Rota + Fellini: Orchestra Rehearsal, 1979

With the current state of affairs in the world and the recent death of Italian composer Carlo Savina - also conductor for Philippe Sarde (Polanski's Tess, 1980; Annaud's The Bear, 1989.) and Nino Rota (Coppola's The Godfather, 1972; Fellini's Casanova, 1976.), one movie deserves to be unearthed at last. This unfairly forgotten film

Maurice Jarre in Concert

by Alexandre Tylski, Courtesy of TraxZone

Montpellier (France), November the 25th.

Film composer Maurice Jarre, white-dressed, enters the Berlioz Opera Hall under applause. Jarre is probably the greatest globe-trotter composer in film music history. He has been the fellow traveller of some famous French movie makers (Camus, Demy,

Alan Silvestri at Work

Report by Alexandre Tylski

On March 19th, inWatford (near London), Alan Silvestri, (BACK TO THE FUTURE, PREDATOR, THE ABYSS, FORREST GUMP) and his crew begin recording the score for THE MUMMY RETURNS by Stephen Sommers. On hand to play Silvestri's composition is a huge, freelance orchestra, composed of members from the prestigious London Symphony Orchestra. More than 20 singers are a

Let's Make Movies on Film Composers!

My movie on French composer Philippe Sarde

By Alexandre Tylski

You can count with your fingers the number of film music documentaries made in the last 100 years. A pity. Moreover, it is very difficult to be able to catch these movies, even on cultural broadcasts. Film composers are often interviewed for short television reports (notably John Williams and his near-forty Oscar nominations), but there are very fe

A Morriconoclastic Film Music Concert

By Alexandre Tylski

On June 9, 2000 Ennio Morricone was in Ghent, Belgium to give a unique concert just before the beginning of the Flanders International Film Festival (for which Hans Zimmer is to give a concert in October). With more than two hundred musicians on stage and an audience nearly three thousand strong, comprised of passionate listeners from Germany, France, Iceland, Great Britain, Spain, and Italy, this was lik

A Study of Jaws' Incisive Overture

To Close Off the Century

by Alexandre Tylski

A good musical overture at the beginning of a film is like an appetizer before a good meal. It gives the audience a 'taste' of what to expect and, if properly executed, an anticipation of the delights and thrills to come. It is no surprise then that movies from a series often have great, and instantly recognizable, overtures: the James Bond, Star

Scene Study: E.T. (1982)

A dark and brilliant overture

by Alexandre Tylski

The E.T. main title is entirely black and white (a reference to the "childhood" of motion pictures perhaps) with, as a musical accompaniment, a series of weird and scary sounds, similar to those used in JAWS in 1975. A feeling of uneasiness permeates the audience. For an entire minute, we face the unknown (but with a touch of the familiar).

Is Today's Film Music Still Interesting?

1M1 7/13/99

By Jason Foster

I was talking the other day with a film music fan whose opinion I respect and it surprised me when he said he'd started listening to other types of music because film music is currently in a period of blandness. Now, there's nothing wrong with listening to music non film related because there is some legitimately good music out there - some of which I listen

Jerry Goldsmith in Glasgow

A colorful film music concert

by Alexandre Tylski (Trax Zone)

It was a celebration of the 70th birthday of one of the most imaginative film composers ever, and I had never attended a film music concert (performed by one of the best current orchestras). The film short on which I am working and my ferocious cold were only tiny details compared to my great excitment in seeing, at last, with my own eye