A friend mentioned to me this a.m. about a 'new' version of 'Mary, Queen of Scots'. The first thing I thought of was something like, 'they don't make films like this anymore these days'. The 1971 version with Vanessa Redgrave and Glenda Jackson is one of my all-time favorites, and I wondered WHO'D play their respective roles now? Sounds like excellent choices to me: Saoirse Ronan and Margot Robbie, as Mary and Elizabeth. WHO is doing the music? All I could find is a name, Max Richter, who means nothing to me. He may be perfect, who knows, but how could he surpass the wonderful score by John Barry?
Off the top of my head, I honestly cannot think of a composer working today that could write a lush, dramtic, and memorable score as John Barry did with the original. They're all gone. Horner, Barry, Delerue, Goldsmith. Perhaps Craig Armstrong? Perhaps, Maurizio Malagnini, (who has a way with such period material)?
Off the top of my head, I honestly cannot think of a composer working today that could write a lush, dramtic, and memorable score as John Barry did with the original.
Couldn't, or hasn't? There isn't a lot of call for the type of score Barry did these days, and I can hardly blame current composers for not scoring "Peppermint" like "Mary, Queen of Scots."
(That said, I have no reason to believe that a current film on this subject would be scored in a lush, dramatic fashion either. Tastes change, and not necessarily because the composer isn't up for something.)
Off the top of my head, I honestly cannot think of a composer working today that could write a lush, dramtic, and memorable score as John Barry did with the original.
Off the top of my head, I honestly cannot think of a composer working today that could write a lush, dramtic, and memorable score as John Barry did with the original.
Couldn't, or hasn't? There isn't a lot of call for the type of score Barry did these days, and I can hardly blame current composers for not scoring "Peppermint" like "Mary, Queen of Scots."
(That said, I have no reason to believe that a current film on this subject would be scored in a lush, dramatic fashion either. Tastes change, and not necessarily because the composer isn't up for something.)
The key word is "memorable". Tons of lush and dramatic scores are written in cinema these days, but very few of them - if any - have truly memorable themes.
There are plenty of composers who COULD write a broad, lush and thematic score recalling the heyday of memorable film scores. John Williams Frederic Talgorn Philippe Rombi (mentioned above) Fernando Velazquez Benjamin Wallfisch Alexandre Desplat James Newton Howard John Powell Bruce Broughton Lee Holdridge Cliff Eidelman David Newman John Scott ...I could go on. The fact is they are unlikely to be allowed to (apart from John Williams).
Well at least Cliff Eidelman recorded his first symphony with the London Symphony Orchestra earlier this year -- I'm going to venture a guess that that will have some good sweeping orchestral themes in it, since he got to be his own boss!
While I would have preferred to hear what Daniel Pemberton could've done on this film, I am cautiously optimistic that Richter provides a theme as delicate and childlike as his theme for the TV mini-series "Taboo". With tracks like "Lamentation for a Lost Life" and "Taboo Lament (Antimatter Fellini Watz)" and absolutely "Song of the Beyond" , Richter can easily fit right into the historic period of "Mary, Queen of Scots". It might be all up to the intent of the director.
I'm looking forward to the film but I have heard that they repeated the error in the previous film and had Mary and Elizabeth meet. In the earlier film they put in a feeble excuse that the meeting was secret and no-one should ever know. Why can't they do some research? It's a well known fact that Mary and Elizabeth never met. As far as the score is concerned I hope this composer is 'up to the job'. I have often been disappointed with 'modern' scores finding them little more than background noise with a choir thrown in for no apparent reason. Anyway there is no shortage of music for this period to help the composer so, as Barry did, let's hope this composer produces music which fits the story.
I'm looking forward to the film but I have heard that they repeated the error in the previous film and had Mary and Elizabeth meet. In the earlier film they put in a feeble excuse that the meeting was secret and no-one should ever know. Why can't they do some research? It's a well known fact that Mary and Elizabeth never met. As far as the score is concerned I hope this composer is 'up to the job'. I have often been disappointed with 'modern' scores finding them little more than background noise with a choir thrown in for no apparent reason. Anyway there is no shortage of music for this period to help the composer so, as Barry did, let's hope this composer produces music which fits the story.
Well you can tell from the trailer they aren't going for historical accuracy when they have so many "people of color" cast as prominent members of both queens' royal courts.
The key word is "memorable". Tons of lush and dramatic scores are written in cinema these days, but very few of them - if any - have truly memorable themes.
Alex
Sad but true........There's always that discussion that today's filmmakers don't want melody in their films. Quite true, but I also question if the majority of the composers working in film today could produce a memorable melodic theme if asked!
Just heard an interview and selection of tracks. If you like Philip Glass styled minimalism mixed with Elfman in Romantic mode , i e. BLACK BEAUTY,ALICE.... YOU may like this Brm
I'm looking forward to the film but I have heard that they repeated the error in the previous film and had Mary and Elizabeth meet. In the earlier film they put in a feeble excuse that the meeting was secret and no-one should ever know. Why can't they do some research? It's a well known fact that Mary and Elizabeth never met.
It's called dramatic (or artistic) license and it's done all the time. Even John Ford's 1936 Mary Of Scotland with Kate Hepburn as Mary and Florence Eldridge as Elizabeth had them meet. If you're doing a movie with Vanessa Redgrave and Glenda Jackson, you better damn well have a scene with the two of them together! As for historical accuracy, I never go to films for history lessons (crikey, I hope no one does), that's what history books are for. Movies have historical characters from Cleopatra to Napoleon to Abraham Lincoln saying and doing things they never did in "real" life.
On my first listen-through now. It's a very nice score; the main theme (performed on alt oboe?) and the minimalist structure sends immediate associations to Geoffrey Burgon's music for BRIDESHEAD REVISITED (although not quite as pastoral as that score).
