Poem: A Better Score

The music is almost always
the first thing I notice about
a film – it wasn’t always this
way, and I can’t quite remember
when it changed – obviously there
are so many iconic themes we instantly
think of from Star Wars and Jaws to ET
and anything by Ennio Morricone, everything
Quentin Tarantino chooses – which is different,
that’s usually source-music though sometimes
he picks an old song and uses it newly as score.

Some time ago when I was 10 or 11 or 12 the
music hit me and I’m glad it did. I felt no pain, only
joy, and sorrow when it was meant to be the emotion I
felt – thanks to Mark Knopfler’s soundtracks for Last Exit
to Brooklyn and Local Hero and Cal, thanks to Danny
Elfman and Wendy Carlos and Bill Conti and so
many others (Thomas and Randy Newman, Hans
Zimmer, John Barry, Howard Shore, James
Horner and of course Bernard Herrmann).
It’s about individual films as much as it’s
about particular composers – iconic title
scenes and those moments where jump
scares really thrill; cut to the cat
jumping off a fence and knocking
over the rubbish bin.

It only works with
the right music making it pop.
The sound design and the director’s vision
and the composer’s ideas all coming together.
It surges and writhes, it gives pulse to the film, the
music travels in waves – provides signs and warnings, it
leads you down paths, it puts fear in your mind or hope in your
heart. I can’t think of a great movie without thinking of the music
that works within it. That sits all around it. Well, there’s Dog Day
Afternoon – which has no score. But that’s a decision. The
absence of score is the music itself, the poetry of that
film dances unaccompanied but entirely on purpose.
There are other examples of movies where the music
is almost not there at all. And its not because they
hired a composer that didn’t do a good job. Or
because they couldn’t find a better score.

It’s because the music was already
there in the film. The music was
written in the lines of dialogue,
in the movement of the actors,
their expression, their rage,
the notes they gave – and were
given by producers, the writer,
the director and co-stars.

It’s a team effort – always.
Still I can’t help but notice
the score. The good music will make me
want to further engage with the movie. Bad films
sometimes have terrific music. The wrong music sometimes
frames a very fine film. And I’m there for all of it. The waves,
the movement, the moments, the music, the profound poetry of
movies and music and magic – the lights, the camera, the action all
framed by the sound of someone’s inner vision.