Music For Chsristmas Gifts

[flipp525]

I wanted to start a 'Music for Hooking Up' thread but I thought I'd just put it here. Check out "Love On My Mind (Club Edit)" by the Freemasons. Fuckin' great song to get sweaty to, y'all. Sure, it's gay and clubby but hey, it's hot.



Edited By flipp525 on 1174854725

[99-1100896887]

I'm sorry. I thought I made it plain:
the people I mention wrote primarily "romantic" or "heroic music", for films,( if you wish me to develop this theme, I can) but they wrote serious music as well( as above), and I hope to encourage younger audiences , who have seen the older films , to appreciate that the early film composers were serious musicians themselves. I am assuming, I guess, that the people who have seen the films enjoy the music-- IMO there has never been better film music, but I am open to argument there. There is no question that some of these composers wrote better serious ,than film, music. That was not my point.
I can see that you are familiar with some of the later ones. I particularly like Corliagno.
Brian Darr, where are you with some suggestions?

[Sonic Youth]

Arthur Bliss, Max Steiner, Miklos Rozsa,William Walton, Bernard Herrmann,Erich Korngold, and others, all wrote primarily romantic or heroic music for films.

I'm not quite sure what you mean by this. Are you saying the film scores they wrote were primarily romantic and heroic, or that the film scores are their primary output? Because that's certainly not the case for Bliss and Walton, who only wrote a handful of scores. In fact, many 20th century composers tried their hand in the film medium, including Shostakovich, Prokofiev, Vaughan Williams, etc. but they're not primarily known for this.

I have a CD of the Maggini Quartet playing Bliss' 2nd String Quartet and the Clarinet Quintet. I bought it blind, or rather deaf, not having heard these works. I bought it because the Quintet is regarded as a masterpiece, and I love the clarinet. It's pleasant enough, but I find it meanders. The Quartet has more aggressive, modernistic qualities. The first movement is outstanding, but it was composed as late as 1950 and other composers were doing this sort of thing twenty-five years earlier, and better. Of course, being chamber music, it doesn't sound like film scores of any kind.

Miklos Rozsa is one of the finest "serious music" composing film composers, and if you mostly associate Miklos Rozsa with his obnoxious Ben Hur score, recalibrate your perception with this recording. It's Rozsa's complete works for solo piano, performed by Sara Davis Buechner, and it's every bit as colorful and dramatic as his best film scores (not to mention difficult to play). His Piano Sonata is excellent. I borrowed a Yale professor's copy five years ago for a week, and never recorded it. And I've been kicking myself since. I'm treating myself to a recording this holiday season.

How odd that Philip Glass is probably better known these days as a film composer, especially when in the 70s and 80s he was probably the only known living, active composer to the general public. I'm not a huge Glassian. Basically, the earlier the piece, the better. There's no denying Einstein on the Beach is a monument in Western compositional history, and it's a mind-blower, but I've never been able to work my way through the whole thing.

John Corigliano has written very few scores, but he's quite well known thanks to 'Altered States' and his Oscar winning 'The Red Violin', a score that was praised to the heavens for a not-very-well regarded film, and which was not expected to win. This was one time the Academy *gasp* really listened to the scores! (To be fair, it was an excellent slate of nominations that year.) His Clarinet Concerto is excellent (haven't heard it in years), but it's far more modern than the Romantic Oscar-winning score. Many people love his 2nd Symphony, written as a memorial for the victims of AIDS. I'm cool towards it myself, but it's a good, accessible entry point for those who find modern classical intimidating.

Can I invert this topic? How about film scores from composers primarily known for "serious" compositions? Get 'Celluloid Copland', which contains music for documentaries he scored, as well as accompaniment for a puppet show for the 1938 World's Fair - some capitalist propaganda thing. There are actually people who disdain Copland's brand of wholesome Americana, but they tend to be the same ones who methodically pull legs off living spiders. Well, they won't like this either, and who needs them?

[99-1100896887]

Many of you will want to find that esoteric film to give as a Christmas gift.

May I suggest something else? For your friends who enjoy films of the thirties and forties, and there are many fine serious works by film composers: piano and other concertos, symphonies, suites, etc.

Arthur Bliss, Max Steiner, Miklos Rozsa,William Walton, Bernard Herrmann,Erich Korngold, and others, all wrote primarily romantic or heroic music for films. Their classical, or serious, music they composed either mirrored their film styles, or radically departed from them.

If your friend swoons over thirties films like Juarez, Deception,The Prince and The Pauper, and other Korngold-scored films, he will adore Korngold's Violin Concerto.
Heifetz gave its first perfomance with NYPhil( I think it was) in 1947, and because it is unabashedly romantic and gorgeous to the ear, one critic found it ( NATURALLY!) "More corn than gold." Not Great Art, but it is a sensual experience. Lots of performances available on CD. If you can find it, there is one with Korngold's Symphony(1950)
(If you live in Canada, there is a great recording of Korngold, Walton and Barber concertos on CBC Records with James Ehnes. Order by mail.

Anyone got any suggestions of this sort? There are lots of composers I missed in my brief post.