What Film Music Has Meant Mail Bag
Compiled by Lukas Kendall
Last week we printed an
essay by Jeff Heise on his history of soundtrack appreciation; here
are two letters from readers with their stories.
Please send in your experiences with this weird and wonderful art form
we love -- it's always interesting to read of people's unique tales.
From: Tom <sauron158@mindspring.com>
It's not hard to imagine that I, like many others, got hooked into
film scores by listening to John Williams. I was 12 when when Star Wars
came out in 1977. My older brother had seen it before the rest of my family
and he raved about it so much that we all went with him to see it the following
weekend(which sadly was the last film all of us got to see together). My
brother was a musician and commented on the score. He soon bought me the
2 album soundtrack and I have never grown tired of it since. Much to my
dad's chagrin, I could'nt stop playing it. Then came "Close Encounters..."
and from there, film scores have been my music of choice for listening
pleasure.
But being a young lad, I hadnt heard of any other composers, until
"Star Trek: TMP" came out. Again, my brother was my catalyst
and when I commented on the music, especially the Main Title/Klingon Battle
music, he mentioned Jerry Goldsmith's name and said, "Yeah, he's really
good too." When my dad bought me the album, I played the "Enterprise"
track so loud my neighbors called and asked what the hell where we doing.
The Klingon Battle music is in my opinion, one of the best and original
themes Goldsmith has ever composed and yes, I cranked that sucker up!
All though high school and college, I continued to purchase soundtracks.
I got teased of course, but usually only by guys who hadnt paid any attention
to scores. One time in college I had Star Trek II going (loudly of course)
and the "Suprise Attack" cue came on. I got several incredible
responses to it, asking what was it, who did it, what part of the movie,
etc. Soon, several friends began to enjoy listening to my collection, from
"Empire of the Sun" to "Silverado". I even had a college
newspaper journalist do a story on me and my collection(all LP's at the
time).
Sadly, even at the age of 35, I have never been able to go to a
live concert to see my favorites. In fact, if it wasnt for the picture
on the back of "First Blood", I never would have known what Jerry
Goldsmith looked like until just a few years ago. Living in Atlanta has
made it almost impossible to see these maestro's at work.
Listening to films scores has been nothing but positive for me.
It helped me and my parents to relate to one another during my high school
years, since I wasnt listening to hard rock or rap. It helped me during
my studies to either relax or to get my butt in gear. And it has helped
me to "transport" my mind to anywhere in the world when the real
world itself tries to crash in on me.
I have built up to almost 300 scores on CD, LP and cassette in about
23 years. What a wonderful investment for me it has been.
From: Dean Anast <d_anast@email.msn.com>
The formative years, between 5 and 15, are the ones in which I really
believe the profoundest aesthetic impressions are made. I was raised in
a household where love of culture was everywhere around me: in the endless
shelves of books, in the canvasses on every wall, and in the record collection
close to the stereo in the living room. Nobody forced these things of beauty
on me; but they surrounded me and natural curiousity did the rest. The
first scores I remember playing were old 78 sets of "Duel in the Sun"
and "Song of Bernadette." I was around six and I was hooked.
Then the big sounds. I couldn't believe how perfectly matched the films
of "El Cid" and "Lawrence of Arabia" were to their
scores and visa versa. Can anyone imagine those two films without those
scores? Impossible! Every kid of my generation (I'm middle aged now) couldn't
wait for the next James Bond picture. Sean Connery became the man every
pre-teen secretly desired to be -- and John Barry's scores were the first
that I remember buying! I played them greedily and imagined I was the perfect
super agent. What member of my generation who sees and hears the opening
shots of a Bond movie doesn't get a nostalgic chill up his spine? I became
enamored of classical music in my twenties, and it was then that I grew
to appreciate the continuity between the German Romantics and Steiner,
Waxman, Korngold. You can even hear it today in it's best exponent: Jerry
Goldsmith. When you hear the theme from "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine"
you know that the soul of Richard Strauss passed into Jerry Goldsmith.
Though film composition generally isn't what it once was, jewels like the
score for "Last of the Mohicans" can still thrill us. Let's hope
for more quality -- and less repetitive scores. One complaint: why is it
that film composers these days hope to carry a story with one or two motifs,
as if they are afraid they'll use up all their ideas? Look at the score
for "Gladiator" -- a couple fine themes...with nothing but boring
notes in between.
MailBag@filmscoremonthly.com
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