Shostakovich actually composed more film scores than symphonic works, but it doesn't deter that he was a fine composer, with his music brimming with irony and wit.
There should be a sub-category of composers whom we think of as concert/classical composers yet they have done A LOT of film scores. The ratio is the thing. Korngold had seven or eight operas and dozens of other classical works but remains strongly viewed as a film composer. Ifukube had lots of concert works but is really only remembered as the Godzilla composer. Nino Rota had ten operas! Four symphonies, four or five piano concertos, etc…but still viewed mostly as a film composer.
Shostakovich actually composed more film scores than symphonic works, but it doesn't deter that he was a fine composer, with his music brimming with irony and wit.
There should be a sub-category of composers whom we think of as concert/classical composers yet they have done A LOT of film scores. The ratio is the thing. Korngold had seven or eight operas and dozens of other classical works but remains strongly viewed as a film composer. Ifukube had lots of concert works but is really only remembered as the Godzilla composer. Nino Rota had ten operas! Four symphonies, four or five piano concertos, etc…but still viewed mostly as a film composer.
The same thing happened to Leonard Rosenman, because he couldn't get any of his symphonic works performed because of his early success as a film composer.
There should be a sub-category of composers whom we think of as concert/classical composers yet they have done A LOT of film scores. The ratio is the thing. Korngold had seven or eight operas and dozens of other classical works but remains strongly viewed as a film composer.
You're right that there's a continuum of film / non-film composers. One might start with Leonard Bernsrtein at one extreme (single movie) and proceed all the way to "film composers," i.e., those who have never written for anything but the cinema. But I dispute the characterization of EWK. As much as we value his Hollywood period, it occupied a relatively small part of his life and ouevre, and rates only a chapter or two in the biographies.
I apparently traded off my Naxos CD of THE GADFLY/5 DAYS, 5 NIGHTS fairly recently, for something I needed more, I suppose. Either way, I regret it, like I do most of my trade-offs. Thankfully kept my digital copy. Moody, playful and colourful - call me a softie, but I prefer the lyrical, oldfashioned Shostakovich over the modern and abrasive.
