Notes in the Dark

I'm not sure how I missed this one a few years ago — hm, maybe the fact that I don't go to weepy chick flicks has something to do with it — but I've been very taken with Aaron Zigman's classy score for The Notebook. Andy Dursin of FSM commented on this one:

On the downside, "The Notebook" suffers from somewhat of a disjointed finale, which goes on a bit too long and could have been more effectively handled. Another disappointment is the forgettable, overly-restrained score by Aaron Zigman. Here's a movie just crying out for a sweeping, memorable main theme and occasional moments of dramatic power, and yet Zigman's score is so quiet and disposable you hardly realize it's in the movie.

Which is more proof that Dursin needs a hearing aid, something I've increasingly thought reading his DVD reviews lately. The restraint is something that movie music of this type desperately needs these days; this is the sort of score where you realize that a lot of better-known composers are only trying to write the type of music that this guy manages to nail. I don't seek out this kind of slow, low-key, string-driven sentimental romance music as a rule, but this score immediately caught my ear as unusually high quality for the genre - at least, not sounding quite like anyone else. I'm curious to hear more by Zigman (he's scoring Akeelah and the Bee, a movie I probably will definitely be seeing - as I was once in the National Spelling Bee myself and want to see if they'll get it right).

There's a debate going on at FSM today about the use of pencil vs. keyboard in film composing and if it's killing film composers' voices, etc.

I recently got a new computer, my first new one in 7 years, and now I too can enjoy newfangled things such as DVD drives and third-party DVD ripping applications.  Having vowed to use these powers only for good and not for evil, one of the first things I did was pop in Donnie Brasco and make good use of its iso-score to grab a couple of short cues I'd always wanted to hear up closer.   This is one of my favorite Patrick Doyle scores — in his top three, in my opinion — and it's so overlooked that I never shy away from promoting it in any way I can.  It may not be as flashy as that "other" Pacino score of his, Carlito's Way, but it's a more effective score for a much better film.

In listening to the iso-score again I realized there is quite a lot of songtrack in this movie, but it's used so effectively and seamlessly with the underscore that it's not only not objectionable, but actually seems to help Doyle's score do its stuff (mainly by providing emotional contrast).  There are stretches of the soundtrack where songs and score melt into each other several times without a break.  The most interesting moment of this is in the very start of the film where Aretha Franklin's "Stranger on This Earth" dissolves into Doyle's main title, which I think is a nice opening statement of musical design - the songs and score are close bedfellows in this movie.  (Then again, this movie has one of the most memorably abstract opening title designs I've seen in a long while, too.)

As for music not heard on the CD, there is only about 10 minutes or so, and generally of course you know why very short cues are often not used.  However, there's a major cue in the film I recorded, which I can't understand why it was left out; it's near the end of the film when Lefty takes Donnie outside to tell him "We got the contract" (knocking off one of their enemies).  It's about two minutes long and has variations on the main themes which are not really heard elsewhere in the score, and would have been good to include on the CD.

Well, in any case, it's all not coming to a soundtrack label near you.  Just to my iPod.

The folks at Ain't It Cool News have been experiencing geekgasms again with the news that J.J. Abrams of Lost fame will be doing a Star Trek prequel featuring Kirk and Spock's early years.  (I would guess that there are  Trekkie slash fiction writers who are also getting moist and tingly over this news…)  Of course, that means Michael Giacchino would be doing the scoring honors.  

Some have expressed mild dismay that Giacchino will apparently be following in the footsteps of other great composers in yet another derivative project.  If I feel any dismay, it's very very mild, not worth mentioning.  Now if Giacchino goes another couple years in this mode, I would be disappointed - but I would expect he would approach this project with his usual brio. 

I sometimes visit Score Reviews and their forum and today I noticed they are discussing Conan the Barbarian and its enduring greatness. Perhaps nobody but soundtrack fans care about the score (and who cares about the film?), but it's been almost 25 years (!) since it came out and it really still commands the attention and appreciation. As someone on the forum pointed out, the fact it was recorded in mono is just part of its appeal.

For my money, Basil Poledouris is the only composer who ever was able to approximate a truly Golden Age feel without it sounding like homage or pastiche. This is really a Golden Age score that just happens to have been written in the Silver Age, as they call it (or is that the early Bronze Age?) The only score not by Rozsa that gets near his sound — although I am sure Poledouris was not consciously trying for that. The music lends the film, and particularly the character of Conan, a huge amount of dignity.

Much throwing about of brains on the "who will score Harry Potter 5" question this week! But it appears that we have a semi-definitive winner — yes, as I suspected, David Yates' man, Nick Hooper. Now, I tried to tell people to look out for Hooper, but no: it was just all John Williams Patrick Doyle yadda yadda. Folks, Patrick Doyle scoring Goblet of Fire was not about Doyle taking over Williams' franchise; it was about Mike Newell getting the composer he wanted. If Hooper is in fact scoring the next movie, that's what it's about as well.

Somehow I don't think we would be hearing this if the IMDB hadn't posted its usual folderol (about Dario Marianelli this time); however, I actually thought Marianelli seemed a credible choice, since he is London-based. But what does seem clear is that the producers are moving to take control of the series and don't feel beholden to Hollywood composers if the director wants his own guy. Continuing this week's theme (and there's even more to come), all I'll say to that is, Rule Britannia!

Updated to add:  Wow, some people seem to be going sorta batshit over the possibility that some "nobody" from across the pond might actually get the job.  I love it.  

In a previous post, I complained about Chandos’ film music series adopting goofy “theme” cover art in an attempt to dazzle soundtrack collectors. Okay, so I was wrong. When it’s the sort of cover I like, it’s a good idea. Seriously, all you have to do is show me a film music CD with a Spitfire on the cover, and a little drop of drool starts to form at the corner of my mouth.

I am, most of the time, a very stuffy “film music” (not “soundtrack”) type who goes into all sorts of eggheaded intellectual musings about stuff nobody else cares about. Nevertheless, sometimes I find myself bemused at the way that a lot of soundtrack buffs don’t seem to have any grasp of how the movie business actually works, or at least, how they prefer to indulge themselves in fantasies about how composers get jobs on big films.

I’m talking, of course, about John Smith. Or rather, I’m talking about talk about John Smith. You know Smith — he’s a wonderful composer who many of us are fond of, and film music aficionados and soundtrack geeks alike love his music, which is bursting with quality. When his scores are reissed by soundtrack labels, everyone is excited. Heck, they even get excited when he scores a car commercial. Unfortunately, for whatever reason, Smith has not scored a significant film in the last 15 years. But this fact doesn’t ever stop some soundtrack fans from wondering — and even getting upset — that Smith has not been considered to suddenly come out of his relative modern obscurity and be asked to score Blockbuster XXX. Indeed, every time a film composing assignment is announced, someone will pipe up, “Gee! I wish they would get John Smith to write the music!”

It seems to me that people are confusing the way that Smith gets attention that he gets from soundtrack labels (and rightful attention it is) with the way that studios and filmmakers pay attention to composers and choose them. Unfortunately, you’re only as good as your last movie, and if you don’t work, people forget you very quickly. Patrick Doyle once recounted the way that Kenneth Branagh comforted him when visiting him in the hospital by telling him: “You’ll never work again, of course. People have such very short memories. I’ll try and prop up your career.” Black humor, but it has a grain of cruel truth in it, and unfortunately that is the way the business really works - for everyone in Hollywood, but for film composers even more so.

Honestly I would like John Smith to get more high-profile work, but unfortunately there are a lot of John Smiths out there who really are waiting by the phone, not getting called, and turning to other projects outside of the world of film, which helps ensure that they will continue not to be called, at least not for Blockbuster XXX. Another thing that seems to kill composers’ careers is when their creative relationships go stale; the top director or producer that they hitched their star to, is no longer turning out the hits, and if a composer hasn’t continually expanded their network of creative contacts, the phone will ring less and less. As Elmer Bernstein told young composers, it’s not about promo CDs, it’s about networking, pure and simple.

Having returned from my self-imposed film music exile, I am now frantically trying to make up a lot of lost ground. While I was away, Chandos put out reconstructed British film music like nobody’s business, and now I have to buy them all. First up is The Film Music of Sir Arthur Bliss, by God! (It was supposed to be a double bill with Ron Goodwin, but for some reason the store I ordered it from sent me the wrong CD instead - British Film Classics, a double disc of music I mostly already have. So the Chandos Goodwin will have to wait until I get this straightened out.)

Well, I have nothing really pithy to say about this CD except that it’s great to have Things to Come and that I just want to stay home from work tomorrow, wrap myself in tweed and drown myself in a pot of tea. Really the only criticism I have is that, since they started these recordings, Chandos has decided to give them rather silly “fun” cover art, as if they’re trying to attract mainstream score CD collectors who like Star Wars or Fifties kitsch.

Onward…

When I was moving/reconfiguring my Doyle site a few months ago, I suddenly remembered that once upon a time, I had written a gigantic, 2,800-word discourse on “Non Nobis, Domine.” My capacity for excess verbiage used to be pretty nauseating. However, reading stuff like the The Constant Gardener piece referenced below makes me feel like… not so much of a geek. And after reading Samuel Crowl’s new book on Kenneth Branagh’s films, and after several years of not thinking about the score for Henry V, I suddenly have also realized that I probably have at least another 2,000 words in me about it. (After all, I never wrote anything about “O, for a Muse of fire!” or the music playing under the Salique Law speech. Seriously.) So someday, I’ll get around to that.

Another thing I want to write: Music in the Films of Peter Weir. I have no idea what to say, except that something probably needs to be said. (Just think, if I was in academia I’d be getting paid for this.)