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In the readings I've done on the changes in film music that began to take shape in the 1950s and 60s with the introduction of jazz, rock, and pop.
Twelve-tone music (following the patterns of Berg, Schoenberg, Webern and Sessions) was also increasingly used in Hollywood movies since the mid-1950s.
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I've often thought about that myself - what film fans and general music-lovers thought of the changes taking place at the time. I'm actually a shade too young (never thought I'd say that) to give a first-hand account of the era you want, Ludwig. The first film music books which I bought in the early '70s (by Irwin Bazelon, Tony Thomas and Mark Evans) were generally caustic towards the influence of songs after THE GRADUATE and the increasing use of pop/ funk post-SHAFT, and in the interviews with the old-school of composers they also expressed their dislike of those changes. But they had all by then assimilated (and some even used) the kind of progressive/ jazz leanings which appeared in the '50s in the scores of North, Rosenman etc, so maybe by the time the articles and interviews were published, they were just stuck in their ways. So you need to go back further.
I have actually come across old articles written in the '40s by composers such as Marlin Skiles, speaking about how important the "arrangement" of the music is, apart from the actual composing. There must be loads of stuff out there which I just haven't come across yet.
But I feel that even that is not exactly what you're looking for. I seem to recall my grandmother (who loved THE SOUND OF MUSIC), saying "What horrible music!" when THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN ARM came on the telly, if that's worth anything.
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Posted: |
Jul 14, 2013 - 5:33 PM
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By: |
Ludwig van
(Member)
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Regie - yes, I agree that the new psychological focus of film certainly contributed to the impetus for new styles of film music. The 1950 boundary is a bit artificial (as with most classifications) because that kind of seedy urban setting of course had its root in film noir of the 40s and its tendency toward a more gritty, urban, and hence jazzy, type of music. Though no score was fully jazz until STREETCAR, there is more of a progression, but still, I am interested in what people thought of this business of scoring music in different ways. Like the whole Zimmer debate going on once again over in the other thread - clearly, we have supporters and naysayers. I just wonder what it was like when other new styles entered the picture back then.
Graham - that's a great idea. Thanks for directing me to those sources. But yes, with your grandma, that's that kind of thing I'm after. Just more anecdotal things that people remember, either from others or what they themselves thought.
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Of course. I guess I'm thinking more of the popular styles as their presence has grown exponentially since their introduction. But if you have something to share about these more modernist styles, please do. All thoughts are welcome.
Well, Leonard Rosenman's score for THE COBWEB is widely credited as having been the first mainstream Hollywood film (MGM) with a predominantly twelve-tone score. There had been some polytonal scores before, but for fringe productions like C-MEN, or cartoons like GERALD McBOING-BOING, both by Gail Kubik. Rosenman of course used jazz elements in his REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE.
Rock music, as far as background scores are concerned, didn't feature prominently until, AFAIR, the biker movies of the 1960s, but I might remember wrongly. In most earlier productions (Don't Knock the Rock etc) there was no "dramatic rock music" as such, but merely musical numbers played "live" (also in the "Beach Party" series of films).
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Not exactly what Ludwig is looking for, but I found the Marlin Skiles article, written in the 1940s, at the ASMAC site - which was so fascinanting that I started a whole new thread about it!
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