con tin ued elsewhere too of co urse. For director
Lu ch ino Viscon ti he provided grand his torical po rtraits for Rocco And His
Bro thers (1 960) and The Leo pard (19 63). For Sergei Bond archuk there were
waltzes on and off th e battlefield in depicting Napoleo ns Wa terlo o (19 70).
For Franco Zeffirelli, two Shakespearian adaptations led to him in ev itably
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bein g whis ked away to the States. The Ta ming Of The Shrew (19 67) w as a
sp irited comedic turn to his g ift fo r melody, but with Romeo And Juliet
(196 8) th e ab ility to con jure time an d place (here mock-mediev al) foun d its
fin es t v oice with w hat may well be the defin itive romantic lov e theme. The
albu m s pent 74 weeks in US charts. A Lo ve Theme single was a Number 1
hit as ad ap ted by Henry Mancin i (who well meet b elow). It has also seen
man y spoo fs in film, as well as found many new h omes in adv ertising and
med ia (e.g. endles s play on UK radio). Director Francis Ford Cop pola was
much enamoured with the piece, and bolstered with their sh ared Italian h eritage, mad e Ro ta th e perfect ch oice for The Go dfather (19 72). It los t o ut on
an Acad emy Award o ver a s mall controversy that th e th eme had been u sed
before in ano ther gu ise on an earlier sco re. Developing the infamo us mafia
familys th emes for the sequ el, The God father Par t II (197 4), he wo n an
Os car th en ins tead, wh ich is a unique achievemen t in sequel scoring .
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M orricones daring juxtapo sition of soun ds and lay ers of rh yth m had a
wide effect on contemporary mus ic. Record ing technology wasnt available
to do whats p ossible today, b ut by looping the layered elements he was for
all intents and purp oses applying the principles of sampling. In later
decades, it w ould b e rare to find th es e p rinciples in his work. Instead h es
become mo re app reciated for th e ro mantic highs of The Mis sion (1986 ) and
Cinema Pa radiso (1989 ) or the action/thriller s uspens e of Th e Untouchab les (198 7) and In Th e Line Of Fire (1993 ).
A cou ple o f addition al in fluential compos ers deserve mention h ere. Firs t
is M ikis Theo dorakis fro m Greece, who se political activities led to a p eriod
in pris on and a ban on his music b efo re release and exile. Durin g th is p eriod
he no netheless produ ced h ighly memorable wo rks for Elektr a (196 2), Phaedr a (1962 ), Zor ba The G reek (1964 ), and Z (196 9). The last of th ese w on
several Os cars, bu t ig nored the exciting s core for bo uzouki an d orchestra.
Of real in fluence to chart music was Bla ck Or pheus in 19 59. Brazilian co mpo ser Luiz Bonfa to gether with Anto nio Carlos J obim intro duced jazz
samba to a wo rldwide audien ce, an d in so do ing made the bo ssa n ova a
musical trademark for the next decade.
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with proved hard to shake. Especially when more s erious 70 s fare failed at
th e b ox office. H ed alw ay s had a terrific s en se o f d rama and imagination
for instru mentation , but applying it to Th e Molly Maguires (197 0), or Silver
Streak (1976 ) d id him little favours . A lot of his wo rk in the 70s therefore
returned him to his roo ts in T V, prov idin g themes. A way of killing two
birds w ith one s tone was to poach co mpo sers from th e realms of televisio n.
By 1 965 TV p osed an oth er threat with the ad vent of continu ous co lou r and
in ternatio nal trans missions. A n eas y target was the au tho r o f the Peter Gu nn
series theme, wh ich had a Grammy-win nin g LP. Henry M an cini s ubsequ en tly b ecame one of the mos t importan t names in music du ring th e 60 s.
Th is sparse economy of orchestration in Gunn meant he w as encouraged to
differ noticeab ly from the Gold en Age so und. His hip, swingin g, Hammo nd
organ and flu te combo is a q uintessentially d efining s oun d fo r the d ecade.
He w on h is first pair o f Oscars with Breakfas t A t Tiffanys in 1 961. The
enormous popu larity o f the song M oon River en sured th at fo r almos t
every sub sequent pictu re he scored, the s tud ios exp ected an other hit.
Th ro ugh his prolific as sociation with directo r Blake Edwards (you ll be
gath ering b y n ow that these relationsh ips are rath er important!), Mancin i
man aged to keep stu dios reg ularly happy. The Pin k P anth er (1963 ) is ample
proo f. Its saxo phon e tune is one of the mos t celebrated motifs in film mus ic.
As an alb um it spent 88 weeks in U S ch arts, and has ap peared on cou ntles s
compilation s from the p eriod. Seven sequel films followed, all still with
Ed ward s. His other doub le Oscar win came with Ha tari! (1962 ) fo r director
How ard Hawks. The so ng Baby Elephant Walk was a boog ie-woog ie sensation d es pite the films fairly serio us tone for an African safari. Mancin i
was a great prop onent of his belief th at music s hould be heard in film. It
contrad icted a lo t of what co mp osers who came before b elieved, b ut its one
of th e thin gs th at sin gles h im out as at the forefron t of a new way of thinking
abou t th e indu stry. He deplored the fact th at jazz w as applied inapp ropriately in film an d T V after his P eter Gu nn stint, and liked it even less when
th e s tudios tried to squeeze every drop of commerciality out o f p op mu sic
applied to film.
Almos t pas sing one ano ther th e baton in the 60 s, th e next name lifted
from TV credits was Lalo Schifrin wh ose jazz-laced w ork s potligh ted
so meon e with a gift for rh ythm and percuss ion . Co min g from a class ical and
jazz backgroun d in his nativ e Bueno s Aires , he was th e perfect choice to
apply both to the Steve McQueen pok er mo vie Th e Cincin nati Kid (19 65).
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Indu stry ears really p rick ed up the fo llo wing y ear with his TV theme to M ission: Imp ossible. Its as well kno wn to day as then b y virtue of its oftenmimicked b eat, and als o two recen t big b udget featu res with Dann y Elfman
adapting the theme in 19 96 and Hans Zimmer in 20 00. His ab ility to effortles sly create authentic s ound ing geo grap hical backgrou nds in co mbination
with any number of mu sical styles made him highly sou ght after. In 196 7 he
pu t southern blu eg rass b en eath the feet of Pau l Newman as Cool Ha nd
Luke. Then w ith a minute ens emble of ten instru ments he implied s ex ual
tens ion betw een two ladies lives interrup ted b y The Fox (19 68). T hat y ear
als o saw the releas e o f the seco nd of Sch ifrins cult s ucces ses (ag ain with
M cQ ueen ) fo r Bullitt. Its th e mos t well kno wn us e of jazz in film. Its po pularity was resurrected by a car co mmercial in the late 90 s, which prompted a
premiere CD releas e of th e score and chart sin gle. Its laid-back cool for big
band jazz ensemble, dramatic cou nterpoint, and hand fu l of rad io sou rce
pieces (th e term for mus ic playing so mewhere within a film) is a brillian t
example of s co ring a film from every intellectual angle.
The third o f the high pro file projects that Schifrin is famou s for is the
Dirty Ha rry series, for which he scored four o ut o f the fiv e starting in 197 1.
Electric piano gave Harry Callahan a tough edge to match Clint Eastw oods
sn eer, an d w ordless female vo ices echo ed the madness ragin g ins ide serial
killer Scorpios head. Both mad e for an eerie atmosp here, keepin g the o utcome of th e film open. The jazz/rock element made it very contempo rary to
th e 60s (an d fashionable ag ain today), and along sid e Bullitt th e mu sic
mak es San Francisco seem lik e the most happening place on Earth!
Bruce Lees ex plo sive introd uctio n to mains tream Western au diences
was E nter The Dra gon (1 973). Schifrin used trad itional Chinese scales
alon gside his trad emark fu nky b ackb eats to keep th ings au thentic yet purpo sefully tongu e-in-cheek , as Lee d isp atches whole armies o f goo ns. Contrasting style, b ut n ot his preference for research, was The Fo ur Mu sketeer s
(197 4). The air of high adventure via late-Renaiss an ce perio d mu sic sh owed
th at Go lden Age th ink ing still had its place. Th at said, he did also comp ose
th e Plan et Of Th e A pes and Stars ky A nd Hu tch TV themes the s ame year
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43
44
lo ve having a theme that wo rk s through out, alth ough its n ot p oss ible on
every s ingle film of cou rse. This in sig ht from the Britis h compos er defines
a 40-year career in film scoring thats h ad o ne of th e largest in fluential
impacts on the ind ustry. A combin ation of h ap py co incid en ces led to dovetailin g from h is jazzy b eat band Th e John Barry Seven in to Beat Gir l
(196 0). His ear for arran gement of material an d fin ger-on -the-pulse of p opular s tyle w as exactly w hat studios wanted . In 196 2, the production team
ov ers eein g the adaptatio n o f Ian Flemin gs James Bon d character to big
screen were very keen to ap ply some of Barrys commercial s tyle.
For 4 0 y ears th eres been a contentious is sue ab out own ers hip of the
James Bond Theme. O nly some of the ind ividual mov ie albu ms and
coun tless Bond compilation s o n sh elves credit M onty N orman, who scored
th e whole of Sean Co nnerys debu t in th e ro le for Dr. No (19 62). Barry was
asked to w ork his arran ging wizardry o n material th at didnt s uit produ cers
ears . A M arch 2001 co urt case determined N orman w as unfairly dis credited
in a newspaper article that implicitly identified Barry as th e sole writer.
Rather predictably, the libel case was mistak en by th e p res s for a decisio n of
own ers hip . Suffice to say, th e fan commun ity debate co ntinues. In many
ways , the issu e is rather immaterial since it was Barry wh o went on to score
th e bulk of th e rest of the series. From Rus sia With Love followed in 196 3.
Althou gh it in trodu ced his 0 07 Th eme an d his id ea o f an overall theme
bein g used within a credit sequence song , its s ucces s was comp letely o utdo ne by G oldfing er the follow ing year. Shirley Bass eys knocko ut v ocals
for the title s ong contributed to making it a Number 1 hit album s tayin g in
US charts far long er than in the UK. What w as clearly established w ith this
second in stalment fro m Barry w as th at as well as his melod ic sens e and
kn ack for jazzy arrangin g, he w as als o cap ab le o f rhythmically charged
actio n mu sic. All to gether it formed a template for an yone wanting a hit film
so ng, o r to s co re o ne of th e numerou s sp y movie w an nabes th at so on
appeared.
Thro ugh Thun derball (1965 ), Yo u Only Live Twice (196 7), an d On Her
Majestys S ecret Service (196 9), his s tyle develop ed to the p oin t o f fo rming
its own genre. With Diamon ds Are Forever (1 971) there was a sub tle gearsh ift in ton e to reflect changing attitudes, mak ing the mu sic more commercial than ever. The films score ackno wledged that po p was read y to go
disco in a few years time, and early 70s fu nk was the s tylistic transitio n.
Some of the lyrics penned by regu lar collaborator Don Black caused Barry
45
mino r co ntrov ersy (touch it, stro ke it, and u ndress it). Ev en if the so ng
wasn t as big a hit as Goldfinger, its still one of the mo st w ell kn own o f the
Bond son gs an d of Sh irley Bass ey s rep erto ire. Barry sub sequently skipped
Live And Let Die (197 3) where th e fun k was laid o n in s pades by George
M artin an d Paul McCartneys so ng. T he Bond series has alway s been inextricably lin ked with Barrys n ame regardless of oth er co mp osers entries
th ough . T hrough the 9 0s this flatterin gly came down to the w ork of David
Arno ld on Tomorro w Never Dies (1 997), The Wo rld Is No t E noug h (19 99),
his concept alb um Shaken An d Stirred (see Chapter 6) and D ie Another
Day (20 02). Th is isnt all there was fro m Barry in the 60 s how ev er.
An on -s creen asso ciation w ith M ichael Caine b eg an in 196 4 w ith Zulu.
M ore th an most of h is scores, this sh ows Barrys economy with material to
great effect in o nly 1 6 minutes o f o rigin al mu sic. Its central theme does a
tw o-for-on e job, depictin g the bravery of both the Britis h infantry an d the
native warriors. It was th e firs t op portu nity for Barry to prop erly flex his
dramatic muscles, since he considered th e Bon d movies to be ess en tially
cartoon -like. Then his jazz roots shon e th rough the s co re for y outh culture
sens ation The Kna ck An d Ho w To Get It (1965 ). For The Ip cres s F ile
(196 5), h e sh owed off a H ungarian in strument almost no o ne kn ew of (the
cimbalom) for the memo rable A M an Alone theme characterising antihero Harry Palmer (Caine again ).
His firs t two O scars came s ide-by-s ide in 1 967 for th e true story of E lsa
th e lio n cub in Born Free (196 6). Both score and song (lyrics again by D on
Black) were award ed and became enormous world wide h its as an album
and s ing le. In fact, the song was covered by mo re than six hu ndred artis ts in
a matter of months after in itial release, and even wound up as a natio nal
anth em for o ne African state. H ere at the v ery height of his popu larity,
Barry co mp osed w hat remains a p erso nal favou rite o f his. The Lion In Winter (1968 ) was an illustration of 1 2th cen tury English royalty clas hing policies w ith the Church of Rome. Its a rare examp le of us ing ch orus in his
career, and in writing two perio d-specific song s it show ed an alternate s ide
significan t enou gh to win his other A cademy Award fo r the decade.
That same year he go t to w ork in a s imilar w ay as H errman n did o n The
Man Who Knew Too Mu ch by cond uctin g a concerto on screen for the finale
of Deadfall. Barry w ro te his piece however, an d it was a mark o f indus try
tru st he d id so in adv an ce of the film being sho t, which was then edited to
th e music. There was an other s ong for Shirley Bassey (M y Love H as Two
46
Faces), bu t reg rettably the film failed to live up to its p romise an d so his
Romance Fo r Gu itar And Orchestra has remained unh eard beyon d the
so undtrack. Ro unding o ut the decade was another of his favou rites, Midnight Cowbo y (19 69). As a conceptualis ed project it was a produ ct of the
commercially orien ted times . By Barrys input, its a very different beas t
from the son g-track ed films men tio ned alread y. Its still sho wn at UCLA
Film Sch ool as the b es t examp le o f s ong in film, s ays th e compos er with
un ders tandable p ride. We did nt go o ut and just b uy a bun ch o f s ong s. It
was all written es pecially fo r the scenes. It was literally a case of scoring
with s ong s, and I to ok a lot of care w ith it. The s cen e where he steals bread
and is s potted and s hamed jus t kills yo u. T he loneliness of that so ng (Old
M an Willo w by E lephants M emory ) d riftin g dow n over it had an atmosp here I co uldn t h av e go t with a score. If its d one right it can b e terribly
effective. Sadly it seld om is don e rig ht. Barry has avo ided accu satio ns of
bein g one to do it wrong by never working on a film in th e s ame way as
Cowboy again. A lth ough th e Bond pictures continu ed , each requiring an
acknow ledgemen t of th e p op s tyle o f the day in their title song , he gradually
became drawn to mo re romantically th emed projects. Escaping th e typecastin g o f being a teen/spy /pop culture composer, Barry s mu sic o f the 80s and
90 s is dis tin guis hed for its blend of flo wing melo dy, cleverly wro ught co unterpo int (s eco ndary melody ), an d tend er exp res siv en es s.
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larity in cluded Sink The Bismar k! (19 60) from Clifto n Parker, th e G reektinged anthems fo r Gregory Peck defeating the w hole German army in The
Gun s Of Navarone (19 62) from Dimitri Tiomkin, Ba ttle Of The Bu lge
(196 5) from Benjamin Frank el, Attack On Th e Iro n Coast (196 7) fro m G erard Sch urmann , and th e o ther whistle-alo ng camaraderie-in-crisis anth em of
The Great Escape (19 63) from Elmer Bernstein.
If theres o ne mus ical cons tant in war mo vies, its that the military mo ves
to a b eat. Its therefore n ot surprising that the compos er who came to score
more WWII flicks th an anyon e else in the decad e was a percuss ion ist at
heart. M aurice Jarre (father of Jean-M ichel) was o ne mo re international d iscovery wh o benefited from th e Silver Ages open do or policy to ideas. After
a d ecade of local fare, the French co mpo sers first exp los ive battle acco mpaniment was for The Longes t Day (19 62). Th at extremely noisy accoun t of
th e Normandy land ings w as followed by Weeken d A t Dunkir k (196 4), then
The Tr ain an d Is Paris Bu rning? (b oth 1965 ). A waltzing tone p oem fo r the
latter hon oured the liberation of the Fren ch capital. Two y ears on he scored
a reasonably fo rg ettable piece for The Twenty-Fifth Ho ur b efo re crafting
on e o f h is most celeb rated works for The Night Of The Generals. With sin ister marches and a b ouncing waltz, Jarre conjured distinct un ease ov er wh ich
of several Nazi generals mig ht be th e murderer o f a pro stitute. Cap ping his
contribution to the 6 0s cinematic war effort was The Dam ned (196 9), an
un settling p ortrait of a family falling apart und er Nazi influ en ce. All these
scores sho wed off his p ercus siv e skills and h is pio neering of ethnic ins trumen tation, which audien ces wou ld be reminded of wh en h e returned to the
war a decad e later for The Tin Drum (1 979).
Althou gh this arsenal of bombast kept his profile high , it had initially
been fired into the stratos phere b y workin g with d irector Dav id Lean. The
leading co mp oser names o f th e day had been linked at one time or an other
to Lawren ce O f Ar abia (19 62), s uch as M alcolm A rn old , Ben jamin Britten,
Aram Kh achatu rian, Rich ard Rodg ers , and William Walto n. Jarre was
brou ght in when Lean h eard his ex otic score for Sun days And Cybele
(196 2). Wh at came abo ut was another of cinemas great identifyin g motifs.
Th e end uring desert th eme won h im his first Os car and co nsid erable recordin g ind ustry clout with a sou ndtrack albu m remaining in US ch arts for 86
weeks. Remark ab ly, th e director and co mp oser man ag ed to top the achievemen t with Doctor Zhivag o a year later. If the Lawrence th eme is the p erfect
desert mus ic in the way that Psycho is the perfect mu rd er music, or Ja ws the
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perfect sh ark mu sic, then Laras Theme from Zhivago mus t b e the p erfect
tragic romance music. It won him another Os car an d spent ov er 3 years in
th e charts ! Th ey later reunited for Ryans Daug hter (19 69) an d A Pass age
To Ind ia (1 984).
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was for the Bond wann ab es w ith J ames Coburn as Our Man Flint (19 65).
Both this and its seq uel In Like Flint (196 7) feature w inks an d tips of the hat
with electric g uitar and keybo ards .
He was far more draw n to seriou sly natu red pro jects tho ugh, frequently
leading to go od critical notice. When y oure dealin g with racial issu es for A
Pa tch Of Blu e (1 965) or the turbulent 1 920s po litics o f America and Ch ina
for The San d Pebbles (196 6), sub tlety is key. A small ens emble of mu sicians p lays o n each instead of full orchestra, and for Pebb les th e Orien tal
colo urs and memorab le love theme led to the p opular son g An d We Were
Lo vers . Throug hout the 60s he was an oth er of th e compo sers who fou nd
th emselves repeatedly immers ed in WWII. Th e only exception being his
bo mbas tic yet balletic accompaniment for the aerial d ogfig hts of The B lue
Max (196 6), which w as a rare glimpse of WWI. For the mo re po pular
exploratio n o f WWII on screen, he prop elled the es cape fro m an Italian
POW camp aboard Vo n Ryan s Express (1965 ). The same year two back-toback p rojects meant he amu sin gly worked on the aftermath of the attack on
Pearl Harbou r before the ev en t its elf. In Har ms Way (1 965) dealt with the
US Navys retaliatio n, an d then Tora ! Tor a! Tor a! (1 970) sho wed an un biased account of how theyd let it h ap pen. In th e s eco nd score, Go ldsmith
work ed in as much J ap an es e patrio tis m (v ia approp riate Asian in strumentation) as h e did American flag waving .
His mo st lastingly famou s war drama score is Patton (19 70). Go ldsmiths ability with pared do wn instru mentation is at its b es t in th is accoun t
of the legendary general. D ecid ing on a mere 30 minutes of mu sic in the
cours e of 3 hours, he s plit the material betw een three aspects of the character: the religiou s (signified by org an), th e military (a s trong but sprightly
march), an d the sp iritu al (trumpets th at echo away into s ilence). Th e last of
th es e aspects was achieved with an echop lex, a device v ery much in v ogue
in th e pop music world at the time. Its intellectual in tent was to reflect Patto ns belief in reincarnation. Over th e years its been endlessly parodied for
th e military, which of co urse miss es the point Goldsmith made with it. The
film w as one of s ev en with directo r Franklin J. Schaffner.
Perh ap s th eir bigg es t achievemen t (in ev ery cinematic sense, no t ju st b ox
office) was Pla net Of Th e A pes (1968 ). As we saw in Chapter 3, s cien ce fiction mos tly kept itself to mu tant mo nsters an d alien in vasion s du ring the
50 s. On ly o ccasio nally did someone look to craft a social allegory or offer a
warnin g about the fu ture. The 60s w ere a d ry p eriod for science fiction in
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any fo rm, with o nly the Fren ch seeming to have anything to s ay with La
Jete (1 963), Alphaville (1965 ), an d Fahrenh eit 451 (1 966). Ex perimen tal
scoring approaches were ap plied to each fro m Trevor Dun can, Paul M is rak i,
and Bern ard Herrmann respectively. Apes also came from a French sou rce
(th e novel by Pierre Boulle) and gave Goldsmith an o pportunity to b e more
experimental th an anyo ne had yet dared . Th e music is full o f harsh and
complex rhy thms, moans, un iqu e percuss ion (e.g. kitchen mixing bow ls!),
blas ts of air, echoes, and grind ing string work . It all su pports the b ackd rop
of an arid alien landscape p erfectly, boun cing off cany on walls and drifting
in terminably in to an uncertain horizo n. For the all-imp ortant ape revelation
with the cu e The Hunt, Go ldsmith helped create one o f th e most visually
sh ockin g moments in cinema. The clue was in the title, b ut a s lam-zoom
acro ss a field to pick out a go rilla ridin g a h orse was an enormous su rp rise.
Th e s urprise o wes mu ch to the build u p of percussion that leads to the bleatin g o f a rams ho rn backed b y a cuika (an instrument wh ich mimics the
ooh -ooh-oo h o f an ap e). One of the mo st remarkable things abou t the
score is th at every effect is ach ieved acou stically and not electron ically.
With p op mu sic increasing ly domin ating the music s cene, th is was a score
to remin d th e indu stry it w as still poss ible to b e o riginal.
The modernis t (aton al yet stru ctured) ap proach to sci-fi that Go ldsmith
to ok w ith Apes an d later The Illustrated Man (1969 ) also ap peared in
Leon ard Rosenmans F anta stic Vo ya ge (1 968), and Lalo Schifrin s THX
1138 (1 970). Co llectively they sh owed s cience fiction to be a genre with
in tellectu al po tential. 1 968 became th e his torical marker wh en it directly
in fluenced the recording indu stry with Stan ley Kubricks 2001 : A Spa ce
Odys sey. A lo ng-los t score by Alex North was resu rrected in the 9 0s by
Goldsmith, b ut the mu sic everyon e knows only to o well from the film is
Richard Strauss s Also Sp rach Z arath ustra. Th e piece has b ecome an
anth em for cou ntles s spo rting events, stag e sh ows, and comedic spo ofs.
Norths work w as los t to on e o f the firs t ov ert examples of a d irector falling
in lov e w ith their temp track (a comp osite of exis tin g pieces to sup port a
film while bein g edited). T he fact that the clas sical pieces chos en fou nd
enormous favo ur w ith the record buy ing p ublic w ould s eem to indicate
Kub rick made the commercially co rrect decisio n. The resu ltant alb um successfully cro ssed b oth pop and classical charts. It als o sp aw ned a s eq uel
albu m with th e awful mon iker in spired by that had no thing to d o with the
film at all.
51
52
53
he died jus t as hed fo und a comfo rtable go-between of jazz-fused pop and
orchestra fo r Martin Scorseses Taxi Driver. The tortured saxoph one that
po rtray s Ro bert DeNiros inner pain is a p oign an t trib ute. Not o nly d id he
die befo re h earin g his mu sic to film and mis s the univ ers al acclaim it
received, but if hed lived on a few years h ed h av e seen a retu rn o f th ose
musical sty les and values h e deplored the lo ss o f.
Bey ond th es e, th e few abou t to fo llo w, and w hats already been covered
in scattered fash ion in Chapter 4, there really is nt much more to talk abou t
for th e firs t half of the 70s. Of far more interest w as a s eries of re-recording s
th at ap peared on viny l as of 1972 u nder the baton of con ducto r, prod ucer,
and film music aficio nado Charles Gerhard t. The Sea Hawk: T he Clas sic
Film Scores Of Erich Wolfg an g Korn gold was a pheno menal s ucces s,
peaking class ical charts rapidly. Clearly the record-b uyin g pu blic w ere keen
to hear more than the general wash o f p op so ng collection s around at the
time. Th e RCA label followed it with similar collectio ns for Max Stein er,
Alfred Newman, Bernard Herrmann , Franz Waxman, M ikls Rzsa, Dimitri
Tio mkin, a second Ko rn gold v olume, an d a few celebrity themed comp ilations (e.g . Errol Fly nn). Other record lab els jump ed ab oard th e revival of
in teres t, and film music collectors sudd en ly found th emselv es able to actually have a co llection! It was a much-needed reminder o f the q uality o utpu t
from the Go lden Ag e, an d most certain ly h elped th e career o f o ne you ng
compos er...
54
pain fully p rev alen t concept movie. Its other s uccess the indu stry so ught to
replicate was the album and single w hich prov ed an orch estral score (and
on e ostensib ly for a h orro r movie) co uld scale charts desp ite stron g p op
op positio n.
Record sales, repeat viewing fig ures, and the Oscar that Williams won all
say s omethin g to the powerful effect h is music h ad . Fro m th e o penin g pointof-view shot mo vin g thro ugh d eep w aters , were made to u nderstand this
is nt s ome holiday d iving fo otage o r aquatic documentary. Tho se lo w th udding notes leave us in no un certain ty that danger lurks. Britains Deb bie
Wiseman told me that as a film compo ser you kno w to avoid that repeated
semitone p hras e since it is now forever asso ciated with s hark s. Several
compos ers have made s imilar remark s, goin g to s how how large an impact
it h as made if mu sician s con sciou sly steer clear of s omething in their writin g process .
Two years later, Spielberg intro duced Williams to his friend George
Lu cas who wanted h is new scien ce fiction film to h av e an emo tio nal familiarity s ince th e back drop o f creatures an d lo cales loo ked so alien. Star War s
(197 7) is rightly hailed as th e Secon d Comin g o f film music. Every aspect
of the films release was a genuine p henomenon, coining the w ord b lockbu ster to d es cribe th e unprecedented level of queuing that cinemas experienced for tickets. The two disc album immediately became the b igg es t
sellin g non-p op reco rd in histo ry (at that time), and s aw more cover version s
and con cert performan ces than anyth ing else in film musics history. Fan s
who complain ed about the con cert suite presentation of the album would
have to w ait until the Special Ed ition re-release of the film in 1997 . Williams h as always been perfectly clear about his practice of re-sequencin g his
albu ms thou gh. What I usu ally try to do, w hich may co me fro m years of
mak ing concert programmes, is to mak e a musical prog ramme based on
material I've g ot from th e film that will make the mo st rewarding lis tening
experience in terms of entracte, ov erture, s oft, lo ud, fas t, slow, etc. So
th ere's a gestalt o r con tou r to k eep the listener in teres ted.
This level of succes s and adoration (and anoth er Oscar) d oesnt co me
withou t go od reason. Very simply, the wall-to-wall mu sic is flawless in s uppo rting the o n-screen ad ventu re, an d in commun icating emotion s that could
easily get lost in th e s pectacle o f v isu al effects. Th ere is the endles sly cop ied
op en ing of th e en ormou s Star Destro yer passing o verh ead. Witho ut Williamss bo ld march you wouldnt know that the little sh ip is the go od g uy. A
55
few min utes later, witho ut the delicate Prin ces s L eia Theme for flute, the
scene o f her slotting the D eath Star plans in to R2 -D 2 could s eem like so me
lady making to as t. Withou t the adagio (slow) v ers ion of the Force Theme
as Luke g azes at Tatooines setting twin s uns , he mig ht as well be birdwatching. With out the up beat, goofy ho mage to a 1 930s Benn y Goodman
sw ing band, th e Can tin a sequ en ce co uld seem pretty s illy w ith so many
papier mch pupp ets and ru bber masks . T he list go es o n w ay beyo nd this
first th ird of the film of cou rs e.
Apart from its jaw-d ropping record sales and textb ook demo nstration of
every conceiv ab le way a score can benefit a film, the real success o f the
music was in con vin cing stud ios th e late Romantic style w as nt completely
dead. T his was th e Gold en Age style at its very best, heark en ing back to the
work o f Ko rn gold, Steiner, and Rzsa from the 30s and 40 s. Roman tic
mean s large-scale orchestral mus ic ins pired for o ther th an purely mus ical
reas ons . It refers to a 19th century of rich harmo ny, melody, an d p oetry
which was exactly what Georg e Lucas wan ted, to be light years away from
th e Disco craze swamp ing ev ery thing els e.
Theres only ev er been o ne thing wrong with Star War s, and thats the
fact it has always comp letely overshado wed Close En co unter s Of Th e Third
Kind, which came out the same year. Everyon e whos seen it rememb ers the
significan ce of the spaceships five-note mus ical mes sage (which took more
th an tw o h undred an d fifty attempts to g et rig ht fo r Spielb erg). With only a
partial relian ce on th e roman tic form, audien ces have never emb raced it as
op en ly. It may b e atonal (not belon gin g to any k ey ) in places, y et it p erforms
ju st as importan t a role in the film as in Star Wars. The film is larg ely abou t
commu nicatio n via mu sic, so it wo uld be un thin kable to tak e aw ay the tuba
and syn thesiser conversation of the fin ale fro m the blinkin g ligh t s how. All
in all, there may never have been a more intellectualised cons ideration of
th e use of music as an in tegral part o f a film.
Williamss next major pro ject broug ht s cience fiction down to E arth with
th e arrival o f the g reatest superhero, and greatest s uperhero theme. S uperman : The Movie (19 78) features a M arch o f such patriotic po mp it has
remain ed the warm-u p of choice fo r s porting teams the world over. Williams doesn t put a fo ot wron g in characteris ing the alien politics o f p lanet
Kryp ton with b ells, percuss ion, and synthesiser. Nor the folk sy farm life of
th e Kent family in Smallville, th e bustle of city life in Metro polis, the bu mbling villainous life of L ex Lu thor an d O tis , or the lov e affair w ith modern
56
gal Lois Lane. Th en the compos er shot back in to s pace to that far away galaxy for the sequel ado red by all film mus ic fans , Th e Emp ire Strikes Ba ck
(198 0). M uch sp eculatio n su rro unds why this sh ould ho ld more appeal than
its b racketing ch ap ters of the trilogy, an d even o ver these o ther scores mentioned h ere preceding or following. On e ans wer is th at it end s unresolved
with s everal plo t threads in peril. Mus ically thats tran slated into a much
darker o verall moo d, w ith th e grand Imperial M arch being at the h eart of
all thats su ddenly dis co vered to be wrong with the Skyw alker family. Th ere
are lo ts of g rey areas in th e score, such as the brass rumble puttin g a question mark ov er the head o f bo unty h unter Bo ba Fett, the insin uatio n by
strings o f pu re evil in the swamp cave when Luk e confronts his fears, and
th e consistently sub tle tricks (such as no ticeable rare absences o f music)
creating an air of something amis s at turncoat Lando Calriss ians Clo ud
City. Its temp tin g to ign ore Retur n Of The Jed i, wh ich followed 3 years
later, s ince it devolved into a regu rg itation of material (some literally reus ed fro m Sta r War s) for a d isp lay of Mu ppets an d teddy bears. Lukes emotional arc sto ry sh ould have remained at the forefro nt of thin gs, but does at
least g et a satisfying pay-off s co red with th e firs t use of cho rus in the trilog y, g iving th e final light s ab re d uel a quasi-religio us feel. Mu sically and
visually its an anti-climax to wh at was built u p, b ut as the o riginator o f the
ph ras e s pace o pera, it do es make for n early 6 ho urs of the very best of
Williamss career.
57
again fo r the last two b lockb usters that rou nd ou t Williamss decade-lo ng
reign of sup remacy and influence.
The final 80s treasure (an d Os car) with Spielberg was E.T. The E xtraTerrestrial (1982 ). It was another mass ive albu m seller, again conforming to
Williamss preference fo r con cert arrangemen ts of the princip al themes (one
of which w as a sin gles chart success to o). Like each of th es e blockbus ters
highlighted, it was reiss ued on an expanded CD. M ore than any of the o thers it s plits fan opinio n as to whether s uites or chron olo gical o rder best suit
his albums. Sentimentality is E.T.s general moo d, playing on the heartstrings of every ch ild who h ad an imag inary friend, alien or otherw ise. On ce
familiar w ith th e film, an yone fo llo wing th e music cant help bu t b e drawn
to ward the astoun ding 1 5-minute bik e chase finale, which brims ov er with
up -tempo cheer. E. T. by no means b ro ught any kind of an end to this p eriod
of grand eu r, bu t no ne of what follow ed in the 80s ev er attained the same
heig hts of popu larity. Wh ile some wou ld prove d ownrig ht forg ettable, at
least th ere was Th e River (1 984), SpaceCamp (1 986), Th e Witches Of Ea stwick (19 87), Empire Of The Sun (198 7), The Accidental Tour ist (19 88),
Bo rn On The Fou rth Of July (198 9), an d Always (19 89). Shifting records o ff
sh elves, encouragin g repeat cinema viewings , and persuading the roman tic
id iom back into film mu sic makes Williams a prin cipal architect in this
perio d of big s creen his tory. If Su perman is th e ultimate sup erhero theme,
th en Raiders Of The Lost Ar k (1 981) is the ultimate adventurer theme. In diana J ones ins tantly became a box office smash, and anoth er best-s elling
albu m. Th rough out the film, there are examples o f music w orking ex actly
th e w ay it s hould. Pizzicato (plu cked) strin gs give you the creeps as h undreds of tarantulas drop onto th e archaeolo gis ts sho ulders. The orchestra
M ickey-Mo uses his mad dash fro m the temple w hen everythin g s tarts fallin g apart, culmin ating in b ras s into nements o f doo m as a giant rock chases
him b efore everyth ing comes to a d eafening cras h of silence. The crowdpleas ing fanfare serves as a musical pun ch lin e to rein fo rce a jo ke about him
bein g s cared of a s nake after everything thats just h ap pened. A gain, this is
on ly a demonstration co vering the early part of the film. Later comes the
awe-filled Ark theme, a love th eme fo r Marion , an d one of cin emas b es t
actio n cues for o ne o f its b es t action scenes as J ones sin gle-handedly takes
ou t a tru ck convo y of Nazis. Th eres no dialo gue for almos t 1 0 minutes,
mak ing it a gift for the compos er to act as narrato r, telling us where everyon e is at any given mo ment, an d reassu ring us that the hero will co me
58
th rough in the end. A pair of s eq uels follow ed : Temple O f Doo m (198 4) and
The La st Crus ade (1 989), bu t by a s hift in ton e neither fu lly recap ture the
exub erance of th e original.
It took a decad e from 2 001: A Space Od ys sey to Star War s for the ind ustry to tru st scien ce fiction as a genre of legitimate financial worth . As
always wh en Ho lly wood latch ed up on something, it was then rapidly done
to exces s. T V rush ed out several projects, of w hich the most successful pair
featured stron g orch es tral backing from Stu Philip s. In 1 979, b oth Bu ck
Ro gers In The 25th Century and Battlestar Ga lactica fo und thems elves
bein g to uched up for th eatrical release. Jo hn Barry aided Dis neys b id for
sci-fi glo ry with The Black Hole (1 979), an d Elmer Bern stein experimen ted
serio usly for Satu rn 3 (19 80), in an imated fashion fo r Heavy Metal (19 81),
th en with tongu e firmly in ch eek fo r the hijin ks o f Spacehun ter: Ad ventures
In Th e For bid den Zon e (1983 ). Other big n ames asked to work sympho nic
mag ic in to s emi-s erious sci-fi includ ed Mikl s Rzsa for H. G. Wells
romance in 7 0s San Fran cisco in Time After Tim e (1 979), L au ren ce
Rosenthal fo r a late bid in the disas ter genre with Meteor (1 979), Ennio
M orricone inexplicab ly rep licated director J ohn Carpenter s style for s hock
mas terpiece Th e Th ing (1 982), and Henry M an cini d id h is b es t to res cue the
limp hyb rid of s pace v ampires in Lifeforce (1985 ).
The Star Wars-insp ired backing carried acro ss to most genres that s olidified into catego risation at the start of the 80s. Science fiction was the main
on e to explore fus ing with the burgeoning capab ilities of electro nics. Rock
and New A ge therefore tran smitted themselves into s pace co urtesy of
Queen for the camp glitz of F lash Gordo n (1980 ), an d Jo hn Carp en ter ag ain
with a hard -as -n ails anthem for Snake Pliss ken in Es ca pe F rom New York
(198 1). Vangelis sug gested tranqu il in igno ran ce for the bleak futu re of
Blade Run ner (1982 ), an d Wend y Carlo s eas ed us into the digital realm with
Tro n (19 82). Brad Fiedel p ound ed metallic footfalls beneath Sch warzeneggers b reakthroug h as The Terminato r (1 984), and Toto (and Brian Eno)
mad e interiorised tho ughts and emotion s as openly app arent as the v as t
deserts of Dun e (1 984). Maurice Jarre sho wed off being one o f the main
sy nth es iser compos ers of the time for En emy Mine (1 985), an d Harold Faltermey er p ut a b eat into step aerob ics with Captain Freedoms Worko ut
when Schwarzen eg ger sw itched in to goo d guy mode as The Run nin g M an
(198 7).
59
There Is Another
Like Williams, Jerry Gold smith was one of the few exceptions to the rule
who did excel for a clear p eriod of time. Th e J ack-of-all-trad es we identified
him to be in Ch ap ter 4 w as enormously p ro lific durin g the 70s in to the 80 s.
He applied imp res sion istic techniques to the scores for Log an's R un (19 76),
Dam nation Alley (1977 ), and Caprico rn One (1 978), which is to s ay theirs
was mu sic that never really b elonged to any one character o r emo tio nal
story arc, but ins tead followed the drama itself. 1 979 w as the year of his
main co ntrib ution to the s cience fiction g enre tho ugh. First came Rid ley
Scotts Alien , for which every con ceiv ab le asp ect of production lived u p to
th e title. From the nightmarish organic loo k o f the aliens an d their env ironmen t design ed by Swis s artist H. R. Giger throug h to the heavily indu strialised visio n of Earths future habitat, it was a spectacle jus t as orig inal on the
eye as Sta r Wa rs. O n to p of th at sits p ossibly the coldest o f s cores ever written for a film. As a stan dalon e lis ten on albu m, it is b ackg ro und mus ic for a
haun ted hous e. It breathes and it sighs (an ech oing fou r-no te p hras e for
woo dwin ds p inched for coun tless sub sequent scores ), then s creams and
beats the walls with in novative percuss ion effects (e.g. lo g drums). No t only
did it s et a template for the three mov ies that fo llo wed, b ut also for endles s
rip -o ffs an d pastiches. Even more pop ular from the same year is w hat many
cons ider to b e G olds miths finest work Star Trek: The Motion Picture. The
Star Trek franchise had b een mothballed a decad e earlier, bu t new p oss ibilities in special effects were too promising for Paramou nt to ig nore.
Any one who thou ght the elaborate v isuals overstay ed their w elco me
nick named it The Slow M otion Picture. Paradoxically, the tw o key
sequ en ces this complaint is attrib uted to, are also the musical highlights.
Number one occu rs as A dmiral K irk is ferried to th e newly refitted Enterprise. Its mo st certain ly a case of s howing off th e FX, but the 6 minutes are
mad e into a majestic ballet of movemen t by Goldsmith s glorious mus ic.
Number Two is the far longer s equence of entering the V g er cloud ; o ne of
man y sci-fi jo urneys remin iscent o f 20 01s h allucinogenic fin ale. H ere the
compos er seems to ad ap t Herrmanns emo tio nal vo rtex from Ver tig o with
an unresolvin g cy clic motif, perfectly capturing the op en-mou thed crew.
Lo ts of creative effects are dropp ed on top of this sens e of awe. Of particular importance is the Blaster Beam, a s eventeen-foot metal bar strung with
bridge cables and s panked, wh ich is th e clou ds u niqu e leitmotivic device.
60
Th eres o nly th e vagu es t of referen ces to the original 60s TV s eries theme
by Alexand er Cou rage, w ho ass isted orchestrating (s ee Chapter 7 ) the score
in cidentally. Goldsmiths own theme has gone o n to be ev en mo re recogn isable, h av ing b een ad ap ted for the Next Generation T V series th eme, th en reus ed in The Fin al Fron tier (198 9), F irst Con tact (199 6), Ins urrection
(199 8) an d Nem es is (20 02). He also co mpo sed th e main title theme for TVs
Vo ya ger. In total, its a b ody of work that makes h im more prominent in the
genre than an y other compos er. Es pecially with what else we can add from
th is timeframe.
He scored rug ged men ace for th e Wes tern-in-s pace of Ou tla nd (19 81),
his own bid fo r s uperhero success w ith a s oaring fanfare for S upergir l
(198 4), an experiment in electronics for the killer robo ts of R unaway
(198 4), music capturing the d ay dreamin g o f every scho olb oy fo r Explo rer s
(198 5), and kinetic comedy for th e bio logy les son of Inner space (19 87).
Th es e last two were for directo r Jo e Dante, with whom G olds mith has had
another lo ng-stan din g wo rking relationsh ip. It began in 1983 with the
anth olo gy of stories fo r Twilight Zone: The M ovie, to wh ich D an te contributed a s eg ment. As a genre cro ssov er, it fu lly utilis ed Gold smiths versatility
as th e compo ser wh o also led the field in the w orld of ho rro r. Dante immediately secured him for his b reakthrough mo vie Gremlins (1 984). It was
another case of blu rring the lin es between film categ ories: part chiller, part
comedy, but mo stly cute.
What h ad really changed th e h orro r g en re perman en tly (w inning Go ldsmith h is only Oscar to date) was Th e Omen (19 76). In stead o f glo ssing
ov er or cutting away from grueso me d eath s the film w as graphically direct,
raising censo rs hip iss ues lasting to the present d ay. M usically it was a
watersh ed in sty lis tic as sociation. The cho ral black mass (Ave Satani) has
become a template fo r anyon e loo kin g to depict d emonic activity. Its often
been mistak en fo r Carl Orff s Carmin a Burana (thanks in the UK to TV
sh ows like On ly Foo ls An d Hor ses), yet here in its original setting the effect
is genuinely un nerv ing fo r the Antichrists tale. Gold smith adapted and
occasio nally bettered the material in the two sequels D amien: Omen II
(197 8) and The Final Con flict (198 1). Mo re than any other compos er, he
seems comfo rtable to stick aro und as stud ios try re-bottling bo x office lig htning. Finis hing th e Omen s eries he moved straigh t o n to Poltergeis t (19 82),
which is ano ther of his mos t respected work s. Its a s co re o f frig htening contradiction s. A fragile b eau ty pervades the lullaby for Carol An ne, the little
61
girl kidnapp ed by gho sts, and it speaks to the tragedy tearing apart a s uburbanite family. Then th ere are sho ck ing bu rs ts of dis son an ce and harsh textu ral elements for the su pernatural p yrotechnics, s uch as w henever the
clow n to y appears. Th e dis mal P olterg eist II: The Other Side (198 6) follo wed. Roun din g ou t his wo rk in the 8 0s hous e of horror w as th e inevitable
Ps ycho II (19 83) for which he wis ely avoided any p ossible compariso n with
Herrmann s s emin al score.
Outsid e the two princip al fan tasy g en res, Gold smith excelled in everyth ing else jus t as memorably. Chinato wn (1 974) remains his person al fav ourite, p erhaps as a mark o f prou d accomplishment hav ing been written in a
rid iculo usly sh ort 1 0 day s. Th e roman tic trump et so los defined film n oir
better th an any thing in th e genres 50 s heyday, and is a su bject of s tud y in
man y film music clas ses. The Wind An d The Lion (197 5) is the best example
of the co mpo sers trademark brand of p owerhous e action writing , here len t
Arabic rh ythmic structu re. Rais uli Attack s is one of th e mos t ferociou s
pieces of music ever written fo r film, and makes th e s eq uence o f a horseback s word du el th underous ly exh ilarating. To these can be added: saucy
hu mou r fo r The First Great Tr ain Robb er y (1 979), flu tterin g brass s tin gs for
another late disaster en try with The Swa rm (1978 ), Wagn erian high adventu re fo r th e In diana J ones wannabe Kin g So lomo n's Mines (1 985), an d a
sign that th ere might be a sense of hu mo ur at work with n umerou s self parodies for Jo e D an tes The 'Bu rbs (1 989).
Thro ugho ut the 80s, audiences were h ammered over the h ead with
attempts to create Su perstar perso nas, and no one h elped Sylvester Stallone
achieve that mo re than Goldsmith with his scores for the tes tostero ne-dripping Ram bo trilogy. The mu sic goes from plain tiv e melancholy (w ith o utbu rs ts of muscular b ras s) in Fir st Bloo d (198 2), to grizzled patrio tis m in
Ra mbo: Firs t Bloo d P art II (198 5), to all-out orchestral war in tutti (all
play ing s imultan eo usly) fash ion for Ramb o III (1988 ). N ev er let it be s aid
Hollyw ood wo nt squ eeze something for all its w orth (Rambo /Goldsmith,
yo u decide ).
62
63
men t vaguely believable fo r The Han d (1 981), and brough t h eartfelt magic
to the dark fantasy ride of Som ethin g Wicked This Way Comes (19 83).
Th ro ugho ut the res t of th e 8 0s, Ho rner managed to accompany the brigh t
start of several actors careers. H e kept th ings nice and fu nky for Ed die
M urphy in 48 Hrs . (1 982), and th udded electron ic foo tfalls b eneath the
weig ht o f Schwarzen egger for Co mmand o (198 5) then R ed Heat (19 88). He
ig nored the anachronism of s ynth esisers underlinin g Chris tian Slaters 14th
Century loss of virginity in The Name Of The Ro se (1 986), and scored the
ultimate tearjerker motif for Hollywo ods infatu ation with the line I love
yo u Dad in Field Of Dreams (1 989). He also patriotically p aved the way
for ev ery black male actor s ubsequ en tly accep ted in the 9 0s by Hollywo od
in the late racial apolo gy movie Glor y (1 989).
Keepin g the kids h ap py on Satu rd ay mornin gs, Horner was instrumen tal
in on e of the firs t n on-Dis ney animated ventures with An American Tail
(198 6), especially w ith the h igh ly p opular son g Somewh ere Ou t Th ere.
Willow (1988 ) wasnt the start of his relationsh ip w ith director Ron Howard
(Cocoon w as ), but the op ulent wall-to -wall s was hbu ck le he provided
ensu red hed be the co mp oser Howard w ould return to more than an y other.
Subs eq uently theyve collaborated on Apo llo 13 (199 5), R anso m (19 96),
How Th e Grinch Stole Ch ris tmas (20 00) and A Beautifu l Mind (200 1). His
las t children s film in th e 8 0s wo uld p ro vid e g rist to th e mill of all naysayers
who d isagree with his tech niqu e of re-us ing material. Honey, I Shru nk The
Kids (1989 ) landed Disney with a laws uit claiming one of Horners main
th emes bo re u ncan ny resemb lance to a tu ne by Raymond Scott (the great
Warner Brothers cartoo n maestro).
64
fodd er. Ho lly wood soon sank its teeth into h orro r mo vies fo r all their
exploitative wo rth, b ut no where near as d eeply as independent studio s.
Early miles ton es inclu de director Wes Crav en s debu t Last H ouse On The
Left (1 972), faith-tes tin g sh ocker The Exorcis t (19 73) w hich famous ly u sed
M ike Oldfield s Tu bular Bells, and Th e Texas Chainsaw Ma ssa cre (19 74)
with teeth-gratin g electronic soun d design.
Horror mo vies req uire musical s leigh t-of-hand mo re than any other. For
th es e 2 d ecades, electronic howls, s queals, icicle drips , and screams d id the
jo b becaus e key boards and anyth ing electron ically off-the-wall were in. In
Italy, d irector Dario Argento work ed with rock band Goblin for a screaming
so undtrack to Deep R ed a.k.a. Profo ndo Ros so (1 975) and S usp iria (19 76).
Th e mains tream proliferation o f sequencers and sy nth s came with Joh n Carpenters run away s ucces s on Ha llo ween (197 8). The score came fast and
cheap, b ecause he was the composer too. His extremely simp le main theme
(based on a b ongo warm-up exercise) has b een one o f the mos t imitated
ph ras es of all time. For an early examp le, s eek out Fred Myrow s mus ic for
Ph anta sm from the follow ing year.
There were man y keyb oard contribu tion s to con troversial projects o f the
day: Dawn Of The Dead (G oblin again), I Sp it On Your G rave, The Hills
Have E yes (all 1978 ), and The Driller Killer (1979 ). An occas ion al orchestral effort fo und its way in to the genre s uch as Elmer Bern steins ton gue-incheek work o n An A merican Werewolf In Lond on (198 1). The 80 s otherw ise
happ ily circumn av igated hig her bud gets w ith you ng, k een , and inexpens ive
compos ers look ing for a break. Director Sam Raimi g av e one to as piring
musician Jos ep h LoDu ca on Th e E vil Dead (1 983). Th e atmos pheres created on and off screen betw een th em has kept th em working tog ether ever
since in film (s equels Evil Dead 2 in 1987 and Army Of Darkness in 19 93)
and TV (H ercules, Xena , and American G othic). Dario Argento k ep t th e cult
circuit undead by letting British composer Simon Boswell co ntrib ute cues
to Demons (198 5) and D emo ns 2 (198 7) before tackling the who le of
Deliria (1987 ). Guitarist Richard Ban d mad e his presence felt in cult horror
with The House On So rority Row (19 83) and Re-Anim ator (198 5) where he
laced a beat into Herrmanns Ps ycho title music to allow the films exces ses
to be perceived as b lack comed y.
The 80s were a b reeding g round for h orror franchis es , wh ich in mus ical
terms almost never meant development of thematic material. Chainsaw
Mas sacre was th e first s platter movie to s pawn a sequel fo r its dubiously
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icon ic villain. Th en Halloween kept Mich ael Myers alive indefinitely via
Carp en ter. Harry Manfredin i had the task o f resu rrectin g Jason Vo rhees in
seven o f the eigh t Friday The 13th movies that b eg an in 1 980. T here was no
su ch con sis tency for Freddy Krueger however, w ho after bein g introduced
via Ch arles Berns teins tink lin g lu llaby in A Nigh tmare On Elm Street
(198 4), wo uld be pass ed between Christo pher You ng, Angelo Bad alamenti,
Craig Safan, J ay Ferg uson , Brian May, and J. Peter Ro bins on. You ng
redeemed himself fo r Fredd ys Dead however with the tw o 8 0s Pinhead
movies Hellr ais er (1987 ) and Hellb ound : Hellr aiser II (19 88). Both are full
of goth ic romanticism, b ut the s eco nd b reaks all man ner of g round with
sn arling en ergy an d an orchestra bleatin g ou t G-O-D in M orse Co de!
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assu mp tio n was h ed k now how to tap into contemporary culture. It was the
biggest selling album of all time with 25 million sales internationally. It had
been a case of mass marketing, includ ing co-ordin ated trailers before the
films release, and mad e the Bee Gees an ev en bigger ph en omen on than
th ey alread y were. It also catapu lted J ohn Travo lta into s tardom. When it
was s een that a Star could draw th e p ublic into cinemas an d record s tores for
disco, fo llo wed b y 5 0s ro ck with Grease (1 978), and then Co untry with
Ur ban Cowboy (198 0), televisio n reared its head again . If the Mu sical could
be p opular once more on big screen, th en it was p ossible on the smaller
screen too. Th e ans wer was th e M TV ch an nel, laun ch ed in the summer of
19 81. It was a meltin g p ot for artistic creativity. Firs tly for mu sic, but als o
for directing and editin g on video. M ovie s tudios therefore sou ght to take
so meth ing back , and b eg an to p oach video and commercials directors .
The world of dance h ad been represented by the d isco mo vies ab ove.
Th en in 1980 th ere was a do-it-for-fun followin g for The B lues Broth er s
contras ted by a do -it-for-art fo llo wing fo r F ame (which w en t to T V between
19 82 and 1987 ). Co mmercials directo r Adrian Lyne then raised the bar with
Flashd ance (1 983). Ev ery one ag reed it was one lo ng rock vid eo , an d featu red o ne o f the first credits fo r a music su perviso r, wh o oversaw Gio rgio
M oroders score and so ngs. Dance s tayed in every ones mind with Kevin
Baco ns tu rn th e same year in Footloo se, and a few y ears later with the
sleep er hit Dirty Da ncing (1 987). T heir albums were mas siv e chart h its , and
in itiated a public taste fo r son g co mpilations th at has lasted far longer than
th e period of pop ularity in the late 60s . One major factor influen cing record
bu ying an d marketing trend s was th e emergence of compact dis c techn olog y. The first player debu ted in 19 80, and then the Philips and Son y Corporatio ns began to mak e th em co mmercially available in 1 985. Viny l
su ccess es on th e cusp of the CD mark et and born out of the M TV era were
generally sold on th e basis of one or two song s going to N umb er 1 in the
charts. Fo r the years in question, these su ccess es were: Th e B ig Chill (19 83)
with M arvin Gayes I Heard It Throug h The Grapevin e, Gh ostb uster s
(198 4) with Ray Park er Jr.s title s ong , Against A ll Odd s (1984 ) w ith Phil
Collins s Take A Look At M e N ow, The Woma n In Red (19 84) with Stevie
Wo nders I J ust Called To Say I L ove You , P urple R ain (19 84) with
Princes Os car-win ning title song , an d White Nig hts (19 85) with Lio nel
Richies Say You , Say Me.
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Diggin g into the po ck ets carryin g teen ag ers dispos ab le income was the
order of the day. There was the charitable ro ute, wh ich h ad the wh ole wo rld
rocking to the feel-goo d factor o f Liv e Aid . Th en th ere w as th e Hollywo od
way o f not only creating its own meg a-bu dget megastars , but also poaching
po p Superstars like Prince, w ho w as followed into the cinema by M ad onna
with Desperately Seeking Sus an . Teen flicks were never more po pular than
when co ncep tualised and marketed b y so meone wh o could tap into pop cultu re with ease. Fo remost among thos e makin g the attempt was writer/produ cer/d irector Jo hn Hu ghes. His films o f the mid 80s are a p erfect s napsho t
of fas hio n, language, and mus ical tastes . Titles were ins pired by son gs and
vice v ers a. Their compilation son g albu ms co mp letely igno red scores by Ira
Newbo rn . Th is was exactly what the indu stry had b een mo ving to ward s,
hence the sizeable box office of Sixteen Ca ndles in 19 84, Th e Breakfas t
Club and Weird Science (w hich gave Danny Elfmans band Oin go Boin go
th eir only Number 1 hit) in 198 5, and F er ris Bueller 's Day Off and P retty In
Pink (both 198 6).
The multi-tas k role of Hu ghes across th is series of films is illu strative of
a sh ift in power behind the scenes th at came out of th e disco mov ie produ cers s ucces s. Stu dio s w ere look ing for b lockbu sters, not artistic vis ion s.
So stan d up Steven Sp ielberg for show ing the w ay w ith the s tart of a s econ dary p ro ducer role th at put his name before th e directo rs in a film title.
19 85 was th e key y ear where it was a case of Steven Sp ielberg Pres en ts
Ba ck To The Future, The Goo nies, and Yo ung Sherlock Holmes. Part of that
role was to ens ure sub sid iary income in soun dtrack s ales, and so th e scores
by Alan Silvestri, Dave Grusin, and Bruce Brou ghto n respectiv ely to ok a
backseat to s ongs from Huey Lewis A nd The News and Cindy L au per for
th e first two, b ut n o so undtrack at all for the third.
As corporations began bu ying each o ther out (e.g. So ny bou ght Colu mbia), th e sh ift fro m director to prod ucer on designer b lockbu ster mov ies
so on became apparent. Wearing similar (but o nly slightly smaller) sh oes
was Joel Silver, who sin ce the mid-80s has b een res pons ible for two Predato rs, th ree Die Hards, fo ur Letha l Wea pons, Comma ndo (1985 ), Ro ad
Hou se (1989 ), D emo lition Man (199 3), and The Matr ix (1999 ). T he other
pair of names to facilitate the elev ation of the produ cer, the develop ment of
th e co ncep t movie, an d help generate the Planet Ho lly wood -s tyled Star icon
was J erry Bruckh eimer and D on Simpso n.
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69
70
in g his con cert works for others to film aroun d (as with the h ypno tic
Koyaan isqa tsi in 198 3), minimalisms greates t p ro minence, and Ny mans
ris ing star was in th e films of fellow Brit Peter Green aw ay. Th e Dr augh tsman 's Co ntra ct (1 982) featured a dry, clin ical portrait o f characters lost in
po rtrait painting. Almos t exacting ap proach es followed for bo th A Zed A nd
Two Noug hts (1 985) and Th e B elly Of A n Architect (1987 ), befo re a su rprise
mutu al appreciation of M ozart offered something gracefully different for
Drowning By Nu mbers (198 8). Their culmination of the 80s was w ith The
Cook The Thief His Wife An d Her Lover (198 9), which both vis ually and
musically s plit aud iences between absolute love o r hate o f its sens ory
assau lt.
Also from th e U K came Kenneth Branag h and Patrick Doyle with Henry
V (19 89). Th is brav e debut offered itself up for comp arison with that of Sirs
Laurence Oliv ier and William Walton, and came away with a d ignified
amo unt of res pect. For Sco ttish compos er Do yle, it was a cinematic baptism
of fire with th e larg e-s cale s ymp honic score. Its a very relaxed relationsh ip, he main tains . G en erally speakin g, once hes talk ed ab out what h es
after in terms of style, were set. Ken likes a tune an d thats really the
barometer for the rest o f a film for h im. Hes h ap py for the rest to develop
on ce w eve s et a main co re. Theres b een a stro ng s horth an d from th e word
go . Weve g ot on very well as pers onalities go. The main prio rity is having
fun. Otherwis e whats the p oint? T heir fun con tin ued by b reaking into H olly wood an d plu ngin g the depths o f No ir for Dead Aga in (19 91), then g etting
a tan on the set of Much A do A bout Nothing (1 993) with Doyles h earty onscreen singin g bu ild ing the cast u p for a jo yous choral fin ale.
The mos t sing ular p airing to have come from France in the las t 30 years
is director L uc Bess on and co mp oser Eric Serra. The Last Battle (198 3) was
th eir firs t big s creen effort, and bo re all the hallmarks o f wo rk ing together
on student films, with saxo phon e and s ynth rock back ing a samurai warrior
cleanin g up after a n uclear apo calypse. T hen came the home turf hit of S ubway (198 5), lau nching th e career of Chris toph er Lambert as an eccen tric
hero hiding in the Paris Metro from a criminal und erwo rld. Serras u pbeat
po p s core tapp ed directly into the co ntemporary y outh s en sib ility reb elling
again st Ho lly wood con fo rmity. A gentle ch an ge of pace for The Big B lue
(198 8) was exactly what the d irector wanted for h is very perso nal d eep-s ea
divin g story, but on this on e Hollywoo d go t its w ay by replacing Serras
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su bterran ean samp les with a mo re trad itional score by Bill Con ti fo r the US
mark et.
M ak ing bigg er cross -cu ltu ral waves was the main stream d eb ut o f co ntroversial Du tch director Paul Verho ev en . Like any one else breathing, hed
been enormously impressed with th e s co re for Co nan The Barb arian
(198 2), with its pagan op eratic extremes an d bo tto mles s su pply of memo rable melod y. Compos er Basil Po ledou ris was bo rn in America o f Greek
descent, and that West Eu ro pean s en sib ility shines throu gh many rhy thmic
licks in his w ork as w ell as a bottomless supp ly of beautifu l romantic material (e.g. the tend erness exp res sed in The Blue Lag oon from 1 980). Verhoeven wanted roman ce to acco mp an y his decadent mediaeval w allow in rape
and rab ies with Fles h A nd B loo d (19 85). H e got th at and more, and the
friends hip took them on to th e big b udget hit Robo co p (198 7), where the
in dus trialised to ne of the music s uits th e co ld characters an d cold er s ardo nic
wit of the plot perfectly. Later they reunited for wry military exercises and
satire in Stars hip Troop er s (199 7).
Of all modern directo rs, David Lynch is resp ected as th e mo st aurally
attuned. He n ot only acts as sou nd desig ner and mixer, bu t frequently contributes to the score as well. What mak es it d ifferent with D av id is that he
lo ves music s o much, claims compos er An gelo Badalamen ti. He fin ds that
th e pace an d mood of it so metimes dictates th e pace o f the s cen e he's going
to shoo t. I write a lo t of music before he even sho ots. T his is very interesting
because in film 99% o f the time a composer is broug ht in at th e las t momen t
on ce there's a director's cu t. That gives en ough to start composing themes,
and befo re you know it there's a lo ck ed picture. Then the compos er marries
th ing s to gether. Part of David's genius is that h e sees th ro ugh mu sic. Wh ich
is kin d of cool, and yo u can't say th at about many people. T heir memorable
first collab oration was for Blue Velvet (198 6). It integrated the 50s title so ng
in to the fabric o f the n arrative, demons tratin g Lynchs p erso nalis ed technique of us ing music as an emotional n arrato r to brid ge scen es an d character
relationsh ips togeth er. Their o wn son g Mys teries Of Lov e features th ree
times in d ifferent forms h igh lig hting the matu ration of Kyle MacLachlans
bo y-to-man journey. Both In Dreams by Roy Orbis on and Love Letters
by Victo r Young (yes, the Young from Ch ap ter 2 ) and performed b y Kitty
Lester take on nightmarish significance app lied to Den nis Hop pers role.
Tyin g the directors 50s s ensib ilities together is Badalamentis sympho nic
score, which began their almost telepath ically intuitive w orking meth od
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with o ne another. The Twin Peaks TV Series , su per sexy/vio lent Wild A t
Hear t (19 90), an d u napolo getically s urreal Twin Peaks: Fire Wa lk With Me
(199 2) all fo llo wed , crowning them as a rare cinematic musical fo rce for
cinema of th e 9 0s.
The real su pers tar of working relations hips that originated in the mid-80 s
was that of Tim Burto n and Dann y Elfman. Pee Wees Big Adventu re (19 85)
was a d izzy ing splas h of colour and s tyle with a mu sical accomp an imen t
th ats part G eo rges Delerue, part Nin o Rota, part Bern ard Herrmann, but as
wed soo n dis co ver, all Elfman. I used to see him in clu bs when I was nt
even in th e film in dustry, remembers the directo r. Th ey (Elfman s band
Oingo Boin go) were very theatrical and fun , and they had a s ubtex t under
th em being so rt o f narrative. Not like film music exactly, but there was
so meth ing in them that seemed very filmic. So wh en I had the o pportunity
to make a mov ie there was no qu es tio n that it wou ld be great to as k him.
Hed b een s ucces sful in a b an d, bu t wh en we went to the film we were both
starting o ut at th e s ame time. It felt very contemporary to hav e so mebo dy
who was like me in the sens e that we knew wh at we were doin g bu t we
didnt know what we were do ing. It was new and w e were stu pid and arrogant to thin k that w e could do it. It was funny to see h im in clu bs an d then
dealing with a b ig orch es tra for th e firs t time. Pee Wees in fluence on co medy scoring was instan taneous, and is still felt today. Distancing thems elves
completely they returned with the sup ernaturally screwball Beetlejuice
(198 8), where Elfman mixed Harry Belafon te into his offbeat take on the
afterlife. Th en every thing chang ed with Batman (1 989).
The mark eting machine set in mo tio n for the Caped Cru sader's ad venture
was at an unp recedented level. It inclu ded Warner Bro thers s ecuring Prince,
on e of Warner M usics biggest selling artis ts, to w rite sev eral song s. His
albu m was labelled Original Sou ndtrack; it preced ed the release of the
film, and sent one of many song s n ot actually in the movie (Batd an ce) to
Number 1. Film studio /reco rd label hands hakes in spired by the success of
th is has led to the current state o f affairs, where the wo rd sou ndtrack mean s
any of a number of things to th e pub lic. What hasnt helped is the scenario
Elfman faced, whereb y his score albu m was s uppress ed un til a month after
th e film opened so as n ot to in terfere with Princes sales. He faced it ag ain
th e followin g year on Dick Tra cy, and has do ne several times since, as have
all too many of his fellow compo sers . The g reat s hame of this is that his
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go thic mas terpiece s old in lesser numbers and contributed to being p as sed
ov er for Os car con sideration.
Burton and Elfman learn ed their lesso n in corporate commercialism, and
play ed a hand o uts ide of the ind ustry game with their nex t project. It is with
Ed ward Scis sorha nds (1 990) that we n ow tu rn to the 90 s
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6. Millennium Falcons
where attention spans are assumed to b e so fleeting th at trend s las t
mere months. Sciss orha nds is ab out as person al as any director has allowed
th emselves to get, being the tale of a misu ndersto od artist wh o fears
destroyin g what they to uch. Elfmans resp onse has s ent in fluential ripp les
th rough the music ind ustry ev er s ince. Its use of a w ordless chorus seems to
have charmed the pants o ff anyon e making a fairytale on big screen or
small, anyth ing sug gesting p urity of love, and numero us commercials rangin g from cars to cos metics. Its su bsequ en tly beco me a staple of h is o wn
work too. T he immediate follow -u p with Bu rton was an attemp t to b eat H olly wood at its own g ame with B atma n Returns (1992 ). Not only d id they
avoid deman ds for marketable p op tu nes (Elfman co -wrote one so ng with
Siou xsie An d The Bansh ees ), b ut in bo th to ne an d mus ic they ig nored the
yo uth mark et completely. L ater th ey brok e genre barriers with th e stopmotion animated Mu sical The Nig htma re Befo re Christmas (199 3), to
which the compos ers so ng-writing s kills were of the most imp ortant type of
narrativ e function. The k ooky style o f th e son gs an d s co re have featured in
man y trailers an d children s films sin ce. 5 0s-styled s ci-fi heyday ho kum follo wed with Mars Attacks! (199 6), and then 50s-styled Hammer horror
ho kum with Sleepy H ollo w (1 999).
Outsid e of bein g kn own fo r the Cronenb erg co llabo ration s, Shore
became the leading light for on e of the few d ubious trends th at did fo rm in
th e 90s . Qu ite why there have been s o many serial k illers movies is a troubling mystery. Ho wev er, w ith Silence Of The La mbs (1 991) a genre was
bo rn . Mu ltiple Os car no minatio ns (althoug h inexp licably not the s co re)
sh owed this was h eld in higher regard th an th e 70s and 8 0s s tyle of schlock
ho rro r. Shores music h as been clo ned to a death of clich in s ubsequ en t
movies conjuring foreb oding and terror. In its origin al setting its genuin ely
respo nsib le for wh at was touted on its releas e to be the mos t frig htening
movie o f all time. Take the poun din g heartbeat o f mus ic away when L ecter
Es capes and the rap id cutting of people runn ing ab out mean s nothin g.
Amazingly, Sho re matched th e d ramatic in tensity 4 years later with the merciles sly negativ e S e7 en. After its en ormou sly influ en tial o penin g title
sequ en ce, the score is relentles sly oppress ive. Cold and insinuating, it po ses
a cons tant threat from the killers man ipu latin g hand , and the d ark, wet city
th at created him. Fo r the des ert fin ale, s tabbing ch ords mak e th e arrival of
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an in nocuou s delivery van seem lik e the mo st frigh tenin g event in th e wh ole
movie. Only one break occurred in Bu rtons relation ship with Elfman, and
th at w as for Ed Wo od (1 994). For this , the 50s-bas ed B-mo vie hoku m was
pass ed to compos er Howard Sh ore. Bongo s, theremin, and a touching
extract o f Swan L ak e remind u s of Bela Lug osis era of stard om, when his
19 31 D racula was a little early for a s co re of its o wn. Sho re kept up just as
diverse a track record as Burton and Elfman in the 90s by his ong oing partnersh ip with David Cronenb erg. Their Na ked Lu nch (19 91) w as a s urreally
accu rate adaptation of William Burrough ss n ovel. A great deal o f its selfcontained un iverse comes from the unique musical ap plication o f Ornette
Coleman blowin g bebop jazz acros s Mo roccan percus sio n rhythms. M. B utter fly (19 93) indulged their sh ared p as sio n for o pera. Then Cra sh (19 96)
was s cored for six electric guitars, three h arp s, th ree winds , and two percussionists . Its an ideal reactio n to the auto erotic and fetishistic s tory of car
cras h survivors. eXistenZ (1999 ) s imilarly played with instrumen tal makeup , thou gh th is time on a full o rches tras scale. It also p layed with the
dy namics and acous tics of th e reco rd ing roo m to musically reflect the fact
yo ure n ev er actu ally s eeing wh ats really happen ing in the film until the
very end .
Befo re Shore returned to the genre in ex plos ive style b y utilisin g the d ramatically non-Wes tern sou nd of th e M aster Mu sicians Of Jajou ka fo r The
Cell (2 000), and b efo re D r. L ecter returned cou rtes y o f Hans Zimmer in
Han nib al (2001 ), the d ecade w as filled with glo ssy glorifications of the
serial killers craft. On ly a s mall lis t is needed to illustrate this : Ba sic
Instinct, Kn igh t Moves, Dr. Gig gles (all 1992 ), Yo ung P ois oners Handb ook,
Copycat (b oth 1 995), Kis s The Gir ls (19 97), In Dreams, Fallen (both 19 98),
and Th e Bone Collector (1999 ). Director J ohn Waters is abou t the only p erso n wh ose s ense o f humour co uld be fo rgiven fo r stretch ing to Serial Mom
(199 4), but humou r did find its w ay into th e horror genre with I Know Wha t
You Did La st S ummer (1 997) and Urb an Legend (1 998). Respo nsible for
th is shift was on e o f the 90 s biggest success s tories, Screa m (199 6).
Post-mod ern iron y is a term applied to a lot o f film an d TV in Screams
wake. T he first part of the idea is that characters are well vers ed in pop cultu re world s and po ke fun at them. The seco nd part (th e iron y) is they d ont
kn ow theyre in a film or TV sh ow s traigh t o ut of on e of thos e world s.
M arco Beltrami was th e co mp oser hired fo r a score to fuse o ld and new
styles and acco mp an y a grou p o f kids retread ing Ha llo ween territo ry. It
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came about in several uniq ue w ay s. There was this radio s how that interview ed me on the Intern et, and (director) Wes Crav en 's as sis tant ask ed if
th ey kn ew an y compos ers they could reco mmend. I then had a meeting and
th ey g av e me the opening Drew Barrymore s cen e to score o n spec. It was
als o a fairly un ique situation in that Beltrami had never seen a horror film
before! Wes taug ht me a lot about h ow to max imize th e scare po tential in
ho rro r mov ies. O ne common rule is if n obod y's th ere yo u sting it, and if the
killer's th ere y ou g o silent. Hence the musical red herring when Sy dney
op en s an empty clos ets doo r. Th is techniq ue sits in among st his co ntemporary electron ic mus ic and so ng placement. It carries through the rest of the
trilog y, an d also in his scores for Mim ic (1997 ), The Faculty (1998 ), and
Halloween H20 (19 98) for which he p rovid ed ad ditional mus ic. Fusing
estab lis hed sty les with dance rhyth ms h as been prev alent in horror and
related g en re movies ever sin ce.
The oth er mainstream discoveries of the 90s came out of genre pictures
to o. Elliot Goldenth al h ad wo rk ed o n a few earlier movies , b ut it was with
Alien (1992 ) that au dience and indu stry ears p ricked up with discomfort
and intrigue. Before the film even s tarts, the co mp oser messes with y ou
th rough a to rturous ly tailored re-recordin g of A lfred N ew mans 20th Centu ry Fo x Fan fare. That was almost lik e k nockin g over Lenin s s tatue,
Goldenth al recalls amus ed ly. Dig ital record ing came alon g, and we had 40
minu tes of mus icians time at the end of th e recording s es sio n. So rather
th an tell th em to go plu s pay them, Fo x said th ey wanted a digital recording
of the logo . Th en I s aid: Its Alien. You th ink I can mess with it? Can I be
su bversiv e with it? So you re lulled into a s tate o f non -comprehension. We
didnt have an y score, s o I just g ot up on the s tand and to ld th e musician s
what to d o on what no te. Within a sh ort sp ace of time, many more eyes
were po inted his w ay, once his g rinding, shriek ing, yet often bittersweet
style began getting Oscar n ominations with Interview With Th e Va mpire
(199 4). Its a s tyle thats influ en ced plenty o f scores in the same way as the
fusion method . In fact, h e was a pio neer of fusing styles p re-Scream himself, es pecially with th e h igh profile B atma n Fo rever (19 95).
It was a case of b eing plucked fro m obs cu rity for Lon don composer
David Arno ld wh o was gifted the sci-fi blo ck bus ter Starg ate (199 4). Full of
th e ro mance rejuvenated by J ohn Williams fo r Star Wars and s ly n ods to
other p opular so undtracks (listen fo r 63 3 Squa dron in the final battle), the
score s howed what happens when a sou ndtrack enthus iast is giv en a big
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Aside from the mas siv e collaboratio n that resulted in multiple award
glory fo r Dis neys The Lion King (1 994), th eir other po pular p ooling of
resou rces was on The Rock (1996 ), which credits Nick Glenn ie-Smith, Zimmer, and Harry Gregs on-Williams . Zimmer himself has continu ed to carry
th e action torch for Crimson Tid e (1 995), Broken Arro w (1 996), Th e P ea cemaker (19 97), Missio n: Impos sible 2 (2000 ), an d Gla diator (20 00). He
explained his think ing behind the latter: All the action sequences, the battles, came from s itting up to my ankles in mu d in th is tent which was like a
palace with all these beau tifu l sculptures aroun d me in gold. Ridley Scott
explained th at M arcu s Aureliu s fo ught this battle for something like 17
years and he wou ld actually have these bu sts and artwork all aroun d him.
Th e th ing th at we lo ve abo ut th e Roman civ ilization is the eleg an ce of the
arch itectu re an d the art. All of it w as at my feet, plus this b lood -s oaked
earth. I had this crazy idea to find th e mos t formal and b eautiful mus ical
form that I cou ld thin k of which would reflect this beauty. I s uddenly
th ough t of Vienn es e waltzes, wh ich are so happy and gay with a veneer of
culture attached to th em. So I made waltzes for the b attle scenes w hich are
in credibly savage. Th e cros s-pollin ation of ideas and mus ical forms like
th es e res ulted in Z immers appointment as Head of Mu sic when the Dreamwork s SKG studio was fou nded in th e mid-90s.
Several in dustry factors have influenced, affected, an d resulted fro m the
M V s cenario . M ost pertinent is the final sou nd mix . It's not hard to do
rig ht, claims Danny Elfman. It's just h ard th e way th ings are d one today.
Films now are so nically su ch clu ttered mess es . M usic and sou nd effects
peop le are all doin g the same things for th e same moments of film. The
directo rs do n't un derstand how to separate th e two after the fact, so you get
a little of bo th all th e time. Yo u get these cluttered mons ters, wh ich is abou t
85 % to 90% o f Ho lly wood movies today. The big ger the budg et, it'll b e a
so nic catastrophe. A case in po int wou ld be Ar magedd on, where nearly
every review made men tion of th e sheer volume o f n ois e.
There are sadly many other examples o f tamp ering o r stud io interferen ce
th at have h ind ered the film compo sers craft at th e tail en d of the 20 th Centu ry. The sys tem is now highly relian t on the results of test screening s,
where a rand om grou ping of cinemag oers is empowered to tickb ox as pects
of a film into being chang ed . This o ften leads to re-sh ooting fo otage, wh ich
of cou rs e means mus ical edits o r comp lete re-scoring of scenes. Worse still,
it can lead to w hats kn own as a toss ed s co re if too many voters con sider
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list of son gs, on a separate albu m held b ack so as not to impede s ales of a
preced ing s ong compilation, or ju st no t at all. T he resu lt o f this is a co mplete los s of p ublic understan din g of wh at a So undtrack Albu m is.
The o nly technological bright sp ot within th e same timeframe was the
emergence of Laser Disc and DVD, which allows for is olated music track s
and d ocumen tary explan ation s of a sco re.
81
dens ely complex orch es tratio ns for the large number of actio n set pieces.
Th e s co re is full o f rapidly overlapping rhythms to k eep u p with Pau l Verhoevens breathless directorial sty le. They reunited for Bas ic Instinct (19 92)
with a main title that ebb s and flows with sensu ality, and was on e o f the
most emulated pieces for s everal years . He managed to k eep up the promise
of avoiding action material for the early p art o f the d ecade with a few
romances and comedies like Th e Ru ssia H ouse (1990 ), Love Field (19 92),
Ru dy (199 3), and Ang ie (199 4). Th en so meth ing else took ov er an d that
promis e seemed to be comp letely fo rg otten . There followed: The Sh adow
(199 4), Firs t Kn igh t (1 995), Chain Reactio n an d E xecutive Decis ion (both
19 96), Air Force O ne (199 7), U. S. M arsh als (199 8), The Haunting, The
13 th Warr ior, and The Mummy (all 199 9), and a reunion w ith Verhoeven
on ce more fo r Hollow Ma n (2 000). With many similar in b etween (e.g. the
tw o Sta r Treks), it seemed Gold smith was enslav ed to the Hollywo od action
mach ine. His o wn personality pervades these p owerhous e pieces, b ut at
no where n ear th e inventive lev el of th e d ecades b efo re. It is merely a reflection of the films thems elves of co urse. Yet even th e one critical highlight of
th e perio d, L.A. Co nfidential (1997 ), is little more than an amalgam o f his
earlier China town and the action material developed in th es e others.
It sto od no chance in th e Oscar race th at y ear o f cours e. The jug gern au t
of Titanic could not b e stopped , and J ames Horners unpreced en ted album
sales had to be ackn owledg ed . Critical op inion ab out period anachronisms,
startlin g similarities to Enyas son g Bo ok Of Days , an d lo ve/hate for
Celin e Dions voice are ultimately rather immaterial. I wanted to write a
score that was d eeply emotional, he exp lained. I h ad to ch oose a palette of
colo urs th at would do that for me. My Iris h guy s and Sis sel Kyrkjeb
because th ey re so intimate. J im (Cameron director) wanted d es perately
no t to have a b ig Hollywoo d extravaganza s co re that theyve pu t o n a th ousand o ther films. Th ey all sou nd the same n o matter wh o writes them. By
th e same token, alth ough th e film takes place in 191 2 I d idn t want to write
so me p recio us little E nglish ch amber piece that would narrate th e period. It
had to be s ome timeless fusion. I was look ing for colours that weren t convention al ways to sell a perio d film. I wanted to feel what I migh t h av e felt
had I been on board and lo st somethin g very dear to me. Th e sin king didnt
really matter. It takes care of itself in the watchin g. It didnt really matter
what mus ic I put to it, its already so s pectacu lar. Wh at I felt need ed my h elp
more was the depth o f pass ion between them. T he p ro fo und lo ss that Rose
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feels. The way the story turns itself around at the end and go es fu ll circle.
All those s ort o f wis tful mys tical feelings I wanted to co nvey in the mu sic.
Horn ers th ink ing ans wers many criticis ms . The influence o n the indus try
whereby compo sers now either aim s traigh t for or run far away fro m uilleann p ipes, ans wers many more. To p ut Titan ic into co ntext fo r the co mpo sers own decade, it shou ld b e noted that the Iris h gu ys (whistle and
bh odrn drums) followed in the foots teps of his Patriot Games (1 992), Legends O f Th e Fa ll (199 4), B raveheart (19 95), and The Devils O wn (19 97).
Th ematically the material o wed much to his Thun derheart (1 992), Bop ha!
(199 3), Coura ge Under F ire (1996 ), an d oth ers . Lik e Go lds mith, its felt his
las t truly insp ired works came at the begin ning o f the 9 0s. Namely the
charm of The R ocketeer (1991 ) with its 30s in nocence and serial ad venture
conv ey ed in a joyo us flyin g theme, and S neakers (1 992) with its blu es y
motif an d su btle s usp en se und erscore.
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orchestra, esp ecially for Th e Creation s cen e and its 2 minutes of all-ou t
sens ory ass au lt.
Gho st (199 0) remains on e of th e best ex amples o f a son g selling an
albu m. A lex North s Unch ained Melody as in terpreted by the Righteou s
Brothers, kept the alb um in US charts for over a year. The record label
Varse Saraband e was b y th is point es tablishing itself as th e foremos t
so undtrack producer, and the success o f their s core album for M au rice Jarre
mean t they stay ed lead er of th e pack. Directo r Nich olas M ey er tried to
repeat his trick o f a decade earlier (wh en he launched J ames Ho rn er s career
on Star Trek II) by g iving Cliff E idelman his b ig b reak o n Sta r Trek VI: The
Und iscovered Country (199 1). Meyers class ical roots sh one th rough in elemen ts fas hio ned after Holst and Stravinsky, but the y oung composers
Golden Age tak e o n the fran ch ise un fo rtunately did nt carv e h im as b ig a
name as Horners.
An element of confus ion s urround ed the names o n Th e Las t Of The
Moh icans (199 2) with a s creen card p utting a dou ble s pace between Trevor
Jo nes and Ran dy E delman . Only record b uyers wo uld dis co ver who was
respo nsib le for the majes tically s oaring hero mu sic, and who for the ambient syn thesiser ins erts. T hat s ame year, there was n o un certainty that Polis h
compos er Wojciech Kilar was solely resp ons ible for the hy pnotic g rimn es s
of B ram Stoker s Dr acula. His middle-Eu ropean style clash ed welcomely
with Hollyw oods. No on e els e wo uld h av e s co red the h earse chase finale
with an insanely repetitive scherzo (vigorou s movement of music).
In 1994 , M ichael Nyman s The Piano so ld over 3 million copies w orldwide, and remains his most pop ular wo rk . The Us ual Sus pects (19 95)
remain s n ewco mer J ohn Ottmans mos t popu lar to o, w ith its film no ir tone
and rhyth mic perfection derived from the fact h e was also the films ed ito r.
It too k a trio of comp osers to keep up with the editin g and romance of
Ro meo + Ju liet (19 96), but th e orchestral/contempo rary electronics /so ng
fusion fro m Craig Armstrong, Nelle Hooper, and Marius De Vries h as been
much emulated (particu larly Arms trong s choral elements ). Far su btler and
tend er express iveness was required for roman ce and th e lo ve that dare no t
sp eak its name in Wilde (1 997). The emo tiv e score fro m Debbie Wis eman
declared bo th the scribes geniu s and its own.
Righ t at the dawn of th e new M illenniu m came three potentially trendsettin g scores in an oth erwise lacklu stre 199 9. First were Jo n Brions unu su-
84
ally long cues linking the many d isparate threads of Magno lia . T hen in
amo ngs t so urced drum an d bass (e.g . The Propellerh eads ' Spyb reak wh ich
was p romp tly re-us ed or mimicked to death) for The Matrix is a sass y blend
of ato nal b rass and tech no from Don Davis . Lastly there was Fig ht Club
with a k itchen sin k collection of every conceiv ab le method of scoring
applied by The Dust Brothers . Into the new century, Crouching Tiger H idden Drag on by Chinese compos er Tan Dun would prove to b e the mos t
memorable new sou ndtrack experience. In an even more lack lus tre y ear, it
was w ith out doub t th e mos t des erving o f Oscar gold .
The ex tended N ewman family (see Ch ap ter 2) warrant mention. Thomas
seems to have a s plit mu sical person ality, divid ing h imself between the
up lifting symph onic sty le of Th e Sha ws hank Redemption (1994 ) and the
po ts an d pans electronics of American Beauty (1999 ). Ran dy excels as a
so ngwriter, y et is just as at h ome warming ev ery sportingly patriotic Americans heart for The Na tur al (19 84) or recalling the child in every one for Toy
Sto ry (19 95). David is a well-respected co nductor wh o alway s seems to be
most at home with slap stick comedy like Bill And Ted s Excellent A dven ture
(198 8) o r Galaxy Quest (19 99). A noth er name to gain promin en ce throu gh
th e 90s was James Newton Ho ward . His su btly su pportive wo rk with directo r M. Nigh t Shy amalan o n the my steries of The Sixth Sen se (1999 ) and
Unb rea kable (20 00) lo oks set to forge anoth er g reat director/compos er relations hip.
Yo ull h av e n oted repeat men tio n of the Ho lly wood A -list tow ard the end
of this chrono logy. A part from financially motivated lis ts in p laces like The
Hollyw ood Rep orter, its rare any one cares to name names. Su ffice to say,
th is last chapter just has.
A Final Thought
What d oes all this wind ing d own and mis cellany mean ? Wh ere film scorin g is concern ed , to o man y cooks have most definitely s poiled th e b roth. As
of th e 9 0s there have been enormous numbers of composers wo rk ing , yet
few can claim to have in fluenced th e indu stry. Having po stu lated that directo r/composer relationsh ips have led to s ome o f the best and mos t in fluential
music, its only right that I sho uld acknow ledge s ome others that are in
exis tence tod ay.
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Atom Egoyan first co llabo rated with fello w Can ad ian M ychael Danna in
19 87 on F amily Viewing. Fro m the s tart their w ork h as been defined by
un pred ictability. Every one of their mov ies features a score that d efies convention , yet perfo rms all the magical tricks this b ook has s potlig hted. Exotica (1 994) cov ers jumps b ackw ard an d forward in time with an all-inclus ive
sedu ctive motif. Th e S weet Hereafter (199 8) has a Persian ney flu te ex pandin g Egoyan s Pied Piper allego ry in the tale. Arar at (2002 ) in co rporates
ancient Armenian folk tu nes into Go lden Age pastich e for a film-within -afilm s tructu re.
Carter Burwell has w orked on all o f the Coen Brothers films since Blo od
Simple (19 84). Ran gin g fro m zany comedy for Raisin g Arizon a (1987 ) to
Nord ic folks iness for Farg o (1996 ) to No ir genre homage for The Man W ho
Wa snt Th ere (20 01), theirs has been ano ther partn ersh ip defined by constant u npredictable ch an ge.
There are only 3 films so far to talk of betw een M. Night Shyamalan and
compos er J ames Newto n How ard, but each have merited commen t in the
so undtrack community. The Sixth Sense (19 99) sub tly worked its w ay under
th e audiences skin with layers of vocal effects . Un breakable (2 000) p layed
with ideas of mus ical d uality an d reflectin g echo es . Signs (20 02) d eligh ted
so undtrack fan s with a quintes sential demons tration of whats Herrmannesq ue ab out sus taining s uspens e.
The first 2 sco res Elliot Goldenth al compos ed for Neil Jo rd an were both
no minated for Academy Awards . Interview With The Vamp ire (199 4) and
Mich ael Collins (19 96) remain the pin nacle of the comp osers ach ievements
in many op inions (desp ite his eventual Oscar win for Frida in 20 03). Frequ en tly d ipping in to nig htmarish realms v ia d ark orchestral colours, Go ldenth als sing ular style continued into Th e B utcher B oy (1 997), In D rea ms
(199 9) and The Go od Thief (2002 ).
One more partnersh ip to men tio n as highly significan t in the new millennium is that between Pau l T homas A nderson and Jo n Brio n. Since scoring
And ers ons debu t with H ard Eight (1996 ), hes receiv ed numerous offers to
work on A-list projects. He has tu rn ed every one dow n, refu sin g to work
with anyo ne else. Th at means a very s low rate of ou t pu t, bu t both Mag nolia
(199 9) and Punch-Dr unk Love (200 2) have p ro ven to be w orth the wait.
Both featu re extrao rd inarily prominent uses o f mus ic, often drowning ou t
dialogu e co mpletely.
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Loo kin g ah ead from h ere isn t d oom and g loom by any means . History
repeats itself now ad ay s mo re th an it ever used to . The ind ustry s future is
su re to enjo y an unexp ected s urprise or two. With more confid en ce and
money being directed tow ard th e Internet an d the gaming in dus tries, filmic
orchestral mu sic h as alread y begu n so me interesting d ev elopments in the
21 st centu ry. Sho rt movies pop u p in all so rts o f p laces in the web, with v ario us co mp osers con tribu tin g excellen t min i s co res (e.g. M ychael Dan na for
Chos en in 20 01 and Elia Cmiral for S on of Satan in 2002 ). In the world of
game-p lay, names like Michael Giacchino (the Medal o f Hon or s eries ), In on
Zu r (Icewind D ale II), Richard Jacques ( Head hunter) and Peter Connelly
with M artin Iv es on (Tomb Raid er : Angel of Da rkness ) hav e all been prov idin g su mp tuou s film-styled o rch es tral scores.
Wheth er y ou were a film music geek fan before reading this book or no t,
rest as sured therell always be plenty to make listen ing to screens big or
small well w orth y our while.
As promised at th e start of th e book , th e names have gon e by pretty fas t,
th erefore many h av e had to slip th ro ugh the cracks. From the 90s, s ome I
wish thered b een ro om fo r inclu de: Carter Burwell, Bruce Broug hto n, Jo hn
Debn ey, Rand y E delman , G eo rge Fen ton, M ark Isham, Joel McNeely,
Rach el Po rtman, Graeme Revell, M arc Shaiman, Step hen Warbeck, and
Gabriel Yared. Also, man y whos e careers orig inated earlier: Luis Bacalov,
Richard Ro dney Benn ett, Joh n Coriglian o, Carl Davis , Brad Fiedel, E rn es t
Gold, John Green, Q uincy Jon es , Stanley M yers, M ario Nas cimbene, JeanClaude Petit, Nicola Piov an i, Zbigniew Preisn er, And re Prev in, Richard
Robb ins, Philipp e Sarde, an d Jo hn Scott. To them and their fan s, as well as
to many oth ers (particularly international composers), this book apologises
for th eir absence.
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with, th eres also the app ro ach o f s omeo ne like Hans Zimmer. Having
had no mu sical education whatsoever oth er th an piano lesson s for 2
weeks, which if anythin g d amaged my way forward b ecaus e th ey never
taug ht me anythin g, I u se a Macin tos h. I us e s eq uencing s oftware, then
so me samplers w hich b as ically have a fak e o rch es tra in them.
5) Once th e id eas are flowing, its usu al for a series of electron ic d emos or
mo ck -ups to be requested to accomp an y the s cenes bein g edited. Then
it becomes a race ag ainst time to meet a pre-boo ked record ing s ession
date. J ust to g et two minutes of orchestral mus ic a day o n paper is really
hard, rev eals D an ny Elfman . Ev ery one h as their own sys tem of workin g. I pu t it up o n a big board. I b reak d own the number of cues into their
minutes and second s. I to tal it know ing I can write rou ghly two min utes a
day. I have a coun tdo wn o f days at the top, an d theres a certain po int, a
D-Day, where I mu st write two minu tes a d ay to mak e it to the end on
time. Im always watch ing that p oint coming, and Ill try to d o my develop ment k nowing th at freight train is comin g. But its inconceiv ab le to no t
be fin ish ed in time.
6) Time b eing of th e es sence, a composer will often work with one or more
orchestrator to lessen the lo ad . Elfmans been working with Steve Bartek
since playing in the ban d Oingo Bo ingo to gether (see Chapter 5 ). Heres
Bartek s defin ition of the job: T he ro le of the orchestrato r is multifaceted, inv olving some creativity, tech niqu e, and organization. First and
foremo st Im resp onsible for translating a compos ers s ketch into an
orchestral (ensemble) piece of music that sou nds ju st as they envisioned
it. I make sure it is as easily p layable by the mus icians as poss ible so as
no t to waste any time on the s coring s tage. I often make sure it fits the
dramatic and sty lis tic con cerns of the scene, th at th e mu sic is large
enou gh for the action or small enoug h fo r th e dialogu e, and that the
in strument cho ices are ap propriate for the scene. Im als o in volved in the
man ag ement of res ources to p ro duce the music. Acting as the liais on
betw een compos er and the orchestra contracto r I ens ure the need ed mu sicians are at th e rig ht s es sio n at th e rig ht time for the mo st efficient way to
get the music recorded. This involves h av ing an organized recording
order that will save money o n musician s and make it easier for them and
th e eng ineer to move qu ickly fro m on e cu e to th e n ex t by keep ing s imilar
reco rd ing set up s and music styles next to each oth er. Im o ften called
up on by the mus ic ed itor to facilitate any las t minute mo vie ch an ges by
editing the music to fit any n ew version of the s cene. Im usu ally at the
sess ion s mak ing s ure it all happens as smooth ly as p oss ible, helping
mak e any correction s or chang es called for by th e compos er or director
89
while musician s are on the stan d. Of cours e when so meth ing goes wro ng
its always the orchestrato rs fault, as it s hould be.
7) Barteks intermediate adminis trativ e decis ions ens ure a recording venue
is settled on, and the n umber o f s es sio ns needed are determined b y the
amo unt of mus ic. T he play ers th emselv es are bo oked b y an orchestra
contracto r dependent on ho w many have been orchestrated fo r and whos
availab le. In Los An geles there are a large selection of sess ion p layers,
whereas the UK o ften makes u se of several lon g-stand ing orch es tras (e.g.
th e LSO ).
With everything in place, th e last minute stage is to create the individ ual
pages for p layers to fo llo w. The fu ll score is given to a cop yis t either in
hand -w ritten A 3 format o r as a computer file. They th en transcribe for
each ins trumentalist bearing several points in mind. The p arts have to
sh ow the number of bars to rest, otherwise a player is look ing at empty
sp ace and rustling un necess ary pages. The page tu rns need to be when
th e p layer h as a free hand . Fo r n eatness and sp eed, this is generally all
fed in to a piece o f software.
8) The set-up of a reco rding s tudio is extremely imp ortant given the
amo unts of mo ney often in volved. D ick L ewzey worked fo r many years
at Lo ndon s CTS Stud ios . He broke d own the stages of set-up and his
role as record ing en gin eer like this: A compos er calls to ask you aboard
first of all. A venue is co nsidered based on th e size of orchestra and the
so rt of sou nd th ey wan t. Is it to b e an acous tic reco rding or something
really in-you r-face? You re us ually book ed fo r the room a d ay in advan ce
of the sess ion . T he mus ic ed ito r comes in with click track machines
(which play in strumentalists beats for them to follow in their headph ones) and they test the video machines and talk back (a simple twoway communication from control roo m to con ductor p odium). Then
th ere may be a two-man team p utting out microph ones, cables , and headph ones. Sometimes its just me. The time this all takes d ep en ds on the
room and n umb ers of players. A recent on e hund red and fifty-piece
orchestra with cho ir took nearly 6 hou rs to s et-up. It was 7 :00 PM to
2:00AM . Usually its around 3 to 4 hours. I never d elegate microp hone
placemen t to an yone els e thou gh. I allocate mikes to certain tracks on the
tape machine. So metimes they w an t to separate so loists to giv e the
op tion of cu tting them out later. When we start th e sess ion, I have to
achieve a h eadp hone balance for the players, and then tweak as we g o.
One o f the hardest things is mon ito ring click track n oise d oesnt s pill ou t
of headpho nes during quiet passages. A noth er jo b durin g the sess ion is
go ing into th e stu dio an d talkin g to players. With percus sio n yo u have to
talk abo ut where to stan d to catch every thing fo r th e way y ouve set u p.
90
During the actual takes I try to catch ev ery cue o n their o wn merits.
Bey ond this I have to ensure the people who are mix ing at th e du bbing
sess ion kn ow what theyre g etting on the tapes. Then afterwards theres
th e clean up. An eighty -piece orchestra can d ev as tate a roo m. Theres
sp illed tea on cables and cup s everywhere!
9) Of all th e aspects o f p utting a mo dern score together, co nducting is the
on e where opinion s most d ivided. The A-list triumvirate of John Williams, Jerry Goldsmith , and James Horner all cond uct their ow n work , as
do John Barry and Debbie Wis eman. Others su ch as David Arnold,
Danny Elfman, an d Hans Zimmer do not, feeling it is more importan t to
be in the recording bo oth to be hands -o n for an y changes requested by
th e director or prod ucers. For th e cas e in fav our, heres what Howard
Shore has to say: I th ink that condu cting is a way to fully realise y our
music. Its the final s tage in a way. Fro m the podium you can offer s o
much exp ress ion and advice to the players , wh ich y ou cant do fro m the
contro l ro om. There are man y thin gs you can quickly do fro m the
po dium with y our players, from marking score parts to talk ing abou t
ph rasing, dy namics , interpretation, to changing a melody line slightly
with g race no tes. Film music is done quickly. Its no t like y ou can finis h
a score and h av e a month to go o ver ev ery s mall detail. From the po dium
yo u can work with the orchestration and hear these b alances and ass es s
th e performance of the p layers first hand. Its all abo ut g ettin g a great
performance on tape es sentially. Th e ess en ce o f it is really abou t
rehears al, because the players have never seen it. You want to take th em
th ro ugh the reh earsal p ro cess as quick ly as po ssible. Then wh en the
energ y is correct, do th e best take. Quite often th e best film takes are
early o nes. So theres a fantastic immed iacy of being on the p odium and
feeling the energ y of th e p layers when y oure goin g to get th at great take.
Yo u can see if theyre g etting a little tired, or may be its getting a little
near lun ch . Its somewhat ab out co ntrol. Theres n o chain of command.
10 ) T here are two stages of mixin g whats been record ed . Each cu e can have
in strument vo lumes tin kered with to achieve desired effects . A full balance is achiev ed , and its also the time an albu m is pu t to gether. Then
comes the final dub , where comp osers fear to tread. The final sou nd
mix for th e film is where the musics function in the film is set. M any
modern s co res are thoug ht lost in hig h vo lumes o f dialo gue and fo ley
(rep lacement s ound effects). For film mus ic, this is where the bu ck either
stops or is made.
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8. Reference
Books On Composers
Theres a s hockingly small library on the lives of film compo sers . Nearly
everyth ing releas ed has g one o ut o f print (but try throu gh the magazines
listed below), h ence this paltry list:
A Hea rt At Fires Centre (The Life And Music Of Bern ard Herr mann ) by
Steven C. Smith. Hardback - 41 5 pages, 1991 , U niversity Of California
Pres s, ISBN 0-52 0-0712 3-9. A truly masterful work o n th e life o f the
composer. Covers h is p rivate life, film career, and co ncert works with
equal resp ect and detail.
John Ba rry: A Life In Music by Geo ff Leonard, Pete Walk er, & Gareth
Bramley. Hardback - 243 pages, 1998 , Sansom & Company, ISBN 190 0178 -8 6-9. If ever there was a labour of love, th is is it. Bulging with
in fo rmation and colo ur p hoto graphs, this is the way all great film co mpo sers deserve to be rep res en ted.
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Specialist Magazines
Printing advancements h av e allo wed fanzines to move away fro m the
ph otocop ier. While th ere is plenty o f fan nis h d eb ate and opinion abou t, the
on es with th e mos t to say are listed b elow.
Film Score Mo nthly http://www.films co remonthly.com Poss es sed of a
singular s ard onic wit, it may not be as regular as its title sug gests , but its
glossily attractive and informative. Th e Lo s Ang eles editorial team are
also res pons ible for a terrific ong oin g series of class ic sou ndtrack
albu ms .
Mus ic Fro m The M ovies http://w ww.mus icfro mthemov ies.com With an
enormous albu m rev iews section , and feature articles of biblical proportions , this U.K . based magazine has g one from streng th to stren gth.
Internet Resources
The so undtrack commu nity is no where more alive than on the In ternet.
Newsg roups and private lists ch ro nicle excitement and dis may at new titles
with either alarming or amu sin g degrees o f fervo ur. So me of the s ites lis ted
here con tain their own chat forums, but lo g into rec. mus ic.movies so me
time and enjoy the n oise!
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Appreciation
Fan sites app ear and dis ap pear regu larly. Heres a mixture of official and
un au thorised sites that s eem to be aro und to stay:
Jo hn Barry http://w ww.john barry.org.u k
Elmer Bern stein http://w ww.elmerbernstein.com
Don Davis http://d ondav is.filmmus ic.com/home.html
Dann y Elfman h ttp ://elfman.filmmus ic.com
Jerry Go lds mith http://www.jerrygoldsmithonline.com
Bern ard Herrmann http://www.uib .no/herrmann
James Horner www. hornershrin e. co m
Erich Wolfg an g Korn gold http://k orngo ld.freey ellow.com
Eric Serra http://www.ericserra.co m
How ard Sh ore http://ho me.s wipn et.se/~w-672 69
M ax Steiner http://hometown. ao l.com/steinerlib /in dex.htm
Jo hn Williams http://www.jwfan.com
Fran z Waxman http://w ww.franzwaxman .com/main .html
Debb ie Wiseman http://ww w.d eb biewis eman.co.u k
Hans Zimmer http://www.hanszimmer.in fo
Retail
Amazo n (.com or .co.uk ) is always a go od b et for soun dtracks. Bu t h ere
are a co uple o f s pecialis ts:
Intrada (San Fran cisco) h ttp ://www.intrada.com
Footlig ht Records (New York) h ttp ://www. fo otligh t.com
M ovie Bou levard (UK) h ttp ://www.mo viebou levard.co.uk
Movie Collections
The Alien Tr ilo gy, Go lds mith/Horner/Goldenth al, Varse Sarabande VSD57 53
The B atma n Trilogy, Elfman/Gold en thal/Hefti, Varse Sarab an de VSD57 66
Bo nd Ba ck In A ction and 2 (2 000), Various, Silva Screen FILM CD 317 /340
Fellini/Ro ta: La Do lce Vita, Silva Screen FILM CD 720
The Godfath er Trilog y, Rota/Copp ola/M ascagni, Silva Screen FILM CD 3 44
The Ha mmer F ilm Mus ic Collection Volume O ne, Vario us, GDI Reco rd s
GDICD002
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Composer Collections
John Barr y: Th e Collectio n, Silva Screen FIL MXCD 3 49
Mus ic For A D arkened Theatre Volumes One and Two (19 96), Elfman,
M CA MCAD-100 65/M CAD2-1155 0
The Omen: The Ess en tia l Jerr y Go ldsm ith Film Mus ic Collectio n, Silva
Screen FILM XCD 199
The E ssential Mau rice Jar re Film Music Collection, Silv a Screen
FILMXCD 3 24
Er ich Wolfgan g Kor ngold: The Warn er Bro thers Years, Premiere
Sound track s 72 43 8 38118 2 3
Man of Galilee: Th e E ssential Alfred Newman Film Mus ic Collection, Silva
Screen FILM XCD 352
Ben-Hu r: The Essential Mikls Rz sa Film M usic Co llection, Silv a Screen
FILMXCD 3 34
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T im Bu rton
J oh n C arp en ter
S teven S od erberg h
Terry Gillia m*
Krzy szto f K ies low sk i*
S ergio Leo ne
B ria n D e Pa lma*
R id ley S cott (2 nd )
B illy W ild er
M ik e Hod ges
A n g L ee
Jo el & E tha n C oen ( 2n d)
C lint Ea stw o od
Mich ael M an n
R om an Po la ns k i
Oliver Sto ne
Georg e L uca s
Ja mes C am eron
R oger C orma n
S pik e L ee
F ilm G enres :
B la xp loitatio n Films
Ho rro r Films
S las her Mov ies
Va mp ire Films *
Germ an E xp res s io nis t Film s
B ollyw ood
S p agh etti West ern s
Film N oir
Heroic Bloo ds h ed*
Fren ch N ew Wav e
V iet na m War Mov ies
Ha mm er Films
C arry On Film s
F ilm S ubjects :
L au rel & Hard y
S teve McQu een *
Filmin g On A Microbu d get
Film St ud ies
Film Mu sic
Th e Osca rs (2n d )
W rit in g A S creenp lay
M us ic:
T he Mad ch ester S cen e
Bea stie Boy s
Ho w To S ucceed I n Th e Mu sic Bu sin ess
Literature:
C yb erp un k
A ga tha C h ristie
Terry Pratch ett
W illiam Sh ak esp eare
Geo rges S im en on
Ph ilip K Dick
S h erlo ck Holm es
Hitch h ikers Gu id e (2 nd )
C reative Writin g
R ob ert Cru m b
Id eas :
C on s piracy T heories
Fem inis m
N ietzs ch e
Freu d & Ps ych oan alys is
U FOs
Bis exu ality
H istor y:
A lchem y & A lch em is ts
J ack Th e Rip p er
A m erican C iv il War
Glo balis ation
C las sic Ra dio C om edy
T he C rus ad es
T he R ise Of New Lab ou r
A m erican In d ian Wa rs
W h o Sh ot JFK?
N u clea r Pa ran oia
Th e Black D eat h
A n cien t Greece
W it chcraf t
V id eog amin g
M iscellaneou s:
S tock M arket E ss ent ia ls
D octo r W ho
Available at bookstores or send a cheque (paya ble to Oldc astle Books) to: Pocket
Essentials (Dept FM2), P O Box 394, Har pe nden, Her ts, AL5 1XJ, UK. 3.99 eac h
(2.99 if marked with an *). For each book add 50p (UK)/1 (elsewhere) postage & packing.
96