ANDREW writes:

In a recent post, a commenter from Tradition in Action mentions how it seems the only decent modern classical music is made for film scores, such as by John Williams for Star Wars or Harry Potter.

Maybe you’ve noticed that since the 80’s, more and more films are scored with recycled music; often the soundtracks are a collection of pop songs from a certain era, with little if any “new” scoring specifically written for the film.

One of the best film composers I think of (besides Williams) is Bernard Herrmann, who composed for many of Hitchcock’s films. He was a traditional composer who really knew how to craft music to create an emotion. The music from “Vertigo” comes immediately to my mind:

There is an excellent documentary made by the English composer of TV & Film music Howard Goodall that features Mr. Herrmann.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bMxflEFtazI

Michael from N.J. writes:

For the life of me! – I just do not understand why [the commenter] finds Arnold Schoenberg such a villain. The history of the glorious tradition of European art music is the history of tonality. Schoenberg was doing nothing more and nothing less than continuing, perhaps in a sense, concluding in a perfectly logical way, that grand, half millennium arc of tonality.

I won’t go on – but consider this thought experiment. Imagine a concert program offered by the Manchester Symphony Orchestra – say, on May 22 – one of the Mozart Rondos for Piano and Orchestra – then the Schoenberg Piano Concerto then, after intermission, Brahms Symphony No. 4.

Then imagine that just 20 percent – 1 in 5 only! – of the parents who took their daughters to the Ariana Grande concert that night (“…Wrist icicle, ride dick bicycle …”) went instead to the Symphony concert.

Wouldn’t our times be just a little less desperately frightening, with that result rather than the one that actually occurred (forget the hoax conclusion). Those girls would likely have found the Schoenberg – coming after the Mozart – to be ugly and off-putting or – better – maybe just totally inexplicable. But isn’t that result far better than the one that actually occurred? Have no doubt! – they understand Ms Grande perfectly well!

— Comments —

Alan writes:

I agree with Andrew regarding the work of Bernard Herrmann. He composed the wonderful background music for the classic 1951 motion picture “The Day the Earth Stood Still.” I first saw that picture when it was presented on NBC television’s “Saturday Night at the Movies” on March 3, 1962. It was superbly directed by Robert Wise and memorable not only for the story and excellent work of Michael Rennie and Patricia Neal, but also for the music by Mr. Herrmann.

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