It is interesting how some people's perspective on things in life are different then the reality of a truth. Some people when they think of music in genre films will assume a certain sound, the low notes, the eerie chords, etc etc, but the truth is as much if not more then many other film genres the sound of pretty music and beautiful music has embraced the horror SCIFI fantasy genre as well. From the 30's till the present.In this thread[since it is a good time of the year to do it] i will like to examine some of the pretty film music that has been used in genre films, as well as the composers who have done them. Of course 2 of our favorites on this board have done there share towards the cause. I will start and if you like, put your listings and i will do this as i have done other threads, sticking if possible to one thread instead of a bunch.--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Franz Waxman in 1935 gave us 2 scores of beauty, Bride of Frankenstein, a melodic march, a very pretty main love theme and some very touching cues along the way, Franz also gave us a very pretty theme for the film The invisble ray- a Karloff Lugusi effort.
I was going to suggest POLTERGEIST, which is full of beautiful music, but was beaten to the punch by the clip above, which shows in part some of that music. The impressionistic music (and even to some extent the expressionistic music) used in some of the cues has a rare beauty.
Yes those 2 guys brought alot of nice music to late 70' and 80's genre cinema, Pino had a fine talent of combining mood cues with lovely melodies, MR Band also had a strong melodic line, you beat me to both of them, thanks for the music exerpts, you wouldn't by any chance have tourist trap, another pretty theme by Pino.
Here are some other, pretty music from 2 composers SBD likes, From MR Dinoggio, his first score Don't look now-74- was a great emotional score of much beauty-His big one CARRIE-76- had a beautiful main theme a pretty song and touching music cues along the way.HAUNTS-77-a effective low budget effort, had a gorgous theme from Pino[loved to see that put on CD- TOURIST TRAP-79-had a lovely main theme- BEYOND EVIL-80-Had some pretty music- THE FAN-81-had a fine nice theme along with a couple of nice numbers by Marvin Hamlisch as well.[like to see that on CD.THE BLACK CAT-81-had some nice melodic pieces-BLOW OUT-81- another great majestic melodic theme from Pino, such also was the case with BODY DOUBLE-and the supernatural opus DEJA VU-85-----------------------------------------------------------------------In the 90's and since he has continue to do some genre scores with pretty music, i will get to MR Band later.
Ennio Morricone's beautiful score for DePalma's awful Mission to Mars. And the soundtrack album presentation of Graeme Revell's Red Planet (a similarly poor movie) come to mind instantly for some Sci-Fi nods.
I've got lots of favorites in Horror, I'll have to pick and choose...
For the horror movie category, I consider Carlo Savina's music for LISA AND THE DEVIL (directed by Mario Bava) to be a thoroughly engaging melodic score.
As for sci-fi, my examples lean towards American television series from the 1960s:
THE OUTER LIMITS
Dominic Frontiere wrote a breathtakingly beautiful score for THE MAN WHO WAS NEVER BORN episode; Frontiere's love theme from THE ARCHITECTS OF FEAR segment is another fine example.
STAR TREK
Can there be anyone more suited to writing sensitive and touching STAR TREK scores than George Duning?
"Metamorphosis" is Duning's first score for the series, and it's a masterpiece
"Return To Tomorrow" sees Duning himself returning to the show to score another episode directed by Ralph Senensky; Diana Muldaur's character is accompanied by Duning's romance music.
"Is There In Truth No Beauty?" even has the word 'beauty' in its title. Director Senensky and actress Muldaur and composer Duning reunite once again in this - my favorite STAR TREK episode and favorite TREK score as well.
"The Empath" has a lovely Duning theme for Kathryn Hays's Gem character.
Not sure how to categorize Simon Wincer's Australian movie HARLEQUIN (aka DARK FORCES), but this fantasy variation/modernization of the Tsar Nicholas/Rasputin tale contains a most gorgeous love theme by Brian May for actress Carmen Duncan & actor Robert Powell.
Some other nice melodic scores from Richard Band includes, Laserblast a great addictive tune, co - compose by Joel Goldsmith,The enchanting The day time ended-79- Possibly Richard's best,, Time walker-83, The majestic Metal storm--83, Troll-86, the pretty haunting jukebox theme from Puppetmaster and it's sequels and more.
Two pretty genre scores came from Spanish Composer Waldo De Lois- The house that screamed-70- with Lili Palmer and Murders in the rue morgue-71- with Jason Robards and Herbert Lom, both had beautiful themes.
