Knowing the Score

Film Composers Talk About the Art, Craft, Blood, Sweat, and Tears of Writing for Cinema

David Morgan

• Publisher: Dey Street Books
• Year: 2013
• Print ISBN:
  9780380804825
• eBook ISBN:
  9780062287489
• Topic: Media & Performing Arts
• Subtopic: Film & Video

This collection of interviews with Hollywood composers offers the most intimate look ever at the process of writing music for the movies.  From getting started in the business to recording the soundtrack, from choosing a musical style to collaborating with directors, including Martin Scorsese, Stanley Kubrick, the Coen brothers, Terry Gilliam, Kenneth Branagh, and Ken Russell, from learning to deal with editing to writing with time-sensitive precision, the leading practitioners in the field share their views on one of the most important  -- and least understood -- aspects of filmmaking: the motion picture art that's heard but not seen.

INDEX

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Abbey Road Studios, 198

ABC News, 190

Adam, Ian, 225

Adams, John, 274

adaptation (stage to film), 202–203

Addison, John, 210

Adventures of Baron Munchausen, The, 31

Afterglow, 77, 86, 185

Agony and the Ecstasy, The, 289

Airplane!, 76

Aladdin, 105, 107, 109–112, 122–123; “One Jump,” 110; “Prince Ali,” 109, 112; “Proud of Your Boy,” 109

All the President’s Men, 1, 10, 91

“Also Sprach Zarathustra,” 132

Altered States, 9, 131–133, 137, 200; Hinchi mushroom dance, 137; Three Hallucinations for Orchestra, 132

Altman, Robert, 278

American Hindu Anti-Defamation Coalition, 218

Amram, David, 33

Anderson, Leroy, 30

Anima Mundi, 150

Animal House, 76

Annie, 125

Apartment Zero, 37–38

Apocalypse Now, 20

Appalachian Spring 93

Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz, The (play), 127

As You Like It (play), 42

Ashman, Howard, 104–105, 109–118, 122, 127

Astaire, Fred, 223

At First Sight, 85

Atina: Evil Queen of the Galaxy (play), 115

August, Bille, 6, 55

“Ave Maria,” 196

Ax, Emanuel, 262

Bach, Johannes Sebastian, 3, 292

Bad and the Beautiful, The, 2, 8

Baird, Stuart, 14–16

Ballard, Carroll, 78, 185–186, 188–190

Barbérian, Alan, 160

Barroso, Ary, 25, 28

Barry, John, 278

Bartók, Bela, 19, 24, 134, 291–292

Barton Fink, 57, 62, 69

Basic Instinct, 7

Batman Forever, 201, 269, 271

Baum, L. Frank, 18, 20

BBC, 216

Beach Boys, 133

Beatles, xi, 292

Beauty and the Beast, 92, 105, 109–112, 124; “Be Our Guest,” 120; Beauty and the Beast (play), 124, 127

Beethoven, Ludwig van, 3, 9, 87, 198, 227, 274–284, 292

Bell, Joshua, 264, 266

Bennett, Michael, 115, 122

Bennett, Richard Rodney, 180

Berg, Alban, 291

Bergman, Andrew, 74

Berlin, Irving, 220–221

Bernstein, Elmer, 2, 96, 204, 206–207, 285; on Cape Fear, 206, 208–211; on choosing projects, 76–77; on electronics, 179–180; on favorites, 292; on formulaic scores, 82; on good scores in bad movies, 82; on his start in film, 34–35; on listening to film music, 10; on orchestration, 179; on The Grifters, 97–98, 100; on work habits, 93

Bernstein, Leonard, 49, 292

Big Lebowski, The, 69–70

Big Street, 127

Birdman of Alcatraz, 97, 179

Black Stallion, The, 186

Blade Runner, 177

Blight, 216

Blood Simple, 5, 58–61, 69, 233

“Blue Danube, The,” 283

Blue Lagoon, The, 169–170

Blue Max, The, 180

Bluestone, Harry, 34

BMI Musical Workshop, 114

Body Heat, 289

Boekelheide, Todd, 189

Bogart, Humphrey, 14

Boys from Brazil, The, 52

Brahms, Johannes, 292

“brain surgery” scores, 10

Branagh, Kenneth, 40, 42–46, 220–224

Brando, Marlon, 49

Brandy, 102

Brazil, 25–31

“Brazil,” 25, 27–28, 30

Breakdown, 80

Bridges, Jeff, 69–70

Britten, Benjamin, 292

Broughton, Bruce, 292

Brown, Blair, 137

Brown, Steve, 115, 122

Browning, Todd, 234

Buckman, Sidney, 35

budgets, 160

Burwell, Carter, 5, 57–71; on choosing projects, 72, 75; on communicating wit...

Table of contents

• Contents
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• Panel
• The Art of Film Music
• Getting a Foot in the Door
• Scissors Cut Paper Wraps Stone: Collaboration
• Immersion: Beginning the Process
• Collaboration with Other Composers
• Bending the Rules
• Period Pieces
• The Shape of the Sound: Orchestration
• Adaptation
• Recording
• Coda
• The Organic Score
• Lost and Found: Robert Townson on Alex North, 2001, and the Art of the Soundtrack Album
• End Titles
• Appendix
• Index
• About the Author
• Also by David Morgan
• Copyright
• About the Publisher