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Posted: |
Jul 26, 2017 - 9:05 AM
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By: |
Zooba
(Member)
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Another example of "They all did it", where composers reuse music in different films and projects has to be Bill Conti's music from the feature film THE FORMULA (1980) turning up again in the TV Mini-Series NORTH AND SOUTH. At least 2 distinct themes in THE FORMULA do appear in NORTH AND SOUTH and pretty much straight on takes, not "sort of sounds like, reminds us of".
I don't personally have an issue with composers reusing music. Of course we know Alex North, did it and especially James Horner and some will say Rosenman, so it's been out there for a long time. I remember once listening to a James Horner interview and he was talking about himself having a sort of paint box where he could draw from different colors and use them and reuse them for certain emotions and situations in the films that he scored. Sometimes he would change them just a tad, but we all knew those familiar sounds and musical colors that were so James Horner. I always enjoyed his magical paint box and references of themes in different projects. It worked. Bottom line, for me it WORKED.
I'd say that perhaps Williams, Goldsmith and Bernstein were composers who did not copy and paste a lot of music from score to score. They surely had their "sound", but I'd find it hard to say "Oh, this is from that, when he did that and he reused the Love Theme in that. Delerue had a delicate and sweet sound, especially in his love themes. For me they were all slightly different and yet so the same, so Delerue.
All in all. I for one am in favor of a composer having a "paint box" and a library of stuff that they can draw from, expand on and recall for certain and different movie situations.
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I certainly think there are a decent number of composers who don't reuse themes (or repurpose from classical pieces like Conti and Horner infamously did, over and over). Has Doyle ever done it? Eidelman?
Some of my favorites have -- Alfred Newman did it very effectively from time to time. My favorite Golden Age score, Captain from Castile, had a theme (the New World one) which fit perfectly yet was reused from a previous score.
And while Goldsmith comparatively did it pretty infrequently, especially considering the insane quantity of his output (second only to Morricone among film composers, probably), you're actually incorrect that he never did it. I can think of at least two examples: the Hun theme in Mulan is a beefed-up (very) slight variation on his theme for Christopher Lloyd's criminal in Dennis the Menace. And another theme he re-used *twice* -- originally written for an episode of Perry Mason ("The Case of the Blushing Pearls" was it?), it then became my favorite theme in The Sand Pebbles -- the "Chinese Love Theme". And then later in the 70s he reused it again in an episode of Anna and the King.
Yavar
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I had forgotten about Goldsmith's reuse of that Oriental Theme from SAND PEBBLES, I guess first written for Perry Mason before PEBBLES and then used again in ANNA AND THE KING.
Thanks Yavar!
I remember first hearing Goldsmith's DENNIS THE MENACE where Dennis is riding his tricycle and recalling how much it reminded me of THE GREAT TRAIN ROBBERY.
Yes, the theme itself is different but the arrangement and feel of it is very similar (probably temp track related, honestly). But the criminal (Switchblade Sam?) theme is almost exactly the same as the theme for the Huns in Mulan. Of course I heard Mulan first so I was taken aback to discover the theme in Dennis the Menace.
Oh -- remembered another. Wasn't the prominent action theme in Star Trek: Insurrection originally in U.S. Marshals? I'm not crazy about the score to U.S. Marshals, but I'm pretty sure Insurrection owes it a bit...
Yavar
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