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I read where a studio exec (who are always saying stupid things, if what I read is any indicator) said to a composer:
"People don't like saxophones." and went on to explain that he knew because "we tested it."
****
I had a neighbor, who was also a film student, announce to me,
"There are two kinds of film music!
First, there's The Theme. That's what you whistle when you go out of the theater.
And then there's the stuff that plays behind everything else. That's the stuff that goes [half-singing] 'doo-doo, doo-doo'."
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What asinine things have you heard people say about film music? Or heard that someone heard?
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There used to be a myth in circulation that went something like, "When film music does its job properly, you aren't even aware of it as music. You just feel the intended emotions." Baloney!
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"I've never heard anything especially "inspired" in Zimmer's music."
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That Raksin story turns up in Mark Evans' book "Soundtrack: The Music of the Movies" from 1975, although I don't think he mentions Raksin by name in that particular anectote. The book is full of Mr Evans' stories that begin "A certain producer once said...", or "A famous composer once recalled..." - so I take most of them with a pinch of salt. His outrage at the "new trends" now seems merely quaint. "What next? Electric guitars and synthesizers?"
Composers themselves often expressed similar outrage at the change which overcame Hollwood from the late-'60s onwards. The great Miklos Rozsa considered Rock and Roll as "the most God-awful noise mankind has invented since leaving the jungle".
The equally great Bronislau Kaper wrote that he responded with an astonished "What score?" when he learned that Isaac Hayes had won the Oscar in 1974 (!) for the "best original score" (!) for SHAFT. Actually, it was 1971 and SUMMER OF '42 (I think) won - although complaints about a "pop theme" winning an Oscar were soon to appear.
However, I would never call the quotes of such brilliant composers as "asinine". We have my mother-in-law for that -
My mum-in-law introduces me to elderly friends of hers as "a man of good taste, who loves the serious music used in films by people like Mantovani".
And to finish - I remember seeing SLEEPING WITH THE ENEMY with a girl (her name escapes me - I wonder why), and after it ended I mentioned that I thought it wasn't very good but that I quite liked the music. "There wasn't any music in that film", she assertained. So (for some now-forgotten reason) we actually saw the film for a second time, and when Van Morrison's "Brown Eyed Girl" was used, she turned to me and said "You were right! There IS music in this film"!
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Coming from someone I consider a very good friend, but frustrating none the less:
"These are just instruments. Where are the words?"
Kill me.
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There used to be a myth in circulation that went something like, "When film music does its job properly, you aren't even aware of it as music. You just feel the intended emotions." Baloney!
To be fair, we're a group of film score enthusiasts who notice the music because we're very interested in it. The average person pays no attention unless a) songs are used as score or b) the score is obtrusive. So when the average person notices an instrumental underscore, there's a reason. Mostly negative.
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