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Posted: |
Feb 18, 2015 - 2:43 PM
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By: |
rerunkr
(Member)
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To begin with, I am a great fan of Elmer Bernstein's movie scores. I knew him off and on since the 1970's. I last talked to him the evening of a Hollywood Bowl concert where music from "Battlestar Galactica" was being performed as well as some of Elmer's great music.
The "Age of Innocence" is indeed a marvelous score and deserves all of the love and affection the board has shown for this work.
However, there is definitely something that all fans of this score should check out. It's a most interesting puzzle. If you were to listen to the Brahms Symphony #3, and compare it to the main theme of "Age of Innocence," you would find that they are in the same key. That they are in the same exact tempo. That the instrumentation is the same. That the Bernstein theme seems to be an upside-down, backwards version of the Brahms.
Given that Scorsese usually likes to track his movies with existing music, and only rarely uses an original score, it would not be a stretch to presume that Scorsese had tracked the Brahms in his final cut and subsequently fell in love with the piece. Elmer, being the consummate composer and gentleman, proceeded to give Martin what he wanted. A magnificent reworking of Brahms, instead of the Brahms.
This has always been one of my favorite scores for many reasons, regardless of the derivation of the theme. It suits the film and does what a film score is supposed to do. Make the film better. Kudos to one of the great film composers of all time.
SP
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Bernstein's late masterpiece, right up there with his greatest scores.
It's criminal this music did not win an Oscar. Bernstein was nominated, but didn't win.
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