The Score on Film Music
It’s always fun to dive into the story behind the music. How the composition came to be, and often, the external forces driving the composer to craft the way they do. Politics, personal dramas and tragedies, world events, folklore and literature, are all creative fodder for composers and storytellers alike. Bringing those to life in a fully orchestrated piece of music is a talent of its own, though. Composers that do it well, at least those in the western classical tradition, do not need to rely on acting and staging to tell the story, but the two enhance and build off each to create something fantastic. This is precisely the story of Igor Stravinsky’s Firebird Suite.
According to the Houston Symphony’s program notes, after being hired by famed Russian ballet impresario, Sergei Diaghilev, a young “Stravinsky worked directly with the choreographer Michel Fokine, who like virtually all ballet masters before him believed that music should be written to fit the dancing, not the other way around. As the most junior member of the creative team, Stravinsky put up with Fokine’s caprices and wrote the music to his requirements. It is a testament to the 27-year-old composer’s burgeoning genius that even, so the score turned out to be one of the young century’s iconic masterpieces.” Perhaps it is the process of working so closely with the choreographer that helped Stravinsky create a musical “vision” for his piece – composing each stanza to so closely encapsulates the Russian tale that audiences are still able to “see” the story unfold just by listening to the music . Beyond pure entertainment, for most audiences Stravinsky’s Firebird has come to “represent a certain triumph of the soul.”
Stravinsky’s ability to make the audience “see” the story unfold through his music is perhaps due to his early exposure to Opera (his father is considered one of the greatest Russian basses). His love for musical theatre is readily apparent in much of his work, having written numerous ballets throughout his career. His sweeping orchestral style perfectly matches the drama and passion being performed on the stage. Interestingly, his style also translates well to another composition type - film music. At one time, after moving to the US, Stravinsky was in negotiations with a movie studio in Hollywood to compose for films in the works. But whether it was due to his lack of experience in the industry, money, or just a differing vision from the producers, he never ended with a film credit to his name. However, while Stravinsky never wrote a movie score, many have said that his innovative style has inspired numerous film scores and their composers. Stravinsky’s iconic ballets, Firebird Suite and, perhaps more notably, The Rite of Spring, have become a jumping-off point for many, even the talented John Williams.
John Williams is perhaps the most iconic film score composer, with over 100 movie credits to his name, including classics like Stars Wars, Indiana Jones, Harry Potter, and many, many more. Hans Zimmer, Danny Elfman, and James Horner are some of the other big composer names you may hear attached to big blockbuster movies. Just like movies themselves, though, film music had much more humble beginnings. Early on, pianists or organists were employed by movie theatres themselves to provide music to go with the pictures on the screen. There was no set score for these musicians, and many relied on Classic or Romantic-era classical compositions to help make the story come to life. Listen closely to early movie music, and you’ll likely hear literal quotations or re-interpretations of pieces from Wagner, Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninoff, and Stravinsky.
If you’ve ever joined us for Music Sandwiched In featuring Nathan Shirley, you know first-hand how music and movies worked together in the early days of film. As film grew in popularity and the movies became longer and more elaborate, so did the music, with film scores expanding to include strings and piano and eventually to full orchestral compositions like the ones you hear today. Early movie music worked much like Stravinksy and Fokine did when creating Firebird Suite. Composers worked closely with directors and producers to interpret the on-screen action and later to paint the aural scene for the action to take place. It’s a give-and-take that the arts are known for, a process of mutual inspiration and generative creativity that is still relevant and vibrant in today’s composing processes.
Music and theatre have been synonymous for eons, from soloists performing inter-act vignettes to full opera productions. Music has always been vital in making stories come to life for audiences. How we tell stories has changed and grown as technology like radio and film became available to storytellers. Yet, no matter how many ways there are to tell a story these days, music remains a constant part of the telling. One could even argue that as technology has expanded, so has the complexity and scale of the music used. Modern movies often rely on soundtracks or playlists pulled from popular music, but have you ever noticed that those big movie blockbusters everyone raves about have a soundtrack of their very own? One composed precisely to enhance each movie moment’s drama, suspense, and romance. Even Buster Often, these epic pieces can stand alone – telling the story without needing a silver screen. That’s the power and magic of music, friends.
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