Intrada Soundtrack Forum

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DavidinBerkeley

"Ask [the director] where the camera comes from and I'll tell him where the music comes from" (David Raksin)

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http://www.mjefilms.com

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DavidinBerkeley

"Ask [the director] where the camera comes from and I'll tell him where the music comes from" (David Raksin)

Since there's probably no other time I'll get to repeat stuff like this…

1) Rosenman spoke in one of my classes long ago. David Raksin was the instructor, and while they did seem to like and respect one another, they definitely had one area that they disagreed on.

During his talk, Rosenman made the statement that the thought that film music was "not really music." Raksin, normally the most gentlemanly of people who wouldn't interrupt a speaker, broke in to ask why. The reply he got was that because the composer is confined in certain ways, like timing. Raksin, again out of character, replied to this by asking if he knew that Tchiakovsky was actually given numbers of bars of music as a requirement by his patroness, Mme. Von Meck [sp?].

While Rosenman did have an answer to this, I can't recall it. Raksin looked prepared to continue debating the point, but withdrew, seemingly because he knew he was interrupting the talk. They never came to an agreement about it in class, that I could tell.

2) Rosenman got a big laugh from the students when talking about a viola concerto he wrote. He said he wanted to avoid the cliché writing of having the solo viola play a section that says (he raised one pointed finger in the air) "I AM A VIOLA!" and then have the orchestra reply saying (pointing a finger across the room) "HE IS A VIOLA!"

3) The one personal remark that Raksin made about Rosenman, after he had left, was that he really "wanted people to think that he's hip." I still think about that when I see a clipping I have of an interview Rosenman did when ST-IV came out; the picture is one of him looking up at the camera from behind a pair of very dark sunglasses.

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DavidinBerkeley

"Ask [the director] where the camera comes from and I'll tell him where the music comes from" (David Raksin)

_________________
http://www.mjefilms.com

_________________
DavidinBerkeley

"Ask [the director] where the camera comes from and I'll tell him where the music comes from" (David Raksin)

_________________
DavidinBerkeley

"Ask [the director] where the camera comes from and I'll tell him where the music comes from" (David Raksin)

Before anything else, please be aware that I cannot be neutral about Leonard Rosenman.

I think I'm the only one in the world who actually loves Rosenman's score for Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home. It's fun and witty and joyful, just like the movie, and it's got enough modernism and dissonance to make it sound like a science fiction film.

Other than Goldsmith's score for the first film, this is the one I find myself going back to, over and over. (Oddly enough, it's also the first CD I ever bought, the week it was issued, and it still plays just fine.)

The first movie I can recall seeing in a theater was Fantastic Voyage, when I was six or seven, and I was so blown away by it, I became rather obsessed with it. I know I saw a drive-in re-release of the movie a year or so later, and I saw it every time it came on television. I had a model of the 'Proteus', and I'd like to get another one. I bought a laserdisc player specifically for the widescreen version of the movie. And I ordered the FSM CD the instant they offered it. I love everything about Fantastic Voyage, including its' incredible, wonderful, visionary score. In fact, in celebration of Leonard Rosenman's birthday yesterday, I played it three times on my iPod as I jogged through Loring Park.

I'm such a geek.