Top 10 Classical Music Moments in Cinema

For 90 years, the UK’s Gramophone Magazine has created impeccable classical music journalism. Great record reviews and articles on classical music artists and composers always make for a great read.

I recently read this brief article where the folks at Gramophone list their top 10 classical music soundtrack moments in film.

1) Brief Encounter (1945, dir David Lean)
2) Raging Bull (1980, dir Martin Scorsese)
3) 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968, dir Stanley Kubrick)
4) Manhattan (1979, dir Woody Allen)
5) Platoon (1986, dir Oliver Stone)
6) The Shawshank Redemption (1994, dir Frank Darabont)
7) The Shining (1980, dir Stanley Kubrick)
8) Apocalypse Now (1979, dir Francis Ford Coppola)
9) Amadeus (1984, dir Miloš Forman)
10) Death in Venice (1971, dir Luchino Visconti)

There are movie clips and explanation/description of each choice in the article. It is well worth checking out the actual article.

One of my favorite classical music soundtrack moments that is not listed here is the film Breaking Away.
Breaking Away (1979) – A coming of age film about a teenage boy so in love with cycling that he adopts all things Italian, including opera, in order to fully emulate his racing heroes. The film’s most memorable and endearing scene contains no dialogue at all. In it, the the main character reaches an incredible speed on his bike by cycling in the backdraft of a large truck. It’s a moment akin to the scene in Rocky 1 when Rocky victoriously leaps up the steps of the Philadelphia museum. (Gonna Fly Now) except in this scene, the underscore is Mendellsohn’s Allegro, 1st Movement from the Italian Symphony.

Classical Music in Ads and Film

The Ravinia Student Marketing Team created this video to show how we see classical music in our everyday lives through advertisements and film.

1.. Rhapsody In Blue (United Airlines)
2.. O Fortuna (Gatorade)
3. 1812 Overture (Shell)
4. Pirates of the Caribbean – Hans Zimmer
5. V for Vendetta (1812 Overture – Tchaikovsky

The King’s Speech and Beethoven’s 7th Symphony

The climatic scene in last year’s academy award winning film “The King’s Speech”, where King George sucessfully delivers a national radio address to the English people on the brink of World War 2 was set to the second movement from Beethoven’s Seventh Symphony.

This piece of music, set in a minor key, builds softly and slowly to a dramatic, ful orchestral finale. As soundtrack, it underscores the scene brilliantly because the scene is about whether the King will be able to make the speech without stuttering through it. It is the culmination of all the drama in the movie. Will he be able to inspire his subjects to rally and fight the coming tyranny in Europe? Beethoven’s 2nd movement, underlines the seriousness of the situation – coming war in Europe – but also the seriousness of the event itself – the speech – and will the king succeed.

Another important element is what’s called an “ostinato” in music, this is just a name meaning repeated rhythm – in this movement it is the rhythm of a quarter note followed by 2 eigth notes – dah, dah-dah, that creates a moving force.

Because the movie is a historical drama, it lends itself well to a classical music soundtrack. The story revolves around the English Royal Family. The music lends itself well to the regal atmosphere in the film.

This is one of the things classical music underscore does well. It can add a refined, even divine, beauty to a scene. Classical music is quite versatile as soundtrack but I hear it mostly used to underscore serious positive emotions like glory, bravery, eloquence, refinement.

There are exceptions however. Clockwork Orange is one, where extreme violence occurs against a soundtrack of (mostly) Beethoven’s orchestral music. Here the music creates a type of absurd burlesque, making a sarcastic societal comment on violence.

Terrence Malik’s new film The Tree of Life relies almost entirely on a classical music soundtrack as well. It makes sense, Malik’s storytelling is poetic and non-linear and attempts to bring a special type of beauty to filmmaking. The film zones in from theological and cosmological musings to capture the smallest human gestures.

Here is a link to a great listing of classical music pieces that have been used as film soundtrack.

Movie Themes performed on piano

I think this is a really great idea for presenting film music. Pianist, Stephen Edwards has taken famous movie themes and arranged them for solo piano performance. Many of the arrangements have a distinct Chopin-esque quality to them.

Hearing the music this way gives the film scores a different focus. Edwards uses thinner piano accompaniment textures to provide a clearer, more concentrated attention to the melodies. The music really sings.

You can listen and purchase the music from CD Baby.

Here is a review on FilmScore ClickTrack.

more information….
————————–
STEPHEN EDWARDS CELEBRATES THE BEAUTY OF THE MOVIE THEME WITH PIANO MUSIC FROM THE MOVIES

(April 7, 2011- Los Angeles, CA) – Composer Igor Stravinsky said, “Film music should have the same relationship to the film drama that somebody’s piano playing in myliving room has on the book I am reading.” Stephen Edwards (Cool Dog, Feast) combines the two with Piano Music From The Movies. The recording will be available digitally and on CD on May 3, 2011.

Many of the tracks featured on the recording were originally performed by a larger ensemble, in some cases a full orchestra. Taking these pieces and strippingthem down to a solo piano may seem an odd choice. “What I love about this collection,” said Edwards, “is that in many of the instances these are very similar to the original piano recordings that were in the movies – just my pianistic interpretation of them.”

Though he’s a film composer himself, Stephen Edwards decided to pay homage to the film music that moved him. He described, “Shawshank Redemption is one of my all-time favorite movies and I’m so moved by Thomas Newman’s muted and slightly dissonant beauty in this score; Field of Dreams moved me so profoundly because of the relationship with my own father and the piano music grabbed me immediately in the theatre when I saw it in the 1990s; A.I is a beautiful tone poem that very few would guess is actually written by John Williams.

He continued, “’Playing Love’ from The Legend of 1900 is a bravura jazz piece turned into a beautiful thematicstatement – and in the film actor Tim Roth’s character plays the piece in the movie just as it is heard on this CD. Once Upon a Time in America is probably my all-time favorite Morricone theme – I can still remember the very late night in the 1980s when I saw that movie on late night TV and was bowled over by the beauty of the single voice and orchestra playing that iconic tune – and this is my pianistic remembrance of that recording.”

As to one of the lesser-known themes on this recording, “Betty Blue sounds like Gabriel Yared’s modern take on the Chopin Ballades,” said Edwards.

Michigan native Stephen Edwards’ music education began at an early age with training by his mother, Rosalie Edwards, followed by studies at Interlochen Music Camp and Lawrence University, where he was recipient of the “Outstanding Classical Soloist” award sponsored by DownBeat magazine, and selected as a participant in the All-American College Orchestra National Talent Search sponsored by Disney.

Edwards continued his studies at the Dick Grove School of Music in Los Angeles and immediately started working as a session musician for film and TV composers including Mike Post. An avid pianist, he frequently performs on soundtracks for film and TV, including The Mechanic, The Prestige, Desperate Housewives and many others. A prolific composer, Edwards has scored more than 60 movies. He is producing a feature-length documentary, Requiem for My Mother, about a new choral work he composed in honor of his latemother that premiered at the Vatican. Look for the film and CD soundtrack release sometime in 2012.

“Since I started out as a piano player, I was always interested in playing music I heard in movies that I loved when I was a kid.” said Edwards. “It just made sense to me to record a CD of my favorites.”

Stephen Edwards Piano Music From The Movies will be available digitally and on CD on May 3, 2011

Track Listing

1. To Kill a Mockingbird “Main Title” Elmer Bernstein
2. Cleopatra “Antony and Cleopatra’s Love” Alex North
3. Being There “The Room Upstairs” Johnny Mandel
4. Being There “Goodbye Louise” Johnny Mandel
5. Diva “Sentimental Walk” Vladimir Cosma
6. Sophie’s Choice “Main Title” Marvin Hamlisch
7. Once Upon a Time in America “Main Title”
Ennio Morricone
8. Betty Blue “le Petit Nicholas” Gabriel Yared
9. Cinema Paradiso “Medley”
Ennio Morricone/Andrea Morricone
10. Field of Dreams “Night Mists” James Horner
11. Cousins “Main Title” Angelo Badalamenti
12. Shawshank Redemption “New Fish”
ThomasNewman
13. Shawshank Redemption “Brooks Was Here”
Thomas Newman
14. Sabrina “Main Title” John Williams
15. Titanic “The Portrait” James Horner
16. The Legend of 1900 “Playing Love” Ennio Morricone
17. A.I. Artificial Intelligence “The Reunion” John Williams
18. Munich “End Credits” John Williams
19. Little Children “2 Hillcrest” Thomas Newman
20. The Mechanic “Eb Piano Trio”
Franz Schubert arr. Stephen Edwards

###

For more information contact cinemediapromo@yahoo.com

Talk Classical Forum

If you are a fan of classical music then you should know about Talk Classical, an online community of classical music enthusiasts. I have been a member of this forum for a while and can say that the quality of the conversations is intelligent and knowledgable.

Topics cover the gamut of classical music with a focus on recordings, performances, performers and composers. There’s also nice attention paid to non-Western music, like Indian Classical Music – a favorite of mine.

New groups include Video Game Music and Contemporary Art.

Here’s a link to a discussion of Classical Music in FIlms. Great discussion, smart comments.

I couldn’t find the total membership of this forum but suffice to say this is a well-visited site. There are hundreds of people reading posts every time I log in.

If you enjoy classical music, check out the Talk Classical Forum.

Cliff Eidelman – one of my favorite film composers

I first became aware of the film composer Cliff Eidelman when I saw the movie One True Thing back in 1998. This is one of my all-time favorite movie scores. The music is just so beautifully written and, to me, masterfully orchestrated. Eidelman favors what I would call a “chamber music” sound, things never get huge but instead an intimacy is created.

His later scores include the soundtrack for He’s Just Not That Into You, Open Window and Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants.

Not surprisingly, Mr Eidelman also writes concert (symphonic) music. You can hear some at his site cliffeidelman.com

Here is a great interview with Cliff Eidelman.

Classical Music soundtrack cliches

Great article which lists several classical music pieces that have been so over-used as film soundtrack that they are now cliches. Beethoven Symphonies, Wagner’s “Ride of the Valkyries”, Orff’s “Carmina Burana” and Barber’s “Adagio for Strings” are all mentioned.

This was interesting to me…

The recent trailer for David Fincher’s “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” (see the video above) features Camille Saint-Saëns’ “Aquarium” from “The Carnival of Animals.” This eerie, impressionistic 1886 composition was most famously used in Terrence Malick’s “Days of Heaven.” It also serves as the unofficial anthem of the Cannes Film Festival, where fans can hear it played ad nauseum on the red carpet.

The article’s author, David Ng, closes saying, “Not that any of this is necessarily a bad thing. If this is how the majority of the population is exposed to classical music, so be it. Some classical exposure is definitely better than none.” I very much agree.

Listing of classical recordings used as film soundtrack

Naxos, a leading classical music label has a great listing of classical music that has been used as underscore in the movies. This is a pretty extensive listing.