Brilliant Uses of Classical Music in the Movies
Ross Mandell
Today I saw the fine Italian movie "The Night of the Shooting Stars"
and was haunted by the use of the Offertorio from Verdi'd Requiem
both within the story and on the soundtrack. Verdi's music perfectly
conveys the deep saddness of the war and the civil war within the
village.
The use of the Mozart Piano Concerto #22 in Elvira Madigan also
enhances the romantic atmosphere on teh movie.
Can you think of some other unforgettable uses of classical music int
he movies?
Ross
Dave Dalle
Ross Mandell (Ro...@Juno.com) writes:
>
> The use of the Mozart Piano Concerto #22 in Elvira Madigan also
> enhances the romantic atmosphere on teh movie.
(it's the 21st by the way)
>
> Can you think of some other unforgettable uses of classical music int
> he movies?
I would say "Amadeus" has the most brilliant use of music in a movie.
I also love the all the orchestrations and versions of the chorale theme
from Saint-Saens' 3rd symphony in "Babe", it really helps make that movie
a wonderful film.
Dave
--
"Taste is a negative thing. Genius affirms and always affirms." -Franz Liszt
[Taste is defined by what it excludes. Genius is defined by what it includes.]
Eric Schissel
There's a clever use of a passage from the first movement of
Shostakovich's 6th symphony (not 5th; not a typo) in a film whose name I
can't recall offhand. It's about a bunch of fugitives- a family wherein
the parents bombed a building during the '60s (oh, like that's really
representative...) and which has been moving from town to town ever since,
sending their children to different schools. By the time of the movie,
their oldest child is beginning to be interested in music, and wants to go
to Juilliard.
-Eric Schissel
Halvard Johnson
On Sat, 31 May 1997, Ross Mandell wrote:
> Today I saw the fine Italian movie "The Night of the Shooting Stars"
> and was haunted by the use of the Offertorio from Verdi'd Requiem
> both within the story and on the soundtrack. Verdi's music perfectly
> conveys the deep saddness of the war and the civil war within the
> village.
>
> The use of the Mozart Piano Concerto #22 in Elvira Madigan also
> enhances the romantic atmosphere on teh movie.
>
> Can you think of some other unforgettable uses of classical music int
> he movies?
Almost any movie by Stanley Kubrick.
Hal "Don't just do something. Sit there!"
--Zen quip
Halvard Johnson <hjoh...@umbc2.umbc.edu>
Michael Laderman
On Sat, 31 May 1997 03:23:13 GMT, Ro...@Juno.com (Ross Mandell) wrote:
>Today I saw the fine Italian movie "The Night of the Shooting Stars"
>and was haunted by the use of the Offertorio from Verdi'd Requiem
>both within the story and on the soundtrack. Verdi's music perfectly
>conveys the deep saddness of the war and the civil war within the
>village.
>
>The use of the Mozart Piano Concerto #22 in Elvira Madigan also
>enhances the romantic atmosphere on teh movie.
>
>Can you think of some other unforgettable uses of classical music int
>he movies?
>
>Ross
The 2 best uses of classical music in films I can think of are the
collaboration between Prokofiev and Eisenstein in "Alexander Nevsky"
and Eisenstein's use of the Shostakovich "Leningrad Symphony" in "The
8 (?) Days that Shook the World," a great propaganda film about the
Bolshevik Revolution which is structured like the symphony. For those
of you who haven't had the pleasure of seeing these 2 great films, I
highly recommend that you check on the possibility of renting them.
Michael Laderman
Thelma Lubkin
Ross Mandell (Ro...@Juno.com) wrote:
: The use of the Mozart Piano Concerto #22 in Elvira Madigan also
: enhances the romantic atmosphere on teh movie.
:
: Can you think of some other unforgettable uses of classical music int
: he movies?
be Alec Guinness' 'Ladykillers', where the gang lays low by
'disguising' themselves as members of a string quartet; they use a
recording [of a single movement] of a quartet by Haydn [although I
used to think it was Boccherini, and sometimes even Mozart] to
convince the old lady they're renting from...I consider it one of the
funniest films ever made.
--thelma
:
: Ross
:
Ross Mandell
ar...@FreeNet.Carleton.CA (Dave Dalle) wrote:
>Ross Mandell (Ro...@Juno.com) writes:
>>
>> The use of the Mozart Piano Concerto #22 in Elvira Madigan also
>> enhances the romantic atmosphere on teh movie.
>(it's the 21st by the way)
I know and I am doing penetence (spelling?)
Nick Blaha
Ross Mandell <Ro...@Juno.com> wrote in article
<5mo5j7$p...@chronicle.concentric.net>...
> Today I saw the fine Italian movie "The Night of the Shooting Stars"
> and was haunted by the use of the Offertorio from Verdi'd Requiem
> both within the story and on the soundtrack. Verdi's music perfectly
> conveys the deep saddness of the war and the civil war within the
> village.
>
> enhances the romantic atmosphere on teh movie.
>
> he movies?
>
In the beginning of Platoon, where Charlie Sheen's character gets off the
plane to see all the dead bodies of American soldiers being loaded on to
his same plane, Barber's Adaigo for Strings plays serenely. That music is
incredible anyway, but with a scene like that it really conveys a lot of
emotion.
nb
--
If it takes a chicken and a half, a day and a half, to lay an egg and a
half, how long does it take a grasshopper with one wooden leg to kick all
the seeds out of a dill pickle?
To reply by email please change "org" to "net" in my address.
Ross Mandell
The use of Mahler in A Death In Venice is also very good.
Jim Cate
In <5mo5j7$p...@chronicle.concentric.net> Ro...@Juno.com (Ross Mandell)
writes:
>Can you think of some other unforgettable uses of classical music int
>he movies?
>
>Ross
The theme from Brahm's 1st Piano Concerto in "The L-Shaped Room" with
Leslie Caron was haunting.
Gershwin in American in Paris.
Jim Cate
Steven Gross
>>Can you think of some other unforgettable uses of classical music int
>>he movies?
There's a film noir with Katherine Hepburn (the title escapes me, but I
believe it's her only film noir) which makes excellent use of the theme
from the 3rd movement of Brahms' 3rd symphony. Her beloved father plays a
piano transcription of the piece at the beginning of the movie, and it
becomes his leitmotif throughout. He's murdered. and it takes much of the
movie for the discovery to be made that the murderer was the son-in-law
(Hepburn's evil husband). There is a guy (a police detective?) who makes
the discovery and helps her through all this -- and, of course, they
eventually fall in love. Though the audience has seen it coming, they
themselves only realize they are meant for each other at the end of the
movie, in the epilogue after the crime has been solved. Hepburn is sitting
outside, when suddenly she hears the beautiful theme wafting through the
window from the piano that has sat dormant since her father died. She runs
in, have expecting to find her father's ghost at the piano. But no: it's
the guy, filmically announcing (if you will) that he's worthy to fill her
father's place in her heart.
Sorry for the melodrama! And I hope I've remembered this aright -- it's
been a while since I saw the film. Anyone know the title?
Steven
Ed Kershenbaum
Here are two of my favorites:
Copolla's use of Cavellira Rusticana in the Godfather Part III was
perhaps the saving grace of the film. The opera is performed in
the final scenes of the film, with the on stage tension mirroring
the interposed scenes of concurrent real-world events. The final
Intermezzo (I know, an oxymoron, but that's where they put it) at
the film's climax was a bit unsettling though; the granduer of
this beautiful piece seemed a bit incongrous as the backdrop to
the aftermath of some pretty brutal violence.
Kubrik's spacecraft in 2001 waltzing to Strauss is unforgettable.
Keith Edgerley
Thelma Lubkin wrote:
>
> Ross Mandell (Ro...@Juno.com) wrote:
> : The use of the Mozart Piano Concerto #22 in Elvira Madigan also
> : enhances the romantic atmosphere on teh movie.
> : Can you think of some other unforgettable uses of classical music int
> : he movies?
> For me the classic use of Classical music in film will always
> be Alec Guinness' 'Ladykillers', where the gang lays low by
> 'disguising' themselves as members of a string quartet; they use a
> recording [of a single movement] of a quartet by Haydn [although I
> used to think it was Boccherini, and sometimes even Mozart] to
> convince the old lady they're renting from...I consider it one of the
> funniest films ever made.
> --thelma
> :
> : Ross
> :
A brilliant film, indeed, but I think you'll find that
(a) the gangsters formed a quintet, not a quartet
(b) the music played at least some of the time is the famous Boccherini
minuet in E from the quintet op. 13 No. 5. This gave rise to some
comment when the film came out, as the instrumentation is for a quintet
with two cellos, while the gang has two violas.
A really brilliant film and in those dear dead days gangsters invarialy
got their come-uppance.
--
Keith Edgerley
Keith Edgerley
Ross Mandell wrote:
>
> The use of Mahler in A Death In Venice is also very good.
Not only is this use very good, it's the best use I can think of for
Mahler's music.
--
Keith Edgerley
Caius Marcius
In Five Easy Pieces, Jack Nicholson, during a traffic jam, climbs on
board a van with an old upright piano, and hammers out Chopin's
Fantasy-Impromptu (up to this point in the film, Nicholson seems like
an average working-class guy - we have no idea that he has any musical
talent - it turns out that he was a gifted pianist who abandoned music
at the same time he became estranged from his wealthy family)
In the Deer Hunter, the first "act" of this three-part drama ends as a
group of men return to their neighborhood tavern after a long hunting
trip (three of them are scheduled to go to Vietnam the next day). One
of the men sits at the piano and plays one of Chopin's mazurkas, as the
others listen in rapt silence. As the music ends, the scene abruptly
cuts to a Vietnam battlefield.
And in Hitchcock's Shadow of a Doubt, Lehar's Merry Widow Waltz is one
of the main clues about Uncle Charlie's diabolical secret.
- CMC
Christopher M. Smith
I was really amazed with the use of Schubert's String Quintet in C
in _Carrington_. They only used second movement, but got so many
different things out of it.
-Chris
Ross Mandell wrote:
>
[snip]
> Can you think of some other unforgettable uses of classical music int
> he movies?
>
> Ross
Lawrence Faltz
"Once More With Feeling" with Yul Brynner as a crazed orchestra
conductor. The rehearsal of Beethoven's 5th is hilarious.
LLF
GBA
Ross Mandell <Ro...@Juno.com> wrote in article
> Can you think of some other unforgettable uses of classical music int
> he movies?
>
> Ross
>
>>>Ross,
My favorite by far is Stanley Kubricks brilliant selections in his movie;
2001:A Space Oddessey. Everything from a Strauss waltz to very contemporary
Legeti choral music.
GBA
Keith Benson
Halvard Johnson <hjoh...@xumbc.edu> wrote in article
<Pine.SGI.3.95.970531...@umbc7.umbc.edu>...
> On Sat, 31 May 1997, Ross Mandell wrote:
>
<snip>
> >
> > Can you think of some other unforgettable uses of classical music int
> > he movies?
>
> Almost any movie by Stanley Kubrick.
>
>
> Halvard Johnson <hjoh...@umbc2.umbc.edu>
>
Especially the Schubert in Barry Lyndon!
Larisa Migachyov
Ross Mandell (Ro...@Juno.com) wrote:
: Today I saw the fine Italian movie "The Night of the Shooting Stars"
: and was haunted by the use of the Offertorio from Verdi'd Requiem
: both within the story and on the soundtrack. Verdi's music perfectly
: conveys the deep saddness of the war and the civil war within the
: village.
: The use of the Mozart Piano Concerto #22 in Elvira Madigan also
: enhances the romantic atmosphere on teh movie.
: Can you think of some other unforgettable uses of classical music int
: he movies?
"Amadeus" comes to mind immediately. :)
Larisa
Deryk Barker
Larisa Migachyov (miga...@maroon.tc.umn.edu) wrote:
: Ross Mandell (Ro...@Juno.com) wrote:
: : Today I saw the fine Italian movie "The Night of the Shooting Stars"
: : and was haunted by the use of the Offertorio from Verdi'd Requiem
: : both within the story and on the soundtrack. Verdi's music perfectly
: : conveys the deep saddness of the war and the civil war within the
: : village.
: : The use of the Mozart Piano Concerto #22 in Elvira Madigan also
: : enhances the romantic atmosphere on teh movie.
Actually No. 21. K.467.
: : Can you think of some other unforgettable uses of classical music int
: : he movies?
: "Amadeus" comes to mind immediately. :)
2001, for starters. But now I have a problem: do we count music
written by "classical" composers *for* the movies? For instance I
consider Alexander Nevsky the greatest film score ever composed. But
does it count? Ditto most of Korngold's scores, Rosza, et. al.
--
|Deryk Barker, Computer Science Dept. | Across the pale parabola of Joy |
|Camosun College, Victoria, BC, Canada | |
|email: dba...@camosun.bc.ca | Ralston McTodd |
|phone: +1 250 370 4452 | (Songs of Squalor). |
Richard R Uren~a
Ro...@Juno.com (Ross Mandell) writes:
>Can you think of some other unforgettable uses of classical music int
>he movies?
Classical:
"Un coeur en hiver" (A Heart in Winter?) - the scene at the recording
studio with the Ravel trio
"Tous les matins du monde" - outstanding music by Marin Marais
and Monsieur de Sainte-Colombe, throughout the film.
"The madness of King George" - Handel all over the place
"Diva" - aria from "La Wally" plus some Satie-like piece by
the movie composer (Cosma, I think)
"Excalibur" good excerpts from assorted Wagner operas (don't
remember which ones), plus Carmina Burana
A film starring William Hurt (can't remember the title), uses
the second movement of Bach's double violin concerto... beautiful
music.
Not classical, but well-written music:
"Three colors: Blue"
"The Mission" music by Ennio Morricone
"The Magnificent Seven" by Elmer Bernstein
One I would prefer to forget:
"Farinelli" - ugh!
Eric Schissel
I remember Beethoven op. 130 (first movement, beginning and end only)
showing up in an otherwise not terribly memorable kickboxing movie ;)...
don't remember its name though.
-Eric Schissel
Al Gerheim
Richard R Uren~a wrote:
>
> "Excalibur" good excerpts from assorted Wagner operas (don't
> remember which ones), plus Carmina Burana
>
Tristan und Isolde during the love scenes, Parsifal during the
grail sequence, and Siegfried's Funeral Music from Die Gottedammerung
when Arthur is dying, and with relation to the sword itself. Also,
Carmina Buranna (sp?) while galloping to battle. All perfectly in
context, right down to Sir Percival searching for the grail.
I loved it!
> A film starring William Hurt (can't remember the title), uses
> the second movement of Bach's double violin concerto... beautiful
> music.
>
I'd love to see it. I consider the slow movement from the two
violin concerto (if played with spirit) to be one of Bach's
best slow movements. If played without nuance, it's just bore-ring.
--
_\\V//_
(O-O)
+-------oOO--`o'--OOo-------+
| Albert P Gerheim, K1QN |
| http://www.sonalysts.com |
| 1 (800) 526-8091 X 218 |
+---------oOO---OOo---------+
Colin Rosenthal
"Death and the Maiden" - great music, great film
--
Colin Rosenthal
High Altitude Observatory
Boulder, Colorado
rose...@hao.ucar.edu
Richard R Uren~a
Al Gerheim <ger...@sonalysts.com> writes:
>> A film starring William Hurt (can't remember the title), uses
>> the second movement of Bach's double violin concerto... beautiful
>> music.
>>
>
>I'd love to see it.
I remembere now: it was "Children of a Lesser God",
the one with Marlee Matlin also
Elizabeth Greer
The scene in "Heavenly Creatures" of the two girls walking with the
doomed mother of one, has music from _Madama Butterfly_ in the
background. (The waiting music from Act III (???) I think -- the scene
where Butterfly sits up all night waiting for Pinkerton's ship,
anyway.) It made my throat ache -- actually I've never been able to
listen to that part of Butterfly since without getting chills -- not so
sure if that's good. . .! but it worked extremely well in the movie.
Elizabeth, the black sheep of a musical family
Caius Marcius
In <5n733m$gj3$1...@ncar.ucar.edu> rose...@asp.hao.ucar.edu (Colin
Rosenthal) writes:
>
>"Death and the Maiden" - great music, great film
Except why did the film only use the first movement of the Schubert
d minor quartet, and not the second, from which the quartet derives its
name?
Eric Schissel alluded to a "kickboxing" movie with the Beethoven Op.
130 - I believe that was a Barbra Streisand/Ryan O'Neal vehicle about
20 years back titled The Main Event.
- CMC
Chew Kia Khang
Ro...@Juno.com (Ross Mandell) wrote:
>Can you think of some other unforgettable uses of classical music int
>he movies?
The Japanese movie "Tampopo" (a commedy about how a women
strive to save her noodle stall) uses some excepts of classical music
quite effectively. I particularly like its use of "Les Preludes"
(last part) to produce some hilarious effect.
--
Kia Khang
CONSTANTIN MARCOU
Ross Mandell wrote:
>
> Can you think of some other unforgettable uses of classical music int
> he movies?
>
> Ross
In "White Nights," Baryshnikov (and, I think, Gelsey Kirkland) dances a
ballet called "Le Jeune Homme et la Mort," choreographed to an
orchestrated version of Bach's Passacaglia in C minor. Besides being
gorgeous, I am told that this is the only performance of the ballet ever
mounted.
J. Reinschmidt
The use of Gabriel Fauré's Quintet for Piano & Strings, Op. 115, in
Bertrand Tavernier's gracious and beautiful 1984 film "A Sunday in the
Country".
J. Reinschmidt
Remove "junk" from e-mail address to reply.
"Play vanilla," Lester Young is said
to have said to a piano player
comping too elaborately behind his solo...
--Clayton Eshleman, from "Foo to the Infinite"
Piper
On Sat, 07 Jun 1997 15:09:06 GMT, che...@singnet.com.sg (Chew Kia
Khang) wrote:
>Ro...@Juno.com (Ross Mandell) wrote:
>
>>Can you think of some other unforgettable uses of classical music int
>>he movies?
>
>The Japanese movie "Tampopo" (a commedy about how a women
>strive to save her noodle stall) uses some excepts of classical music
>quite effectively. I particularly like its use of "Les Preludes"
>(last part) to produce some hilarious effect.
>
>--
>Kia Khang
Tampopo is such a funny movie, too! I recommend it to any of you who
have yet to have the pleasure of seeing it!
CONSTANTIN MARCOU
Keith Benson wrote:
>
> Halvard Johnson <hjoh...@xumbc.edu> wrote in article
> <Pine.SGI.3.95.970531...@umbc7.umbc.edu>...
> > On Sat, 31 May 1997, Ross Mandell wrote:
> >
> <snip>
>
> > >
> > > he movies?
> >
> >
> >
> > Halvard Johnson <hjoh...@umbc2.umbc.edu>
> >
> Especially the Schubert in Barry Lyndon!
This suggests a couple of new threads:
1) Musical Anachronisms in the Movies (I can't think of all the late
Medieval/early Renaissance set pieces I've seen with
Bach/Vivaldi/Corelli -- even Boccherini -- played in ballroom scenes.)
2) Why Directors Don't Use Real Musicians instead of Actors to Play
Musicians. How many times have you watched a filmed "musician" whose
movements bear no relation whatsoever to the music played? It's the
musical equivalent of badly dubbed Japanese sci-fi flicks, (or a la
"What's Up Tiger Lily").
Con
Elizabeth Greer
Piper wrote:
>
> On Tue, 10 Jun 1997 11:44:08 -0700, CONSTANTIN MARCOU
> <conm...@earthlink.net> wrote:
>
> >2) Why Directors Don't Use Real Musicians instead of Actors to Play
> >Musicians. How many times have you watched a filmed "musician" whose
> >movements bear no relation whatsoever to the music played? It's the
> >musical equivalent of badly dubbed Japanese sci-fi flicks, (or a la
> >"What's Up Tiger Lily").
>
> supposed Czech cellist who looks pretty but can't act and sure looks
> dumb at the cello. And can you imagine a real cellist using a
> Stradivari to coast down a hill?
I like all those innumerable movies where someone is sitting at the
piano, smiling and talking and paying attention to all sorts of other
things while randomly moving their hands back and forth over the
keyboard. . . I can hardly even accompany myself singing, let alone
carry on a completely unrelated conversation. So obviously movie
directors get very TALENTED musicians to play themselves in movies. (!)
Caius Marcius
In The Witches of Eastwick, as Susan Sarandon and Jack Nicholson
rehearse a portion of the Dvorak Cello Concerto. The scene concludes
with the cello bursting into flames.
- CMC
Lawrence Faltz
Piper wrote:
> The worst example I can think of is that James Bond movie with a
> supposed Czech cellist who looks pretty but can't act and sure looks
> dumb at the cello. And can you imagine a real cellist using a
> Stradivari to coast down a hill?
Yes if their being shot at.
LLF
Richard Schultz
Keith Benson (ke...@mrl.co.nz) wrote:
: Especially the Schubert in Barry Lyndon!
I guess I'm too anal-retentive, but the Schubert in Barry Lyndon is
a total anachronism.
-----
Richard Schultz sch...@ashur.cc.biu.ac.il
Department of Chemistry tel: 972-3-531-8065
Bar-Ilan University, Ramat-Gan, Israel fax: 972-3-535-1250
-----
"Life is a blur of Republicans and meat." -- Zippy
Caius Marcius
Saw an article in today's paper about a revival of Fritz Lang's 1931
classic thriller M - if you've seen it, you may remember that Peter
Lorre, who plays a serial child murderer, whistles the Hall of the
Mountain King music from Peer Gynt as he goes about his gristly
business - and, as poetic justice would have it, it is his whistling
that eventually gives him away.
- C "M" C
Christopher Hunt
Yes, remember that old movie version of Jane Eyre (not the current one)
with George C. Scott as Mr Rochester and a not-bad score by John
Williams. Jane sits down to play the piano for Mr R., and all she does
is move her wrists up and down, while music, inexplicably, emanates from
the piano.
Christopher Hunt
Dept of Music Studies, Mohawk College
Hamilton Ontario Canada
Pauline Lerner
I have a couple of favorites.
One is Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea, in which Capt. Nemo plays
Bach's Toccata and Fugue in D minor in his abode, which is something
like a submarine.
Another is a flick I saw years ago on some very late night TV show with
the lowest possible ratings, which I just loved. It was about a couple
on a honeymoon who got off course and were incarcerated in a castle in
Transylvania. The lord of the castle, a role played devilishly well by
Boris Karloff, played Bach on his organ while contemplating sacrificing
the sweet young bride as a virgin at the next full moon. It was so bad
that it was good.
Yet another is Baghdad Cafe, an "artsy" film in which some character
plays the piano from time to time. At first, he is a strange fellow who
just doesn't have his act together, and his musicianship is terrible.
This fellow becomes tranformed into a good guy and starts playing
something from Bach's Well Tempered Clavier (I can't remember which one,
but it appeared later as the Bach-Gounod Ave Maria) beautifully. When
the character is playing the piano poorly, the camera focuses on his
hands on the keyboard, but when he plays well, the audience does not see
him playing, because the music is dubbed from a recording of a really
good performance.
Then there are a few well known ones: Barber's Adagio for Strings in a
film about the war in Vietnam, and the second movement of Bach's Double
Violin Concerto in "Children of a Lesser God."
Vivaldi is often used a background music in movies because it is "sunny"
but has some driving tension.
I very seldom watch movies, so I'm sure there are many more good uses of
classical music in films, and I look forward to reading about them.
HenryFogel
The Sarabande from Bach's second Suite for Unaccompanied Cello is used
brilliantly by Ingmar Bergman in 'Through a Glass Darkly." It is, if I
remember, the only music used throughout the entire movie.
Henry Fogel
HalvardJ
In *Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory*, Gene Wilder presses a
doorbell and we hear the opening phrases of Mozart's overture to
*The Marriage of Figaro*.
Hal
Halvard Johnson, Baltimore, Maryland, USA
Paul Goldstein
Wasn't that "Cries and Whispers"?
victor filler
In article <5mr5it$u...@uwm.edu>,
the...@alpha2.csd.uwm.edu (Thelma Lubkin) wrote:
>Ross Mandell (Ro...@Juno.com) wrote:
>: The use of the Mozart Piano Concerto #22 in Elvira Madigan also
>: enhances the romantic atmosphere on teh movie.
>: Can you think of some other unforgettable uses of classical music int
>: he movies?
> For me the classic use of Classical music in film will always
>be Alec Guinness' 'Ladykillers', where the gang lays low by
>'disguising' themselves as members of a string quartet; they use a
>recording [of a single movement] of a quartet by Haydn [although I
>used to think it was Boccherini, and sometimes even Mozart] to
>convince the old lady they're renting from...I consider it one of the
>funniest films ever made.
> --thelma
I compliment the writer of this comment for her good taste. In The
Ladykillers, the classical music was used in an amusing, recurring way to
emphasize how the thugs' "cover" as good citizens and music lovers was taken
at face value by their sweet, senile landlady. At one point, to make a little
civilized chitchat, the old lady says to the cello-bearing muscleman of the
group, "I especially liked your playing in the adagio. Tell me, with whom did
you study?" Somewhat nonplussed, the bruiser ventures: "Uhhhh, I didn't study
with nobody. I just picked it up."
Another equally witty use of classical music in movies is the recurring
satirical use the of the Rachmaninoff second concerto in The Seven Year Itch.
The aria by Catalani heard three or four times in its entirety gave Diva its
central theme with good effect.
In general, however, the hijacking of public-domain music by serious composers
as background for movies is shameless and worthless, designed only to lend
class to the otherwise classless and to save the effort and expense of
creating an original score. I think of Elvira Madigan and the stuff
represented as "Theme from 2001." And there was another ripoff that really
shows the relative worth of music by the masters vis a vis the Hollywood
"product" itself. That was something called Prizzi's Honor, a hugely overrated
film that extracted its entire background music from the short opera Gianni
Schicchi and the Gazza Ladra overture. By this means the secondrate movie was
vastly elevated, and it was even better if you just closed your eyes and
listened to the tunes.
Vic
BHeneg8560
In article <19970618144...@ladder02.news.aol.com>,
halv...@aol.com (HalvardJ) writes:
>In *Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory*, Gene Wilder presses a
>doorbell and we hear the opening phrases of Mozart's overture to
>*The Marriage of Figaro*.
>
>
>
Also used to good subtextual effect in "Trading Places" (Eddie Murphy, Dan
Ackroyd)
best wishes
Ben Heneghan
Pauline Lerner
I have a few favorites:
1. Samuel Barber's Adagio for Strings in one of the films about the war
in Vietnam.
2. The second movement of Bach's Double Violin Concerto in "Children of
a Lesser God."
3. Bach's Toccata and Fugue in D Minor played by Capt. Nemo in "Twenty
Thousand Leagues under the Sea."
4. Several of Bach's works from Well Tempered Clavier in "The Black
Cat," a wonderful, low rated horror story in which Boris Karloff
(playing the music in a thundering, menacing way), in an isolated castle
in Transylvania, plans on sacrificing a lovely, sweet, new bride as a
virgin at a full moon ritual.
5. Another work from Well Tempered Clavier in "Baghdad Cafe."
6. Mozart's Piano Concerto #23 in "Elvira Madigan."
Actually, I seldom watch movies, so I know there must be a lot of other
examples out there.
Ross Mandell
>6. Mozart's Piano Concerto #23 in "Elvira Madigan."
sorry thats #22
Ross Mandell
I mean #21 sorry for me
Jeff Horn
Nope. Definitely 'Through a Glass Darkly."
--
Happy listening!
Jeff Horn
Al Gerheim
Ross Mandell wrote:
>
> >6. Mozart's Piano Concerto #23 in "Elvira Madigan."
>
> sorry thats #22
Number 21 in C major, K 467. I was disturbed by the ham-fisted
editing which led the music to be chopped at inappropriate places
when the scene changed. Other than that, it was an excellent
blend of film and music.
You're both sorry.
I forget the name of it, but there was a horror movie about a
disembodied hand that used the Bach Ciaconne in D minor (originally
composed for violin solo, but here in the Busoni transception
for piano). Chilling!
--
_\\V//_
(O-O)
+-------oOO--`o'--OOo-------+
| Albert P Gerheim, K1QN |
| http://www.sonalysts.com |
| 1 (800) 526-8091 X 218 |
+---------oOO---OOo---------+
Rouat emmanuel
Al Gerheim wrote:
>
> Ross Mandell wrote:
> >
> > >6. Mozart's Piano Concerto #23 in "Elvira Madigan."
> >
> > sorry thats #22
>
> I forget the name of it, but there was a horror movie about a
> disembodied hand that used the Bach Ciaconne in D minor (originally
> composed for violin solo, but here in the Busoni transception
> for piano). Chilling!
>
Theres a french film called 'Le joueur de violon' which is
build around Bach's Chaconne - interpreted for the film
by Gidon Kremer.
Powerful, but a bit weird.
--- _ _
Emmanuel Rouat : | CENG - LETI (DSYS/CSME/CCI) | * *
ro...@dsys.ceng.cea.fr | 17, rue des Martyrs | |
TEL: 04.76.88.93.99 | 38054 Grenoble Cedex 9 | \___/
LINUX : The Choice Of A GNU Generation...
HalvardJ
Ingmar Bergman's version of The Magic Flute.
Carl Tait
In article <19970618144...@ladder02.news.aol.com>,
halv...@aol.com (HalvardJ) writes:
>
>In *Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory*, Gene Wilder presses a
>doorbell and we hear the opening phrases of Mozart's overture to
>*The Marriage of Figaro*.
... at which point Mike Tevee's mother turns knowingly to the crowd
and announces "Rachmaninoff."
(Great movie, BTW. Fun for the kids -- though many will complain
that the story is not like the book -- and much pointed humor aimed
at the adults who are sitting through the movie with their children.
Gene Wilder's understated looniness is considerably more effective
than the frenetic, exhausting Wonka in the book.)
--
Carl Tait IBM T. J. Watson Research Center
ta...@watson.ibm.com Yorktown Heights, NY 10598
Mike Coldewey
Al Gerheim wrote:
>
> Ross Mandell wrote:
> >
> > >6. Mozart's Piano Concerto #23 in "Elvira Madigan."
> >
> > sorry thats #22
>
> editing which led the music to be chopped at inappropriate places
> when the scene changed. Other than that, it was an excellent
> blend of film and music.
>
> You're both sorry.
>
> disembodied hand that used the Bach Ciaconne in D minor (originally
> composed for violin solo, but here in the Busoni transception
> for piano). Chilling!
>
Was that "The Beast with Five Fingers"? If so, it certainly was a
chiller - and so was the episode of Thriller (hosted by Karloff) that
used the same motif of a pianist's disembodied hands coming to life by
themselves for revenge. I can see the scene in ER: "Would a Mister
Wittgenstein come to the front - aaaaaaaaghhhhhh"!
Mike
Caius Marcius
In <ghorn-19069...@cva03-01.swva.net> gh...@swva.net (Jeff
I just checked the Internet Movie Database - JSB was used in both
movies, but was not the only music in either - Finnish composer Erik
Nordgren contributed some music to Through a Glass Darkly, and Chopin
was also used in Cries & Whispers.
It's been a good 20 years since I've seen either movie, but I
distinctly recall the strains of a cello solo against the deep red
cinematography of C & W.
And I also just discovered if you type a classical composer's name into
the IMDB, you'll get a long list of films that utilized that composer's
music (presumbaly incomplete; JSB only had 67 entries).
- CMC
Paul Goldstein
Thanks for the clarification! This sounds like a great database - could
you post its URL?
Pauline Lerner
Here are a few more by Bach and others.
1. Bach's Toccata and Fugue in D minor played by Capt. Nemo in "Twenty
Thousands Leagues under the Sea."
2. More Bach played by the villain (Boris Karloff) on the organ in "The
Black Cat," an obscure melodrama.
3. The second movement of Bach's Double Concerto for Violin in
"Children of a Lesser Guide."
4. Samuel Barber's Adagio for Strings in a Vietnam war film.
5. One of the Preludes from Bach's Well Tempered Claviar in "Baghdad
Cafe."
6. Mid Summer Night's Dream in Woodie Allen's "Mid Summer Night's Sex
Comedy."
Brian Rourke
Bergman also uses a selection of the Bach Cello Suites in "Cries and
Whispers." Talking about these two movies, though, shouldn't we
warn those who haven't seen them to remove all sharp objects, poisons,
and firearms from their surroundings before watching??
I have to wonder what it was about Bach that made Bergman use music
from the cello suites in both of these devastating movies.
Brian Rourke
Brian Rourke
Bergman also uses selections from the cello suites in "Cries and
Whispers." Be warned, though. You should NEVER watch these movies
if you're feeling even the teeniest bit down. At least lock up
the sharp knives, etc. For some reason, Bergman seems to associate
Bach's music with unconsolable suffering.
His use of Beethoven in "Ode to Joy" is pretty interesting, too.
Bergman
is up there with Kubrik, I think, in his use of music for movies.
Brian Rourke
Carl Tait wrote regarding Willie Wonka:
>
>Fun for the kids --
Yes, perhaps, though I have to admit having a prolonged period of
nasty nightmares and an unreasoning terror of Gene Wilder after
seeing that movie at age four in the theater. Some of the sadism
directed against kids is pretty creepy, though everything ends
happily.
Brian Rourke
James Kahn
In article <5mr5it$u...@uwm.edu>,
the...@alpha2.csd.uwm.edu (Thelma Lubkin) wrote:
>>Ross Mandell (Ro...@Juno.com) wrote:
: The use of the Mozart Piano Concerto #22 in Elvira Madigan also
>: enhances the romantic atmosphere on teh movie.
>:
>: Can you think of some other unforgettable uses of classical music int
>: he movies?
> For me the classic use of Classical music in film will always
>be Alec Guinness' 'Ladykillers', where the gang lays low by
>'disguising' themselves as members of a string quartet; they use a
>recording [of a single movement] of a quartet by Haydn [although I
>used to think it was Boccherini, and sometimes even Mozart] to
>convince the old lady they're renting from...I consider it one of the
>funniest films ever made.
> --thelma
I still think it was Boccherini. Can anyone identify the piece
specifically? It was also used prominently in a wine commercial some
years ago (I'm not sure which brand). It doesn't sound like Haydn,
and certainly not Mozart. (Of course, the slow mvmt. of a Mozart horn
concerto was used in a wine commercial, but I digress).
Another film incorporating classical music was "Five Easy Pieces".
Jack Nicholson is seen playing the slow movement from Mozart K. 271
(the piano part at least), and a Chopin prelude.
Jim
--
====================================================================
ka...@troi.cc.rochester.edu Department of Economics
http://kahn.econ.rochester.edu University of Rochester
Rochester, NY 14627
naun.chew
A nice example of the use of a classical *concert* in a movie occurs in
the recent Czech film, _Kolya_, where the main character is welcomed back
to the Czech Philharmonic at Rafael Kubelik's famous Prague Spring
concert of 1990.
There's also the Albert Hall sequence in Hitchcock's _The Man Who Knew
Too Much_.
Naun.
Eric Schissel
Tarkovskii's "Andrei Rublev" uses wonderful music by V. Ovchinnikov.
Another Tarkovskii film - not sure which - uses the earlier of Bach's
settings (an earlier, if he wrote more than 2) of Vor deinen Thron tret
ich hiernit (sp??), the text another chorale prelude on which was once
regarded as his last work.
-Eric Schissel
Charles W Haxthausen
If I recall correctly, Bergman also used Bach cello suites in his
comedy, "ALL These Women," which was about a lecherous cellist.
Mark Haxthausen
J. Reinschmidt
In article <5o9dhg$l93$1...@nntp.Stanford.EDU>, as....@forsythe.stanford.edu
(victor filler) wrote:
[snip]
> In general, however, the hijacking of public-domain music by serious
composers
> as background for movies is shameless and worthless, designed only to lend
> class to the otherwise classless and to save the effort and expense of
> creating an original score. I think of Elvira Madigan and the stuff
> represented as "Theme from 2001." And there was another ripoff that really
> shows the relative worth of music by the masters vis a vis the Hollywood
> "product" itself. That was something called Prizzi's Honor, a hugely
overrated
> film that extracted its entire background music from the short opera Gianni
> Schicchi and the Gazza Ladra overture. By this means the secondrate
movie was
> vastly elevated, and it was even better if you just closed your eyes and
> listened to the tunes.
Have to disagree with you in re: the merits of "Prizzi's Honor," but then
how can I? You've already poisoned the well--"hugely overrated,"
"secondrate" [_sic_].
J. Reinschmidt
Remove "junk" from e-mail address to reply.
"Play vanilla," Lester Young is said
to have said to a piano player
comping too elaborately behind his solo...
--Clayton Eshleman, from "Foo to the Infinite"
Lawrence Faltz
> "product" itself. That was something called Prizzi's Honor, a hugely overrated
> film that extracted its entire background music from the short opera Gianni
> Schicchi and the Gazza Ladra overture. By this means the secondrate movie was
> vastly elevated, and it was even better if you just closed your eyes and
> listened to the tunes.
I agree about "Prizzi's Honor", a truly stupid movie. But who can forget
Malcolm MacDowell beating a woman to death with a gigantic penis to "La
Gazza Ladra" in Kubrick's a Clockwork Orange"?
Caius Marcius
Preston Sturges, one of the greatest American directors, filmed
Unfaithfully Yours in 1948. The movie stars Rex Harrison as a great
conductor who suspects (quite unjustly) that his wife is cheating on
him.
The movie itself is rather ordinary - but there are three quite
exciting sequences from the musical point of view. These scenes show
Harrison rehearsing his orchestra in Rossini's Theiving Magpie
Overture, Tchaikovsky's Francesca di Rimini, and a piece by Wagner
(which I'm not remembering.........; last saw the movie in 1977, damn
the fallibility of memory!). These very extended scenes - Sturges
tries to get as much of the complete score on screen as possible - stop
the movie dead dramatically (it's supposed to be a comedy, but, aside
from a bit of comic business involving the cymbals in Rossini, the
rehearsals are completely serious) - but from a purely musical
perspective, it leaves MTV/PBS/USW choking in the dust. This is
probably one of the best cinematic evocations of the art and craft of
musical performance.
There was a feeble 1984 remake with Dudley Moore, that has an attention
span more appropriate for our progressive era (i.e., nothing longer
than 20 seconds)
- CMC
Matthias Schneider
The use of Howard Hanson's Symphony No. 2 in the closing section
of "Alien". There is no other music which better depicts the
aftermath and relief after surviving a nightmare.
Matthias Schneider
Jan Willem van Dormolen
On 20 Jun 1997 00:55:48 -0400, schi...@light.lightlink.com (Eric
Schissel) wrote:
To me the most stunning and brilliant use of classical music in a film
remains the use of "The Beautiful Blue Danube" by Strauss as an
accompaniment to a revolving spacestation in "2001 A Space Odyssey" by
Stanley Kubrick.
How on earth did he get that idea?
Jan Willem van Dormolen,
jwvand*poboxes.com,
Netherlands
To reply, change * into @ (anti-spam measurement)
Halvard Johnson
On Sat, 21 Jun 1997, Jan Willem van Dormolen wrote:
> To me the most stunning and brilliant use of classical music in a film
> remains the use of "The Beautiful Blue Danube" by Strauss as an
> accompaniment to a revolving spacestation in "2001 A Space Odyssey" by
> Stanley Kubrick.
> How on earth did he get that idea?
It's not just the revolving space station, Jan--it's the docking
of the shuttle in the space station (think of long penile objects
making their way into various receptacles; think screwing, think
love-making, think waltz). Kubrick played with the idea of machines
making love before: In *Dr. Stangelove* the opening titles and
credits are shown over a long shot of one plane refueling another
in flight as a sappy love song is heard on the sound track. Also,
in *2OO1*, when Hal (not related to me) goes gaga after his
lobotomy, what does he do? He sings a sappy love song, "Daisy,
Daisy, give me your answer do. . . ."
Hal "Don't just do something. Sit there!"
--Zen quip
Halvard Johnson <hjoh...@umbc2.umbc.edu>
Paul Cotton
cori...@ix.netcom.com(Caius Marcius) wrote:
>And I also just discovered if you type a classical composer's name into
>the IMDB, you'll get a long list of films that utilized that composer's
>music (presumbaly incomplete; JSB only had 67 entries).
>
> - CMC
There oughta be at leat 67 entries for the Toccata in d alone!
--
Paul Cotton
Halvard Johnson
Rockstrewn Hills Join In
--A Brief Requiem for Charles Ives
Almost yesterday the mountain lake
the character of his friend
What is behind it all?
Streams that flow through the garden
of consciousness
An evening train
Through pine-swept atmosphere
even the fishes in the pond
no longer hear rumbles
We paint it all with any color
left at hand--the heart left alone chain
No wagon hitched to it
Certain vision truths translate
into afterglow
Monotone days
more introspective than others
Swan songs heard faintly
in the offing
Words echo up
over tongue-and-groove flooring
A thorax or two at high
tide
Seasons like corn
You don't know them
unless you love them
Yet the mind universal
if the arc of Nature be completed
Let chips fall wherever
When sun blows through I'll say
any damn thing I feel like
Hal
Halvard Johnson, Baltimore, Maryland
Paul Cotton
Pauline Lerner <paul...@erols.com> wrote:
>Another is a flick I saw years ago on some very late night TV show with
>the lowest possible ratings, which I just loved. It was about a couple
>on a honeymoon who got off course and were incarcerated in a castle in
>Transylvania. The lord of the castle, a role played devilishly well by
>Boris Karloff, played Bach on his organ while contemplating sacrificing
>the sweet young bride as a virgin at the next full moon. It was so bad
>that it was good.
The Black Cat from 1934, I think. I recall the piece was from Bach's
Orgelbuchlein. The music had a very powerful effect in this scene.
Interestingly, the music normally conveys sublime goodness, but had a
chillingly evil effect in the movie.
--
Paul Cotton
Craig Watson
In article <5od2gk$3...@light.lightlink.com>, schi...@light.lightlink.com
(Eric Schissel) wrote:
>Tarkovskii's "Andrei Rublev" uses wonderful music by V. Ovchinnikov.
>Another Tarkovskii film - not sure which - uses the earlier of Bach's
>settings (an earlier, if he wrote more than 2) of Vor deinen Thron tret
>ich hiernit (sp??), the text another chorale prelude on which was once
>regarded as his last work.
>
>-Eric Schissel
The Bach chorale prelude was used in Tarkovsy's "Solaris".
--
Craig W.
Craig Watson
Has anyone mentioned the odd but effective use of Hanson's Romantic
Symphony in the film "Alien"?
--
Craig W.
Carl Tait
In article <33AA20...@rci.rutgers.edu>,
Brian Rourke <rou...@rci.rutgers.edu> wrote:
>Carl Tait wrote regarding Willy Wonka:
>>
>>Fun for the kids --
>
>Yes, perhaps, though I have to admit having a prolonged period of
>nasty nightmares and an unreasoning terror of Gene Wilder after
>seeing that movie at age four in the theater. Some of the sadism
>directed against kids is pretty creepy, though everything ends happily.
Yes, it's true that in his stories for both children and adults,
Roald Dahl favors unnerving (and imaginative) punishments for the
villains. Most of his adult fiction is still in print, and is well
worth seeking out for those who haven't encountered it. A particular
favorite is "Parson's Pleasure," a short story about a disreputable
antique dealer who visits country houses and buys rare furniture for
almost nothing from people who don't know better. But then there was
the day he found the Chippendale commode....
(No, he doesn't turn into a giant blueberry at the end.)
Alain DAGHER
In 'M' by Fritz Lang, child-murderer Peter Lorre whistles "In The Hall
of the Mountain King" faster and faster every time he's about to kill.
Godard uses tiny snippets of (for some reason) Bach and Dvorak in -
which film is it? - Je Vous Salue Marie, maybe?
--
Regards,
"De la musique avant toute chose"
Alain Dagher, M.D.
Montreal Neurological Institute -Paul Verlaine
Barry Volkman
I'm surprised no one has mentioned the use of Mahler's Adagio from the
5th Symphony for "Death in Venice"
Barry
Craig Watson (clwa...@concentric.net) wrote:
: Has anyone mentioned the odd but effective use of Hanson's Romantic
: Symphony in the film "Alien"?
: --
: Craig W.
--
Barry Volkman
ggge...@bcfreenet.seflin.lib.fl.us
BHeneg8560
Both Janacek string quartets in Milan Kundra's "The Unbearable Lightness
of Being".
Malcolm Arnold's quasi-symphonic developments of his own "St. Trinian's"
march in all the St. Trinians films. Actually, it makes for rather
obtrusive film music - you forget to keep your eyes on all those
cheerleader types....;^)
best wishes
Ben Heneghan
Frank Eggleston
Halvard Johnson wrote:
>
> In *Dr. Stangelove* the opening titles and
> credits are shown over a long shot of one plane refueling another
> in flight as a sappy love song is heard on the sound track.
Not all that sappy. With his usual irony, Kubrick picked for a
accompaniment to the apparent penile insertion of the fuel tanker to the
bomber -- what better, "Try a Little Tenderness".
Frank Eggleston
Larry Solomon
Beethoven's 9th in *A Clockwork Orange*.
Ligeti's *Requiem* and *Atmospheres* in 2001
Stravinsky's *Rite* in *Fantasia*
Madama Butterfly in Fatal Attraction
Turandot in The Witches of Eastwick
Lakme (Delibes) in Someone to Watch Over Me
La Boheme in Moonstruck
The Barber of Seville in Dark Eyes
La Forza del Destino (Verdi) in Manon of Spring
La Wally (Catalani) in Diva
Manon Lescaut in Hannah and Her Sisters
Puccini in A Room with a View
Cavalieria Rusticana in Raging Bull
Liszt in *Lisztomania*
Mahler in *Mahler*
Die Walkure's ride in *Apocalypse Now*
--
Best!
@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@
Larry Solomon
The Center for the Arts http://www.AzStarNet.com/~solo
Tucson, AZ
@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@
Deryk Barker
Ross Mandell (Ro...@juno.com) wrote:
: >6. Mozart's Piano Concerto #23 in "Elvira Madigan."
: sorry thats #22
Actually 21, K.467.
--
|Deryk Barker, Computer Science Dept. | Across the pale parabola of Joy |
|Camosun College, Victoria, BC, Canada | |
|email: dba...@camosun.bc.ca | Ralston McTodd |
|phone: +1 250 370 4452 | (Songs of Squalor). |
Marc Kompaneyets
Eric Schissel (schi...@light.lightlink.com) wrote:
: Tarkovskii's "Andrei Rublev" uses wonderful music by V. Ovchinnikov.
: Another Tarkovskii film - not sure which - uses the earlier of Bach's
: settings (an earlier, if he wrote more than 2) of Vor deinen Thron tret
: ich hiernit (sp??), the text another chorale prelude on which was once
: regarded as his last work.
: -Eric Schissel
Tarkovsky used Bach's organ chorales effectively in Solaris and one other
sci-fi movie that I can't think of at the moment.
marc
Frank Eggleston
> the...@alpha2.csd.uwm.edu (Thelma Lubkin) wrote:
> > For me the classic use of Classical music in film will always
> >be Alec Guinness' 'Ladykillers', where the gang lays low by
> >'disguising' themselves as members of a string quartet; they use a
> >recording [of a single movement] of a quartet by Haydn [although I
> >used to think it was Boccherini, and sometimes even Mozart] to
> >convince the old lady they're renting from...I consider it one of the
> >funniest films ever made.
> > --thelma
>
have a poor memory. But I'm inclined to think that there are two pieces
of music involved.
One is the "celebrated" Boccherini minuet in E, 3/4 time (various
numbering identifications), scored for string quintet. The theme starts
with a little 16th-note turn, followed by syncopated off-the-beat notes
in the first violin, over a rather bustling accompaniment by the other
players. The other is the "so-called" Serenade in C from the Haydn
string quartet op.3 #5 (which Haydn may not have written). This is in
4/4 and is rather more square cut and serene.
Complication: there are 5 "ladykillers" each with an instrument case.
However, I believe that they are "playing" the Haydn (a quartet). In
fact, the little old lady (Katy Johnson?) identifies the piece as "the
Haydn". However, she's not particularly reliable.
Second complication: when the thieves send the LOL off to retrieve
their booty (she later calls it "the lolly") from the luggage office,
Alec Guiness sketches the little turn, and I believe it's the Boccherini
minuet which acommpanies her to the train station.
As I said, I can't confirm this surmise. If anybody knows for sure and
has seen the picture recently can straighten this out, I for one would
like to know.
Frank Eggleston
Lawrence Snyder
Brian Rourke (rou...@rci.rutgers.edu) wrote:
: I have to wonder what it was about Bach that made Bergman use music
: from the cello suites in both of these devastating movies.
Fritz Sammern, a now retired professor of German and Swedish at the
University of California at Davis, made a series of videotape lecture
demonstrations on the music of Bach in the films of Bergman, with the
blessing of IM himself. I think queries to the German Dept. would
determine if they are still available.
--
==============================
Larry Snyder
ldsn...@wheel.dcn.davis.ca.us
Davis Community Network
==============================
Caius Marcius
In <5omgns$s...@nntp.seflin.org> ggge...@bc.seflin.org (Barry Volkman)
writes:
>
>I'm surprised no one has mentioned the use of Mahler's Adagio from the
>5th Symphony for "Death in Venice"
That's 'cause the thread is about "brilliant" uses of music -
Visconti's horrendous film trashed Mahler and Mann with equal ferocity.
>
>Craig Watson (clwa...@concentric.net) wrote:
>
>
>
>: Has anyone mentioned the odd but effective use of Hanson's Romantic
>: Symphony in the film "Alien"?
An odd bit of trivia from the rec.music.movies NG - several months ago,
the Romantic Symphony presence in Alien was under discussion, and I
wondered whether Hanson was aware that his symphony was used in the
film. I heard back from someone who asserted that he'd interviewed
Hanson about a year after the fil came out (Alien was released in 1979;
Hanson died in 1981). Apparently, Hanson did not know and had not seen
the film, but was "greatly amused" to learn that the Symphony No. 2
appeared in a sci-fi horror film.
- CMC
Jonathan Wiener
Caius Marcius wrote:
[...]
> An odd bit of trivia from the rec.music.movies NG - several months ago,
> the Romantic Symphony presence in Alien was under discussion, and I
> wondered whether Hanson was aware that his symphony was used in the
> film. I heard back from someone who asserted that he'd interviewed
> Hanson about a year after the fil came out (Alien was released in 1979;
> Hanson died in 1981). Apparently, Hanson did not know and had not seen
> the film, but was "greatly amused" to learn that the Symphony No. 2
> appeared in a sci-fi horror film.
>
> - CMC
Wow, how could they use the music without telling the composer?
Frank Eggleston
Frank Eggleston wrote:
>(heavily snipped)
> > > For me the classic use of Classical music in film will always
> > >be Alec Guinness' 'Ladykillers',
> > > --thelma
> >
> numbering identifications), scored for string quintet.
> The other is the "so-called" Serenade in C from the Haydn
> string quartet op.3 #5 (which Haydn may not have written).
I have since obtained a copy of the video, played it, and -- as usual --
the answer is that both pieces of music are used. When the ladykillers
first perform at Mrs. Wilberforce's, they play the Boccherini
(appropriately, since there are five of them). On their second visit,
to Mrs. W's, they play the Haydn. (Actually, the normally rather
forgetful Mrs. W identifies both pieces correctly.) When Mrs. W goes to
the railway station to (unknowingly) pick up the loot, the soundtrack
accompanies her with the Boccherini, played by xylophone and harp.
I entirely agree with the original assertion that it's one of the
cleverest uses of classical music in a movie score. Another is the
Britsh movie "Unfaithfully Yours" (1948) in which Rex Harrison, as a
Beechamesque orchestra conductor unsucessfully attempt to murder his
wife, accompanied by a Rossini overture.
Frank E
Caius Marcius
Another example is the 1979 movie Breaking Away, which had several
operatic and classical tracks. Espcecially good is a scene where the
bicyclist-hero (played by Dennis Christopher) plays tag with a
semi-truck as he practices for the big race. It's set to the 1st
movement of Mendelssohn's 4th Symphony - which is quite appropriate,
since the music, like the Christopher character, is "pretending" to be
Italian.
- CMC
John-Michael Albert
Jonathan Wiener wrote:
> Wow, how could they use the music without telling the composer?
It is customary for publishers to require that a composer sign over
copyright to a work in order for them to print it. As a result, in
order to use the work, in a play or a movie for instance, you must ask
the publisher, not the composer. Unless the publisher or the user
chooses, out of the goodness of their heart, to tell the composer (or
even *ask*) that they're using his work, the first time the composer
might know it might just be when he's sitting in the theater
compulsively swilling Coke and chomping popcorn through the last
minutes of a horror flick, for instance.
Tant pis.
jma
john harkness
Frank Eggleston wrote:
>
> Another is the
> Britsh movie "Unfaithfully Yours" (1948) in which Rex Harrison, as a
> Beechamesque orchestra conductor unsucessfully attempt to murder his
> wife, accompanied by a Rossini overture.
>
> Frank E
Unfaithfully Yours -- and I agree with you assessment as to its wit - is
an American film -- writer director preston sturges was American, and so
was the studio (Fox, I believe -- they had the remake writes for the
horrible dudley moore remake in the mid-80s) Not to mention that concert
fantasy sequences where harrison imagines the murder of his wife (played
by Linda Darnell, I believe) three different ways to the three different
pieces of music he's conducting in concert.
Caius Marcius
OK, enough of these Valentines to the motion picture industry - how
about some of the really awful uses of music in films?
The first example off the top of my head is the 1975 movie Rollerball.
Just in case that this science-fiction version of Roller Derby wasn't
ridiculous enough already, it opens with the most preposterous use of
Bach d minor toccata in film history (against some extremely rugged
competition). The rest of the film consists of classical snippets
(Albinoni's Adagio, the finale of the Shostakovich 5th) that are not
quite too bad in the way they're used, but still serve to illustrate
that this was a case of a producer being too cheap to hire a decent
film composer.
The next example is a 1947 movie A Song of Love - the title alone
should make you cringe - about Robert and Clara Schumann (Paul Henreid
and Katherine Hepburn). The movie is filled with idiotic scenes, but
the one that goes way over the top occurs toward the end. Robert is
conducting his Faust cantata (which the movie keeps insisting is an
opera) but suddenly! - he starts hearing them weird tunes in his head
again - Robert begans sawing the air in what is supposed to be some
sort of unearthly trance - the musicians stop playing in bewilderment,
and Clara comes up on stage to tenderly lead Robert away to the asylum
(so long Robert!)
What are your favorite "least favorites"?
- CMC
Richard Schultz
Caius Marcius (cori...@ix.netcom.com) wrote:
: What are your favorite "least favorites"?
John Boorman's 1981 travesty "Excalibur." In particular, the scene
where Lancelot first meets Guenivere. He looks at her. . . she looks
at him. . . and then the soundtrack plays the opening bars of the
Prelude to "Tristan und Isolde." I literally laughed out loud at that one.
-----
Richard Schultz sch...@ashur.cc.biu.ac.il
Department of Chemistry tel: 972-3-531-8065
Bar-Ilan University, Ramat-Gan, Israel fax: 972-3-535-1250
-----
"I've lost my harmonica, Albert."
Frank Eggleston
A very recent example is found in John Woo's film "Face/Off" in which
one scene uses the D-flat Prelude ("Raindrop") of Chopin, and utilizes
the difference in mood between the lyric,romantic intial part and the
more sinister central section.
Woo also kids the devil out of (or maybe into) Handel's "Hallelujah
Chorus".
Frank Eggleston
john harkness
Richard Schultz wrote:
>
> Caius Marcius (cori...@ix.netcom.com) wrote:
>
> : What are your favorite "least favorites"?
>
> John Boorman's 1981 travesty "Excalibur." In particular, the scene
> where Lancelot first meets Guenivere. He looks at her. . . she looks
> at him. . . and then the soundtrack plays the opening bars of the
> Prelude to "Tristan und Isolde." I literally laughed out loud at that one.
>
> -----
> Richard Schultz
> "I've lost my harmonica, Albert."
JOHN HARKNESS adds:
Any movie that uses Carmina Burana (conan the barbarian leaps to mind)
And speaking of atrocious performer biographies, Immortal Beloved, which
is all Beethoven, of course, Immortal Beloved asking that essential
question "who was Beethoven's Girlfriend? Everything in the movie is
authentic, down to the last button and buckle, and much of Gary Oldman's
wardrobe looks as if it were drawn straight from contemporary paintings.
But whenever we see people at fortepianos or an orchestra that looks
proper for the period, we hear Emmanuel Ax at the Steinway or hear the
Chicago Symphony under Solti. In other words, everything should be
authentic except for the music. (Much the same problem with Beethoven's
Nephew.)
Also, Patricia Rozema's I've Heard The Mermaids Singing, where in one of
the Polly's fantasy sequences she conducts Beethoven's Fifth (oooooh,
how creative!) but can't keep time.
Caius Marcius
In <33BA5E...@erols.com> Jeremy Cook <jere...@erols.com> writes:
>
>
>How about the 1980 atrocity "The Competition"? If you don't find Amy
>Irving and Richard Dreyfuss insufferable to begin with, you will once
>you've seen them try to portray contestants in a piano competition.
I
>think Dreyfuss' character plays the "Emporer" at one point - his
playing
>looks like he was coached to shake his hands over the keys as fast as
>possible (as if he had a high-speed palsy). And all the while he's
>trying to look "serious" with that doofy pout on his face. The
playing
>scenes are kind of like a train wreck -- you want to turn away in
>horror, but you just HAVE to watch.
That reminds me of Dreyfuss' more recent Mr. Holland's Opus - for the
most part, this movie was OK, but there was one scene that went way
overboard - Dreyfuss has just discovered that his infant son is deaf,
and in the next scene he's playing an LP recording of the slow movement
of the Beethoven 7th, while he lectures his class, in broken voice,
about Beethoven's deafness. "He could never hear the music". The
camera zooms in on the turntable. Oh, the pathos! the bathos!
- CMC
Beth Garfinkel
> - CMC
Wonderful movie! (Of course, where I live, any other view would be
considered rank heresy.) I think my favorite bit is the alternating
versions of "M'appari", one being a professional recording as background
music for the hero's parents' romantic dinner, and the other being the
hero himself serenading his ladylove about a quarter tone higher,
with no vocal technique to speak of, and accompanied by an
out-of-tune guitar.
Beth
--
"Under the green wood tree/Who loves to lie with me/And tune his merry
note/Unto the sweet bird's throat/Come hither, come hither, come hither/
Here he shall see/No enemy/But winter and rough weather."
--William Shakespeare
Halvard Johnson
Anybody mentioned the use of R. Strauss's "Four Last Songs"
in *The Year of Living Dangerously*?
Halvard Johnson