Discover Film Music
(with essay by John Riley)
Naxos 8.558210-11
2 CD-set
*****

In the 20th century, film music emerged as a distinctive art form. Discover Film Music, part of Naxos’s Discover series, explores the history of film composition. Two generously timed CDs provide over two-and-a-half hours of listening, including works by such notable composers of film music as Max Steiner, Hans Salter, Franz Waxman, Erich Korngold, Miklós Rózsa, Bernard Herrmann, Aaron Copland, Alfred Newman, Malcolm Arnold, Richard Addinsell, Ralph Vaughan Williams, Dmitri Shostakovich, Sergei Prokofiev, John Williams, Ennio Morricone, Jerry Goldsmith, Vangelis and Tōru Takemitsu. The tracks are either re-recordings or suites and feature main themes from the films Chariots of Fire, 633 Squadron, Spider Man, King Kong, Alien, Out of Africa, Schindler’s List, Star Wars, and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. Among many other inclusions are the Dam Busters’ March, the Spellbound Concerto and the Warsaw Concerto. In providing such diverse representation of the world of film music, Naxos has included single tracks from so many films that, at times, listening to the discs can seem a slightly incoherent experience. Nevertheless, the wide variety of works presented makes for an entertaining and illustrative exploration of the world of film composition, from its beginnings in the music of Max Steiner, the ‘Father of Film Music’; through to more recent works by Williams, Morricone and Goldsmith. The short tracks are taken from previously released Naxos CDs and feature such respected orchestras as the Moscow Symphony, the Bournemouth Symphony, the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, the Queensland Symphony, the Russian Philharmonic and the Slovak Radio Symphony.

The CDs are accompanied by a booklet containing an excellent essay on film music written by John Riley, an expert in the field and author of Dmitri Shostakovich: A Life in Film. This informative and lengthy but easy to read discourse explores the beginnings of film music and its development in the 20th century, dividing the film world into Hollywood (CD 1) and the rest (CD 2 – Britain, Sweden, the former Soviet Union, Italy, France, Japan, Belgium and Poland), profiling both major composers and lesser-known figures. A notable omission, however, is China; it would have been good if Riley had discussed the prominent composers Zhao Jiping and Tan Dun. The essay contextualises the music and discusses in detail the works featured, with emphasis on the relationship between the visual elements of film and the music. The order of the CD tracks is followed in the discourse – I would therefore suggest listening to the CDs while reading the essay; the two go hand-in-hand. There are also inset panels by composers of film music and film directors such as Ennio Morricone, Federico Fellini, Miklós Rózsa, Henry Mancini, Maurice Jaubert, William Alwyn, George Antheil, Sir Arthur Bliss and Sergei Eisenstein. They write on such subjects as the challenges and opportunities of film music, the relative values of music and silence, music in and out of the cinema, film music’s influence on public taste, the collaboration between a film director and composer, the function of film music; explaining the approaches they have taken. A timeline from 1885 to the present day outlines significant events in film music, along with events in the associated fields of history, art, architecture and literature and a glossary of useful terms is also included.

I highly recommend Discover Film Music to those wanting a general and wide-ranging introduction to the genre, as it provides exposure to a broad selection of film compositions. As Riley writes in his conclusion, ‘whatever your taste in film and film music, there is something out there for you.’ – Paolo Hooke