Music in the Movies Part One: Score

Yesterday, I purchased the soundtrack to a very, very good film, Once. I saw it several weeks ago. Its recent success has convinced the studio to push more money behind it. I could not be more pleased with that. I would call it the year's essential movie to see so far (David Fincher's Zodiac being a close second). More generally, however, the soundtrack got me to thinking about the use of music in film. It does essentially boil down to two things: original scores of music written for the film or a compilation of pop hits from any of various appropriate decades. Since these are two very different concepts, we will discuss them independently of one another. Today, I will talk about original scores.

I am of the opinion that a film's music should blend into the film and assist in creating an overall atmosphere. In tandem with the photography and art direction, the music is essential in determining the mood of a piece. These aspects should all work together to produce a singular work of art. Basically, what I mean, more than anything else, is that the music should not draw attention to itself. It should not be unnecessarily grandiose and self-important.

We will take a case study of two of the most highly regarded films of all time: Gone with the Wind and Casablanca. Both scores were written by music legend Max Steiner; however, they are as different as night and day. The score from Gone with the Wind is arguably the more memorable, ranking number two on the American Film Institute's list of greatest film scores. And, it is an admittedly fine piece of musical composition, but it stands alone, apart from the film, as a separate artistic achievement. On the other hand, Steiner's score for Casablanca is an essential part of the film and can not stand alone. The whole of the music is based on the most prominent song in the feature, "As Time Goes By".

While Steiner's work on Gone with the Wind is masterful writing, it augments the film rather than enhancing it and is used as simple shortcut for arrousing the proper and appropriate emotion in the viewer. The music in Casablanca is, however, perfect in exemplifying the mood and tone of the film. It does not distract the audience but instead subtly flows in and out of the movie as necessary.

One could easily spend all day considering the history and evolution of the film score. I have chosen two examples that may seem dated but, for my purposes, will suffice. Countless pages could be spent examining the validity of John Williams' artistic contributions to just Steven Spielberg's filims, let alone Williams' other notable works. Modern film scores are less revered than classics, but we will see where they stand thirty years from now. In three decades, will Howard Shore and Phillip Glass be held in the same regard as Franz Waxman and the aforementioned Max Steiner. Time will tell.