“Here’s an interesting experiment,” he said. “Play a film, any film, and then change the music. The film looks different. Then take the music, and change the film – the music doesn’t change. It’s astonishing. What does it tell us? When you put the two together, the core may be the music. Bernard Herrmann is going to sound like Bernard Herrmann no matter what you do.”
HERE is my recent LATimes interview with the man who has taken film scoring — for better or worse — beyond the classic style of emotional underlining represented by korngold, herrmann, and others into a tonally neutral minimalism.
(at this point i’ve interviewed a number of the key figures in musical minimalism — steve reich, terry riley, john adams — so was nice to close the circle here. interesting to see how musical history treats this chapter of american music.)
Photo credit: philipglass.com