Film music

[meles]

Film music

I can't find any comments on R3's "Film Music fortnight" (or however long it's going on). For me, it's made we switch off the radio altogether.

There appears to be three sorts of film music.

(1) Through-written scores that seem to work in their own right. Prokofiev's "Alexander Nevsky", for example. Perhaps the fact that it was a "silent" film makes the score more important. Many are great.

(2) Scores written to underscore what is going on the screen. Bernard Hermann is a good example. But R3's playing of them endlessly seem to me to prove they do not stand up on their own. You need to see the images.

(3) Films that pinch existing music. R3 is delighting isn playing Mozart piano concertos and Mahler's symphonies as "film music".

There is also a (4). Film music that is not film music. I had the misfortune to hear an extract from "Fiddler on the Roof" the other day.It's a Stage play, R3 - it's a stage play!

[MrGongGong]

I can't find any comments on R3's "Film Music fortnight"

I've had a similar problem myself
I've been trying to find some pornography on the internet
I wonder if anyone could help ?

[french frank]

I can't find any comments on R3's "Film Music fortnight" (or however long it's going on). For me, it's made we switch off the radio altogether.

There appears to be three sorts of film music.

(1) Through-written scores that seem to work in their own right. Prokofiev's "Alexander Nevsky", for example. Perhaps the fact that it was a "silent" film makes the score more important. Many are great.

(2) Scores written to underscore what is going on the screen. Bernard Hermann is a good example. But R3's playing of them endlessly seem to me to prove they do not stand up on their own. You need to see the images.

(3) Films that pinch existing music. R3 is delighting isn playing Mozart piano concertos and Mahler's symphonies as "film music".

There is also a (4). Film music that is not film music. I had the misfortune to hear an extract from "Fiddler on the Roof" the other day.It's a Stage play, R3 - it's a stage play!

Comments are here. I'll merge the two threads

[Ruhevoll]

I can't find any comments on R3's "Film Music fortnight" (or however long it's going on). For me, it's made we switch off the radio altogether.

As have I.

I have complained to the BBC via Complaints and written to the show, Feedback, about the saturated schedules. It's inescapable and the only succour I take from it is that I am forced to reacquaint myself with old and familiar friends in my CD collection (and some that are neither old nor familiar! )

[Frances_iom]

I have complained to the BBC

I'm afraid a total waste of effort, RW is not interested in the old established audience (they can go hang - not that there are many left ) but in attracting those who deserted R2 for CFm - hence the ubiquitous 'easy listening' film music played ad nauseum.

[Nick Armstrong]

ubiquitous 'easy listening' film music played ad nauseum.

Ridiculous, botched airing for 'the Harry Potter' theme on R3 just now. And glancing at tomorrow, another outing for - guess what - Hermann's 'Vertigo' music.

The only thing I would say is that the 'golden age of film' Composer of the Week series, with DMcL discussing things with John Wilson, has been worth a listen. But the playlist and 'film music concert' programmes are ******* shockers

[meles]

Thanks for merging this. I see others have similar views!

[Ruhevoll]

Ridiculous, botched airing for 'the Harry Potter' theme on R3 just now. And glancing at tomorrow, another outing for - guess what - Hermann's 'Vertigo' music.

The only thing I would say is that the 'golden age of film' Composer of the Week series, with DMcL discussing things with John Wilson, has been worth a listen. But the playlist and 'film music concert' programmes are ******* shockers

It's the endlessness of it that irks. I took a peek at next week's schedule. Film score saturation from dawn to dusk.

[Flay]

The only thing I would say is that the 'golden age of film' Composer of the Week series, with DMcL discussing things with John Wilson, has been worth a listen.

Agreed about the awful endless film music. CoTW will be better heard as the podcast with most of the music edited out!

[Oliver]

I am in complete agreement. There is some film music worth listening to but the BBC's choice has been infantile. Predictably, bearing in mind the BBC's political prejudices of the moment, dominated by American cinema. And there has been too much of it.

By the way, Meles, Alexander Nevsky isn't a silent film. And the fact that Prokofiev himself arranged the suite suggests that he wanted to have a concert hall life. There are examples of film music that "works" n a concert setting; I've been enjoying my Chandos CD of Walton' Henry V ( arranged by Christopher Palmer)which includes some of the speeches delivered by Christopher Plummer. More extensive and dramatically-coherent than the usual Mathieson suite.

[MrGongGong]

It's the endlessness of it that irks.

Just you wait till next year........

WW1

“ the blood, the mud, the endless poetry”

[vinteuil]

Just you wait till next year........

WW1

“ the blood, the mud, the endless poetry”

..."Oh, my dear, the noise! and the people!"

[Frances_iom]

Just you wait till next year........

WW1

“ the blood, the mud, the endless poetry”

but we might be spared the trivial Americanisation and may , just may, get some decent history programmes on what was an utterly stupid waste of life fought as a civil war between Europe's then reigning families (all cross-linked by marriage)

[Catherine Bott]

I shan't comment on the Early Music Show's involvement with the current Sound of Cinema season except to say a) that it comes to an end this weekend with my programme on "Farinelli, the movie" and the repeat of Lucie's programme about "Tous les matins du monde": and b) that tomorrow's programme is the last ever Saturday edition of the Early Music Show after 10 years. The programme continues on Sundays at the new time of 2pm.

Meanwhile, if you are in London and fancy some live film music, may I recommend a quick look at www.cinemamuseum.org.uk? It's housed in part of the old Lambeth Workhouse in Kennington, with important Chaplin connections, and will be open over this coming Open House Weekend. And tomorrow evening, my good friend Donald MacKenzie, organist of the Odeon, Leicester Square, will be tickling the ivories of the Cinema Museum's piano as he accompanies a screening of the 1926 Technicolour silent The Black Pirate, starring Douglas Fairbanks. Just thought I'd mention it to strike a blow for the music of the silent screen during the current total immersion movie music experience.....

[Pabmusic]

but we might be spared the trivial Americanisation and may , just may, get some decent history programmes on what was an utterly stupid waste of life fought as a civil war between Europe's then reigning families (all cross-linked by marriage)

I agree with the first half of your post, but not with the second. WW1 was an inevitable result of Germany's rise as an industrial giant, Austria's weakness (largely the result of losing her position as leader of the German Union, which had itself led to her being split into Austria-Hungary), the rise of nationalism in Austria-Hungary, the German Kaiser being quite possibly unbalanced, and Britain's perceived weakness in the wake of the South African war. And as for France, she was badly mauled by the Prussians and their allies in 1870, almost went to war with Britain in the 1890s, suffered a self-inflicted wound over Dreyfus and had her main opposition leader assassinated just before hostilities began in 1914 - a very unstable state. And that's without considering Italy and Russia, neither of which was especially stable. The myth of an internecine war among European royals is just that. Remember that republican France was a more major protagonist than Britain by a long way.

(I realise I'm off-topic, but it's more interesting than most film music.)