The film composer Francis Lai has died. He wrote the music for “Un homme et une femme” (“A Man and a Woman”) and “Love Story.” You know it, even if you don’t remember his name. Follow the links at your own risk. You won’t be able to get either melody out of your head for the rest of the day. The Academy Award winning composer of over 100 film scores was 86 years-old.
I only wish we still had film composers this good. Then again, I wish we still had movies like “The Planet of the Apes” (1968), “Patton,” “Chinatown,” and “The Wind and the Lion.”
Is Bernard Herrmann the greatest film composer who ever lived?
I can’t think of a single other composer who had a more assured sense of precisely what sound would perfectly complement a specific onscreen image. Most scores by film composers of Hollywood’s Golden Age were melody driven, and while Herrmann certainly could write a heart-rending melody with the best of them, he seemed to be more interested in timbre. What sounds could he create, no matter how outlandish, that would best convey the experience of fighting a giant crab?
Only Herrmann would resolve to score a film like “The Day the Earth Stood Still” using two theremins, two Hammond organs, a large studio electric organ, three vibraphones, two glockenspiels, marimba, tam-tam, two bass drums, three sets of timpani, two pianos, celesta, two harps, electric strings and brass. On paper and in execution, it was the height of lunacy. Yet all at once, the theremin became shorthand for 1950s science fiction.
Despite his stand-apart genius, Herrmann was honored with only a single Academy Award, in 1941 – the same year he followed Orson Welles to Hollywood to write the music for “Citizen Kane” – for “The Devil and Daniel Webster” (also known as “All That Money Can Buy”). He was nominated for his work on “Kane,” and then late in life for the music he wrote for Brian De Palma’s “Obsession” and Martin Scorsese’s “Taxi Driver” (both 1976). He died in his sleep only hours after completing the recording sessions for the latter.
Yet he left behind dozens of beloved and classic scores for films like “The Magnificent Ambersons,” “Jane Eyre,” “The Ghost and Mrs. Muir,” “The Day the Earth Stood Still,” “The Seventh Voyage of Sinbad,” and “Jason and the Argonauts,” to say nothing of those from his landmark association with Alfred Hitchcock, for films like “North by Northwest,” “Vertigo” and “Psycho.” How could “Psycho” not have received an Academy Award? It wasn’t even nominated!
Almost certainly the reason for Herrmann’s neglect on the part of the establishment had less to do with his talent than with his prickly personality. He was a notorious crank. Many found him intimidating, but his acerbic behavior made for some great stories. Steven Spielberg, who had recently enjoyed his first great success with “Jaws,” met Herrmann at the recording session for “Taxi Driver.” When the young director expressed his admiration for the veteran composer’s work, the cantankerous Herrmann shot back, “Then why do you always hire John Williams?” He disagreed violently with studio executives and cab drivers alike – in fact seemed to go out of his way to do so – but many also attested to his kindness and warmth in private.
Curiously, though his concert works have their moments, they don’t grip me from start to finish in a way that certain pieces by fellow film composers Erich Wolfgang Korngold, Miklós Rózsa, and Jerome Moross do. His was a peculiar kind of genius. He was perhaps the greatest film composer who ever lived.
In a career which has spanned 60 years, you’ve garnered 50 Academy Award nominations, 5 Academy Awards, 3 Emmys, 22 Grammys, and 7 BAFTA Awards.
You’re the composer for eight of the top 20 highest-grossing films of all time. You’ve written Olympic fanfares, the theme to NBC News, the theme to PBS’ “Great Performances,” and both themes to “Lost in Space.”
You’re the last in the line of the great Hollywood composers. You’ve also amassed an impressive body of concert music.
Thanks for the extended childhood, John. You’ve made life so much more bearable.
Happy birthday, John Williams, 84 years-old today.
#johnwilliams
The cast of “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” joins Jimmy Fallon and The Roots for this “a cappella” salute:
John Williams records the “Great Performances” theme, in his signature black turtleneck:
Theme to “Lost in Space” (season three):
Olympic Fanfare and Theme (Los Angeles games, 1984):
PHOTO: Williams, with John Boyega and Daisy Ridley of “The Force Awakens”
He’s written music for over 500 movies and television shows, making him the most prolific film composer of all time. He’s composed for movies of all quality, from schlock to Oscar fare. His music is constantly sampled and recycled in other films, especially those of Quentin Tarantino. The upcoming western, “The Hateful Eight,” scheduled for release in January, marks the first genuine collaboration between the two, with Morricone providing his first western score in forty years.
Of course, he virtually invented the spaghetti western sound, with its whistles, harmonicas, jew’s harps, whip cracks and indecipherable chanting choruses. His score for “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly” is among the most famous of all time. But he’s shown himself to be equally adept at a winning lyricism, as evidenced by his music for “The Mission” (another favorite of figure skaters) and “Cinema Paradiso.”
Morricone is one of those rare composers in the industry who does all of his own orchestrations. Somewhere along the way, he manages to write concert music, too.
Happy birthday, Ennio Morricone, 87 years old today.
