When it comes to music, I know what I like and I know what I dislike but it usually stems from a gut reaction. I wish I had the skills or the tools or the talent to express myself but when people ask me why I like LCD Soundsystem I say “the lyrics?” When people ask me why I like Interpol I say “the guitars?” It's a battle (and I'm losing it). I recently re-watched Milos Foreman's AMADEUS (shout-out to The Astor, cinema of note) and I love how the characters talk about music and its creation. Example:
"On the page it looked nothing. The beginning simple, almost comic. Just a pulse - bassoons and basset horns - like a rusty squeezebox. Then suddenly - high above it - an oboe, a single note, hanging there unwavering, till a clarinet took over and sweetened it into a phrase of such delight!" -Salieri (F. Murray Abraham)
Hearing the music as he describes it helps but I still struggle to wrap my head around it all. I could (and do) spend thousands of words speculating why a director or a writer made a particular choice, but a musician? I'll leave that to someone who knows what they're on about.
This can be a problem for someone who spends most of his time thinking about film. Sure, some films can get away with using no music at all (NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN a recent example) but the overwhelming majority of them have some sort of score by some sort of musician.
And this year, things have gotten interesting.
I have enormous respect for the likes of John Williams, Ennio Morricone, Hans Zimmer, Howard Shore etc. but I'm not really a fan of orchestral scores. As I've already stated, there's not really any point in asking me why (the response will be something like “cause I don't like the... noise?”). I'm well aware that there are people out there who genuinely purchase the LAWRENCE OF ARABIA soundtrack so they can listen to it in their car but I'm just not one of them. In my car (if it existed) I'd rather listen to... off the top of my head... Nine Inch Nails, Daft Punk, The Chemical Brothers and the aforementioned LCD Soundsystem.
Okay, so maybe I didn't pull those examples out of nowhere. This year James Murphy (LCD Soundsystem) provided the score for GREENBERG, Trent Reznor (Nine Inch Nails) provided the score for THE SOCIAL NETWORK, Daft Punk will score TRON LEGACY, and it was recently announced Joe Wright's HANNA will feature a score by The Chemical Brothers.
Interesting indeed. Unfortunately, I'm just speculating that this is a good thing. HANNA and TRON LEGACY obviously haven't been released yet, THE SOCIAL NETWORK doesn't hit Australia until October 28, and I just straight-up missed GREENBERG in the cinema (I'll get it on DVD eventually).
Mind you, even once I've watched these films I'm still not going to be able to convey to you whether the score was any good or not...
“I really liked the... sounds?”
“The keyboarding was... great?”
“Too many notes?”
Ah well, hopefully next post I'll know what I'm talking about.
