My mind immediately went to Elmer Bernstein's "Hud," but as it turns out that actually runs six minutes. Michel Legrand's "Vivre sa vie" came to my mind next, but I don't think it's less than five minutes (I also understand that Legrand originally wrote a much longer score but most of it was tossed out in favor of simply repeating the "main theme").
There are a number of films, like "Diabolique" and "Wages of Fear" (both with music by Georges Auric), that I believe only have a main and end title. But I can't think of too many films with an extremely sparse proper score (i.e. more than a main and end title, but less than five minutes total). I'm curious what others will come up with.
The composer on LES DIABOLIQUES was Georges Van Parys.
My mind immediately went to Elmer Bernstein's "Hud," but as it turns out that actually runs six minutes. Michel Legrand's "Vivre sa vie" came to my mind next, but I don't think it's less than five minutes (I also understand that Legrand originally wrote a much longer score but most of it was tossed out in favor of simply repeating the "main theme").
There are a number of films, like "Diabolique" and "Wages of Fear" (both with music by Georges Auric), that I believe only have a main and end title. But I can't think of too many films with an extremely sparse proper score (i.e. more than a main and end title, but less than five minutes total). I'm curious what others will come up with.
The composer on LES DIABOLIQUES was Georges Van Parys.
Yes. And what an incredible main title he provided (sets the tone foe the whole movie):
How much music was in Alexandre Desplat's CARNAGE?
From what I recall, the main title and the opening scene were scored, then there were no other cues until the end credits. The end credits on YouTube are over four minutes, so I assume that the total amount of score would be around seven minutes.
I just thought of another possible candidate. I believe that Frank Perry's 1969 film "Last Summer," music by John Simon, has less than five minutes of score. An End Title and one score cue, or possibly two. I know Simon and others contributed songs to the film, but I think there is less than five minutes of original score.
Goldsmith's "Judge Dredd trailer". Somewhere in the multiverse is a plane of existence that has a 29 minute release of his score, next to tracks by Megadeth, Slayer, Metallica, Anthrax, and Color Me Badd.
Other than a few songs, THE GREAT MAN has less than five minutes of underscore, including this GREAT "Main Title" by Herman Stein. It's funny that he got a credit for this film, but no credit for almost all the films where he wrote tons more than this:
I just watched Biloxi Blues, and unless I missed something, the entirety of George Delerue's score, as heard in the finished film, consists of two brief cues and a snippet of another, which are all in the final half hour of the film:
- one cue, lasting under two minutes, as a character is arrested - about five seconds of one cue towards the end, as a character runs across the base. The rest of that cue seems to be dialed out - one cue with strings during the final scene between Broderick and Walken, lasting about a minute
There's also a jazzy instrumental piece that recurs three or four times over transitional scenes and the finale. I don't think it's Delerue score, but I'm not familiar enough with period songs to recognize it. One of the actors is interviewed on the Blu-Ray, and says it's a song called "How High the Moon." The rest of the film is entirely scored with period songs.
This might be the record: Lionel Newman's score to THE BOSTON STRANGLER, which according to the IMDb lasts for one cue of precisely 22 seconds. So it took me longer to type that sentence than the entire recording session. (Again, not a favourite but it's there.)
That's interesting about "Biloxi Blues." From the description, it seems very possible that Delerue recorded a longer score that wasn't used. Does anybody know more about this?
That's interesting about "Biloxi Blues." From the description, it seems very possible that Delerue recorded a longer score that wasn't used. Does anybody know more about this?
Found this nice Main Title on youtube. Don't know about additional score.
That's interesting about "Biloxi Blues." From the description, it seems very possible that Delerue recorded a longer score that wasn't used. Does anybody know more about this?
Found this nice Main Title on youtube. Don't know about additional score.
Yep, I found that video too when I Googled after watching the movie. It's a re-recording from a compilation album, I believe. The actual main titles in the finished film have a period pop song over them. This cue was clearly dropped, I wonder if it was ever recorded for the film. Both the tiny 5-second snippet of a cue in the finished film, and also the fact that the whole score consists of just two short cues, suggest to me that a much longer score was recorded and almost entirely dropped.
