GIS A JOB
Cinematic soundscapes Want to pursue a career in composing for film? Rick Jones talks to Alexandre Desplat, Dustin O’Halloran, Tom Hodge and Harry Escott about their experiences of writing for screens big and small Times change, and the esteem in which film composers are held has evolved along with their methods of working. In the days when the big Hollywood studios contracted composers to work with their in-house orchestras on a daily basis, film scorers were placed well down the pecking order – considered mere tradesmen to the actors and writers, who were ‘proper’ artists. Haydn and Bach were expected to churn out masterpieces on a weekly basis with very little thanks and, during the 20th century, work produced for the concert hall was felt to be somehow of more intrinsic value than film music. Among the Academy Award winners for scoring in the first half of the century, Korngold’s name stands out (he won an Oscar in 1938 for his score to The Adventures of Robin Hood) – but it was only when the public learnt of his earlier career in Vienna that he gained any lasting respect. Gershwin could’ve been awarded for his 1931 Broadway musical Of Thee I Sing – but the first Pulitzer Prize for Music wasn’t introduced until 1943, so the musical’s writers, instead, received the 1932 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. When Gershwin moved to Hollywood, he quickly became disillusioned by the mean status of the composer within the film business – and it is thought that this depression may even have contributed to his tragically early death. Now that film composers work more in seclusion with machines – detached, for the most part, from their executives – their position would appear to have risen. They are often invited to contribute to the moviemaking process from a very early stage and, instead of having to labour
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with an orchestra within stilted time restrictions, they are able to flesh out and more or less complete entire scores alone at a computer. And as the hype surrounding the year’s blockbusters seems to intensify each season, the revelation of who’s going to be working on a score – will it be Howard Shore? Alexandre Desplat? Carter Burwell? – has become almost as big an announcement as the lead actors’ confirmations. As composer of the Star Wars scores and most of the Spielberg movies’ music, John Williams was arguably the first composer to become a household name on the strength of a soundtrack. Increasing public attention is being paid, too, to scores for smallerbudget movies. Clint Mansell’s soundtrack to Moon, for example, generated almost as much chatter as the fact that it was Duncan Jones’ debut picture; and for an indie or limited release movie, the buzz over a particular musician, classical or otherwise, working on the soundtrack can add to the film’s cachet – check Jonny Greenwood’s name tagged to Norwegian Wood, for instance, or the prospect of an entirely Grizzly Bear-soundtracked Blue Valentine earlier this year. But for all successful film composers’ wealth and status – and despite their protestations to the contrary – many of them still betray a residual hankering to compose purely for concert performance; and many dislike being termed simply a ‘film composer’. I caught up with four composers – each at different stages of their careers, with varying outlooks – to hear their opinions.
MUSOLIFE.COM
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