Stamps of the Future

by Lukas Kendall

Holy cow, it's the next last day of you-know-what. This year saw the release by the U.S. post office of six Hollywood Composers stamps, truly an unprecedented event in the appreciation of film music. Represented are:

Bernard Herrmann

Max Steiner

Franz Waxman

Dimtri Tiomkin

Alfred Newman

Erich Wolfgang Korngold

In light of this, I thought it would be fun to speculate on the "next" batch of Hollywood Composers stamps, should they happen some time next century. I have selected seven composers, not six -- Miklos Rozsa should have been among the above, but he was not because a person has to have been deceased for ten years to be on a postage stamp, and Rozsa passed away in the mid-'90s.

This makes the task slightly easier, but still hard. Here are the seven composers I would expect to be immortalized on "Silver Age" stamps, if the time comes:

Henry Mancini

Elmer Bernstein

Jerry Goldsmith

John Williams

John Barry

Ennio Morricone

Maurice Jarre

All of the above fit the criteria of having done several famous works (both musical, of their own doing, and cinematic, by association), receiving professional and popular accolades over a long period of time: Williams and Bernstein are like Newman and Steiner, Hollywood institutions. Goldsmith is like Waxman, a brilliant and adventurous musician who tackled a variety of genres; even if he is not as familiar to the general public, anyone in the know points to him as an influence and an icon.

Meanwhile, Jarre is like Tiomkin, an eccentric musician who nevertheless rose to the occasion with huge projects and unlikely pop hits. Morricone is like Herrmann -- not musically, in that they're wildly different, but they are both experimental and idiosyncratic workhorses who pushed the boundaries of cinema and almost singlehandedly defined genres. And Barry is like Rozsa, an unmistakable imprint whose music has great similarities from project to project but is nevertheless dramatically impeccable -- and applicable to several eras and genres.

If there's anyone people may quibble with regarding my choices, it's Mancini, but he would have to be included. His pop themes became standards -- to a whole generation of casual listeners, he IS movie music. Like Korngold, he did not write as many film scores as his contemporaries, and his best output is comparatively limited in era and genre, but his significance and fame cannot be overlooked.

Sadly this leaves on the outside looking in: Alex North, Lalo Schifrin, Georges Delerue, Michel Legrand, Leonard Rosenman -- and probably a dozen other viable candidates. But what can you do? In the Golden Age stamps, Friedhofer, Raksin, Stothart and many more have not -- and probably will not -- be selected. It's like in baseball -- you can be a great player, even hold a few records and have been a part of major historical events, but not everybody gets into the Hall of Fame. North in particular is deserving but -- Spartacus, "Unchained Melody" and Honorary Oscar notwithstanding -- he probably would not make it. It IS a popularity contest, and 007, Star Wars, Lawrence of Arabia, The Magnificent Seven, The Pink Panther and the whip-cracks from spaghetti westerns will win over austere, abstract genius. In this light Jerry Goldsmith is the long-shot, but he has Star Trek as well as a longer and more consistent association with A-list projects.

The real hard part will come with the "Digital Age" of stamps -- today's composers. I honestly could not pick which seven people will end up the most important over time. Only two are thus far shoo-ins: James Horner (Titanic helps) and Danny Elfman. Hans Zimmer is probably three. Thomas Newman is three-and-a-half. Alan Silvestri, Michael Kamen and James Newton Howard fit the profile, but it's a bad sign that lately their music is often interchangeable. Who else is there to pick? Vangelis, he of seven movies? (That's not the exact number.) Mark Isham, a brilliant mood-scorer who has never written anything I can remember? Howard Shore? He's good too, but it's so hard to tell when these people are all in mid-career. The sad thing is that Basil Poledouris most fits the profile of what strong, symphonic film composers used to be, but today someone's single viewpoint is not as important compared to pop songs, trends, flashes-in-the-pan and animated musicals. There are so many rip-off artists that fewer people can keep their original voice, even if they can create one.

With a gun to my head, I'd have to say that if the stamps were chosen today, they would be: James Horner, Danny Elfman, Hans Zimmer, Alan Menken (the Mancini effect), Randy Newman (because of the convergence of fame, significant movies and his overall persona), Thomas Newman (the "merit" award) and, finally, Elliot Goldenthal -- beating out Silvestri, Kamen, Howard, Shore, Isham, Shaiman, Poledouris and whole bunch of others. Why? Because at this point it's a total crap shoot, and Goldenthal has the best combination of personal style, hit movies, director relationships, and the advantage of no one knowing what they're talking about -- evidently myself included. Actually, I'm already unsure.

Please, readers, you must help me. Send your picks for "Silver Age" and "Digital Age" stamps!

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