Month: August 2009

Notice

Posted on by filmscore80

This coming semester is going to be a tough one.  As such, I will most likely not be blogging as much as in the past.  I’ll try to update once or so every few weeks, so check back every week or so.  As for Film Score Friday Top 5, some entries may be, but it will, for the time being, not be a weekly feature.  I apologize, but academic concerns take precedent.

-The Management

P.S. – If anyone would like to do a “guest” column, especially Film Score Friday Top 5, I would be more than happy to post them (and give you credit, of course).

Film Score Friday Top 5: Cues from the “Battlestar Galactica” soundtrack albums

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This list is long overdue.  Bear McCreary’s scores for Battlestar need no introduction, so I’ll give none.  With five soundtrack albums (including Richard Gibbs’ score for the miniseries) to choose from, it’s hard to choose only five, but here it goes.

#1) “Thousands Left Behind” – Richard Gibbs, “Miniseries”:  A chilling cue using mostly gamelan, but also drums and some electronic effects, it slowly builds as the now President Roslin gives the cue for the civilian fleet (still without “Galactica”) to jump away from the soon to come Cylons…leaving thousands of people stranded on ships without jump drives.  As it builds, the rhythms speeds up and volume increases.  I’m not a huge fan of the “Miniseries” score, but it does have some great cues and this is my favorite.

#2) “Something Dark is Coming” – Bear McCreary, “Lay Down Your Burdens, Part I”:  This is the cue that actually made me sit up and take notice of McCreary’s work on the show.  This cue plays under the opening teaser that, as you might guess from the title, sets the scene for the episode (I won’t reveal more for fear of spoilers).  It’s score for bass and electric guitars (with some wicked reverb), along with Galactica‘s standard compliment of duduk, taikos, etc., and even strings (which only rarely make appearances this early on in the series).

#3) “The Shape of Things to Come” – Bear McCreary, “Kobol’s Last Gleaming, Part II”: And speaking of strings, it was with the two part Season 1 finale that we finally heard strings in the series score.  I blogged more extensively on the sequence of cues that this is from (“Passacaglia” to “Shape of Things to Come” to “Allegro” and on), so I’ll let you read that post.

#4) “Farewell Apollo” – Bear McCreary, “Six of One”: This cue features another favorite McCreary theme, that for the Adama family (William, commander of “Galactica,” and his son Lee).  This version comes from Season 4 as Lee is leaving “Galactica” to assume a new post.  The Adama family theme is always heavily tinged with Irish pipes giving it a very old, military air (think of the song “The Minstral Boy”).  Outside of the actual song version, “Wander My Friends” from the Season 1 album, this one strikes me as the most dignified version.  It also includes fiddle which also reminds one of the theme for President Roslin and William Adama.

#5) “Kara Remembers” – Bear McCreary, “Someone to Watch Over Me”: This cue, also from the just released Season 4 album, actually mixes digetic and non-diegetic music as we hear what Kara and her Father are playing on the piano in the “Galactica” bar, but it eventually brings in non-diegetic instruments to accompany.  This is a favorite because it from one of the most pivotal scenes from all the series.

I could go on and on, and maybe I’ll pick some more choice cues next week or in the future, but that’s all for now folks.  TTFN.

Music and the Kurosawa Film

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(Note: This marks my 50th post on this blog…not all that amazing in the history of the blogosphere, but for me it is kind of impressive.  Consider the fact that my Livejournal has only 74 posts since I started it in 2004.)

Having now seen all but three films in official filmography of AkiraKurosawa, and having read some four books, and working on a fifth, this summer about the man, his life, films, and techniques, I’m starting to draw a few vague conclusions and ideas about his use of music.

First off is a tweaking of my thoughts on Rashomon.  While not backing off from the conclusions I drew in my paper (especially the idea of music and sound being another analytical tool for interpreting the film), but I’ve tweaked my thinking in light of hearing how Kurosawa uses sound in the films leading up to and following it.  Rashomon as a film is only 88 minutes in length with almost half of its running time having musical scoring.  While maybe it was not that unusual for Hollywood films of the era to have this percentage of score to film (I have no hard facts on this, but my general sense is that films of the 40s and early 50s had, in general, a large percentage of score to film), it does seem unusual for a Kurosawa film (I won’t say anything about Japanese film in general since I have seen very few non-Kurosawa films).

A good case in point is Kurosawa’s film Scandal, made just prior to Rashomon.  The film has very little underscoring.  I would venture to say, including end and closing titles, there is maybe 10-15 minutes total of score music, most of which is used during montage sequences.  (One caveat, though, the timing is an estimate based on only one viewing which was almost a monthago.  But what did stick with me is that there was very little non-diegetic music).

Kurosawa’s use, or lack thereof, of music reached it’s most minimal in 1955-57.  Of the three films made in that period, two have score music only during the opening and closing credits – those films being Record of a Living Being and The Lower Depths.  The exception being The Throne of Blood, which has some very interesting underscoring (or at least I remember it that way).  The lack of underscoring in the two films could be a factor of Fumio Hayasaka’s death, Kurosawa’s longtime composer-collaborator, during the filming of Record of a Living Being, but the fact that his replacement in the Kurosawa Team, Masaru Sato, seemed to have Kurosawa’s full confidence in Throne of Blood (the middle of the three films), makes that interpretation less likely.

So, if Rashomon represents a peak of percentage of scoring and Record and Lower Depths represent a peak of lack of scoring, and most films fall somewhere in between, what conclusions can we then draw about Kurosawa and music?  It is well stated that Kurosawa loved music, and would many time have classical pieces in mind when editing his films, and later on would temp in those pieces, much to the chagrin of Sato and, most famously, Toru Takemitsu (who walked out of the sound mixing sessions on Ran and told Kurosawa that he could do whatever he wanted to his music but take his name off the picture.  Peace, though, was achieved and Takemitsu returned).

The case of the amount of music in Rashomon versus the films before and after it, is an interesting one, and one that is answered in Kurosawa’s stated goal of trying to get back to a “silent film” aesthetic with the picture.  Not only was this evident in the stylized visual design and acting in the film (truly, one could watch it without subtitles and understand most of what’s going on), but also, as I said in the paper, the first woodcutter’s tale, which is almost without sound except for musical score, is very much in a silent film musical aesthetic – complete with “mickey mousing.”  What I didn’t really realize fully is that this silent film musical aesthetic carriers over into the other scored scenes.  Coming from our more modern perspective of films like Star Wars that have almost continuous scoring, it didn’t strike me as unusual.  Only in viewing it among Kurosawa’s other work did the comment of wanting to evoke a silent film aesthetic come into clear view: the scoring of the scenes in the forest is also an evocation of this aesthetic.

This again, though, brings us back to the question of why the forest scene scenes have music and those at the gate scenes do not (this was the main topic of my paper in which I answered the question in terms of an interpretationofthe film’s central mystery).  There are other issues surrounding the visual aesthetic, but those I will leave to others, my main topic is music.  The only time Kurosawa would approach this level of music scoring in his films again is with his two Sengoku-period epic from the 1980s – Kagemusha and Ran (again, I have no hard data to support this, but it was my sense when I viewed them).

But I can’t be 100% certain of this because I have only “watched” most of these films, not really studied them with a fine ear.  Should I continue this line of research to its logical end, I would next want to time the music cues in the films and compare percentage of music to film across Kurosawa’s career and see how his musical usage changed (not to mention how, in his later years, he seems to have given in and used the classical music he had temped in).

Kurosawa said time and again that music has a “multiplier effect” on the visual image and that one must be careful in its usage.  Kurosawa, many times, would use music very sparingly, especially towards the end of his career.  Though, interestingly, in his last two films (Rhapsody in August and Madadayo), there are many scenes of group singing.  These harken back to Kurosawa’s memories of childhood and the songs he would sing at school.  Also, as recalled in Teruyo Nagami’s Waiting on the Weather: Making Movies with Akira Kurosawa, the director would always gather the cast and crew at the end of the days shoot for food and drinking, and many times Kurosawa would lead the assembled people in old school songs (very much echoing the party scenes in Madadayo).

The most important thing, I think, though is understanding the function of music in a Kurosawa film.  As I indicated in my Rashomon paper, the aesthetic question of is the music “good” or not doesn’t interest me nearly as much as that of function and structure.  I’ve never much liked aesthetic value judgement because they have always seemed subjective no matter the amount of philosophy you but behind them.  And it for the reason of function and structure that Kurosawa interests me, not only did I enjoy his films, but I also find how the man used music – and his construction of the films themselves – interesting.

Film Score Friday Top 5: Ranking the “Star Wars” scores

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So on my recent vacation, I kept myself awake on my long drive by listening to the Star Wars scores of Mr. John Williams (No Clone Wars or video game scores here…but maybe later).  And, having now ingested all six as fully as can be had on Compact Disc, I feel confident enough to post my rankings of the scores.  As mentioned in my earlier post, the versions used in this were the 2-disc “Ultimate Edition” of Phantom Menace, the standard 2-disc sets of the Original Trilogy, and the single disc releases of Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith.

So here it goes…in reverse order…

#5) Episode III – Revenge of the Sith: I’ll say this right now, it was hard to compare the films with only a single disc release against those with 2-disc releases because with the single disc you’re getting only the highlights.  That being said, this score was good, but not great.  It showed a good integration of themes, and the “Battle of Heroes” music for the final duel between Anakin and Obi-wan was quite good.  But it there was still something lacking.

#4) Episode II: Attack of the Clones – Say what you will about the film (and I think it is easily the worst Star Wars movie of all time…maybe even worse than Clone Wars), but I think the score is just as easily the best of the prequels.  It is ironic that the Love Theme for Anakin and Padme is among, in my opinion, the best in the series (right up there with the Force Theme, Luke and Leia, and the Imperial March), but yet it is those scenes and their awful dialogue, that utterly destroy episodes II and III.

#3) Episode IV – A New Hope: I always have a problem with ranking both the film and score for the original Star Wars. On the one hand, it is the original and set the stage for what was to come, and there are many great moments and themes (Force Theme, the Jawas, Cantina Band).  On the other hand, though, the subsequent scores takes everything to a higher level.

#2) Episode VI – Return of the Jedi:  Three words – Battle of Endor.  The rest of the score is also good, Jabba’s Theme also being a highlight.  But as good as Jedi is, it can’t really compete with…

#1) Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back:  So many great moments come from this film, and also introduced many classic themes (Imperial March, Yoda, Han and Leia).  The Battle of Hoth sequence is so well scored that one really doesn’t need to watch the film, but just listen, to understand what’s going on.  Oh, and Boba Fett’s theme uses a Contrabassoon, which is just cool.

So the question now becomes, why did I decide to rank Phantom Menace last?  Well, this is where the question of 2-disc vs. single disc comes in, because in listening to the entire Menace score, there were times when I was kind of bored with it, long stretches, probably underscore for dialogue, that I question why they were scored.  In listening to the 2-disc sets for original Trilogy, I experienced no such moments of boredom.  So it could be that the scores for II and III were not markedly better than I, but because they were in single-disc sets “seemed” better.  Thoughts from the gallery?

Also, I have yet to find out why, in the end credits on the album for Sith, it goes into the Throne Room from New Hope, but doesn’t in the actual film release.  I know that there was much editing done after recording, and things are routinely changed, but the fact that it is there makes me wonder if the credits were longer originally, or if there was some sort of mid-credits scene, or something else entirely. 

Anybody out there know?

Rant: An Open Letter to the Emmy Committee

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Note:  I usually try, in this blog, to refrain from overtly opinionated statements.  I do say what I like or dislike, but I do usually try and back up said statements.  In this case, though, I cannot silently stand aside.  A few weeks ago, the Emmy nominations were announced and once again, Bear McCreary’s work on Battlestar Galactica was not among those recognized in the music category.  Now, I don’t really put much stock in award shows and the like, but I do usually pay attention, at least, to those things nominated.

Some have said that the lack of BSG nominations is because the committee is wary of Sci-Fi/Fantasy shows (much like the Oscars), but that doesn’t make sense, really.  A look at past nominations in music, especially, yield many examples of Sci-Fi/Fantasy: the Star Trek series (Next Generation, et al) have many nominations, so did Xena, and Lost has also been tapped multiple times (not to mention Quantum Leap, SeaQuest, X-Files, the Stargate franchise, and Shirley Walker’s Space: Above and Beyond score).  So obviously it’s not the genre or even the network (witness Stargate), so honestly, I might just have to chalk it up to ignorance or…well ignorance is the nicest way to put it.  Because, in all honestly, with the exception of maybe Lost, BSG is the best scored show on television (was rather since it just wrapped up).

I have already wrote extensively on BSG, and you know that I feel that it is a score that transcends the normal catagory of “background music,” and is just as intergral part of the show quality as any actor, writer, or director.  It is a score of a quality higher than most I hear on television or even some films.  I don’t have much experience with the other nominees, but I’ll venture a comment on what I do know.

Alf Clausen – The Simpsons: I’ve always loved the integration of music into The Simpsons, and I was kind of disappointed that Clausen didn’t score the film, but I understand the decision.  That being said, Clausen’s musical genius lies in his adaptation of existing material and making it fit into the world of the show.  A very different function than McCreary’s score, so there isn’t really much comparing.

Sean Callery – 24: I’ve seen most of this series, but not this past season except for the movie Redemption, which I thought had a decent, if ultimately empty, score.  It did its job well, but much like the series itself, it is fun and exciting and tense while watching, but leaves one feeling empty afterwards.

Robert Duncan (Castle), Gabriel Yared (No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency), and Mark Snow (Ghost Whisperer):  I’ve never seen these shows, and I’ve never even heard Robert Duncan’s music. I’m familar with Yared’s work, but not very well, and I know Snow’s work on X-Files, but I’ve never seen Ghost Whisperer.  This being as it is, I’d rather not comment on them.

Joseph LoDuca – Legend of the Seeker: This is the one that really sparked my ire initally.  I actually, at that point, had yet to see this series, but I just recetly become acquainted with LoDuca’s work on TNT’s Librarian movies (you know, those somewhat fun, but blately an Indiana Jones ripoff starring Noah Wyle?).  And while watching them I couldn’t help but every few minutes hearing the score going off into a cue from David Arnold’s Stargate score (not surprising since the films were also produced by Dean Devlin).  I then set out and listened to a few Seeker episodes on Hulu and was less than impressed.  At times it sounded like Battlestar, other times Stargate SG-1, but lacking the depth of McCreary’s work on BSG.

Granted, the first season score of BSG was still a work in progress, but the heights that the just released Season 4 score achived (especially the finale “Daybreak”) are leaps and bounds above anything I have heard out of most any television program.  It is simply a crime that the score wasn’t nominated, espcially considering past nominations.  Sci-Fi or otherwise, McCreary’s work on Battlestar Galactica deserves to get the official recognition, not just the adulation of critics and fans who seem to know what the Emmy committee is glaringly blind to.

Vacation, Part II

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Sorry about not posting a FSFT5, but vacation has taken precedent.  Once I get back home, I’ll post a review of music listening on the trip, and Film Score Friday shall resume next week.