I can't believe that I'm actually saying this but remember a time when film music had themes?  I miss themes and long for the days when film music could stand alone without the visuals.  I think themes began to die out during the 90's with the advent of the documentary film style that became popular with the "found footage" genre and all of it's derivatives.  This was especially prevelant in TV scoring.  Beautifully constructed themes just weren't a good fit to the shaky camera and awkward zoom in/out and rak focusing techniques in vogue at the time.  I guess Taiko thuds, block chords and arpeggiators are more appropriate scoring as if a raw "score" syncs better then a developed and polished one. Not that I necessary agree with that but now we get back to "cultured" or lack thereof.

I find what William mentioned about the intruduction of Pop/Rock styles during the 1960s very interesting.  I've always had mixed feelings about Pop music used in place of the established scores.  But to build on William's point, Pop scores aren't just lazy they're cheap attempts by studios to sell tickets or CD's or downloads or all the above.  Not to mention the need to promote yet another diva/rock band on to the music scene.  As usual, it's all about the money.  I could go on and on with a list of films scored with completely inapropriate Pop songs created solely for ticket and record sales.

However, in some cases, Pop music just may be the best fit for a film.  I admire Williams' work immensely and he has never disapointed me but I'm not sure a Williams' score would have had the same effect on a film like Goodfellas that the montage of carefully selected Pop songs did.  Goodfellas had absolutely no original music whatsoever.  Not even incidental music. 

Also, scores completed in a Pop or Pop hybrid style can be refreshing at times.  I know many forumites role their eyes when I mention this but Giorgio Moredor's score for Scarface is still one of my all-time favorites.  But, in this case, Moredor wrote those Pop songs specifically for the movie and they were not tailored for a mass market or to propel the career of a diva.

There is another factor in film music scoring being trivialized and reduced to a medley of songs (or even just one) and that is how directors are not necessarily  keen on giving to a composer the sometimes huge significance that a great film score can have.  They retain more power as director if they control the music.  The notorius example is Kubrick, who had Alex North compose an entire score for "2001" which was an ambitious full-fledged symphonic work, and then rejected it and went with his temp tracks - not even telling North who went to the premiere thinking his music was being used!  

A great music score can be as significant as the image in a film - such as is the case in Hitchcock/Herrmann's "Vertigo" - and not all director's are that dedicated to the artistic accomplishment of someone else.   

agitato: Thanks for the kind words Anand, I'm glad you agree. I don't know what kind of thread I can begin on John Williams, certainly not merely a thread of worship, but one where some aspects of his craft can be elucidated. Suffice to say two things: a) He is the only composer for film to my knowledge (not active before 1960) where for every cue, no matter how unimportant and pedestrian a scene or transition is, the music is a complete symphonic passage, proper orchestral writing in every way. Never what most -if not all- others do in those situations (a couple of chords with a line on top, etc.). Same with his full-blown action scenes where he knows better than us that the nuances are going to be buried under the cacophonous raucous. So why does he write proper polyphony and voice leading in these situations? I somehow don't think this question will be addressed in the guru's seminar...

b) His ear for orchestration and rhythmic vitality is surpassed only by his total, supreme fluidity of composition. It is this aspect in my opinion combined with the others that probably puts him at the top spot. Plus, he is not a one-trick-pony, listen to his scores before Jaws and hear the differences; almost another composer.

jasen: I would also like to avoid a misunderstanding. I am not against a talented pop or ambient soundtrack if the film calls for it. Putting Vangelis aside for the latter, I really like the first two Ocean's soundtracks. Just exquisite taste. Need I mention Saturday Night Fever? Hugely inspired songs dressed in Disco (which was what the movie was about). Also, before Williams "repatriated" the fully symphonic soundtrack, there were great soundtracks by people like Jerry Fielding, Marvin Hamlisch, or Lalo Schifrin to name a few. That was proper music too, and oftentimes interesting (people at that time availed themselves of some of the sonic experiments of '60s chamber music). I just remembered Dave Grusin's The Firm soundtrack - just superb!

My big problem is the damage that has been done to the genre of symphonic soundtracks per se, and the chromosome-deficient people who think they can map one genre's methodologies (say pop), to another, and get laudable results. And what about that "Epic" shyt? Arghhhh! Even Hans doesn't touch that, despite it bein a direct offshoot of what he does. Compare that to Herrmann's Hangover Square; an actual piano concertino...

WIlliam: I really have to set one evening aside for this Cocteau film at some point. It sounds very promising.

Georges Auric is one of the great film composers, and Beauty and the Beast is one of his best scores. You can get a really good recording of the score:

Beauty and the Beast

And Orpheus is also a Cocteau/Auric film that has a great recording:

Orpheus

On top of that both Beauty and the Beast and Orpheus are on Bluray by Criterion. Two of the greatest film fantasies and scores.

The main difference between film writers from the 1930s through to the early 1970s is the fundemental understanding of harmonic structure and the build up of an orchestral score. 

Sometimes the score can be very sparce and effective, and sometimes it can be full blown and very effective. 

There's an argument that these old style scoring methods are not relevent in the 21st century. Indeed, they probably haven't been relevent since the mid 1980s. John Williams actually revitalised the orchestra in the 1970s for a while. He was very influenced by classical works and did not mind borrowing from them. A lot of his scores were also influenced by army band music. Quite strident at times and very much 2/4 march time. What he really excelled at was the writing and use of memorable melodies.

Film producers liked memorable melodies way back. One of their less understandable tricks was to stick a song in a film, almost as if it came out of nowhere. It used to happen a lot more than you would think. It's a selling tool, just as later on, John William's melodies were always synonomous with the film. You hear the music, and you think of the film. Very profitable arrangement.

Into the 1990s and suddenly films were discovered by the ostinato. The ostinato seems at first to be a mild cold, but it soon infects every aspect of filmscore writing and you soon realise this a category 4 outbreak. The ostinato is about as easy a way of scoring as there probably is, next to plain and simple noise.

Plain and simple noise is mostly what you get today. Otherwise known as Sound Design.

So that's where we are today. Sound Design.

Sound Design in film and TV scores is just another way of saying you're an untrained, uncultured monkey that can't write music for shit. What???? I hear the cry.

Well if that's not the case, then fucking prove it.

I sat through a film recently at the cinema called Life. The entire film was awash with fucking noise from beginning to end. It is the worst irritant imaginable. The film was crap which didn't help. The only people that are immune from this illness are under the 25s. 

"Sound Design in film and TV scores is just another way of saying you're an untrained, uncultured monkey that can't write music for shit." - PaulR

It is so refreshing to hear a blatant statement of the truth every once in a long while!  

"The main difference between film writers from the 1930s through to the early 1970s is the fundemental understanding of harmonic structure and the build up of an orchestral score"

This is an apt comment emphasizing the absolute lack of harmonic and orchestrational interest in  ostinato/arpeggiator scores. They could not have proliferated had they called for such qualities, for those won't magically materialize with the press of a mouse-button. Hence, the complete reliance on rhythm (elementary one at that), and loud volume.

Now of course I know what Paul is referring to with his last comment but, just to clarify, Sound Design per se is a demanding, rewarding, and exciting area of music making when done seriously to which I've had the great fortune to have been exposed, and I believe there are many a film that would be served superbly by a talented, proper electronic music composer-programmer (by 'electronic' I don't mean 'dance', and by 'programmer' I mean sound creation and code), TRON2 being the first one that jumps to mind (and was scored badly!). 

As far as orchestral music is concerned, if you really want to find out your worth in this genre of composition, turn the power off, light a candle, and grab a pen (and/or an acoustic instrument), and the end result will accurately reflect your inspiration, talent, and skillset. In essence, the real you! Let's see how "Epic" you can sound without the presets...

"...if you really want to find out your worth in this genre of composition, turn the power off, light a candle, and grab a pen (and/or an acoustic instrument), and the end result will accurately reflect your inspiration, talent, and skillset." - Errikos

You left out the wig.  

William: I would recommend getting the Criterion release of B & B as, in addition to the wonderful Auric score there's a fascinatining alternative score by Philip Glass with The soundtrack replaced by song, in French, in lip sync with the actors, accompanied by a mixed chamber ensemble of acoustic instruments and synthesizers. Besides being some Glass' better music (he *does* tend to repeat himself :-) the singing turns the film into a kind of opera, and he develops themes around characters, locations and situations in an effective fashion. The love theme for scenes with Beauty and the Beast is particularly lovely. There's a good surround mix as well, making this a very high quality production.

Nadia Boulanger would apparently ask her students to play some music as a way to gauge the level at which they might be able to compose. Learning that sent me back to the piano to recover the deeper bits of repertoire I'd known over the years.

kenneth

You are right, the Criterion edition is awesome.  They put out the most beautiful versions of so many great films.