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A lot of folks here disparage films such as 2001:A SPACE ODYSSEY that use classical compositions instead of original score.
But , one good thing about these types of films is that they can introduce you to music you might not have heard otherwise.
My classical music discoveries:
SHUTTER ISLAND: 'On the nature of Sunlight" by Max Richter
TREE OF LIFE: "Funeral Canticle" by John Taverner
MOTHER NIGHT: 'Spiegel im Spiegel" by Arvo Part
Unsurprisingly, most of my picks are 'contemporary' concert works
What are yours? [Please do not include composer biopics like AMADEUS & IMMORTAL BELOVED.*
I am most interested in classical music used as underscore.]
\bruce
*LISZTOMANIA "Rienzi Overture" by Wagner & HILLARY & JACKIE "Cello Concerto" by Elgar
would be included in this category
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Good topic, old horse.
My example was life-changing. Rollerball introduced me to the music of D D Shostakovich. I owe Andre Previn a big one.
Old horse but recent compositions
I was inspired after hearing the Taverner piece which i recently found at Amoeba!
brm
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ALIEN and Howard Hanson
MANHATTAN and Gershwin
you had never heard Gershwin before the movie?
wow!
brm
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Good topic, old horse.
. Rollerball introduced me to the music of D D Shostakovich.
Well, some good came out of that lousy film, i guess
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Posted: |
Mar 30, 2014 - 4:31 PM
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By: |
MusicMad
(Member)
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I suppose I first noticed Classical music when I watched Ken Russell's The Music Lovers on TV sometime in the late 1970s. I'd heard odd pieces here and there but apart from easy-listening versions of things like The Pearl Fishers - James Last and Theme from Rodrigo's Concierto de Aranjuez for Guitar and Orchestra - Manuel & The Music of the Mountains, I'd had little or no contact.
I borrowed the 2001 ... score album from a school friend - mid 70s - and fell in love with Richard Strauss' Also Sprach Zarathrustra ... I had a recording by Ron Goodwin which was pretty close so this was an easy hit. I also took a liking to Johann Strauss II's Blue Danube Waltz but it was the opening of Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No.1 - not that I knew its name at the time - in the aforementioned biopic which hit me as something so wonderful ...
... I kept thinking I must investigate but my few pennies were always absorbed on buying another film score or an album by one of those easy-listening artists I've loved all my wife: Sinatra, Martin, Monro, Day, Carr ...
And then by the early 1980s, film scores had almost dried up. Oh, I could get expensive imports but most of the UK releases were pop-song albums ... not for me. A 52-part fortnightly series The Great Composers caught my attention and this was my door into a new world of glorious sounds. Not everything worked for me but what did work was inspiring.
For the next 25 - 30 years, a few purchases here and there sprinkled through my massive soundtrack spending spree until about 18 months ago when I suddenly realised that there is so little modern film music I like, I should look wider. I won't nominate Thomas Newman's Skyfall as the single score which brought about this change ... but it was such a huge disappointment to me after a life-time of loving the JB007 sound it has certainly been a major factor. I've since purchased numerous classical albums and I'm finding so much to enjoy which film music struggles to match.
Oh, there are plenty of great wonderful scores I look forward to hearing (e.g. NP: James Horner's The House of Sand and Fog and I'm thoroughly taken with the Elmer Bernstein AVA Collection) but these days I'm listening much more to music from the likes of Mozart, Bach, Debussy, Ravel, than to their modern day counterparts.
And I trace this attraction back to The Music Lovers combined with the turn-off of Skyfall ... 
Mitch
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Good topic, old horse.
.
I would add A Clockwork Orange to the list.
I love the Purcell piece from ACO but only in the "switched-on" version used in the film (the "acoustic" version is good too)
Fantastic opening using that piece!
brm
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I suppose I first noticed Classical music when I watched Ken Russell's The Music Lovers on TV sometime in the late 1970s.
Mitch
I specifically asked that you not include composer biopics!
Now, go to your room
brm
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I suppose I first noticed Classical music when I watched Ken Russell's The Music Lovers on TV sometime in the late 1970s.
Mitch
I specifically asked that you not include composer biopics!
Now, go to your room
brm
How can I ignore what was most influential? And anyhow, from what I recall: the music was used as underscore ... not just a scene of Richard Chamberlain sitting in a room composing.
There: can I come out now?
who said anything about "influential"?
stay where you are!
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Film music lead me to exploration in the rest of orchestral music ("classical"), but the use of classical music in film didn't do it. The genesis was somebody talking about Debussy's La Mer over on the Talking Herrmann forum. That's where I first dipped my toes into the pool.
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