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While working at my computer, this morning, I re-listened to Varese's compilation of some of Jerry Goldsmith's science fiction scores, re-recorded by the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, conducted by the composer. During a break, I perused the booklet. One comment made by the composer really struck me. The remark was, "Music should be primary - it should make the effects, and not the other way around. I remember Alfred Newman, who studied with Schoenberg, once saying, 'Why is it that after I listen to a piece by Schoenberg or Webern, I say "very interesting," but after I hear Schubert, I want to cry.' Everybody is so involved in the means rather than the end." In Goldsmith's critique of contemporary scoring, he has articulated the essence of effective film scoring, and the criterion by which a score ends up on my favourite list.
It is one reason why I will often pick up an original score by Mark Mackenzie, simply on speculation, or orchestrated by him, because I sense that some of his musical sensibility has been influenced by his contact with Goldsmith, working as his orchestrator in the final stages of Goldsmith's career, although, probably more accurately, it was part of Mackenzie's operating philosophy, as evidenced by his early scores. And it is also the reason that I did not hesitate to order the two new Laurence Rosenthal scores, released by Intrada, despite not knowing either film, because Rosenthal's music relects the emotion Goldsmith has alluded to.
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