A Film Score Reminiscence

by Brian McVickar

I figured that while I have the chance, since it's FSM's10th anniversary year, I'd jump on the current bandwagon and send in my own personal soundtrack tale for all to enjoy!

There is certainly a trend in how all of us fans slowly discovered our all-consuming passion for film music. It's been great to read the personal stories of how as individuals we arrived at this stage and keeps us strongly tethered. I remember awhile back in an issue of FSM when Lukas postulated one reason that we are film fans is that the score allows us a doorway into the world of a specific favorite film. I agree to a certain point with this theory, that is how most of us began as film score collectors, but at some point we move beyond that initial stage and start enjoying the music simply as great music.

I first became entranced by classical music at age four, completely amazed at its diverse textures, styles, and moods; the orchestral sounds created produced for me profound emotional reactions. In my mind, this was music originating from some spectacular, spectral location, perhaps divinely delivered as no other music could ever be. So, for obvious reasons, I was fully prepared to have an enthusiastic response to film music! Music for the movies contained all the aspects of classical music that so enthralled me, but in a more direct, programmatic fashion. The art of storytelling, I noticed, was intricately woven into many orchestral scores, making them very attractive to someone such as myself who loves an emotive, grand and intricate story. Thus in 1977, as for many others, composer John Williams became the Adam in my burgeoning film music world, firmly planting his marvelous scores for the films of Lucas and Spielberg as the initial seeds which eventually sprouted into a sizable film score collection.

My first actual soundtrack arrived when I was seven, courtesy of my mother's insightful knack for perfect gifts - THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK, 1980 LP version, with striking gatefold cover, amazing pictures and an interview with Williams included. There are those few scores that can really jump-start a fan and this is one of those scores! Played incessantly, I am surprised there were even discernible grooves remaining ten years later. (Thank goodness for the STAR WARS box set by Mr. Redman and the complete score edition by Mr. Matessino!) Like many others, I began to seek out more movies with Williams' name attached to it, but simultaneously I discovered the works of his peers and their varied accomplishments. I encountered Goldsmith through STAR TREK: TMP, PATTON, and THE BLUE MAX, Horner through STAR TREK II and KRULL, John Barry through his cool Bond scores, Craig Safan's THE LAST STARFIGHTER (another LP worn down by gleeful overplay), Trevor Jones' THE DARK CRYSTAL and Laurence Rosenthal's CLASH OF THE TITANS. All are expressive orchestral scores telling grand, intricate and engaging stories both in and out of the movies for which they were composed. This was an orchestral goldmine, in my young opinion, and so I strapped on my shining miner's helmet and set to work unearthing as much as I could carry!

Twenty years have now passed since my first soundtrack. THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK is still, and always shall be, a wonderful listen. I have graduated from LPs to cassettes to CDs and my collection has grown to almost 600 film scores total. I am surprised at how much I have grown to enjoy new treasures in the different corners of film music, from the 70's funk styles of Lalo Schifrin and Roy Budd to Golden Age masters Franz Waxman and Bernard Herrmann and on to the progressive orchestral and electronic sounds of Elliott Goldenthal, Chris Young and Danny Elfman. I am surprised that though John Williams was the composer who, for me, laid the film music foundation, it is Jerry Goldsmith whose music I have the most examples of (80 albums worth). There is something inherent in Goldsmith's music that I find so enveloping and enjoyable; I feel that he allows himself to live and breathe wholly by his music and thus his film scores are imbued with his personality and his life. There are many other composer who compel a similar reaction; Goldsmith simply dominates because of the volume of his scores that amazingly contain such quality. The music of John Barry, Basil Poledouris, Patrick Doyle and Thomas Newman achieve this special sound, something personal yet approachable, programmatic yet transcendent.

Of course, my passion for film music might not have flowered so fully had it not been for FSM! Through the magazine, I learned much about the film composing world, the incredible yet lesser-known scores which slipped through the cracks earlier, and I discovered a neat group of fellow fans so I don't feel so odd! For instance, my friend Todd and I met while I was trying to add to the Goldsmith side of my collection; even though he no longer had the Goldsmith disc I wanted, we started a friendship seven years ago while living in different states. The best part is that, eventually, he met my friend Devon and she is now his beloved wife-to-be! Little did Lukas know that his publication was helping fans connect in strange ways! (You know, we should poll the women who date or are married to us film score fans and find out how they deal with our hobby!)

I'm hoping the next twenty years as a film score fan will be a as fun as the first!

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