Film scores, like cartoons - their relatives in the minature - are often called upon to depict certain colors or emotions, even particular actions and scenes.
It is much more obvious in cartoons due to the more compact scope of the work. As an example, if you want to depict a well meaning but comedic hero going off to save the day, Wagner's Valkyrie maidens will do the job. Although authors and even composers generally try to avoid cliches, that usually is what works best in a film score.
Carl Stalling, who did use some original tunes, used mostly a stringing together of melodies from popular tunes and classical music to create the soundtracks for the early Warner Brothers cartoons. His genius was in how he orchestrated familiar melodies into a form so solid that one can see the cartoon clearly just by listening to the music.
The best (or worst) example of what a film composer can go through happened with 2001: A Space Odyssey. I have a CD at home of the original score - that is, the score that was composed from "scratch" for the movie. The monolith scene is kinda-sorta like the opening of Also Sprach Zarathustra (that last "r" really wanted to migrate to the right, in keeping with the space theme... even then, not sure the spelling is accurate on it), which was the music the director provided to the composer to help guide him. The docking scene likewise had a very Straussian waltz going on, in spirit with the guide tracks. I believe the composer - Alex North - was at the premiere when he first discovered the temporary tracks the director gave him as an example were accompanying the film instead of the score he had put a huge effort into.
I'll have to watch Hook again, as well - but I wouldn't be surprised at all if there were some very similar elements.
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Date: 2006-01-05 12:12 pm (UTC)It is much more obvious in cartoons due to the more compact scope of the work. As an example, if you want to depict a well meaning but comedic hero going off to save the day, Wagner's Valkyrie maidens will do the job. Although authors and even composers generally try to avoid cliches, that usually is what works best in a film score.
Carl Stalling, who did use some original tunes, used mostly a stringing together of melodies from popular tunes and classical music to create the soundtracks for the early Warner Brothers cartoons. His genius was in how he orchestrated familiar melodies into a form so solid that one can see the cartoon clearly just by listening to the music.
The best (or worst) example of what a film composer can go through happened with 2001: A Space Odyssey. I have a CD at home of the original score - that is, the score that was composed from "scratch" for the movie. The monolith scene is kinda-sorta like the opening of Also Sprach Zarathustra (that last "r" really wanted to migrate to the right, in keeping with the space theme... even then, not sure the spelling is accurate on it), which was the music the director provided to the composer to help guide him.
The docking scene likewise had a very Straussian waltz going on, in spirit with the guide tracks. I believe the composer - Alex North - was at the premiere when he first discovered the temporary tracks the director gave him as an example were accompanying the film instead of the score he had put a huge effort into.
I'll have to watch Hook again, as well - but I wouldn't be surprised at all if there were some very similar elements.