I cast my vote for the 80s but it was a tough choice. If I could have, I'd have voted for the decade encompassing the late 70s and early 80s.
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| Which decade of film music do you prefer ? http://www.intrada.net/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=1213 |
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| Author: | Anakin McFly [ Tue May 29, 2007 6:18 am ] |
| Post subject: | Which decade of film music do you prefer ? |
| Author: | chris1770 [ Tue May 29, 2007 8:25 am ] |
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| Author: | sdtom [ Tue May 29, 2007 8:48 am ] |
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| Author: | thx99 [ Tue May 29, 2007 10:31 am ] |
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I cast my vote for the 80s but it was a tough choice. If I could have, I'd have voted for the decade encompassing the late 70s and early 80s.
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| Author: | Yavar Moradi [ Tue May 29, 2007 10:47 am ] |
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All right. In reality my preference shifts all the time. The 80s are a great decade, with post-Star Wars return of Golden Age romanticism, but mixing in new sounds (thanks, Jerry, even though sometimes they didn't work out too great!) and just in general a lot of flourishing variety and quality. However, at the same time there was the rise of crappy synth horror scores and the like (Christopher Young aside). So I voted for the 40s. In the 30s film music was not fully developed yet. There were some great highlights but they couldn't match the explosion of quality, diversity, and maturity of the 40s scores. The 40s started with Korngold's best score of his career, The Sea Hawk, and continued with generally superior efforts from him until just after the war when he retired from film music. Alfred Newman's style matured over the course of the decade and he moved away from the occasionally Steinerish sound he had in the 30s to a more thoughtful, complex, and restrained style. (Compare Captain from Castile with The Black Swan.) Because of this he became my favorite Golden Age composer, kinda landing in the perfect middle ground between Steiner and Friedhofer. Speaking of Friedhofer, in this decade his *composing* career flnally flourished and he wrote some of his best scores including his Oscar-winning Best Years of Our Lives. Perhaps the greatest victory for film music this decade was Alfred Newman taking over the Fox music department, which allowed him to improve not only his own scores but to create a haven for freshness and creativity with the clout to hire more daring composers like Friedhofer, Raksin, and Herrmann. Ah yes, Herrmann, who started his career with a bang working with Orson Welles and then went on to work for Newman producing such masterpieces as The Ghost and Mrs. Muir. Away from Fox, Miklos Rozsa continued to mature his style and he opened up the decade with a highlight: The Thief of Bagdad, followed a couple years later by The Jungle Book. He then wrote some excellent gritty noirs, some psychological scores, and finished the decade by inaugurating his strongest period, for historical films. At Universal film scores were getting better too, despite lower budgets and a factory mentality, thanks to talented composers like Herman Stein, Hans J. Salter, and Frank Skinner. And at RKO Roy Webb led the charge for quality, not only with his classic noir scores which he's remembered for today, but also for a personal favorite of mine that decade: Sinbad the Sailor, the best Sinbad score to ever be composed (IMO, though Rozsa gave him a run for his money decades later), perfectly capturing the seafaring adventure and romanticism of Sinbad without any distracting skeleton battles and goofy fantasy elements. While the 50s would witness the further maturity of Friedhofer, Newman, Rozsa, and others (including Herrmann who drastically increased his film score output and started his collaboration with Hitchcock), I'm giving the edge to the 40s because I think it is when film music first truly found itself and matured as an art form. The 30s was full of figuring out what to do (thank you, Max Steiner) and refining approach. The 40s was *doing* it, and doing it better and better. Yavar |
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| Author: | Nicolai P. Zwar [ Tue May 29, 2007 12:38 pm ] |
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I love music from any decade and from any time, but if I had to single out a decade, I'd pick the 1960s, when composers such as Leonard Rosenman, Alex North and Jerry Goldsmith were doing what may well be their most exciting stuff, like Fantastic Voyage, Cleopatra, Planet of the Apes respectively... film music just does not get any better than that. Also, the Golden Age composers were still around while the new sounds of jazz and pop were at the door. Overall the richest film music period. |
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| Author: | Yavar Moradi [ Tue May 29, 2007 12:47 pm ] |
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Yeah, the 60s were great for film music, for the most part. Five years without Rozsa after he did El Cid and Sodom and Gamorrah must've sucked though. Yavar |
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| Author: | Nicolai P. Zwar [ Tue May 29, 2007 1:24 pm ] |
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Yeah, that was a bummer. But El Cid was a Rozsa masterpiece, and that was 1960s, too. |
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| Author: | cricket853 [ Tue May 29, 2007 1:33 pm ] |
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Definitely the 1960's. I am a lover of western filmscores, and my 2 favorite composers in this field were quite active during this decade. Bernstein - Magnificent Seven, Comancheros, Hallelujah Trail, Scalphunters, Sons of Katie Elder, True Grit. Goldsmith - Cable Hogue, Bandolero, Hour of the Gun, Lonely are the Brave, 100 Rifles, Stagecoach. Also, Morricone started his spaghetti westerns during this decade, and did some absolutely great music. And let's not forget Duel at Diablo (Hefti), Shalako (Farnon), Hang 'Em High (Frontiere), El Dorado (Riddle), Professionals (Jarre), The Stalking Moon (Karlin), The Undefeated (Montenegro), War Wagon (Tiomkin), The Wild Bunch (Fielding), and Newman (How the West Was Won, Nevada Smith, Firecreek). TV also had its share of great westerns with great themes. Early 60's were dominated by Wagon Train, Have Gun Will Travel, Wanted: Dead or Alive, The Rifleman, The Lawman, Rawhide, Cheyenne, Maverick, Wyatt Earp and others. Gunsmoke and Bonanza remained strong throughout the decade. Yep, the '60's was the decade for me. Yee hah! Git along little dogie! |
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| Author: | Yavar Moradi [ Tue May 29, 2007 1:40 pm ] |
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You're right. I love western scores too, and if I were asked simply what the best decade for western scores was, I'd answer the 60s right away. Ironic considering the genre was kinda dying off. But we had the best western scores of Newman, Goldsmith, Morricone, Fielding, etc. all in that decade. Yavar |
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| Author: | Stefan Miklos [ Tue May 29, 2007 1:45 pm ] |
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I voted for the '60's because it was the middle ground between classicism and modernity! |
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| Author: | Yavar Moradi [ Tue May 29, 2007 1:51 pm ] |
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I'm feelin' bad that I didn't vote for the 50s now cuz it ain't gettin' any love! I'm surprised, because the 50s is where most of the FSM Golden Age Classics come from, and I'd've thought their championing of that era would've resulted in more votes for it. Compared with the 50s, very little from the 40s actually survives on album. Yavar |
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| Author: | Porter [ Tue May 29, 2007 1:58 pm ] |
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I voted for the ´70´s. The combination of jazz and funk elements with orchestra get new level and it is the best period of my favourite composers Roy Budd, Jerry Fielding and Lalo Schifrin. |
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| Author: | Christian Kühn [ Tue May 29, 2007 3:30 pm ] |
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| Author: | Yavar Moradi [ Tue May 29, 2007 3:55 pm ] |
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