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From: leeper@mtgzz.UUCP (m.r.leeper)
Newsgroups: net.movies
Subject: Music in films set in history
Message-ID: <759@mtgzz.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 24-May-85 02:09:25 EDT
Article-I.D.: mtgzz.759
Posted: Fri May 24 02:09:25 1985
Date-Received: Sat, 18-May-85 23:50:54 EDT
Organization: AT&T Information Systems Labs, Holmdel NJ
Lines: 34

A while back when I was writing by review of LADYHAWKE I made a
statement that bothered me at the time and I was surprised nobody took
me to task on it.  I said:

 >And speaking of things out of place, Andrew Powell's rock
 >score is totally inappropriate.  He takes scenes that
 >otherwise have a beautiful period and wreaks real havoc with
 >the spirit and texture of the film.

The implication to me of what I myself am saying is that a more
traditional score is more appropriate.  I really do believe that, but I
am not sure why.  The score to a film like BECKET really does seem to
have the feel of the period to me.  But intellectually I don't know how
that could possibly be.  In the time of BECKET or LADYHAWKE music was,
I believe, quite different than it is today.  Instruments were much
cruder and the music was of a different style.  The music of the age
that LADYHAWKE is set in did not have music much like anything that we
currently hear in films, -- why does certain music in films sound
appropriate to the period and other music does not?  There seems to be
something in the scores of some films that make them seem to fit into a
period of history, but for the life of me I am not sure what there is
in the music that makes it seem that way.

Another film that this has struck me with is the film WITCHFINDER
GENERAL (aka CONQUERER WORM).  In the middle of nowhere this film pulls
out a musical theme that is peaceful and surprisingly beautiful --
quite out of keeping with this otherwise rather jarring
historical/horror film.  It really has the feel (for me) of England at
the time of Cromwell.  I don't think that it really sounds like an old
English ballad, but it has something that sounds right.  Anybody out
there know why that is?  Does anybody even understand the question?

				Mark Leeper
				...ihnp4!mtgzz!leeper