Once upon a time, in a cinema not so far away, film music was played live. In the black and white days of silent films, musicians played along to the on-screen drama. One reason was to add to the entertainment. Another was to cover up the sound of early projectors which were incredibly noisy. They rattled and clattered in a way that was really hard to put up with. So much for entertainment!
The first completely original film score was penned by Max Steiner for the original 1933 blockbuster King Kong, although there had been one or two smaller experiments before that. One of those was Charlie Chaplin’s City Lights (1931) which included music composed by Chaplin himself. That little man with the mustache and the funny hat was a serious mover and shaker back in the day.
As technologies have developed – in sound as well as cinema – the place of music in film has become firmly established. Improved audio recording and reproduction, such as the introduction of reel to reel in 1963, is easy to take for granted, but it has been fundamental to some great cinematic moments.
Did you know the shower scene in Psycho was meant to be silent? Composer Bernard Herrman disagreed with the great Alfred Hitchcock’s original plan for the scene and went ahead and wrote a score for it anyway. Once Hitch had heard it he was forced to admit he’d been wrong. Take away the sound and the scene isn’t anything like as scary. It has gone on to become one of the all-time great aural clichés.
In much the same way, without John Williams’ dramatic strings, Jaws would have been dead in the water. Williams’ ability to ramp up the tension in a succession of scenes is surely as good as it gets.
That ability to capture a mood is not just about shock and horror, though. Sometimes all it takes is the right marriage of a musical mood and the overall feel of a film. The original Italian Job (1969) – one of the all-time great feel-good films – is buoyed by a soundtrack that perfectly captures the free-spirited, ‘laddishness’ of late 1960s London. Quincy Jones’ brisk and breezy score is a key part of what is simply perfect smile-inducing cinema – check out the percussion!
If recognisability is any measure of quality, Williams’ scores for ET and Star Wars also deserve special mentions. You have to admit, Williams is pretty good at what he does. But neither of those blockbusters quite manages to hit the heights achieved by the simply timeless James Bond theme. Who actually wrote the piece has been a matter of legal dispute. John Barry and Monty Norman have gone to court numerous times to try and settle their score over the score. Norman has been adjudged the legal composer.
There are hundreds of films that have been lifted to greatness by their music. Ultimately any list will be a matter of personal taste. It’s just like going to the movies, you buy a ticket and you take your pick.
What’s your favorite film score?