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Because i must detonate in 5 seconds...
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It's sort of an arbitrary distinction, isn't it? I mean, we didn't even really speak of such things before FSM chose to market their CDs this way. Sure, there was an undefined "Golden Age" that eventually gave way to more modern techniques, but defining a line of demarkation seems impossible, given that the music gradually shifted. Some scores (such as North's "Streetcar Named Desire") made bigger leaps than others, yes, but I couldn't define a first.
THIS!
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To qualify the term, it could be taken as the era when DISSONANCE, ATONALITY, and certain jazz elements became more mainstream then previously.
So North, Previn, and Rosenman, followed by Goldsmith etc.....
that is pretty much it!
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So...brought PLANET OF THE APES a new kind of musical style to filmscoring or was it maybe Leonard Rosenman,who did it 2 years before with FANTASTIC VOYAGE ?
Or someone else ...???
Who started the silver age???
Arnold Shoenberg, way back in the early twentieth century....
That is if you're going to cite the two above examples as "a new kind of musical style" -- which they weren't -- and the beginning of the "silver age" in film music. Though the Nazi Party thought Shoenberg's work more "degenerate music."
But, not much if anything really avant-garde about either score.
Maybe we should divide film music into the Golden Age, the Silver Age, and the Degenerate Age.
Now, let me see... what could be the Degenerate Age? Now, maybe?
Well, I think the Silver Age is the Golden Age and the Golden Age is the Silver Age.
Certainly today is the Tin Age.
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I think the Silver Age is the Golden Age and the Golden Age is the Silver Age.
Certainly today is the Tin Age.
With the plague of constant remakes, sequels, prequels and reboots that have turned the modern American motion picture industry into a walking dead zombie version of itself from just forty years ago much less earlier, I consider the current state of what passes for most film scoring these days the "Imitation Age," artifice rather than art.
Anyway, why do you consider the Golden Age of film scoring actually the Silver Age? I think I know the answer, but let's hear what you say.
It's subjective ... to a degree. Seems to me that the best scores (and most of my soundtracks) come from the '60s-'80s. Big, melodic symphonic scores, often better than the movies they accompanied (STAR TREK:TMP being a prime example). But I own very few soundtracks from the Golden Age. And even fewer from the Tin Age.
And I don't think its subjective to say that movies have gotten worse (in all fields but VFX). They have. Period. Unless you're partial to toys and comic books.
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I like the comment above about "transition" between the Ages. The so-called "Golden" and "Silver" ages overlapped. Golden Age mostly derived from Romantic style, much of Silver derived more from dissonant style. As Golden Age output ebbed, Silver Age increased. As Miklos Rozsa kept writing romantic-themed scores, like EL CID (1961), Henry Mancini brought out BREAKFAST AT TIFFANY'S (1961). In the same year, you had the waning of one trend, and the waxing of another.
I've often thought that Dimitri Tiomkin and Henry Mancini had more to do with changing the actual construct of film scores. Tiomkin's HIGH NOON (1952) used a sung theme song for its main title that became so popular that practically all other scores since then had to have one, resulting in the virtual disappearance of the main title, the touchstone for most film scores. Likewise, Mancini's jazzy, lounge-style score for BREAKFAST AT TIFFANY'S, which also had a massively popular title song, changed what producers deemed was profitable in film music. Also, the very popular lp for BREAKFAST, which remained in print for decades, became the ideal that most producers yearned for, as an additional profitable adjunct to their films.
To be sure, there were many films during this period that didn't have popular songs, and weren't jazzy, lounge-type scores. But the trends are noticeable, and contributed to the gradual diminishment of the use of orchestral film scores. Though the contributions of North, Bernstein, and Goldsmith included more dissonant sounds, they were still, by and large, orchestral scores. So this trend, too, was part of the transition.
I also wonder if there isn't some generational difference between Golden and Silver Age composers, with those among the Golden Age being older. And, there may even be a geographical difference, with many of the Golden Age composers being political immigrants to the U.S. (Newman, Friedhofer, Young, and Herrmann were all born in the U.S., but Rozsa, Waxman, Tiomkin, and Kaper were not.) So, maybe the European influence of their experience may also be a factor in the Golden Age sound. (North, Bernstein, and Goldsmith, born in the U.S., all seem to be pretty transitional, in that their output bridges the two eras. And, though Williams began his rise during the transition, his output is primarily ascribed to what I refer to as a Golden Age Revival, since his score for the original STAR WARS (1977) almost singlehandedly revived an interest in orchestral film scores.)
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Posted: |
Jun 21, 2016 - 10:56 AM
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By: |
bagby
(Member)
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For me, the difference/demarcation point is World War II. You did have a few (very few) scores, such as Copland's Of Mice and Men, that vastly differed from much of what was being composed by others in Hollywood.
It begins to shift with Bernard Herrmann in particular, but really, after World War II it changes drastically. The world changed, films changed and film music changed. I'd call Friedhofer's score for 'Best Years of Our Lives' the turning point. Some of the earlier Golden Age folks--Franz Waxman comes to mind--really shifted with it, while others didn't. Rozsa is also a prime example: compare the classicism of 'Thief of Bagdad' to 'Naked City,' for example.
Anyway, it's rather arbitrary, but to me that's the dividing line--pre-WWII and post-WWII.
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