Month: October 2016

How to Score Japan on Film: Kubo and the Two Strings vs. 47 Ronin

Posted on by filmscore80

By Michael W. Harris

kuboBack in August I went and saw Kubo and the Two Strings for my birthday and was struck by how well the score, by Dario Marianelli, balanced traditional Hollywood scoring techniques with an aural evocation of Japan’s traditional music culture. This was certainly helped by the fact that the titular Kubo is a shamisen playing, orgami folding, magic wielding boy, but so many times Hollywood films have substituted “vaguely Asian, but not Indian” instrumental sounds for any film set in China, Japan, or Korea. And the truth is that there are some very distinctive differences between the musical cultures of these countries.

This can be clearly demonstrated by a simple comparison between Kubo and the 2013 big budget adaptation 47 Ronin that was simultaneously awful, offensive, and also strangely entertaining. Continue reading “How to Score Japan on Film: Kubo and the Two Strings vs. 47 Ronin” →

On Monsters and Music: The Music for Shin Godzilla

Posted on by filmscore80

By Michael W. Harris

shin_godzilla_posterLet me just get this out of the way: Shin Godzilla is great. It is a worthy successor to the Godzilla mantle in every way, and most importantly makes Godzilla relevant again for modern Japan. If you read any number of reviews or essays, you’ll inevitably see people compare the events of the film to Japan’s response to the triple disasters of March 11, 2011, when Japan was rocked by an earthquake, the resultant tsunami, and then the meltdown of the Fukushima Daiichi power plant caused by the coinciding of both. The government’s slow response, conflicting reports, and the general chaos that followed was certainly touched upon in the 2014 US helmed Godzilla film, but in this newest, entirely Japanese produced film, it takes center stage. Continue reading “On Monsters and Music: The Music for Shin Godzilla” →

“Just Vibrations” and Academia: A Few Thoughts

Posted on by filmscore80

By Michael W. Harris

just-vibrationsFor my friends in the world of musicology, William Cheng’s latest book, Just Vibrations: The Purpose of Sounding Good, caused quite the furor for a month of two this summer (sample some commentary on it here and here). While I had/have no intention of wading into the mess of internet comment threads or the American Musicological Society mailing list (especially since the brouhaha has seemed to have quieted down), the strong reactions against Cheng’s book made me curious enough to read it.

I initially planned to write a review of Cheng’s volume, but the deeper I got into it, the more apparent it was that a review would not really do it justice—especially since I am not sure if I grasp the full scope of Cheng’s manifesto. Its four chapters, along with introduction and coda, make for a slim volume with some big ideas. And on their face, the four chapters tackle the central idea of reparative musicology and “sounding good” from disparate points of view: personal account, musical torture, paranoid academic writing, and identity. There is a lot to unpack in Cheng’s book, and I think it might take a few more trips through the text before I can fully understand what it is he is purposing. Continue reading ““Just Vibrations” and Academia: A Few Thoughts” →

An Autumnal Playlist

Posted on by filmscore80

By Michael W. Harris

The first frost has hit the Boulder, CO, area, and there is snow in the higher elevations of the Rocky Mountains. Playoff baseball is here, and jackets are being brought out from storage. And a subtle change in music selections has taken hold on my iPod.

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Fall colors appearing in Boulder in September.

I have never been a person whose musical tastes shift that much with the seasons. I don’t have “summer jams” that I break out every summer, and my personal “Top 100” playlist, carefully curated, is a mix of many different styles and time periods. I consider myself a musical omnivore and will usually give most music a try, even if it takes a few years to finally getting around to listening to it.

But in the past few years, since I moved to Boulder from Longmont and have started spending more time walking places—especially to work and back—I have found myself adjusting the music I listen to when the autumnal chill starts to creep into the air. Continue reading “An Autumnal Playlist” →