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McFly: I think it's silly to say that there is no originality in movies or in scores.... the fact that there is LITTLE OF IT is testament to the notion that most people only want the same thing they saw or heard yesterday-- just recycled pablum that is easy to digest and not too challenging. And we sometimes loose sight of the fact that film composers are employees-- they do what they are told for the most part. So if a producer wants a standard, established musical language score, that's what the composer is going to produce. And if what they produce is not standard enough, then that score is rejected (ex: Goldsmith's Legend) or partially rejected (ex: Brian Tyler's Constantine)and another composer brought in.
There ARE cases though where the composer is left alone to make the contribution he sees fit.... such a case is Dragonslayer (regardless of how it was toned down in the finished film), and I think the experimental nature of that score stands it way above most of the sword and sorcery drivel that was "the norm" at that time, and grounds the film to a reality that most of those other films don't achieve. Someone stated that the 80's sword and sorcery period PEAKED with Willow, which I say is a joke-- the 80's sword and sorcery period DIED with Willow!
Another example of scores being done quite differently from the norm is the Leone/Morricone westerns.... certainly you'll agree that Morricone did not resort to standard American western scoring practices in the creation of those landmark scores. Are they thought of less because he innovated instead of retreading Max Steiner or Elmer Bernstein? I think not. Quite the opposite actually.
John Carpenter's scores were innovative, and are still thought of as such.
My point is that, while I agree that music is a language that is sort of understood by the masses, I also see room for experimentation and innovation. An "original" score can add another dimension to a film.... why retread what is already there on the screen? In animation this is called mickey-mousing: reacting to every movement or action of the characters. Steiner's and Korngold's scores for films of the 30's were among the first to apply that idea to live action movies, and so they too were innovators. But there was also Waxman's Bride of Frankenstein in that same era, which does not mickey-mouse and is highly original. Tiomkin's The Thing From Another World? Williams' Images?
Not every score has to be groundbreaking to be a great score, and I'm not saying that it does. I love many scores that would be considered standard stuff, but the innovative stuff ain't bad either. In my humble opinion, James Horner provides musical wallpaper, nothing more. Nothing that he has done so far has entered the musical lexicon/language, or has been, or ever will be imitated by other composers (except maybe Chris Young). He is known by the public solely on the strength of the popular movies he has scored.
Rebuttal?
kongomango
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