First, a clarification: A movie’s score and a movie’s soundtrack are not the same thing. A soundtrack is a collection of songs old and/or new that tie in (or don’t) with the film’s storyline. Whether the soundtrack is good, bad or indifferent, it’s essentially merchandise, like a T-shirt or a tote bag.
That’s an important distinction to keep in mind as we observe National Film Score Day on April 3.
The score is an essential, if sometimes overlooked, element of a film. The music of the score is composed to set the tone for scenes in the film. The score helps make scenes funnier or more dramatic. The music can evoke romance, as does James Horner’s score for Titanic. It can also evoke sheer terror, as in Bernard Hermann’s screeching, staccato violins in Psycho.
Alfred Hitchcock directed Psycho, and Hermann is best-known for his scores of Hitchcock films such as The Man Who Knew Too Much, Vertigo and North by Northwest. Hermann also was a favorite of directors Orson Welles and Brian DePalma. His final work was the score for Martin Scorsese’s Taxi Driver. Scorsese’s film portrays mid-1970s New York City as a deteriorating hellscape that provokes and parallels main character Travis Bickle’s deteriorating sanity. Hermann’s score achieves the near-impossible, sustaining a sense of humanity while remaining true to Scorsese’s bleak vision.
Angelo Badalamenti’s scores for David Lynch (Twin Peaks, Mulholland Drive) are much more than scene cues. The composer’s work moves freely between romantic orchestrations and slinky jazz, and the music is essential for Lynch in setting up scenes, illustrating characters and more.
It’s just about impossible to hear the theme to The Good, the Bad and the Ugly and not visualize poncho-clad Clint Eastwood astride his horse, cheroot clamped between his teeth. Ennio Morricone’s score for Sergio Leone’s Western used whistling, twanging, reverberating electric guitars and choruses that sounded like the grunts of a chain gang: unusual choices that worked wonders in conveying the desolate, foreboding atmosphere of the film.
The score of 1956 sci-fi thriller Forbidden Planet conveyed a different landscape. Electronic music pioneers Bebe and Louis Barron’s score was built on sonic swoops and bleeps the couple created and then manipulated with tape delays, reverb and other effects. The score is as foreboding as Morricone’s, but much harder to whistle.
German progressive rock veterans Tangerine Dream had a busy sideline in film scores. Known mostly for their dreamy soundscapes, the group also knew how to ramp up tension. Their music for William Friedkin’s 1977 Sorcerer is the ideal backing for the film’s nerve-shredding journey into darkness.
Another German crew, Popol Vuh, have been a favorite of director Werner Herzog, for whom the band has scored numerous works including Nosferatu, Fitzcarraldo and Cobra Verde. Italian horror master Dario Argento had a long association with the band Goblin, which scored many of his films. Listen to the theme from Argento’s Suspiria and you’ll never trust a music box again.
Several rock musicians have made names for themselves as film composers, including guitar virtuoso Ry Cooder, Radiohead’s Jonny Greenwood, Oingo Boingo’s Danny Elfman and Devo’s Mark Mothersbaugh. The most successful of these has to be Randy Newman, now likely more well known for his work on the Toy Story movies than for the biting satire and brutal humor of his solo work.
Newman, in a sense, was just joining the family’s business. Three of his uncles, Alfred, Emil and Lionel Newman, were all highly regarded composers for film.
Unlike his three brothers, Randy’s father, Irving, was a doctor. There’s one in every family, isn’t there?