In the similarly named theme about Golden Age scores, Joan Hue suggested starting a thread about what hooked those of us who love Silver Age scores as much as (or more than) Golden Age. And we keep slipping into that subject there, so why not devote a thread of its own right here?
For this purpose, we'll call Silver Age scores those written 1960-1980, though we've been talking about scores in this period from Golden Age composers in the sister thread. So let's also stipulate composers who had been active for ten years or less by 1960. Unless you don't want to stipulate that, which is fine with me! (Just trying to come up with some criteria so I can tackle it.)
My story: I thought I was just going to say Goldsmith and Williams, because they did get the most of my attention in the 70's and 80's. But they didn't start it. It was Henry Mancini and John Barry for me (thanks, fortyone, for your post in the GA thread that reminded me about this).
Barry of course because of James Bond (hey, Connery was the only Sean I even heard of growing up in the 60's and 70's). And Mancini because he was a household name - not a household name like John Williams, but a household name like the Beatles or Milton Berle. He was everywhere, his songs and albums were everywhere. He was like a big flashing neon arrow pointing to MOVIE MUSIC! And he wrote my very first two favorite film score themes - Baby Elephant Walk - and of course, The Pink Panther.
I grew up watching Steve McQueen movies and held him in high esteem, just as I did the Harrison Ford-Tom Selleck action heroes that were so popular in my youth, so it came as no surprise that the music in McQueen's films caught my attention.
It also didn't hurt that the likes of Elmer Bernstein, Jerry Goldsmith, and Alfred Newman were composing the music from those great adventure movies. Of course, the other "action heroes" of the 1960s like Charles Bronson, James Coburn, Lee Marvin, John Wayne, Clint Eastwood, et al., all had fantastic musical accompaniment in their films as well. Plus these actors appeared alongside one another so I was exposed to even more films and their scores.
The music was similar enough to what I loved about John Williams' epic period (1975-84; give or take) but also different enough that it led me into other musical forms I might not have ever ventured into (specifically jazz).
'Golden Age' is sorta easy to delineate because it basically overlaps with what we call the "Classical Hollywood" paradigm in film criticism -- but the start and end date are still open to negotiation, of course. 'Silver Age', however, is far more tricky, as there is no such thing -- unless you use it as another name for "New Hollywood Cinema", which describes the experimentation and influence of European arthouse cinema in the late 60s onwards, and then the rise of the 'movie brats' in the 70s. But that's just a part of what 'Silver Age' connotes, I think.
Anyways, I ramble on. Your decision to pinpoint it specifically between 1960 and 1980 was a good one.
For me, I think it's fair to assume that my discovery came through John Williams -- again. When I got into his work, it was around the time of JURASSIC PARK (which is still my favourite by him and in general), but I didn't need to do much exploring to discover that it was him who had done the STAR WARS movies I saw in my childhood. So the leap to the late 70s came relatively quickly. From there, it spread out like a spore -- not only to other Williams scores of the era, but also to Goldsmith, Bernstein and so forth. It is important to stress, however, that most of this exploration had to do with the MUSIC itself, and not tied to any particular movie experiences. Soundtrack albums and movie watching were, are and will forever be, two completely different things for me.
It took an even longer while untill I properly got into the 60's, however, but I got there too. Fortunately for me, I had grown up with my dad's pop and rock music from the era, so it wasn't THAT alien for a teenager in the mid 90s.
Whatever your age is, it seems to be spiralling out from whatever is current in your formative years, and then -- if you like to explore -- you work your way backwards. Unfortunately, some stay there (either in the past or what was current when they were young) and refuse to keep up with new stuff. But that's another debate.
If KRULL, CONAN, STAR WARS and THE DARK CRYSTAL were the only scores written during the "silver age", it would still be the greatest era of film music ever.
If KRULL, CONAN, STAR WARS and THE DARK CRYSTAL were the only scores written during the "silver age", it would still be the greatest era of film music ever.
Of those, only STAR WARS qualifies -- pr. the parameters set up by the original post.
Ennio Morricone's spaghetti western scores, the Planet of the Apes movies, The Omen trilogy, the Dirty Harry movies, ... The 60s and 70s seem like a fun period of experimentation with jazz and pop, resulting in some interesting Italian scores. Glancing over my collection, most American 70s scores I own are of '78, '79 and I really count them more as part of the next phase than I do as silver age scores. Scores like Star Wars, Alien, Star Trek, The Great Train Robbery, ... FSM counted Under Fire as part of their "silver age classics" and that is 1983?
Hey, I'm fine with going beyond 1980 if that's what you think of as Siver Age. It's just that once you get into the 80s you start getting to a lot of composers still going strong....Young and Elfman and Doyle and Zimmer et al. Well and of course Williams, but you know what I mean.
So one of the purposes here is to identify favorites and spurs from an earlier time, that's why I framed it 60 to 80. So that it may be something you learned to love after you fell in love with more current composers (anyway, for those who came late in the date range or after.)
Sean, I think you said on the Golden thread a Silver Age counterpart might be more predictable, and so it is with me: STAR WARS/Williams and STAR TREK/Goldsmith. If I stretch a bit from your parameters, I'd have to include Horner's TREK scores, but let's just say I didn't stretch.
I guess STAR TREK was the big thing, though, the TV series. My brother and I would watch reruns with my Dad, and how could THAT music not capture the attention of two young lads! But it was mostly the work of Williams and Goldsmith, Silver and post-Silver Age that rolled things along.
For me it was a combination of magnificent 7, great escape, Gbu in the charts and Lawrence and spartacus and where eagles dare and battle of britain and battle of the bulge and Dr no and russia with love etc on tv as i was growing up. Beyond that the expansion into most 60s and 70s western and war films and late 60s- early 70s crime thrillers.
Back then as the 70s worn on the uniqueness of silver age scoring was dying out as the westerns died after josey wales, war film scoring also kinda changed after Bridge too far and then maybe Wild Geese. Even the gritty cop films and their scores were being phased out for a more 80s sound with jazz funk bass guitar and disco electric drums and such like. Take schifrins sudden impact for instance, compared to dirty harry and magnum force. There were a few composers still producing throwback scores and sticking to their established style, like jarre and barry for a while when needed. But morricone definitely had a major change in style late 70s and so very definitely did jerry G. Around 78 id say. Jerry people would know better than me.
Seans original range is probably fair enough although 80 is pushing it, But its interesting that a few of you want to extend the period into years and films that really were long after silver age was dead and already changed forever.
...but there was another one of war themes, one of which was the Great Escape March with the infamous "I Love You Mabel" lyrics. I don't recall which LP that was, however.
BillC, I can't figure out what "Gbu" is in the first line of your post....?
It think you make some excellent points about how things changed. Actually, the musical milieu from 1960 to 1980 is so radically different, that whatever constitutes the Silver Age is inherently broad, malleable and very much subject to interpretation.
On the Jerry G. transition-to-the-80's question, I peg it at 1979 with The Great Train Robbery and Star Trek the Motion Picture. There was a new focus on beauty throughout more of his scores, even though all the elements were there before. There is what I would call a growing warmth and a growing sense of emotion through theme, vs. emotion through motif or effect. (Talk about straying from the topic!). On the other hand, all this applies to The Blue Max and The Sand Pebbles, so maybe it was more of a refocusing than a transition.
I believe the style jerry began kicking out with Great train robbery, boys from brazil, alien, outland, and star trek - he hadnt really done that before. Maybe you could argue wild and the Lion, but it was a sea change compared to what he had done up to that point. Others may say different.
Star wars is an interesting one because it was almost a weird 50s throwback style. And it came out as most of the silver age genres were in their death throes. Yet a lot of younger people cite it as their Silver age starting point.
The beast already had several bullets in him then. And was probably being zapped with a space laser.
