Are we on a mission to overlook the obvious? I can’t believe there’s been no mention of John Williams. The fact that the theme for Star Wars was played into the ground by every high school band in the following decade and a half doesn’t change the fact that it’s great neoclassical music. (It didn’t help that Williams followed up with how many? scores that sounded like he was cloning himself with slight modification). He was inspired by Stanley Kubrick’s use of classical music for 2001: Space Odyssey but wrote an original score instead.
One of the most peculiar is the pairing of the 1924 Olympics with Vangelis’ synthesizer track in Chariots of Fire. But then, it was a surprising film in several ways.
What about the use of?”The Entertainer Rag” and other pieces by Scott Joplin for The Sting? Perfect atmosphere.
Speaking of “atmosphere”?<segue>
I was worried that music would break you out of the trance you get in this film. It took [director Paul Greengrass] a while to persuade me to even write music. In a way, he wanted me to do it. At certain points we decided that somebody needs to go in and just hold your hand a little bit. Even if that?s just a pulse or just a few notes, it broke the tension in a way that reminded you that you were watching a film. Everybody knows the story and everybody knows where it?s going. My feeling was, I didn?t need to create tension and I didn?t need to create emotion. Those are the two things that are most often required of a film composer.
One side of me was feeling that I shouldn?t be doing anything but Paul eventually said ?Look, we need two things. We need a comforting hand and we need some prayers.? So really that?s what the score does.
