Episode 6: Dances With Wolves

05/03/17 • 77 min

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In 1990, Kevin Costner’s Dances With Wolves set the film world alight, and won seven Academy Awards in the process. But what about the score? In this episode, we take a look at the music of John Barry – who, although best known for his Bond scores, here manages to create something at once completely Barry-esque and wholly unique for a film about the flawed myth at the heart of American cinema’s greatest genre: the Western. Episode notes: 2:58 – Dances With Wolves as a Western 6:00 – An indie production and adaptation 9:30 – John Barry 10:21 – Basil Poledouris’s near miss with Dances With Wolves 12:40 – The John Dunbar theme, and comparisons with Lonesome Dove and Legends of the Fall 14:30 – The John Barry ‘mythic’ mode, comparison with Out of Africa and Chaplin 18:30 – The ‘breathing’ nature of the John Dunbar theme, and his pop music origins 21:50 – Solo trumpet version of the Dunbar theme, comparison with Legends of the Fall 24:00 – Dunbar theme on harmonica, and the use of harmonica in Barry’s work 26:11 – The threatening, solo flute version of the Dunbar theme 28:24 – Mournful version of the Dunbar theme for the slaughtered Buffalo 30:35 – The ‘album version’ of the Dunbar theme during the hunt, with comparison to Barry’s 007 theme 34:15 – The ‘film version’ of the hunt theme, with comparison to The Big Country 37:25 – The love theme 41:35 – The ‘Two Socks’ wolf theme 44:37 – Comparison with A View To A Kill 46:33 – The Sioux motif 49:50 – Traditional musical representations of Native American clichés, comparison with The Searchers 52:10 – The Pawnee motif 55:00 – Development of Pawnee motif with threatening children’s themes 59:23 – Brusque French Horn performance of the Pawnee theme 1:00:25 – Comparison with The Living Daylights 1:02:33 – Leaving Fort Sedgewick and the travelling music 1:06:22 – The Buffalo motif, and comparison with The Living Daylights 1:10:10 – Andrew’s argument that the music represents the film’s geography 1:11:25 – The fire dance by Peter Buffett 1:14:05 – Barry’s compositional style and his legacy We’d love to hear from our listeners – get in touch via Twitter, and if you like The Art of the Score, please take a moment to subscribe, rate and comment.

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Episode 5: Star Trek (TV)

Star Trek is one of the most enduring television series of all time, with more than 700 episodes over 30 seasons. Even disregarding the films, it’s also seen some great composers: Alexander Courage, Jerry Goldsmith, Dennis McCarthy, and Jay Chattaway. In our fifth episode of Art of the Score, we’re shifting to the small screen as we take a look at how the music of Star Trek has defined the final frontier over 50 years. Episode notes: 2:40 – Overview of the Star Trek series, and how each series changed 8:50 – The original series theme by Alexander Courage 11:30 – The three elements of the main theme and its optimism 13:45 – The beguine rhythm 17:00 – the jazz harmonies underpinning the original theme 19:00 – Lost in Space comparison 21:10 – Cue from ‘Amok Time’, Season 2 Episode 5 by Gerald Fried 25:30 – ‘The Doomsday Machine’, Season 2 Episode 6 by Sol Kaplan 28:00 – Emphasis on action music in the original series 29:33 – The Next Generation theme by Jerry Goldsmith 32:00 – Differences between minor sevenths and major sevenths for the fanfare 33:45 – ‘The Best of Both Worlds, Part One’, Season 3, Episode 26 by Ron Jones 38:33 – ‘The Inner Light’, Season 5, Episode 26, Jay Chattaway 46:06 – Deep Space Nine theme by Dennis McCarthy 51:20 – Fanfare for the Common Man by Aaron Copland 54:50 – ‘The Changing Face of Evil’, Season 7, Episode 20, Jay Chattaway 59:57 – Voyager theme by Jerry Goldsmith 1:06:00 – ‘The Year of Hell’, Season 4, Episode 9, Dennis McCarthy 1:08:00 – Drama versus action in Star Trek scoring 1:10:29 – Enterprise theme by Diane Warren 1:17:17 – Archer’s Theme by Dennis McCarthy 1:21:05 – Andrew’s favourite Star Trek moment We’d love to hear from our listeners – get in touch via Twitter, and if you like The Art of the Score, please take a moment to subscribe, rate and comment.

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Episode 7: Star Wars - Part 1

Forty years ago today, in 1977, the film universe was turned upside down by a galaxy far, far away. Star Wars may have changed the film industry forever, but John Williams’ score might just be as influential for the film music landscape. In this episode, our first of three on Star Wars, we take a look at the influence of John Williams’ music, and two of its major themes: the Main Theme (or Luke’s Theme) and Princess Leia’s theme. Episode notes: 2:30 – The influence of Star Wars, the music, the film 4:30 – How Star Wars changed film history and the film school generation 8:00 – Star Wars and nostalgia 11:20 – Was there anticipation for Star Wars? 13:40 – This was not what films were supposed to sound like at the time 15:00 – Before the main titles: the 20th Century Fox fanfare 16:20 – The main Star Wars theme (Luke’s theme) 18:50 – The orchestration of the main theme 20:45 – The jazz-inspired harmony of the main theme 23:33 – “War drums in space” 25:03 – Development of Luke’s theme – first playing 26:55 – Luke’s theme begins to mature with the hero’s journey 32:00 – Luke’s theme on the Death Star 34:44 – The shootout on the Death Star, Luke’s “boy’s own adventure” moment 39:15 – Influences on Luke’s theme: Ivanhoe and King’s Row 50:06 – The uses of Luke’s theme in the final Death Star dogfight 53:15 – The (mis)uses of the main theme (?) in Rogue One 54:45 – Leia’s theme and the development of ‘concert versions’ 1:01:10 – John Williams and the romantic major sixth 1:03:14 – The first time we hear Leia’s theme 1:05:18 – Help me Obi-Wan Kenobi, you’re my only hope 1:07:38 – The full Leia’s message 1:10:10 – Luke meets Leia for the first time 1:11:30 – The Death of Obi-Wan and the abandonment of leitmotif 1:15:30 – High romance in the Leia concert suite 1:17:45 – The Star Wars NPR Radio Serials We love to hear from our listeners – get in touch via Twitter, and if you like The Art of the Score, please take a moment to subscribe, rate and comment.