I've been playing SILVERADO by Bruce Broughton lately and the counterpoint on display is fantastic! Other good examples I can think of are THE COWBOYS by John Williams and also the track WHITE SANDS from SPACECAMP, also by John Williams.
Great examples in both "The Empire Strikes Back" and the "ST:TMP" cue, "The Enterprise" (the Mahlerian horn passage against the main theme in the strings), and, of course, the end title of Bill Conti's score for Rocky ("Rocky's Reward): an actual fugue. Bruce Broughton's TV music contains many good examples, especially his "Dallas" scores.
Talking television music, two of my favorite examples come from early seventies "Hawaii Five-0" episodes, namely, 1971's "3,000 Crooked Miles to Honolulu" (Richard Shores) and 1973's "Hookman" (Morton Stevens).
Too bad counterpoint is forbidden in today's simplistic, chugga-chugga-chugga Zimmer environment.
No no no. The way he combined those two notes in the Jokers theme in the Dark Knight was brilliant B)
And now *on topic*: on of the reasons I enjoy James Horner's music so much is how he masterfully uses counterpoint. Cocoon, Braveheart, Caper. I should look to give more examples (my memory doesn't work well enough to name just a few ;-) ) but his counterpointing (?) makes his scores very lively.
And a very functional tool in film music as well!
And to add one example: Horner's Back to Titanic expands on the counterpoint from the end credits. Stunning!
Shirley Walker's WILLARD is perhaps the most contrapuntally intricate score I can think of. Walker was, in general, a big advocate of counterpoint, and it shows up prominently in most of her work -- but WILLARD goes above and beyond. A half-dozen significant themes or motifs, any of which can be used in counterpoint with any of the others. Walker makes brilliant use of these combinations to draw out the tangled psychological nuances of the characters. If you were teaching a course on the use of counterpoint to enhance drama and meaning, this score could be your case study.
I say we suggest our favourite counterpoint pieces and not turn this thread into another boring Zimmer this and Zimmer that snoozefest! What d'ya say guys?
Favorite counterpoint? I love counterpoint and there are so many uses of it in film music that I admire, but what popped into my head without thinking is the counterpoint used in Goldsmith's THE BLUE MAX, most notably the air battle cues.
This may be a "musiciany" thing, but I love when composers use counterpoint creatively.
Firstly, I had to look up "counterpoint" to ensure that it means what I thought it meant, so as not to make an arse of myself. Again.
And then the first thing that sprang to mind was Morricone's Nostromo theme. He introduces a beautiful tune, which is followed by a B theme, either of which could carry a film (or TV) score. It's only when he plays them together that you realise how superbly crafted these melodies really are.
Counterpoint should be a staple in any educated composer's kitbag, and I'm sure it appears in the vast majority of scores. However, as with any piece, there's music, good music and inspired music. This, and much other Morricone, belongs firmly in the third category.
There's a clever use of counterpoint in THE SOUND OF MUSIC in "Do-Re-Mi".
Halfway through the piece, we get a little ditty on the words "When you know the notes to sing, you can sing most anything." It sounds like just another pretty tune, but it's soon combined with snippets of melody that Maria has the children sing. Then at the end of the song, the tune reappears combined with a slow ascending scale (a kind of reduced version of the song's opening Do-Re-Mi tune) as Maria climbs a staircase one step at a time.
It's just kind of cool how the tune is introduced on its own first, then surprisingly combined with other snippets as the song continues. There are other nice examples of counterpoint in THE SOUND OF MUSIC too. That's just one of them.
One more ... David Shire's RETURN TO OZ! The way the Dorothy/Oz themes come together in counterpoint at the end is just wonderful.
Definitely! I'd also like to add virtually ANYTHING by John Scott, who in my book is one of the most uniquely unequivocal geniuses of counterpoint in music history, as well as early Trevor Jones - THE DARK CRYSTAL and NATE AND HAYES have some truly ravishing, sumptuous lines of counterpoint!
In fact, this seems to be something British composers really excel at - Rodney Bennett's LADY CAROLINE LAMB has some beautiful counterpoint at work too...
John Williams is writing great contrapuntal passages. There are many more, but two of my favourites are the opening of "Belly of the Steal Beast" from Indy 3 and, of course, the "Shark Cage Fugue" from Jaws, especially in the version from the Spielberg-Williams Collaboration Sony CD.
One of my favourite counterpoint passages of all film music, is a section in "The Secret Wedding" from Braveheart, where we have the main theme of the piece in the strings, and on top of that, the oboe plays a magnificent contrapuntal line. I was deeply moved when i first listened to this (without having seen the film)
