“If a composer could say what he had to say in words, he would not bother trying to say it in music.”
Gustav Mahler
Timpani roll at pianissimo.
“And the Oscar goes to ...”
Those five famous words help set the stage for tension and anxiety at tonight’s 84th Academy Awards.
Without the timpani roll and its much anticipated crescendo, tension is negated, anxiety dissipated and the audience is left with a feeling of emptiness.
This same effect would transpire if motion pictures were devoid of music, and audiences left with only words.
Granted, words are powerful. Shakespeare is a testimony of proof. Music, however, adds an efficacious fourth dimension.
Patrick Doyle’s sweeping scores from “Hamlet” and “Henry V,” starring Kenneth Branagh (one of this year’s nominees for Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role, in “My Week with Marilyn”), helped propel The Bards’ plays to new and unimaginable heights.
Vangelis reaffirms the argument that words are powerful, but music trumps words.
While audiences may not recall, “Remember those few moments, with hope in our hearts, and wings on our heels,” they’ll never forget that vast beach, and the all-electronic tour de force of Olympiad-like rhythms from the Oscar-winning score, “Chariots of Fire.”
In 1954, composers Morris Stoloff and George Duning provided their Oscar-nominated score to a different type of beach scene. One with its own rhythms, and “Nobody ever kissed me the way you do.”
As the Pacific Ocean waves crashed on shore and rushed over Burt Lancaster and Deborah Kerr, audiences not only found themselves electrified, but also shocked “From Here to Eternity.”
It’s memories such as the aforementioned that are also captured in this year’s Academy Awards poster featuring images from eight legendary motion pictures that span eight decades.
“Gone with the Wind,” “Casablanca,” “Giant,” “The Sound of Music,” “The Godfather,” “Driving Miss Daisy,” “Forrest Gump” and “Gladiator.”
While words to stimulate the mind are in abundance, it’s the music that awakens the soul.
From “After all ... tomorrow is another day,” to “We’ll always have Paris,” the scores of Max Steiner’s “Gone with the Wind” and “Casablanca,” remain epic and intimate.
Five giants of the silver screen, Rock Hudson, Elizabeth Taylor, James Dean, Mercedes McCambridge and Dennis Hopper starred in “Giant,” but it was Dimitri Tiomkin’s mammoth score that gave a new meaning to the phrase, “This land is Texas.”
Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II, literally transported audiences to new heights with “The Sound of Music,” while Julie Andrews and Christopher Plummer (also, a nominee this year for Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role, in “Beginners”), confirmed “The hills [were indeed] alive with music.”
Nino Rota meticulously composed an Italian sound for “The Godfather,” and Alan Silvestri added the sweetener to “Forrest Gump,” thus affirming, “Life is like a box of chocolates ... you never know what you’re gonna get.”
In addition, Hans Zimmer masterfully demonstrated that motion picture locations and storylines don’t interfere with one’s natural talent to compose music about the south during the 1950s (“Driving Miss Daisy”), or Rome, in the second century (“Gladiator”).
And, while the music from these motion pictures continues to thrill audiences around the globe, imagine them without that fourth dimension.
There would be no emotion, no love, no suspense, no hate, no murder, no cheering and no need for Kleenex. There would only be words.
And, regardless of the power of those words, remember it’s the music that brings the words to life.
So the next time you find yourself standing outside a movie theatre, contemplating which motion picture poster captures your attention the most, or which one arouses your emotions enough to purchase a ticket to allow yourself to escape from the world of reality, if only for a few hours, take a moment to read the composer’s name. Then, as you exit the theatre, ask yourself if the music enhanced the motion picture, and to what extent. You may find yourself in agreement with the French poet, Alphonse de Lamartine. “Music is the literature of the heart; it commences where speech ends.”
In the meantime, pour yourself a glass of Apothic Red, head to the den, recline in your favorite chair and await these words:
“For Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures, Original Score, the nominees are: ‘The Adventures of Tintin,’ John Williams, composer; ‘The Artist,’ Ludovic Bource, composer; ‘Hugo,’ Howard Shore, composer; ‘Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy,’ Alberto Iglesias, composer; and ‘War Horse,’ John Williams, composer.”
Timpani roll at pianissimo.
“And the Oscar goes to ...”
Larry French of Butler teaches English at East Tennessee State University and Northeast State Community College. He can be reached at frenchl@mail.etsu.edu.
