It has happened to you as sure as it has to me. A melody or a few chords gets stuck in your brain and you can’t get it out. It occurs sometimes in the middle of the night. A song gets stuck playing over and over as if your brain hiccupped and keeps belching the same sounds again and again and then you’re left with trying to name it or reference it to a movie. The marriage of image and score is probably one of the most revolutionary as well as the most all-encompassing experiences one can have aside from a virtual existence with all five senses engaged. As a culture growing up with cinema we often sentimentalize our own memories to emotionally poignant movie scores. I know I have. The first flickers at the turn of the last century were accompanied by an organ or piano or a violin. Whatever the theatre at the time could house. By 1929 the technology had moved quickly to be able to marry actual sound and image. The early movies didn’t have much of a score. Music may have introduced the film and ended the film and the rest was actual dialogue, reference and foley. I can’t imagine a film today without some kind of score no matter how minimal. A filmmaker would be making a huge statement by obliterating music completely in his or her film. I think they’re called ‘experimental’.
I love music. I adore it. I am a band junkie. I could go from club to club and listen to all sorts of music. As a cinephile it is as important to my experience as the actors onscreen. One of the first scores/soundtracks that moved me and actually changed my perception of music in film and what it elicits on a visceral level was Peter Gabriel’s score for The Last Temptation of Christ. For me the soundtrack became a representation of what I thought I believed and not so much the images of the movie. Another example is the score from The Road to Perdition with original music by Thomas Newman. The music from that film is much more memorable than the actual movie. Certainly it was beautifully shot and I remember Paul Newman and Tom Hanks but I couldn’t tell you the storyline. The music, however, is at once haunting and yet is filled with quiet yearning. There are moments in the music when a melancholy and sense of disappointment and loss pervades the orchestration. When I sat down and talked with Elizabeth, the director of A Rogue in Londinium, we realized we had similar tastes in movie scores. She said that as she edited the scenes together she had used several pieces of Thomas Newman’s music as a scratch track. I asked her where and the scenes she described made complete sense. Other scratch tracks included Michael Convertino’s Children of a Lesser God, and Maurice Jarre’s Witness as well as Anne Dudley’s music for Tristan and Isolde. After seeing the finished film I have to say that the score for A Rogue in Londinium is amazing. If I hear a snippet of music from the movie I am taken right back to that emotional moment in the film. That is the mark of a successful score. I asked Elizabeth about the process.
“I work with a wonderful composer and musician, Jimi Zhivago. He scored my last film, My Brother’s War.” She says.
“So how do you approach Jimi and get him to give you what it is you want musically?” I ask.
“Well, you know I’ve worked with him on two features now and they were very different musically. The first was an intimate Civil War story and Jimi had some really great ideas about how to incorporate music into it. He runs Stanton Street Records and so he has access to a lot of talent. The music of that period is his forte. So instead of scoring the whole film he managed to put together a soundtrack of songs. Some were original from Kim Taylor, other’s were traditional tunes played by consummate musicians and amazing singers. People still find my email and request a CD of the soundtrack six years later. I forward them onto Jimi. When I approached Jimi with Londinium I said that I wanted the score to be minimal, subtle and only accent the scenes. I didn’t think actual songs would work for this story. I suggested that the score be only a select few instruments or even single instruments with only a few chords---almost a soundscape. I let him see the film with the scratch track and he made a few notes. Then we went into the studio and for two full days he played instruments to picture, laid tracks, mixed and we walked away with this amazing piece of music that I, myself cannot separate from the characters.” She explains.
“So he scored the whole film in two days?” I ask incredulous.
“Yes. It was amazing. I love working with him. Because we had worked together before we developed a short hand. He would play something and I would know immediately if it was right---if it captured what I was after in the scene.” She says. “Then there were moments when he would play and I would sit there with tears in my eyes because the music was so right and it exceeded anything that I could have imagined.”
“Which pieces of music?” I ask.
“I call it the snow scene when Victoria an Richard first meet on the cold London street and there’s a snow flurry.” She answers. “From that point, that first meeting, Jimi found Victoria’s theme. So he expanded it and when they unknowingly reunite for tea, that theme, Victoria’s theme, takes me right to that place---those first moments of attraction and infatuation.” She says.
“So what was the scratch track?” I ask.
“For the snow scene it was that first magical sound in Witness. It is a musical interpretation of tingles and goose bumps, mystery and curiosity.” She says.
If memory serves well it is when John Book can see the Amish woman bathing through the window---a powerfully sensual scene.
“Give me one more example.” I request.
“This may be a spoiler for your readers but towards the end of the film Victoria suffers a miscarriage and her life is at stake. Jimi came up with this amazing piece of music that is contemplative and woeful but as the scene moves along and Richard is recalling this moment of making love to Victoria, there’s a flashback/memory and we see Victoria’s face and the way that she drinks him in. In that brief moment her expression reveals this soul connection that is absolutely unconditional. Musically there are a few chords of violins and then as her face reveals her all encompassing love and compassion, the most subtle piano notes sounding like raindrops seems to step up in tone. I know I’m not describing it well, but because it moves up and not down, that trickle of feeling that is the piano is the flicker of hope that she will live and they will be together..forever. That one makes me cry more than any of the other pieces because it lodges down near the heart, you know?” She says. Then she turns at her desk and finds the scene on her editing system and plays it for me. Sure enough it is an understated piece of music and it certainly tugs at my heartstrings.
“So tell me about the suspenseful scenes.” I ask.
“I said I wanted something rhythmic, almost tribal, but not African, more Middle Eastern. I can’t say why those sounds seemed to fit with my idea about a killer but I kept hearing those scenes with that kind of music.” She said.
“So Jimi came up with middle eastern instruments?” I ask stupidly.
“No. It was the rhythm that I was interested in. It was a Peter Gabriel kind of thing.” She says.
“AHA! I love Peter Gabriel!” I exclaim.
“So in the end Jimi adjusted a drum. And he began a beat and then kept building as the suspense in the scene was building. And all it ended up being was that drum solo with cymbal crashes at the end. It really was amazing because onscreen I had a dancer come in and move seductively and rhythmically as part of the scene and the actress and the music merged magically.” She explains.
“It was definitely mesmerizing. The audience was absolutely engaged and the music was entrancing.” I say.
Posts
