# Movie Scores



## brianwalker (Dec 9, 2011)

I'm not versed in music theory but I'd like to make a few observations on popular movie scores and hope someone can extrapolate more on these observations on a technical level.

I. Why are movie scores so accessible? Their "emotional content" is much more "obvious" and more universally understood. Even without having ever watched the movie the atmosphere intended to be conveyed by the music is salient. Many people who hate classical music can enjoy movie scores.

II. Why are movie scores so bad? They're mostly unlistenable (well, unlistenable after I started listening to Mahler, which was my first real move into classical music; before I didn't really notice how awful they were, my ears "perked up" to its vulgarity and the the luster of things I use to cherish faded quite quickly; paradoxically the most "pop" of the music I loved are still appealing e.g. silly things like this; most movie scores fall into the uncanny valley for me.).

III. Why are decent movie scores so rare? Post-Mahler one of the few pieces I can tolerate is The Sicilian Clan;  later I found it basically an orchestration of BWV 543.

IV. What's up with ghost composition? I've heard from a friend that Hans Zimmer or someone else who was also very big didn't compose most of his own scores?


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## LordBlackudder (Nov 13, 2010)

- I wouldn't say it is more accessible than other classical music. Someone that listens to film music there's a strong chance they also like other classical music.

As far as film music being cool or accessible i don't think it is at all.


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## Norse (May 10, 2010)

The answer to the first two questions could be the same. Film scores are 'clearly emotional' because the point of the film music is to underscore what's going on in the movie (suspense, sadness etc). But since that's the point of the music it might often not be very interesting as a piece of music in its own right. The musical structure of something like a symphony is meant to provide drama etc in itself, not to 'lend emotions and moods' to something else. Just my two cents.


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## Norse (May 10, 2010)

-double post-


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