Comments from ACO's April
22, 2001
"Hollywood" Concert
ACO closed its
2000-2001 season and 11 concert "20th Century Snapshots"
series with a
program of
film music, aptly titled "Hollywood." The idea that film
music is suitable as concert
music raises
many questions. Is film music appropriate concert music? Does film
music belong
in the
traditional "classical" concert hall? What defines film
music and is there any real
separation
from film music to concert music?
The concert
featured some of the great film composers of this century, including Igor
Stravinsky,
David Raksin, Miklos Rozsa,
Bernard Herrmann, Dmitri Tiomkin,
and a new piece
by Paul
Chihara.
Another task
asked of our listeners was to create an alternative title for these
works and
devise a new
plot for the films represented in our concert. Click
here to read those
comments.
Many people
enjoyed the "Hollywood" concert and were not put off by
rumors that
film music
should not be performed in the concert hall.There should be more film music on concert programs. Hollywood music is clearly one facet of music by American composers
(even if some were born in Russia). Thanks for finally bringing a concert of film music to NYC. Every city
in the U.S.A. seems to have a regular schedule of film music 2 or 3
times a year. Film music-at least one concert or more should be scheduled. Loved all selections. The evocative nature of film music allows the
composer to use the orchestra more creatively. ie. Textures,
combinations unexpected relationships meant to accompany another's
visual inspiration-fun&ldots;moving&ldots;enjoyable. I wish I could have more concerts with film music. It is the classical
music of the 20th Century. Why it takes so long to understand? You should make this into a series unto itself! None of this music had the depth or complexity we associate with the
ACO. It was very disappointing. I think film music should be played in concert halls more often than it
is. Film music is the classical music of today. Similar to classical
music of the past, film music is commissioned by studios and
individuals and organizations for the purpose of high-lighting the
actions of a story or honoring an event. Such music are tone poems
similar to those composed by Liszt and Strauss and Rachmaninoff. They
stimulate emotions within us, they heighten suspense, make us smile and
draw us into the celluloid adventures of fictional characters. Thank
you for considering film music and for a splendid performance. We are told that effective/proper film music should be incidental to
the film (invisible?)-So how lovely to be able to hear the score live,
as the feature. There should be more concerts based on Hollywood music. Today's program
was more enjoyable than the previous one.
Many people
felt that film music used as concert music, proved very effective.
As for the Stravinsky-if indeed the film was shelved, we're grateful to
have the opportunity to hear the score that disappeared.
Raksin and Rozsa-distillations of romantic gesture harmonic language of
Tchaikovsky. Exemplary of craft of orchestration episodic, lacking both
overall propulsion and convincing harmonic development. (Also, pianist
with a small opaque tone couldn't be heard). Bad and Beautiful-Having not seen the movie, I lacked the images to go
with the melodies, but absolutely felt that images were necessary. The
music almost felt one-sided, or rather a explanatory tool present
without that thing that it was made to explain. This was a great concert. "The Bad and the Beautiful" with its 4 parts
was typical concert music. Theatre music. Oh yes it does! Consider audience reaction to "The Bad and the
Beautiful" and "Spellbound." Film music does make thrilling concert music. "The Bad and the
Beautiful" was absolutely luscious and played with great panache! "Bad and the Beautiful" was great (especially sax solo). This was a great concert. "The Bad and the Beautiful" with its 4 parts
was typical concert music. Raksin evokes Rachmoninoff
Spellbound-doesn't work as concert music, Psycho did "Spellbound Concerto" by Mikos Rozsa-a great concert piece "Spellbound" and "Psycho" were visually stunning. When they played the "Spellbound" Concerto I thought I would float out
of the balcony and float! Because it was heavenly! Spellbound and The Bad and the Beautiful were especially lyrical except
for the concert
I would much rather hear the music without the movie than see the movie
without the music. 'Psycho' without its remarkable score, would be
"Fizzo" Bernard Herrmann is a great composer. Psycho because of its wide recognition and melodrama was a suitable
piece for concert. Everything about the score is intense emotion, if
only one note of it- (terror!withdraw&ldots;terror!withdraw&ldots;terror!!)
You don't need images, the music stands with its own evocation. Herrmann deserves more exposure. The music from Hitchcock films. He and his composers were geniuses. Believable as a sonata for strings on its own without reference to
film. Consistently engages the ear. Much more adventurous harmonically. "Psycho" has been played too often. It is a masterful but discordant
score without any pleasant melodies. There are two recognizable themes-
the shower scene and the traveling music. Otherwise, everything else is
effective only when featured in the movie.
The Thing fits this category. Its too loud and unsettling. "The Thing" had me captivated from beginning to end. I love film music and came here today because of that. But I don't
think "The Thing" worked, and "Psycho" was just ok. "The Thing" work was disinteresting and to my memory unusual for the
composer. Like many 1980's and early 90's "Atmospheric" orchestral pieces we're
heard here (ACO), where too many competing instrumental textures merge
into one undifferentiated miasma of sound. Winds and percussion run
amok. As for "The Thing," Mr. Patrick Russ should be fed to the creature for
desecrating such a great score. His arrangement was overblown and
inaccurate in several places. Was he trying to recompose Tiomkin's
music?
Mr. Chihara's composition was interesting, but it really had nothing to
do with "Hollywood," the title of your program. Pretty sounds and occasional tunes but little overall harmonic
narrative or development. Engaging but uneven. Clouds-Title evokes Debussy. But this composition requires listening
rather than reverie in order to enjoy it fully. Many lifts from others,
call it plagerism.
We
asked listeners to create an alternative title and to conceive
their own
plot that went along with the music. Psycho-Now: Suite Julia Child "On her recipe for Carnegie Goulash"
stolen by Graham Kerr for ransom. "Psycho"-maybe woman can't make up her mind about choices in life. "Strung out," score by Bernard Herrmann (see Psycho)-Film plot-Bipdlar
violinist tries to find the right balance to his medication-with mixed
results. Fido (Psycho) The heartwarming story of a young dog and the boy who
loves him. Dog teaches young boy to stop biting people in shower. It
turns that the dog is another boy in a fur coat. Psycho-New title is The Adversary (another word for devil)-the plot is
a story of a respectable doctor who 18 years of lies (pretending to go
work as a famous physician) commits 5 murders-his wife, 2 children and
parents- A meditation on the mystery of identity, evil and the
desperate logic by which it's easier to kill than confess to years of
lies. The psycho screeching staccato violins underscore the violent
extremes of which ordinary people can go. Bad and the Beautiful-aka, The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly: A young
film composer (John Garfield) goes to Hollywood and gains enormous
success for magnificant scores. Then he's called to testify by HUAC
and rats out all of his friends. He can't understand why his friends
abandon him. After all, they were guilty. Years later, Carnegie Hall
features his work and he gains redemption. (Love interest played by
June Allyson). Either of the first two pieces (Stravinsky, Raksin) should be titled
"Background music for a ladies luncheon." Stravinsky "D'Artagnon and friends" a light hearted picaresque
treatment of the 3 Musketeers a la Lester but has a boisterous II
(song) would be a love interlude and our hero moonstruck on a maiden,
IV (cortege) finds the 4 on horseback! Great sea monsters become amphibians and take up residence in NY harbor
and the like. "Clouds...from out of the past" My title, "Memory," the film begins
with an old woman remembering the past. Memories drift by like clouds.
Often hazy or romanticized but with glimpses of harsher reality. (I
would ask the composer for a more extended jazz-ballroom dance
section). This would be her early happy memories. As the movie ends,
she dies and from her house come her children and grandchildren and
others who lives she has touched. As the camera pans back and above we
see the strands of her life moving like a spider web into infinity. High Above for Clouds. Two people in love feeling as if they were
floating high above the clouds and happiness washes away their
feelings. Title: "The sax and the Sex" about an alto player who induces orgasms. Spellbound=Celestial Place and they all went off into Dali's dream and
stayed there as it was reality. An alternative title for "The Thing," would be "The Portfolio." Using
music from "The Thing," the plot would involve a newly married couple
entering the stock market, buying stock, and watching the Nasdaq
composite and the Dow industrials going up and down with trepidation
and horror. Finally, as their investment is eaten up by the hideous
market, the couple, poor and homeless, would leave the city on a cold
and snowy night.
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