Sounds of Cinema Sunday

[vinteuil]

I don't only like "serious" music. I was listening to Bach Cantatas (serious) and not the the film day but having read all the negative stuff on here I decided to give it a go. Colonel Bogey came on. Cheered me up on a grey Sunday morning.

... but a whole day??
.

[gurnemanz]

... but a whole day??
.

Only going to dip in. I'm switching to James Graham on Desert Island Discs now and there's some good footie and rugby coming up on TV later. I don't see why Radio 3 shouldn't try something a bit different.

[cria]

... but a whole day??
.

Why not? On average R3 customers listen for just an hour a day - so it's not intruding on normal lifestyle. Anyway people should be listening to Mum saying how naughty they were when ...

[LMcD]

Having switched off during a day devoted entirely to women composers yesterday I can certainly empathise with you, KB. It’s not that I don’t enjoy women composers’ music, I do, it’s just that we’ve probably got the political message by now. It doesn’t need reinforcing, does it?

A whole day devoted to cinema music? Well, as it happens we cashed in a Christmas gift voucher for a new local cinema and saw Dune 2 at an afternoon sitting just this week. I emerged from the movie, blinking in the late afternoon sunshine, for once, in agreement with reviewers. It’s a visually stunning, beautifully crafted movie and Hans Zimmer’s score is ‘a sonic landscape as overwhelming as Arrakis itself’. Matthew Sweet’s interview on Sound of Cinema this afternoon with director Denis Villeneuve was an unexpected treat for me. Highly recommended if you like that sort of thing.

Being of the opinion that cinema music is probably the closest that many people get to serious orchestral music these days and might even provide a gateway for the curious to a lot of new music I shall be popping in tomorrow. I’m particularly looking forward to Hannah French’s examination of representations of period music in film on The Early Music Show special edition.

If you were sitting where we were in the front row, KB, I don't think you would have described the Dune soundtrack as anodyne and unobtrusive, LOL. It was a bit loud, the soundwaves resonating in the sternum somehow.

Hans Zimmer's 'overwhelming' scores sadly led me to stop watching David Attenborough documentaries. The sight of one animal chasing another is enough in itself to allow me to assess the degree of danger without the help of an overblown orchestral accompaniment. Nor do I need Mr Z's help to appreciate the grandeur of a mountain range, the cold beauty of a polar landscape, or the innocent joy of bear cubs at play..

[kernelbogey]

...Colonel Bogey came on...

Oh I'm sorry to have missed that ..!

I plan to listen to Hannah French on how they 'fake' baroque music in films. (I've yet to see The Draughtsman's Contract.)

[AuntDaisy]

I’m particularly looking forward to Hannah French’s examination of representations of period music in film on The Early Music Show special edition.

I wonder if there'll be much overlap with Catherine Bott's 2013 EMS "Sound of Cinema: A-Z of Baroque at the Box Office" or Lucy Skeeping's "Sound of Cinema: Tous Les matins du monde". There was also "Sound of Cinema: Farinelli - The Movie" & "Sound of Cinema: The Harpsichord and Film"
A 21min chopped version of the Catherine Bott EMS is available to listen to (as are the latter two, 13 & 25mins)...

Sound of Cinema: A-Z of Baroque at the Box Office
The Early Music Show, Sat 14 Sep 2013 13:00
Catherine Bott gives us a whistle-stop A-Z tour of how early music has been featured in mainstream films to both poignant and ironic effect; from Allegri and Albinoni to Zadok and Zoolander.
#BBCSoundofCinema.

[french frank]

I wonder if there'll be much overlap with Catherine Bott's 2013 EMS "Sound of Cinema: A-Z of Baroque at the Box Office" or Lucy Skeeping's "Sound of Cinema: Tous Les matins du monde". There was also "Sound of Cinema: Farinelli - The Movie" & "Sound of Cinema: The Harpsichord and Film"
A 21min chopped version of the Catherine Bott EMS is available to listen to (as are the latter two, 13 & 25mins)...

Eeh, there's nothing new, is there? Not on R3, at least

[AuntDaisy]

I plan to listen to Hannah French on how they 'fake' baroque music in films. (I've yet to see The Draughtsman's Contract.)

.. and fake spelling. "Presenter Hannah French with composer Jocelyn Pook on represenations of period music in film."



Sorry French Frank, Scheudlefrende won out.

[french frank]

Sorry French Frank, Scheudlefrende won out.

It's fun, though, isn't it?

[Petty]

[kernelbogey]

They didn't worry about spelling in the baroque era.

[Nick Armstrong]

I'm sticking with Breakfast out of a kind of loyalty. But most or all of what I've heard supports my contention that film music without the pictures is rather vacuous. OK the occasional tune is memorable …

I’ll listen to Breakfast for a similar reason, and tend to agree with what you say about film music although I’d frame the exception rather wider than ‘the occasional tune’. There are quite a lot of film music numbers that are generally felicitous and bear repeated listening without the accompanying images, but it’s true I think, the majority don’t.

For example, I’ve not heard anything by a much-vaunted name, Alexandre Des Plats, which is anything other than deeply tedious taken out of context - but it does his work a disservice so to take it, no doubt it admirably and discreetly serves the filmic action he’s scoring.

One reason for me is that he and a lot of others in recent years resort to minimalist-style repetition of small motifs (understandably, as they’re writing by the metre, or rather minute - good way of filling silence easily…). But this kind of music has the same effect on my brain as strobe lights to an epileptic (There was a prime example on the EMS just now: OFF went the radio)

[french frank]

The thing about some film music is that it takes on a life of its own when it is arranged as a concert work - and gets played. Someone (as in 'certain people') must recognise the potential and arrange it, and others recognise the quality (qualis) and programme it. Antartica in reverse.

I don't know but perhaps most film music played separately from its cinema context is appreciated by those who have seen the film and for whom the the music recaptures something of that film.

[Serial_Apologist]

They didn't worry about spelling in the baroque era.

They just fired canons at you!

[Pulcinella]

They didn't worry about spelling in the baroque era.

So if it's broke, don't fix it?

[LMcD]

They just fired canons at you!

In the interests of fairness, it's worth noting that Prokofiev apparently didn't know how to spell 'shoot'.