Notes in the Dark

Wow, sometimes it seems all I do is post obituaries.  Another talented composer, Shirley Walker, has passed on suddenly.  Before Debbie Wiseman came along, Walker was virtually the only female composer who got any attention from the 99%-male film score crowd, probably because she scored the kinds of movies and TV shows they thought were important.  She never did get a very big shake in Hollywood, unfortunately, which was very unfair.

Patrick Doyle was recently in Barcelona to give a master class; here’s some Youtube footage of him playing the Overture from Much Ado About Nothing on piano.

…to the film scoring world, that is. All these years after his first (and only) foray into film music — his brilliant conducting job of Doyle’s Henry V, with the CBSO — it seems Rattle has embarked on a new scoring project, this time with the Berlin Philharmonic, for Tom Tykwer’s Perfume: The Story of a Murderer. Although he may seem like an unorthodox choice for someone of Rattle’s caliber, Tykwer is a director (actually, he’s a director-composer) who’s wonderfully sensitive to film music and has a great dramatic sense. (Run Lola Run was one of the most enjoyable and listenable electronic scores in recent years.) I can certainly understand why Rattle was interested in working with him. I heard a bit of Perfume on SS.com the other day and I just might pick up the CD.

Terrible news today… we’ve lost another of the genuinely talented. Basil Poledouris, dead at 61, of cancer. Unbelievable.

He’ll always be known for Conan the Barbarian and his work on macho John Milius movies, but he was a really brilliant and well-rounded and quality composer (e.g. Lonesome Dove, Wind). If there was ever such a thing as the “Bronze Age” of film scoring, he has to be considered one of its very best artists, one of the ones with the most integrity and “voice.” His absence from the scoring scene in recent years was an unhappy thing.

A real class act, and a real loss.

First, an explanation of this post’s title. By “mainstream” I don’t mean “mainstream in real life,” but rather “mainstream in the soundtrack fan world” — which, it goes without saying, is not “mainstream” at all.

While nobody yet on the FSM forum would be caught dead talking about A.R. Rahman, that doesn’t mean the answer to my question is “no.” (Especially since the FSM crowd can be so fusty.) Because I notice that on StreamingSoundtracks.com, Bollywood film music seems to be getting requested more and more. The usual gang at SS.com, who have very wide-ranging tastes, might just be seeking novelty, but when a new Bolly album gets added to the playlist, they seem to descend upon it very enthusiastically. And it’s not just the instrumental music they seem to like playing.

I also noticed the other day that you can get more Bollywood soundtracks on iTunes, where just a few months ago they couldn’t be found. Dil Chahta Hai, Swades and Musafir are now available (although, oddly, they do not have the latest, Aishwarya Rai version of Devdas, only music from a prior film version).

No film industry has been better at taking Western film conventions and making them completely their own like the Indian film industry has, and that includes their very unique music-scape. My favorite Bollywood movie isn’t a very adventurous choice (and they are very much an acquired taste and I haven’t seen very many of them) — Dil Chahta Hai — but it sure has a lot of great songs.

It’s about time for a site like GoldenScores; all of the good reviews of the oldies, none of the boring press releases or interviews with [LA-Based A-List Composer's Protege of the Month].   Not that I mind those interviews, but it seems the same ones, with the same people, are on Every.  Single.  Site.