Hooray for Hollywood

On Wednesday night, I went to see the Boston Pops perform a concert consisting almost exclusively of music by John Williams, conducted by Williams himself. Williams has a history with the Boston Pops, having served as their principal conductor from 1980-1993, and an excited, sold-out crowd welcomes him each time he returns to Symphony Hall in Boston. Now, I don’t make a habit of listening to movie soundtracks, but hearing such classics as the Star Wars theme and the Raider’s March from Indiana Jones: Raiders of the Lost Ark got me thinking about film music, and that’s what I’d like to write about today.

What makes effective film music? Well, first I’d like to clarify the topic of discussion. Film music can be broken into two broad categories: film scores, which are typically classical compositions composed specifically for a given film, and film soundtracks, which consist primarily of previously released songs by a variety of artists. John Williams’s music falls into the former category, and that’s the category I’d like to focus on today.

So, what makes an effective film score? Well, most basically, it must fit the film. John Williams’s score for the Star Wars trilogy is a great example of wonderful film scoring. For example, his famous Star Wars theme, which opens with an ascending perfect fifth played stridently by brass instruments, sets the stage perfectly for the Star Wars films. The perfect fifth interval has often been used to suggest vast spaces—in Copland’s famous ballets, for example, which evoke the open prairies of the Midwest—and in Star Wars, it similarly suggests the infinite black expanse of outer space. The brass-heavy orchestration gives the theme a heroic quality that effectively fits the epic tale of intergalactic warfare that is the Star Wars trilogy (let’s forget the other three movies), and, furthermore, the punching, march rhythms lend a militaristic aura to this heroic theme. Simply put, the theme is perfectly fit to the film, and it was satisfying to hear it live on Wednesday.

The most hyped film score in recent years has been that from There Will Be Blood, composed by Jonny Greenwood of Radiohead fame. I haven’t actually seen the movie, so I can’t fairly judge the music’s efficacy as a film score. However, I have gotten a chance to listen to the music alone, and it’s pretty fascinating. The score consists solely of string instruments, so it has none of the in-your-face strength of a brass-heavy orchestra. Yet Greenwood employs the strings to create a range of contrasting effects, from an atonal buzz in the segment entitled “There Will Be Blood” to a beautiful elegiac lament in “Oil.” I’ve always found Greenwood’s guitar playing as a member of Radiohead to be quite compelling, and so I approached his classical compositions with sincere curiosity. And, let me say that they do not disappoint—“Oil,” is particularly sublime. I look forward to hearing future works from Greenwood. I’ve included both of the tracks mentioned above, as well as the ubiquitous theme from Star Wars for your enjoyment.

John Williams - Theme from Star Wars (YSI) (filesavr)
Jonny Greenwood - Oil (YSI) (filesavr)
Jonny Greenwood - There Will Be Blood (YSI) (filesavr)