 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
Posted: |
Dec 30, 2000 - 4:58 AM
|
|
|
|
By: |
Howard L
(Member)
|
This one's for all you folks in the Midwest and Northeast who've all had your share of the white stuff and then some. Even down here in the Tampa Bay area it's mighty nippy out tonight; in a few hours we'll be in the low 30s. Anyway, the entry below was originally posted 7/3/99. Salud, and l'chaim...
"Must have been snowing for at least 7, 8 hours...stepped outside to do the driveway...nobody out but me, gruff grinding of the shovel breaking the eerie standstill of snow falling heavily...stop for a second. Breathe. Look around. Listen. Everything's covered. Everything. Trees, grass, homes, the whole world. Neighborhood's quiet 'cept for the snow falling. A few lights peeking through. And for this moment, just this moment, can't tell unless 'I concentrate, REALLY CONCENTRATE, whether it's a Tuesday or a Thursday'...1993 or 1943..."
Anyone who knows me on this 'board knows that I'm just about the last person who'd buy a soundtrack without seeing the movie. An exception was made with Stepmom. There was no way I was going to see it after that loathsome trailer, but several respected 'boarders--one in particular--made a big deal about the CD. So I said to hell with it, I'll get it on their recommendation.
There are two tracks in particular that put the hoo in me: "The Days Between" and "One Snowy Night." Ever experienced something like I did that winter night, above? It's not easy to put into words, but a heavy snowfall is a great equalizer to this wild and crazy world of ours. Everything just stops dead in its tracks and suddenly it hits you that if you could take a snapshot of the world, the finished photo on its own would defy an exact point of reference. You realize this is just what the neighborhood must've looked like, too, 50 years ago. For all that it matters it may as well be 50 years ago.
The point I'm trying to make is that the music in those Stepmom cues is the sound I 'hear' in moments of deep contemplation. I don't know why but I associate this music with a sound in movies, especially ones with coming-of-age stories that deal with discovery, epiphany, revelation...realization. Is the feeling wistful? No, not really. Is it some nostalgia thing, bordering on melancholia? No, it's not. But it does have a certain sense of, of sobriety, and it's kind of bittersweet with just a touch of awe.
You wouldn't believe when this last admittedly abstract description came to me: 5am this morning. I went to bed hearing Stepmom only to be rudely awakened at 5am by a distinct tone emanating from my next-door-neighbor's windchimes. But those windchimes proved enlightening! Have you ever heard windchimes singing faintly way off in the distance? Do you remember the sound in the air of the "amusement park planet" in Star Trek's "Shore Leave"?
If you have and if you do, then you'll know the feeling that comes over me when I hear Stepmom. And "E.T. and Me" and the last part of "The Fortress of Solitude" (in the movie Jor-El says "Come, my son" and then they journey back to Krypton). And the music when Dorothy opens up the door to the other side of the rainbow. And Elmer Bernstein's To Kill A Mockingbird, especially "The Search for Boo" and "Tree Treasures", not to mention Horner's The Man Without A Face (esp. the last part of "A Father's Legacy" and the entire "Chuck's First Lesson"); and there's more.
Maybe it's got something to do with orchestrations; lots of piano and harp in there. I don't know. But do you follow me? Do you know the feeling? Add Jeff Alexander's "The Trouble With Templeton" and Herrmann's "Little Girl Lost" (on the other side of the wall) from Twilight Zone, and...
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
There's an eerie stillness, as though even time itself is standing still. The cues you mentioned all have that "snowed-in" feeling. Herrmann's "Atlantis" cue from Journey To The Center Of The Earth, the organ speaking of the ghosts and the past. I get the same feeling from Herrmann's "The Road" cue at the finale of Fahrenheit 451. The strings and the harps work together to produce a dream state...and in that scene the snow is falling.[This message has been edited by Chris Kinsinger (edited 30 December 2000).]
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: |
Dec 30, 2000 - 5:19 AM
|
|
|
|
By: |
Howard L
(Member)
|
"Chris Kinsinger" responded:
For anyone who has never experienced a deep snowfall, there's nothing quite like it. The blanket of fresh snow transforms the sight of a familiar neighborhood into something completely unearthly. In those quiet hours before the plows arrive, your town looks like the surface of another planet; a white lace dreamworld. Bernard Herrmann's music has always had the power to take me away from this mortal coil, and his harps from the island cues of "Mysterious Island" and the underwater world of "Beneath The 12 Mile Reef" perfectly capture that dreamlike state.
A few years ago, Pennsylvania's mighty Susquehanna River flooded over its high banks, and the rapid current headed directly for my Second Street home. Our quadrant of the city was evacuated.
I took my wife & daughter to safety at a friend's home, far away from the river, and went back to stay with my house. I didn't want to shut down the electricity umless it was absolutely necessary, and I was willing to break the law on order to watch over my property.
I was the only person in my neighborhood who remained behind. All of the street lights were extinguished. Every home was dark.
Sitting on my front porch in the midst of that night, watching the river waters rise by the light of the moon, with only the sound being that of the quietly rushing river, I felt much the same feeling...as though I were in a timeless place...on another world. Only this wasn't a beautiful white lace dream.
In my spirit, I had a long talk with God.
In my mind, Bernard Herrmann's harps played.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: |
Dec 30, 2000 - 5:26 AM
|
|
|
|
By: |
Howard L
(Member)
|
"Swashbuckler" responded:
You know, I have had moods conjured by music all the time, but this is the first time I have ever gotten such a specific feeling from a thread before. I'm very impressed.
Yes, I have often felt that a dusk or nighttime snowfall has a hypnotic quality to it. When there is silence but for a quiet tinkling every once and a while. And, if you speak, your voice sounds somewhat veiled, as though, even though you're outside, you're in a small room.
It was over 100 degrees today outside today in New York. Bring on some of that snow.
I will now go pick up a "Stepmom" soundtrack; the comments about it in this thread alone (not just the comparisons to other scores, but rather the description of the emotions the music stirs) have sold me on it.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: |
Dec 31, 2000 - 3:43 AM
|
|
|
|
By: |
Howard L
(Member)
|
"I get the same feeling from Herrmann's 'The Road' cue at the finale of Fahrenheit 451."Interesting. I get the feeling from the cue entitled "Prelude" at the opposite end.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
Posted: |
Jan 1, 2001 - 10:12 AM
|
|
|
|
By: |
joan hue
(Member)
|
To put it in simple terms, I just plain love this thread. How can invisible music render such iconographic power in Howard’s
imagination? He is lead to timelessness and snow from a soundtrack.
What is it in music that engendered ( “gruff grinding, sound absorbed in
snow, white lace dreamworld, a voice..veiled) such poetic responses?
I don’t care if it’s Fall’s copper penny, silver dollar leaves or Spring’s brittle,
wafered sun, or ropes of dense rain segued with track 9’s Latin dirge in
The Mighty. I just hope that someday again a piece of nature and a cue of
music procreate another thread like this. Such soulful, warm magic
in cold virtual reality and fiber optics. Howard, I was vegging on the couch today, thinking about this thread and
randomly using the remote control for the TV. I knew the Sci Fi channel
was playing Twilight Zones all day , and I had an eerie premonition.
I kid you NOT! I turned to that channel, and The Trouble With Templeton
was just beginning. I’ve been waiting so long to see that episode with
Alexander’s soulful music, and there it was. Magical. Random chance
or deja vu in wires? Happy New Year.
RIP - GM - Joan
NP Tree Treasures.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: |
Jan 2, 2001 - 9:29 AM
|
|
|
|
By: |
Howard L
(Member)
|
This is very nice. Thank you, Joan.And what a bonus to see "Tree Treasures" and Templeton mentioned in the same response. My only regret is that Sci Fi undoubtedly edited (read: butchered) the episode in the same manner as all their viewings. But the cue alone when Booth realizes he's gone back in time is worth a truncated viewing. Has what a certain late Canadian film score aficionado termed a "walking in the rain" feel--in this case, substitute "rain' with "gossamer stuff"  http://www.filmscoremonthly.com/board/wink.gif"> One brother reported close to 30 inches in his neck of the woods, another 24; the folks got 15. The latter's report had me envisioning the scene once again...and hearing.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Howard, you have done us all a great service by resurrecting this thread.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: |
Jan 12, 2001 - 4:28 AM
|
|
|
|
By: |
Howard L
(Member)
|
Thank you.
One of the neat things about growing up in an old-fashioned neighborhood is that when you're all alone on a snowy night, it's never enough to suspend time and place. No, whether you imagine it's 1943 or 1993 it could just as even be 1963. And regardless of the time, inside those houses are the people you grew up with. In my mind it'll always be the Widow Stanton on the opposite corner; grumpy old Mr. & Mrs. Lodge on the other; the Voormans, the Edelsons, the Thomases, the Rotherys. All of them down that way. Forever.They're mostly gone now. Really all of them, 'cept my folks. You see, Dad called me at work yesterday and said Mr. Edelson died. He had to be at least 10, 15 years younger than my folks. Wow. I can remember him taking me, my brother and his own boys to school on his way to work. They used to call it car-pooling. Tonight as I think of a snowy night in our timeless neighborhood I am especially thinking of the Edelson house. And I'm hearing Mr. Barry's "Gifts of Nature", the tragedy music, as I contemplate my way through the otherworldly silence.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: |
Jan 13, 2001 - 9:35 AM
|
|
|
|
By: |
Dana Wilcox
(Member)
|
Howard, Thanks for pushing me over the edge -- I've been thinking about picking Stepmom up for a long time, and your inspired post persuaded me! (You do indeed have the cosmic inside track on these matters.) Having now listened to most of it, I find not only "One Snowy Night" but several other tracks that are notably contemplative in nature. (More later).Thanks again.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
I'm sold enough to change my plans on Monday night and watch STEPMOM on The Movie Channel free preview.Of course, that's just step one in the process. Next comes the CD.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: |
Mar 4, 2001 - 12:30 AM
|
|
|
|
By: |
Howard L
(Member)
|
Earthquakes, nor'easters...we got 'em all on this here 'board. Just thought I'd salute all you folks who will be digging out in the next 24 hours with this li'l ol' thread. Think of me as I hear sleigh bells off in the distance when I think of you.Gotta go an' pick me another grapefruit; y'all came back now, y'heah!
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
Posted: |
Mar 4, 2001 - 1:38 AM
|
|
|
|
By: |
H. Rocco
(Member)
|
Roomie has the disconcerting habit of tuning in to ANY and ALL weather reports and cackling his ass off at what's pouring down over Illinois (where his ex-wife lives) and Minnesota (the most hated of places he's lived in to date). I sincerely worry what he'll do for entertainment once spring and summer kick in.As for STEPMOM, I know this is heresy, especially at this particular thread, but I've just NEVER been able to get into it.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
