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Posted: |
Oct 27, 2014 - 7:19 AM
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By: |
MusicMad
(Member)
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Elmer Bernstein has long been a favourite (film) composer of mine ... not top choice but certainly in second (perhaps joint second) place. And yet this nominated score has never gripped me in the way so many of his others have. And since I have three recorded copies (AVA, FSM and VS) I have given it many listenings. It's not that I dislike it ... far from it ... it's more that my love of the Main Theme is so great, the underscore can't compare and when listening I'm waiting for those gentle notes to come again.
I think Filmharmonic70 was my first exposure to the theme ... and, at about that time, I read the novel (I can say it's the only school reading I enjoyed) ... but of the film: I know very little. I did own the DVD but never got around to watching it. Hence I don't know the characters and only vaguely recall the novel's storyline.
Of the three recorded versions, my latest acquisition (part of the wonderful AVA collection) has had the strongest hit on me and, ironically, this is probably because in recent years I've taken to listening to a lot of chamber music.
As I type, NP: the RSNO (VS) recording ... and that gorgeous melody now ending the score is there again.
So, whilst I can't say that this is a fabulous, can't live without, score, I can add my enthusiam, if restricted to the Main Theme.
Incidentally, I recall discussing this score (amongst other EB works), principally with Joan, on an earlier thread. It took a while to find it, should anyone be interested:
http://www.filmscoremonthly.com/board/posts.cfm?threadID=44274&forumID=1&archive=0
I can't believe it was 7+ years ago. Just where did those years go?
Mitch
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Posted: |
Oct 27, 2014 - 4:35 PM
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By: |
Morricone
(Member)
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Thank you Joan for those insights. Indeed this has got to be THE most beloved scores Elmer ever did. And considering how many “beloved scores” are out there it probably is the most beloved score - period. Bernstein talked many times about how he created that main title emulating a child coming up to a piano and picking at notes just to see how they sound. Then we go to the full orchestra of that theme which really represents memory, lush and basking in a golden glow to return finally to the child itself again playing it simply. There were similar types of approaches to childhood using lullabies (CURSE OF THE CAT PEOPLE) or toy pianos (THE BAD SEED) but nothing that unique before or since.
The film itself has a whole adult world, ranging from race to rape, that is totally unrepresented by music because it is all foreign country for young children. Everything represented by the score relates to childhood emotions: fear, delight, safety, mystery, etc. It is how they perceive everything.
BTW Something related I’d like to mention, I never got the idea that comes incessantly from “film music fans” that the classic film scores saved a movie. Many a time someone has taken the driving music away from the soundtrack from PSYCHO to show how boring it is. No, in context of the whole film that scene, building to those swishing window wipers , already is brilliant and involving. What I see is great film composers sit there when they see these films iniatially and for once get excited and humble that instead of dreck they now are scoring PSYCHO, THE GODFATHER, THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN, JAWS, THE MISSION, HIGH NOON or PATTON. And even though every one of the above music approaches seem the obvious choice for their films NOW if you look at similar films before them, you see all these composers made breakthroughs that became imitated again and again. They ushered in the first “obvious” choice themselves. This is why Elmer stewed for weeks over this one score when the deadline was coming up. He knew THIS was an opportunity of a lifetime and had to get to the heart of the story and he did. In 1962 racial films like this were guaranteed to have limited runs in the south. But due to the popularity of the novel and child’s eye perspective this one ran in more places and longer than even Universal anticipated. Hearts and minds are slow to be moved but even a film can make inroads. The strength of great storytelling breaks through enormous barriers.
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It's difficult coming into a conversation like this after it has been going on for so long because so much of what I would say myself about this score and how it works in the film has already been covered.
I will say that when I first watched the film, that “Hey Boo” was one of those perfect moments, like the “Farewell” from The Ghost and Mrs. Muir, where the performances, photography and music just blend into a singular unique experience that defined the rest of the movie for me. Yes, I had a tear.
My preference is for the Ava recording. It has the most intimate sound, and that intimacy is the key to this score. The FMC recording is quite good as well, but it doesn't quite capture the feeling of the score the way the Ava recording does, but I'm not too enamored of the RSNO; too large an orchestra, too much reverb.
The “To Kill a Mockingbird” track was an attempt at making a marketable “theme” out of this material. I'm not sure it was necessary (the film and score have remained popular favorites throughout the years), but I have to admit that I do enjoy it despite the fact that it's pure Velveeta.
I also want to say that Morricone's point about how the “obvious” sound of an iconic film score is actually in no way obvious at all until the composer hit on it is an important one… we talk about these films as being timeless because we love them, but they aren't. They are the products of the era they were made and creative forces behind them.
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Great topic, beautifully discussed. (You all made me finally by the Ava Collection so I can hear it in this version - I've got all the others.)
Bernstein's focus on the children musically was of course the ideal way in, but this child-oriented music is quite involved and complex. The theme goes on and on - far more so than some of his other iconic themes. (Compare the winding nature of the main theme here with his straightforward song-form themes for Magnificent Seven and The Great Escape - great ideas, but very simply stated.) The main theme for Mockingbird is a sequence of ideas, building and changing, almost like a series of related memories played one after another. Which of course is exactly what the movie is, what the book is, but what a perfect musical analogue.
This opening music is elusive, and yearning, and just a tiny bit off or surprising or unexpected. I remember seeing the film in Junior High School after we read the book, and feeling that the main titles were almost spooky because of the music, until the flute just nails your heart.
It's my favorite example of Bernstein's Americana - which, like Copland's and Moross's has a lot of European Classical influence but comes across as fundamentally different from its forebears - even forebears Copland and Moross. He was able to create a really distinctive sound (even if here and there he is borrowing very clearly from Copland's idiom).
I never think of Mockingbird as my favorite score, or movie - unless I catch the film or hear the music. And then I know that movies have never been better than this.
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