Film Music Final USC
Ennio Morricone
"Fistful of Dollars"- spaghetti western, followed by "A Few More Dollars" and "The Good the Bad and the Ugly" More than 450 films scored, won and known for orchestrating every note himself
Rodgers and Hart
"Isn't It Romantic"- Love Me Tonight (ending the era of live orchestral recording) 42nd Street- made movie music popular for some time
Leonard Bernstein
"On the Water Front" Dir. Kazan wanted the biggest name in American classical music, also Dir. of the NY Phil
Allen Silvestri
jazz background. Owes most of his career to dir. Robert Zemeckis Known for Forrest Gump, which used over 50 pre existing songs and heartfelt score
Blacksploitation
1970-1975 black action/adventure films that appealed to a black audience. Signaled to the Hollywood filmmakers that contemporary songwriters could write scores and hit songs for new films as opposed to old symphonic sound
Live and Let Die
1st Bond song not by John Powell, but instead Paul McCartney, written originally for the film. Producers trying to reach a younger audience
Michael Giacchino
1st composer to make it out of the video game world. Known for a large varieyt of TV work, like Alias, but more importantly Ratatouille
Chariots of Fire
Academy award. composer Vangelis created all the music and sounds in his own studio
Danny Elfman
Batman, Edward Scissor Hands, Good Will Hunting, Spiderman Was originally unexpected by critics because he came from the pop world and did not orchestrate his own scores. But after 12 years of scoring he his highly sought after and acclaimed
Aaron Copland
Bernstein's mentor, known for americana music "The Red Pony"
John Powell
Bourne Ultimatum
Mark Shaiman
Came out of the NYC theatre world. Known for City Slickers- specifically comedy music, and American President known as his best score, heartfelt americana
Randy Newman
Comes form a successful american songwriting/pop background. Known for The Natural, baseball americana sound, Bugs Life and Toy Story
Midnight Express
Dir. did not ant conventional music, but liked the sound of Donna Summer. Hired her producer and writer Giorgio Morodor. 1st all electronic score to win an oscar. Hollywood says electronic is cool
Rock and Roll in film
Elvis Presley- 29 films, Viva Los Vegas
Andromeda Strain
Gil Melle. Dir. wanted no discernible melodies, built all the machines used to score the film
Alexandre Desplat
Girl With a Pearl Earring, The Queen
Known for Classical Music, But created film scores
Leonard Bernstein, Aaron Copland, William Walton, Ralph Vaughn Williams, John Corigliano, Phillip Glass
John Corigliano
Prominent today in the NYC concert world "Altered States" sci-fi, horror, drugs hallucination -Very avant garde "Red Violin" whole score is violin music essential to the plot, worked on most before film was done, won the oscar
Burt Bacharach
Rain Drops keep Falling on my Head, butch cassidy and the sundance kid
Forbidden Planet
Scored by Louis and Bebe Barren. Lacked emotional content and was not defined as music by the union. The first score created entirely electronically for a feature film- electronic circuits, but did not however start a trend
Thomas Newman
Shaw shank Redemption, Finding Nemo, American Beauty. Often looked for unique sounds, acoustics
James Newton Howard
Started as a tech guy in the 80s with low budget synths. Known for Dinosaur, Signs, and the Village for which he purposed solo violin. Deep relationship w/ dir. M Night Shyalaman.
James Horner
Started in sci-fi,low budget, got noticed scoring the 2nd and 3rd star trek films. Aliens, Field of Dreams, Titanic.
Howard Shore
The first music director at Saturday Night live. Known for scoring the Lord of the Rings Trilogy. Very detailed and specific scoring used the books and author as reference, used the language from the novels to create choral pieces, etc.
Hans Zimmer
The most sought after composer today. Responsible for a large evolution in the relationship between composers and directors. Rain Man, Thelma and Louis,The Thin Red Line, The Dark Knight
The Beatles
Ticket to Ride from the film Help, changed to way music in film was used, kind of like a music video, music did not have to relate to the picture
RKO's Fred Astair and Ginger Rodgers
Top Hat (1935), "Cheek to Cheek" by Irving Berlin Swingtime (1936), "Pick Yourself Up" by Jerome Kern Shall We Dance (1937), "Let's Call the Whole Thing Off" by Ira/George Gershwin Cole Porter's "Easy to Love" from Born to Dance Holiday Inn, "White Christmas" by Irving Berlin People being effected by the war
Rachel Portman
Trained in England. 1st women to win the oscar for best score for Emma, and also scored Cider House Rules
Blade Runner
Vangelis. jazzy electronic sounds, the evolution of electronic instruments allowed more creativity (synthesizers far more modern)
Clock Work Orange
Wendy Carlos. Beethoven scored entirely with the Moog synthesizer. Dir. Kubrick did not like original music in his films. Promotes the use of electronic music in popular media
Shaft
by Isaac Hayes, best song oscar. Wrote a bunch of songs, not knowing how to score (just a songwriter), and they were tailored into the film The following year, Earnest Mayfield wrote the score for Super Fly
Saturday Night Fever
featuring a complete soundtrack by the Bee Gees, "Staing Alive" their manager was also the producer of the film- multi medias crossing. A movie to appeal to young people and sell as many records as movie tickets (trailers suggested that the record would be out soon, as well as the film)
William Walton
greatest English composer of the 20th century, worked multiple time w/ Lawrence Olivier: adaptations of Shakespeare Hamlet, Richard II
42nd Street
made movie musicals popular for some time, at Warner Bros.
Phillip Glass
minimalist composer "Koyaanisqatsi": marriage of image and music, time lapse "The Hours": glued together three seemingly unrelated stories via the music
Ralph Vaughn Williams
other prominent english composer "48th Parallel" name listed in the main title "Scott of the Atlantic" turned theme into his own symphony
Sorcerer
scored by electronic group Tangerine Dream. Dir. asked for music before film was done and pasted in in.