Our Town - Copland has always been one of my very favorite film scores. I have heard several times that James Horner references it in his Field of Dreams. I've listened to Field of Dreams many times and never picked up this reference (maybe I just wasn't looking for it). Anybody know what part of Field of Dreams specifically this takes place?
Doesn't exactly answer your question, but here's a quote from Horner on the filmtracks.com website:
"You know, I never was a baseball fan. I still don't know anything about baseball, but when I saw the movie, I loved it from the moment I saw it. I wanted to write something very magical for it --yet something uniquely American-- and it has an Aaron Copland-like sound. This last sequence is a very long sequence; it's about sixteen minutes long and goes all the way to the end credits. The director initially had new age jazz on it, and the studio was horrified, but they were pleased that I was doing it because I was going to do --like-- a big Star Trek score on it. They felt very confident in that direction and I had no intention of doing that kind of score at all. Most of the score in Field of Dreams is electronic; the last two minutes of the score are orchestral. It was done for dramatic reason where I tied together all the threads of the film that I had been weaving throughout into the last two cues. That's really where the story comes together ultimately. I just thought it was a wonderful film; I wish that those kind of movies came along more often, but they don't."
-- from James Horner's Melbourne (Australia) Seminar in December, 1991
The Place Where Dreams Come True has always been one of my favorites but a portion of the music in this cue--specifically underscoring the moment Terry (James Earl Jones, Jr.) grins at the Kinsella family before journeying into the cornfield; and a variation of it in the cue entitled Doc's Memories specifically underscoring the moments earlier when young Moonlight Graham (Frank Whaley) turns into Doc Graham (Burt Lancaster)--is lifted from Copland's score to Our Town (1940). The crib makes sense in that both films and the works they're adapted from could be characterized as "pure Americana". Anyway, the music has been cited in a FSM hard copy article as the secondary Grovers Corner Theme, the actual notes having been included in an illustration for Mark Leneker's article. You may find to your own dismay as I did that the music (in the exact "...Dreams Come True" incarnation) occurs in Our Town's early scene introducing both Mrs. Gibbs (Fay Bainter) and Mrs. Webb (Beulah Bondi).
Our Town - Copland has always been one of my very favorite film scores. I have heard several times that James Horner references it in his Field of Dreams. I've listened to Field of Dreams many times and never picked up this reference (maybe I just wasn't looking for it). Anybody know what part of Field of Dreams specifically this takes place?
The melody in the first bars of the end credits to FIELD OF DREAMS (sounded by French horn, if memory serves) are similar to the main theme that wends its way through OUR TOWN. The tunes diverge after four notes or so, however, which is why I'd personally call this a coincidence (or, at worst, a very subtle homage).
