Film score

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For music not written specifically for the film, see Film soundtrack.

For the record label, see Film Score Monthly.

A film score is the music in a film, generally written for the film and often used to heighten emotions provoked by the imagery on the screen or by the dialogue.

In many instances, film scores are performed by orchestras, which vary in size from a small chamber ensemble to a large ensemble, sometimes including a choir. The orchestra is either a studio orchestra made up of contracted musicians such as the Hollywood Studio Symphony or a performing orchestra such as the London Symphony Orchestra. However, TV, video games, and films with even smaller budgets, often utilize sampling technology to re-create the sound of an orchestra. This is generally much cheaper, although most film-makers try to avoid this.

Some films use popular music as the primary musical component, but an orchestral score is more often preferred. An orchestral score can be much more closely adapted to a film while popular music is most often based upon a strong and repetitive rhythm that is inflexible and cannot be easily adapted to a scene. Popular genres of music also tend to date quickly as styles rapidly evolve while orchestral music tends to age much more gracefully. Instead, popular music may be included for special occasions where more attention must be diverted to the music. In these cases, songs are usually not written specifically for the film (see soundtrack).

1 Process of creation
2 Artistic merit
3 Historical notes
4 Orchestral soundtracks
5 Notable film score composers
6 External links

[edit] Process of creation

Usually, after the film has been shot (or has completed some shooting), the composer is shown an unpolished "rough cut" of the film (or of the scenes partially finished), and talks to the director about what sort of music (styles, themes, etc.) should be used — this process is called "spotting." More rarely, the director will talk to the composer before starting shooting, as to give more time to the composer or because the director needs to shoot scenes (namely song or dance scenes) according to the final score. Sometimes the director will have edited the film using "temp (temporary) music": already published pieces that are similar to what the director wants. Most film composers strongly dislike temp music, as directors often become accustomed to it and push the composers to be imitators rather than creators. On certain occasions, directors have become so attached to the temp score that they decided to use it and reject the score custom-made by a composer. One of the most famous cases is Stanley Kubrick's A Space Odyssey, where Kubrick opted for existing recordings of classical works rather than the score by Alex North, which eventually led to a law suit by composer György Ligeti when he was surprised to hear his compositions in a motion film.

Once a composer has the film, they will then work on creating the score. While some composers prefer to work with traditional paper scores, many film composers write in a computer-based environment. This allows the composer and orchestrator to create MIDI-based demos of themes and cues, called MIDI mockups, for review by the filmmaker prior to the final orchestral recording. Some films are then re-edited to better fit the music. Instances of this include the collaborations between filmmaker Godfrey Reggio and composer Philip Glass, where over several years the score and film are edited multiple times to better suit each other. Arguably the most successful instances of these are the associations between Sergio Leone and Ennio Morricone. In the finale of The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, Morricone had prepared the score used before and Leone edited the scenes to match it. His other two famous films, Once Upon a Time in the West and Once Upon a Time in America, were completely edited to Morricone's score as the composer had prepared it months before the film's production. Another example is the famous "flying" scene in Steven Spielberg's E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial. The score, composed by long-time collaborator John Williams, proved so difficult to synchronize in this specific scene during the recording sessions that, as recounted in a companion documentary on the DVD, Spielberg gave Williams a blank check so to speak and asked him to record the cue without picture, freely; Spielberg then re-edited the scene later on to perfectly match the music.

When the music has been composed and orchestrated, the orchestra or ensemble then perform it, often with the composer conducting. Musicians for these ensembles are often uncredited in the film or on the album and are contracted individually (and if so, the orchestra contractor is credited in the film or the soundtrack album). However, some films have recently begun crediting the contracted musicians on the albums under the name Hollywood Studio Symphony after an agreement with the American Federation of Musicians. Other performing ensembles that are often employed include the London Symphony Orchestra, the City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra (an orchestra dedicated exclusively to recording), and the Northwest Sinfonia.

The orchestra performs in front of a large screen depicting the movie, and sometimes to a series of clicks called a "click-track" that changes with meter and tempo, assisting the conductor to synchronize the music with the film.

Films often have different themes for important characters, events, ideas or objects, taking the idea from Wagner's use of leitmotif. These may be played in different variations depending on the situation they represent, scattered amongst incidental music. A famous example of this technique is John Williams' score for the Star Wars saga, and the numerous themes associated with characters like Darth Vader, Luke Skywalker, and Princess Leia (see Star Wars music for more details).

Most films have between forty and seventy-five minutes of music. However, some films have very little or no music; others may feature a score that plays almost continuously throughout. Dogme 95 is a genre that has music only from sources within a film, such as from a radio or television. This is called "source music" because it comes from an on screen source that can actually be seen or that can be inferred (in academic film theory such music is called "diegetic" music, as it emanates from the "diegesis" or "story world").

In 1983 a non-profit organization, the Society for the Preservation of Film Music, was actually formed to preserve the "byproducts" of creating a film score: The music manuscripts (written music) and other documents and studio recordings generated in the process of composing and recording scores which, in some instances, have been discarded by the movie studios. The written music must be kept in order to perform the music on concert programs and to make new recordings of it. Sometimes only after decades has an archival recording of a film score been released on CD.

[edit] Artistic merit

The artistic merits of film music are frequently debated. Some critics value it highly, pointing to music such as that written by Erich Wolfgang Korngold, Aaron Copland, Bernard Hermann, and others. Some consider film music to be a defining genre of classical music in the late 20th century, if only because it is the brand of classical music heard more often than any other. In some cases, film themes have become accepted into the canon of classical music. These are mostly works from already noted composers who have done scores, for instance Sergei Prokofiev's score to Alexander Nevsky or Vaughan Williams' score to Scott of the Antarctic. Others see the great bulk of film music as meritless. They consider that much film music is derivative, borrowing heavily from previous works. Composers of film scores typically can produce about three or four per year. The most popular works by composers such as John Williams and Danny Elfman are still far from entering the accepted canon. Even so, considering they are often the most popular modern compositions of classical music known to the general public, major orchestras sometimes perform concerts of such music.

[edit] Historical notes

Before the age of sound motion pictures, great effort was taken to provide suitable music for films, usually through the services of an in-house pianist or organist, and, in some case, entire orchestras, typically given cue sheets as a guide. In 1914, The Oz Film Manufacturing Company sent full-length scores by Louis F. Gottschalk for their films. Other examples of this include Victor Herbert's score in 1915 to Fall of a Nation (a sequel to Birth of a Nation) and Camille Saint-Saëns' music for L'Assassinat du duc de Guise in 1908 — arguably the very first in movie history. It was preceded by Nathaniel D. Mann's score for The Fairylogue and Radio-Plays by four months, but that was a mixture of interrelated stage and film performance in the tradition of old magic lantern shows. Most accompaniments at this time, these examples notwithstanding, comprised pieces by famous composers, also including studies. These were often used to form catalogues of film music, which had different subsections broken down by 'mood' and/or genre: dark, sad, suspense, action, chase, etc. This made things much easier for the in-house pianists and orchestras to pick pieces that fitted the particular feel of a movie and its scenes.

A full film score widely regarded as the first made by a popular artist came in 1973 with the film Pat Garret and Billy the Kid, by Bob Dylan. However the album received very little critical acclaim. This had not been done before in popular film history: any featured band had films written around the music (notably The Beatles with Yellow Submarine).

[edit] Orchestral soundtracks

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This list includes soundtracks that are mostly or entirely orchestral, with few songs. Notable composers of orchestral soundtracks include John Williams, Bernard Herrmann, Jerry Goldsmith, James Horner, Alan Silvestri, Howard Shore, Michael Giacchino, Randy Newman, Michael Kamen, Alan Menken, Hans Zimmer, Ennio Morricone, Trevor Rabin and Danny Elfman. Classical composers Philip Glass and Prokofiev are also noted for their film music. Some scores, like Prokofiev's Lieutenant Kije, have become important works of classical music in their own right, whereas the film itself is now forgotten.

Some well-known orchestral soundtracks include:

Star Wars Series
Titanic (soundtrack) the biggest selling primarily orchestral film score in history
Star Trek TV Series and films
The Lord of the Rings trilogy
Gone with the Wind
E.T.
Close Encounters of the Third Kind
Back to the Future trilogy
Harry Potter Series
The Dollars Trilogy
Casablanca
Lawrence of Arabia
James Bond series
Indiana Jones Series
Vertigo
Psycho
Jaws

Classical music often used in movies includes:

In the Hall of the Mountain King used in M, Rat Race, Corpse Bride, RV
Also sprach Zarathustra and The Blue Danube in 2001: A Space Odyssey
Symphony No. 5 (Beethoven)
Symphony No. 9 (Beethoven)
Rhapsody in Blue
The Entertainer (rag)
Sabre Dance
The Ride of the Valkyries used in Apocalypse Now
1812 Overture by Tchaikovsky used in V for Vendetta
Toccata and Fugue in D Minor by Johann Sebastian Bach used in Rollerball

[edit] Notable film score composers

For a more comprehensive list, see List of soundtrack composers

Please note: Films are only highlights of the composer's works, and thus this is not a complete listing.

The inclusion of items on this list, exclusion of items from this list, or length of this list is disputed.
Please discuss this issue on the talk page.