Mark Your Calendar

I have news on some events that probably shouldn't wait until my Friday column.

Dennis McCarthy, composer of one million and counting Star Trek TV episodes, will be speaking at Columbia College—Hollywood on Friday, August 15, at 7PM. It's free to the public. The lecture will be at the Old Panavision Building at 18618 Oxnard Street in Tarzana; nearest cross street is Reseda. There's parking in the rear; it's recommended you be there at 6:30PM. Call 818-345-8414 if you have any questions.

Film & TV Music: Breaking Into the Business is a seminar by composer Mark Northam for composers, musicians, and songwriters to be held Saturday, August 23, 9AM-6PM at the Beverly Garland Holiday Inn in Los Angeles. Registration is $95; seminar participants receive "The Film and Television Composer's Resource Guide." Call toll free 1-888-SCORE-38 to register.

ASCAP and IFP (Independent Film Project) will hold a "Music for Film" panel discussion at its New York headquarters (One Lincoln Plaza, Broadway between 63rd and 64th Street) on August 19. Scheduled panelists included Tracy McKnight (music supervisor), Matt Harrison (director), and composer Stephen Endelman; moderator, Alex Steyermark. Harrison, Endelman and Steyermark worked on the upcoming Kicked in the Head. Call the ASCAP Events Hotline at 212-621-6485 for more info, or go to www.ascap.com.

For our readers in the United Kingdom, Howard Shore will be a guest at the Edinburgh Film Festival on August 20, discussing his score to Crash.

Also coming up quickly is John Williams's Star Wars concert at the Hollywood Bowl on August 29 and 30; call 213-850-2000 for ticket information.

Briefly in other news, here's something cool that nobody has announced yet: Pendulum Entertainment will release a type of "Volume Two" Dune CD, featuring the original score as conceived by David Paich and Toto. It will also include the demo tracks the band wrote that got them the job. This is planned for September 30, the same time as Clash of the Titans (Rosenthal, first CD) and Big Top Pee Wee (Elfman, reissue). Pendulum's Cocoon (Horner) reissue should be out any day now.

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I'll leave everybody with some comments I received from reader Alexandre Tylski regarding some of our recent colums... -LK

To talk about the art of film music, one has to understand the art of cinema too, and its evolution. It clearly appears that today, movies require faster and colder musical accompaniments. You know as well as me that big Hollywood producers want action films (and so, action scores). So, if some composers seem to imitate themselves, it comes from the relatively new trend in cinema, that is the increase of more and more spectacular cliffhangers where sound effects (and popular songs) are more important than deep and subtle film musics. Nowadays, film composers are considered as technicians, not as true artists.

A composer such as James Horner has had great success for a particular style of movie and music, and so, he is always asked to do that particular touch in that particular style of film. (For instance, look at Ron Howard's decision on Ransom; he wanted to hear Horner's style, right?) Thus, I agree that some composers can create almost similar works, but it shows that they perfectly respected what they were asked to do and so, that shows that they are the most representative film composers of their time.

It is amusing to notice that today, in Hollywood, actors just as film composers are asked to do again what they have been successful at. (I'm used to comparing actors to film composers because they all try to express characters' feelings, right?) Just look at successful actors like Jim Carrey or Harrison Ford, they do again and again the same style of films. Now, look at composers like Howard or Zimmer; the first one is often asked to compose nice and romantic themes (except in few exceptions), and, the last one is always asked to make action scores. As I told you, that's partly due to producers who want to give the audience what they want to see and hear.

However, I wonder whether it is so terrible to hear some film composers creating music for the same kind of movies all the time. I mean, a man like Bernard Herrmann is no doubt one of the greatest film composers ever, but he always did the same style of films, that is adventure/suspense movies. [Like The Ghost and Mrs. Muir? -LK] So what? His scores were just variations of his own music (and personality) Beethoven or Mozart used to create the same themes as well, but what was important was the quality and their unique style.

The fact that one can criticize a composer for "repeating himself" has nothing to do with the quality of those composers' works, but rather with our desire to be surprised. The big problem is that, nowadays, film composers work in a system where their freedom is more and more endangered by the rush for money and the disapearance of "artistic experimentations."

About Chris Tilton's comment (when he compares Horner's Devil's Own to Williams's Far and Away), I must disagree. Devil's Own and Far and Away are totally different movies; different visually, emotionally and philosophically. They did not take place at the same time (so, different use of instruments and tones/intentions of music) and they did not belong to the same genre of movies nor to the same main themes and aims... A score has to reflect all aspects of a film even if sometimes melodies (or charm) has to suffer from that. Devil's Own is dark, violent, cold, realistic and modern. It thus required a score that can fill that aim. Far and Away is a romantic movie, warm and respectful of past movies' style that required a lyrical and old-fashioned touch.

And to answer Mark Loughlin's article, I'd say that melody is not everything. Beauty requires patience from us. How many great artists were disliked when living, but then seen as geniuses decades after? What can be seen as ugly at first sight is often deceptive.

Music is the best medium to count and control time; it is not only a series of some nice notes of course. If a composer tends to repeat himself, it can also mean that he's probably obsessed by a specific sound, atmosphere or melodic idea that he feels close to.

A last word. I would like to say that style today has to be protected because it clearly tends to disappear today. More and more conventionnal "artists" lack a unique style and personality because they try to copy each other's success. We have to pay tribute to the artists and composers who have created their own world and who continue to explore what they imagined. Isn't it magical to find once again the familiar "voice" of a composer? Isn't it great to be able to guess whose composer composed a theme that we're just hearing? Isn't it wonderful to know that there are still some composers who are still faifthful to their philosophy and vision of music? Style is endangered and it must be protected. Today more than ever.

Alexandre Tylski

CCI@insat.com

I thank Alex for his comments. He also had a few words that time pressures have always existed in film music, and that's true, but I'm sure there's a big difference between ten weeks and three weeks to write a score. I think his comments are right on the money about films today requiring colder and less emotional music; movies today have squashed artifice and replaced it with visceral thrills and noise.

Send your thoughts in if you want. I'll print them! Lukas@filmscoremonthly.com