A delightful conversation with composer and music preservationist Roger Hall in my living room, talking candidly about the cultural significance and artistic importance of Music For The Movies ... our interaction with composers Elmer Bernstein, Lee Holdridge and Mark McKenzie ... as well as the oldest, most successfully enduring website devoted entirely to the study and presentation of original motion picture music, "Film Music Review."
Roger is, incidentally, a member of The International Film Music Critics Association, as well as the founder of the "Sammy" Awards (named for famed lyricist Sammy Cahn), presenting published recognition annually for the finest in film music, while honoring the most distinguished motion picture composers of the year.
Steve, I found the little YouTube conversation quite inspiring. Sometimes I find myself becoming jaded and cynical in many ways about the whole idea of listening to film music, so it was refreshing to see/hear you guys cutting through all that and just getting to the core of liking what we like. I know there's more to it than that, but I now feel like sitting back and taking the time to really listen to one of the soundtracks in my collection without spending hours in a state of ennui thinking, "Do I really want to hear that now? Is it really that good? Does it amount to more than a hill of beans?" etc. Thanks.
I have had a love affair with original symphonic film music since somewhere around 1957 when I first listened to "The Spellbound Concerto" on my mom's classical radio station. When I heard "Ben Hur" in 1959 I was hooked for life. As far as I'm concerned, motion picture scoring is among the most profoundly beautiful classical music of the twentieth century. My favorite composers remain Miklos Rozsa, Bernard Herrmann, Alfred Newman. John Williams, Dimitri Tiomkin, Franz Waxman, Victor Young, Elmer Bernstein, Jerry Goldsmith, Hugo Friedhofer, Max Steiner, and John Barry. I have been listening to, and adoring original motion picture music for sixty years. I'm seventy two years old now, and so I guess that I was about twelve when I first became hooked. I always have some movie theme or other playing in my head, and I guess I always will...until that ethereal radio station in my mind finally shuts down for good. Hopefully, that won't be for many years.
Hey Steve, I met Roger and the missus in his living room (well, via front door ya know?) in a surprise visit back in--huh boy--maybe he remembers around when God only knows in truth I can't recall LOL. Still have cassettes of his radio days...
Roger's lovely wife actually shot the video of the two of us. She did a very professional job. They make a wonderful couple. They were in town, as I recall, visiting a local museum. We met for lunch, and then they spent several hours with me in my apartment. The results are happily preserved on film.
Roger Hall has been a devoted student of music for the movies, a composer in his own right, and noted preservationist for a great many years. Any opportunity to hear him speak is a golden one.
