Traces
of Soundtracks - introductory series outline
Original proposal/outline for the series
Programme
1- Bernard Herrmann
Film composer Bernard Herrmann. Neither impressionist nor
expressionist. Attracted not to the lyrical or the pastoral,
but to the psychological and the humoral. Hermann remains
a passionate structuralist whose sense of musical logic,
psychoacoustics and dramatic tempering mark him as one of
the most modern and most cinematic of film composers in
the 20th Century.
Programme
2
- Ennio Morricone
Film composer Ennio Morricone. Kitsch and sublime. Earthy
and transcendental. Just as opera reinvents the dynamics
of the world upon a wonderfully plastic stage, so does Morricone’s
music create gilded environments wherein all manner of drama
can unfold. And being Italy, it's a celebratory democratic
stage, where peasant and king can share a meal. Where spine-tingling
string arrangements can blend effortlessly with a wailing
fuzz guitar.
Programme
3- Quincy Jones
Film composer Qunicy Jones. Lost in history, but still living
in the grey zone between defiantly egocentric jazz improvisation
and the Eurocentric grandeur of tonal orchestration. Jones’
writing, arranging and orchestration belie an overlooked
complexity. With cool verve and bold respect, Jones wrenched
the film score from its Wagnerian cave and slammed it down
in the midst of cross-town traffic, where horns are sounded
by cor anglais and cadiallacs alike.
Programme
4- Toru Takemitsu
Film composer Toru Takemitsu. Not simply a composer of Japanese
films, but a musical philosopher skilled in articulating
the great East/West divide in his internationalist scores.
Promoter of the sonic in the face of musical dogma; painter
of the musical in a world surrounded by noise. Creator of
violent beauty and gorgeous alienation, he stands as the
most radical film composer of the 20th Century – mostly
because he audibly acknowledged the era in which he lived.
Lecture
version
The Traces of Soundtracks radio series
has also been reconfigured into a series of audio-visual
lectures presented at the Australian Film, TV & Radio
School in Melbourne and Sydney, 2006, and again in Melbourne
and Sydney in 2007.
