“Music is a moral law,” wrote Plato. “It gives soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination… and life to everything.”
That includes computer-generated imagery.
While my distaste for the overkill of CGI in alleged “live action” movies is quite well known, I have to concede that, when shelling out the clams for a big-budget movie, one stands a better chance these days of getting a quality ride if one banks on the solely computer-animated feature. Put an action hero in a computer-animated landscape, and everything looks incredibly fake. But integrate the characters, by creating them in the computer as well, and the result is often much more absorbing, imaginative, and even wittier than your run-of-the-mill Hollywood blockbuster.
Furthermore, in a day when so many movies sport scores made up of droning electronics punctuated by colorless action cues, the computer-generated feature seems to attract composers who still understand how to write music.
This week on “Picture Perfect,” we’ll listen to enlivening scores from four computer-generated films.
We’ll hear selections from the first installment in the “Ice Age” franchise, by David Newman (son of Golden Age heavy-hitter Alfred Newman, brother of Thomas Newman, and cousin of Randy Newman).
We’ll also have some of John Williams’ music from “The Adventures of Tintin,” after the comic book adventurer created by Belgian artist and writer Hergé. Tintin’s popularity in Europe failed to translate into big domestic box office, comparatively speaking, but the score is Williams’ best of its kind – an exciting adventure piece full of leitmotifs and great action cues – since the first of the Harry Potter films.
We’ll round out the hour with two projects scored by Michael Giacchino for Pixar Animation Studios. Giacchino’s break-out success was the sly superhero satire, “The Incredibles,” for which he composed in the swinging ‘60s espionage style popularized by John Barry when writing for the James Bond films.
We’ll also hear selections from Giacchino’s Academy Award-winning score to “Up.” “Up” was nominated for Best Picture at the 82nd Academy Awards, only the second animated feature ever to be included in the category.
I think we can all use a little animation, can’t we? I hope you’ll join me for an hour of selections from computer-animated adventures, on “Picture Perfect,” music for the movies, now in syndication on KWAX Classical Oregon!
——-
Clip and save the start times for all three of my recorded shows:
PICTURE PERFECT, the movie music show – Friday at 8:00 PM EDT/5:00 PM PDT
SWEETNESS AND LIGHT, the light music program – Saturday at 11:00 AM EDT/8:00 AM PDT
THE LOST CHORD, unusual and neglected rep – Saturday at 7:00 PM EDT/4:00 PM PDT
Stream them, wherever you are, at the link!
https://kwax.uoregon.edu See less
Category: Picture Perfect
-
Classical Weekend with Classic Ross Amico
With Christopher Nolan’s “The Odyssey” sailing into theaters today, interest in Classical mythology is renewed. I mean, I think it’s always been a fascination for school children, but thanks to that early inculcation, it remains with us for the rest of our lives – sometimes pushed to the backs of our brains, but who doesn’t remember with affection the Greek heroes, their imposing quests and impossible challenges, the fickle gods, the peculiar trysts, the triumphs and turns of fortune, and perhaps most of all, the grotesque monsters?
“The Odyssey” is an excuse for me to revisit these youthful enthusiasms, as I make Classical mythology the focus of all three of my radio shows this weekend (with air times and streaming information posted below).
First, today, on “Picture Perfect,” it’s a mythological mash-up of music from fantasy films, including selections from “Helen of Troy” (Max Steiner), “Clash of the Titans” (Laurence Rosenthal), “Hercules” (Pino Donaggio), and “Jason and the Argonauts” (Bernard Herrmann).
Then, tomorrow morning on “Sweetness and Light,” it’s an ambrosial assortment of pieces inspired by Orpheus and Eurydice, Daphnis and Chloe, Hercules, and a riot of nymphs, satyrs, and fauns, vividly evoked by Jacques Offenbach, Howard Hanson, Cécile Chaminade, George Frideric Handel, Camille Saint-Saëns, and Maurice Ravel.
Finally, indomitable Odysseus makes his belated return from the Trojan War to Ithaca on “The Lost Chord,” in works by Ernst Boehe (“Departure and Shipwreck” from the symphonic cycle “From Odysseus’ Voyages”) and Benjamin Britten (the radio play “The Rescue of Penelope,” narrated with gusto by Dame Janet Baker), on “Home Sweet Homer.”
So much for moderation. Join me for a triple helping of Classical classics. I’ll be stringing my bow and launching arrows down a gallery of axe-heads, in celebration of “The Odyssey,” on “Picture Perfect,” “Sweetness and Light,” and “The Lost Chord” – all three originating from KWAX Classical Oregon!
——–
Clip and save the start times of my recorded shows:
PICTURE PERFECT, the movie music show – Friday at 8:00 PM EST/5:00 PM PST
SWEETNESS AND LIGHT, the light music program – Saturday at 11:00 AM EST/8:00 AM PST
THE LOST CHORD, unusual and neglected rep – Saturday at 7:00 PM EST/4:00 PM PST
Stream them, wherever you are, at the link!
https://kwax.uoregon.edu/
——–
IMAGE: “Odysseus and Polyphemus” (1896) by Arnold Böcklin -
Picaresque Adventures on “Picture Perfect”
Calling all rapscallions and scapegraces! This week on “Picture Perfect,” get ready to revel in some freewheeling lack of judgment, with an hour of films based on picaresque novels.
For those of you who weren’t English majors, the picaresque novel is a literary genre often characterized by the presence of rogues or anti-heroes as protagonists, episodic, wayward structures, and, not infrequently, low humor.
We’ll hear music from “The Reivers,” after William Faulkner’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, a coming-of-age story about a boy swept into automobile theft and illicit horseracing in the American South. Mark Rydell directed the 1969 film, which stars Steve McQueen as the rakish Boon Hogganbeck and features narration by Burgess Meredith. John Williams wrote the breezy Americana score.
Mark Twain’s “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” is frequently categorized as an American picaresque. It’s certainly one of the funniest of “serious” books. A middling film adaptation was made in 1960, directed by Michael Curtiz, with Tony Randall given top billing, shifting the focus of the story to the con artistry of the King and the Duke. It features an evocative score by Jerome Moross.
If Hervey Allen’s “Anthony Adverse” had any humor to begin with, it was definitely lost in translation. (Too bad the novel was written in English.) However, the 1936 screen adaptation certainly does sprawl. One could say it’s picaresque in the worst way. It just doesn’t go anywhere. It does, however, feature a top-notch cast (Frederic March, Olivia De Havilland, Claude Rains, etc.) and an Academy Award-winning score by Erich Wolfgang Korngold.
While the modern picaresque novel has its roots in the Renaissance, the genre really seemed to hit its stride in the 18th century, with comic novelists such as Henry Fielding. Fielding’s “Tom Jones,” perhaps the quintessential picaresque, was made into a film in 1963. It went on to win Academy Awards for Best Picture, Best Director (Tony Richardson), Best Adapted Screenplay (John Osborne), and Best Original Score (John Addison). Addison’s music suits Richardson’s quirky virtuosity like an off-kilter powdered wig.
We’re up to no good, with an hour of picaresque adventures, on “Picture Perfect,” music for the movies, now in syndication on KWAX Classical Oregon!
———
Clip and save the start times for all three of my recorded shows:
PICTURE PERFECT, the movie music show – Friday at 8:00 PM EDT/5:00 PM PDT
SWEETNESS AND LIGHT, the light music program – Saturday at 11:00 AM EDT/8:00 AM PDT
THE LOST CHORD, unusual and neglected rep – Saturday at 7:00 PM EDT/4:00 PM PDT
Stream them, wherever you are, at the link!
https://kwax.uoregon.edu -
250 Years of Independence, and All I Got Was “Picture Perfect”
Tomorrow is Independence Day, so it seems appropriate this week on “Picture Perfect” to treat the subject of music from movies related to the birth of our nation.
We’ll hear selections from the 2000 Mel Gibson film, “The Patriot,” in which slow-burning pacifist Mel is pushed too far by ruthless British officer Jason Isaacs and reverts to his bloody French and Indian War ways. By the end of the film, he is literally waving the flag to John Williams’ triumphant score.
Then we’ll hear a suite from the 1942 Jack Benny-Ann Sheridan fixer-up comedy, “George Washington Slept Here,” based on the play by Moss Hart and George S. Kaufman – not really about the Revolution, beyond the fact that the ramshackle Pennsylvania farm house purchased by a transplanted New York couple is alleged to have been a resting place for the Continental Army’s most famous general. The music is by Adolph Deutsch.
The 1985 film, “Revolution,” seemed to have everything going for it. The director was Hugh Hudson, whose “Chariots of Fire” was the big winner at the 1981 Academy Awards; its star was Al Pacino; and its composer was John Corigliano, who went on to win the Pulitzer Prize for Music for his Symphony No. 2 and an Academy Award for “The Red Violin.” Yet “Revolution” bombed horribly – so horribly that Pacino gave up making movies for the next four years. James Galway plays the flute and pennywhistle on the film’s soundtrack.
Finally, we’ll hear music from the longest continuously-shown film in cinematic history, “Williamsburg: The Story of a Patriot,” created exclusively for the tourist attraction of Colonial Williamsburg. The film features future “Hawaii Five-O” star Jack Lord, and the score is by none other than Bernard Herrmann. Peppered with recognizable patriotic tunes from the Revolutionary era, the charming suite includes quotations from “Yankee Doodle” and the William Billings hymn “Chester.”
Stick a feather in your hat and call it macaroni. Then join me for “Picture Perfect,” music for the movies, now in syndication on KWAX!
——-
Clip and save the start times for all three of my recorded shows:
PICTURE PERFECT, the movie music show – Friday at 8:00 PM EDT/5:00 PM PDT
SWEETNESS AND LIGHT, the light music program – Saturday at 11:00 AM EDT/8:00 AM PDT
THE LOST CHORD, unusual and neglected rep – Saturday at 7:00 PM EDT/4:00 PM PDT
Stream them, wherever you are, at the link!
https://kwax.uoregon.edu
——-
PHOTO: George Washington wagers he can crack a walnut with his bare hand in “Williamsburg: The Story of a Patriot” -
Movies Adapted from the Writings of Robert E. Howard on “Picture Perfect”
I prefer to keep my barbarians fictional, thank you. But with the nation’s 250th birthday approaching, I expect there will be plenty of instances in which truth will exceed credibility. It’s the world we live in, folks. Robert E. Howard, take me away!
This week on “Picture Perfect,” it’s an hour of music from movies inspired by Howard’s imaginative writings. Howard is best recognized for having created Conan the Cimmerian, a heroic warrior of the Hyborian Age. The character became the center of a series of lucrative stories first published in “Weird Tales” magazine, beginning in 1932.
It would be a half century before Conan made the leap to the big screen, under the direction of John Milius. “Conan the Barbarian” (1982) propelled Arnold Schwarzenegger, already a legend in the field of bodybuilding, to international superstardom. Okay, “Conan” isn’t exactly “Citizen Kane,” but it does have its pleasures. The intensity of the violence can be a little disturbing, but the ponderous tone is a blast. “Conan” is a film that takes itself just seriously enough to make it occasionally hilarious.
Another thing “Conan” has going for it is the fact that it was made on a blockbuster budget. The first-rate production values extend to the music by Basil Poledouris, who employs a full symphony orchestra to impressive ends. In fact, the “Conan” score was one of the strongest of the decade. It’s amazing that anyone would find so much inspiration in such a mediocre film, but Poledouris’ music intersperses Borodin-style Central Asia lyricism with brawny, thrilling action music.
Sadly, the sequel, “Conan the Destroyer,” betrays signs of penny-pinching, so that it often winds up feeling like a direct-to-video effort. Poledouris was forced to make do with a smaller orchestra, which sounds a bit too much like a television ensemble. Still, he gave it his all, and there’s something to be said for the fact that it is an original score, rather than a mere retread of the original.
Of perhaps related interest: it looks like a long-anticipated third Schwarzenegger Conan movie will finally be happening. “King Conan” is expected to begin filming next year, with Christopher McQuarrie writing and directing!
Let’s hope it fares better than an adaptation inspired by another one of Howard’s pulp creations, Kull of Atlantis, who was given the big screen treatment in “Kull the Conqueror” (1997). Kevin Sorbo, TV’s Hercules, plays the title role. The composer, Joel Goldsmith (son of Jerry), was asked to incorporate heavy metal riffs into his orchestral underscore. I haven’t actually seen this one, but for some reason I don’t feel like I’m missing anything.
The astoundingly prolific Ennio Morricone – with more than 500 motion picture and television scores to his name – had an uncanny knack for spinning garbage into gold. His music for “Red Sonja” (1985) lends the film an aura of ‘80s cheese ball fun, perhaps more so than it deserves. This is the film that introduced Brigitte Nielsen as the chain-mailed barbarian beauty. Schwarzenegger appears in the supporting role of Lord Kalidor.
There are those who would deny themselves the guilty pleasures of viewing these silly, cheesy, violent films. In “Conan the Destroyer,” when our hero is presented with the statement, “I suppose nothing hurts you,” he responds, “… Only pain.”
Make the music loud, Crom! Drive my enemies before me and drown the lamentations of their women! Saddle up with Conan the Barbarian on “Picture Perfect” – music for movies inspired by the writings of Robert E. Howard – now in syndication on KWAX Classical Oregon!
——-
Clip and save the start times for all three of my recorded shows:
PICTURE PERFECT, the movie music show – Friday at 8:00 PM EDT/5:00 PM PDT
SWEETNESS AND LIGHT, the light music program – Saturday at 11:00 AM EDT/8:00 AM PDT
THE LOST CHORD, unusual and neglected rep – Saturday at 7:00 PM EDT/4:00 PM PDT
Stream them, wherever you are, at the link!
https://kwax.uoregon.edu
Tag Cloud
Aaron Copland (93) Beethoven (95) Composer (114) Film Music (141) Film Score (143) Film Scores (255) Halloween (94) John Williams (195) KWAX (229) Leonard Bernstein (103) Marlboro Music Festival (125) Movie Music (156) Mozart (89) Opera (212) Philadelphia Orchestra (89) Picture Perfect (174) Princeton Symphony Orchestra (108) Radio (88) Ross Amico (244) Roy's Tie-Dye Sci-Fi Corner (290) The Classical Network (101) The Lost Chord (268) Vaughan Williams (103) WPRB (396) WWFM (881)