|
|
 |
ASO
After the success of last year's live performance of the score of 'The Wizard Of Oz' to a screening of the film and previous concerts featuring the music of genre luminaries such as George Gershwin and Bernard Herrmann, the ASO is going all out with a program of film music that encompasses the entire eighty year history of the medium.
Upon examining the programme, what is apparent immediately is that movie music has evolved enormously during that period from pure accompaniment to the action to a marketable product in itself.
With the advent of sound, the earliest musical scores were written by European ŽmigrŽs usually of Jewish descent. The 'big four' during the 'thirties and 'forties were Erich Wolfgang Korngold, Max Steiner, Franz Waxman and Alfred Newman. While the experimentalism associated with Stravinsky and Schoenberg was in vogue, the 'big four' took their leads from late nineteenth century Romanticism and composers like Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninov and Richard Strauss structuring lush romantic and emotive musical backdrops to melodramatic narrative. As concert conductor Brett Kelly describes it, film scores during that period became "a unique dialect of the emotions - like a contract between composer and audience". Korngold is most famous for his rollicking scores to Errol Flynn's 'The Adventures Of Robin Hood' and 'Captain Blood', the latter of which is featured in the concert. Probably the greatest of all time, Steiner's resume is almost overwhelming and it is fitting that his unforgettable score to 'Gone With The Wind' is included whilst Newman's instantly recognizable Twentieth Century Fox fanfare opens proceedings.
The birth of sound also saw the arrival of the movie musical. Star of stage and Channel Seven's popular 'It Takes Two', Rachel Beck will perform a Judy Garland, Marilyn Monroe tribute of Trolley Song, Over The Rainbow and Diamonds Are A Girl's Best Friend.
The 'fifties and 'sixties brought realism and the anti-heroes with Actor's Studio backgrounds such as Marlon Brando and James Dean. By that stage, the modernist influence was evident in the work of musical directors like Elmer Bernstein in films like 'The Magnificent Seven', but particularly his flawless score to my all time favourite film 'To Kill A Mockingbird' including the famous one fingered piano opening that instantly transports us into the magical imaginary world of Jem and Scout and depression era Macon county.
Movie making was never the same after 1977's 'Star Wars' and the birth of the blockbuster. Musical scores became part of the marketing explosion that was an integral part of these productions. As Kelly puts it, " in movie music, like washing detergents and politicians, "recognition factor" is of great importance', and when it comes to recognition factor, it doesn't come more familiar than John Barry's Bond theme, his love theme in 'Out Of Africa' (for which he won an Oscar) and John William's Star Wars Theme and his Oscar winning score for Spielberg's 'Schindler's List' which are all part of the second half of the programme.
Two of the twenty-first century's heroes Danny Elfman ('Spiderman') and Hans Zimmer ('Pirates Of The Caribbean') also get a guernsey and there will be a second Beck song bracket of movie hits ('Beauty & The Beast', 'Fame' and 'Lady Marmalade').
Hooray for Hollywood!
Mal Byrne
'The ASO Goes To The Movies' performs at the Festival Theatre on Fri 30 and Sat 31 May
|
|
The latest issue
available now!
|
