Against Film Music
I've been watching films for perhaps 50 years, and I've watched two and three or four a day, sometimes more in my capacity as composer, musician and publisher.
So I've seen a lot of movies and like everyone else I've developed my preferences and opinions.
I've been a composer for films and theater, so I'm familiar with the function of music in the composite art that is film and theater.
It has a place, like every other element such as scenery, acting and script.
What has begun to bother me with films is the general sense of phoniness, and specifically the music, humming away in the background.
I have a lot of respect for film music when it's done right, as in GLADIATOR by Hans Zimmer, or ROBIN HOOD by Korngold.
In the hands of the great masters of film composition, music blends with the film to become one.
But even that belies a subtle psychological problem that lies beneath all film music.
The problem is that film music is inherently manipulative, in the extreme, corralling our natural musical emotions and hijacking them to enhance the picture.
The viewer is always told what to feel by the music in a film.
Only very rarely does the viewer get to witness the actors alone, as in THE HUSTLER, by Kenyon Hopkins.
Notice that not one comic moment in that dark film was ever underscored by clucking bassoons and celli playing pizzicato.
Even The Three Stooges had the wisdom to leave music out of their films, except when absolutely necessary.
Most pictures, especially those made today, are not worth illuminating with music, with thousand upon thousand car crashes and foolish "commercial" humor.
There seems to be no place any more for films that have some self-respect.
They have all become financial vehicles with actors and script attached.
Viewers are hopefully becoming more attentive.
But the Hollywood movie and TV people are telling you they think you are stupid with every bar of cruddy underscore they can turn out.
They use it to cover the flaws in the film itself, and the worse the film is, the more music they use.
If you think about it, film music is much like a canned laugh track in a sitcom.
It tells you how the producers would like you to react.
The better they are at their job, the less room they will give your feelings.
You'll have a better film experience if you take any random film, shut off the sound and play something else on your stereo.
We all know what the actors are saying, anyway, just by the genre.
Hollywood has finally run out of good ideas.
By John Aschenbrenner Copyright 2008 Walden Pond Press All Rights Reserved
So I've seen a lot of movies and like everyone else I've developed my preferences and opinions.
I've been a composer for films and theater, so I'm familiar with the function of music in the composite art that is film and theater.
It has a place, like every other element such as scenery, acting and script.
What has begun to bother me with films is the general sense of phoniness, and specifically the music, humming away in the background.
I have a lot of respect for film music when it's done right, as in GLADIATOR by Hans Zimmer, or ROBIN HOOD by Korngold.
In the hands of the great masters of film composition, music blends with the film to become one.
But even that belies a subtle psychological problem that lies beneath all film music.
The problem is that film music is inherently manipulative, in the extreme, corralling our natural musical emotions and hijacking them to enhance the picture.
The viewer is always told what to feel by the music in a film.
Only very rarely does the viewer get to witness the actors alone, as in THE HUSTLER, by Kenyon Hopkins.
Notice that not one comic moment in that dark film was ever underscored by clucking bassoons and celli playing pizzicato.
Even The Three Stooges had the wisdom to leave music out of their films, except when absolutely necessary.
Most pictures, especially those made today, are not worth illuminating with music, with thousand upon thousand car crashes and foolish "commercial" humor.
There seems to be no place any more for films that have some self-respect.
They have all become financial vehicles with actors and script attached.
Viewers are hopefully becoming more attentive.
But the Hollywood movie and TV people are telling you they think you are stupid with every bar of cruddy underscore they can turn out.
They use it to cover the flaws in the film itself, and the worse the film is, the more music they use.
If you think about it, film music is much like a canned laugh track in a sitcom.
It tells you how the producers would like you to react.
The better they are at their job, the less room they will give your feelings.
You'll have a better film experience if you take any random film, shut off the sound and play something else on your stereo.
We all know what the actors are saying, anyway, just by the genre.
Hollywood has finally run out of good ideas.
By John Aschenbrenner Copyright 2008 Walden Pond Press All Rights Reserved
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