# OSCARS and CLASSICAL music



## Pip (Aug 16, 2013)

Which Films (any period, any country) have made the best use of existing classical music on their soundtracks? (preferably no composer biopics)

one nomination already - 2001 A space Odyssey. ( from johann to Richard + Ligeti ect.)


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## brianvds (May 1, 2013)

Disney's "Fantasia" perhaps?


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## GGluek (Dec 11, 2011)

"Babe". (Primarily the big tune from Saint-Saens' Organ Symphony. But also cameos by Wagner, etc.)


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## Nereffid (Feb 6, 2013)

Terrence Malick's "The New World" makes great use of the opening of "Das Rheingold" and Mozart's Piano concerto no.23. And IIRC Smetana shows up in "Tree of Life".
Also Peter Weir's "Master and Commander" - not just the music played by Aubrey and Maturin but the appearance of Vaughan Williams's Tallis Fantasia over a crucial scene.
And Scorsese's "Shutter Island", which has a fantastic soundtrack of modern classical - Penderecki, Cage, Ligeti, Feldman, Scelsi, Adams, Schnittke and others (as well as a plot-related appearance by Mahler's Piano quartet, though the film's events occur before the music's first public performance!).


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## worov (Oct 12, 2012)

Visconti's Death in Venice uses some Mahler.


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## PetrB (Feb 28, 2012)

Pip said:


> Which Films (any period, any country) have made the best use of existing classical music on their soundtracks? (preferably no composer biopics)
> 
> one nomination already - 2001 A space Odyssey. ( from johann to Richard + Ligeti ect.)


Infamously, Kubrick used all that music without obtaining any permission either from recording company or living composer, and settled up later, after the fact of embedding them in the film. That cavalier attitude may just account for his free use of the classical fare, where if under other practical constraints we could have ended up with a different, if not inferior, less-expensive score written for the film.

ADD: A big part of why this music was so effective is Kubrick's using it only where "the music could take over the scene." If I recall, there was no music, and no other music, used elsewhere in the film; when and where it was used, it was put out front and allowed to speak fully.


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## bassClef (Oct 29, 2006)

"Excalibur" in 1981 was my boyhood introduction to Wagner.


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## PetrB (Feb 28, 2012)

----------------------------------- drat -----------------------------------------


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## Art Rock (Nov 28, 2009)

Death in Venice (Mahler) would be my choice as well.


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## Petwhac (Jun 9, 2010)

Unfortunately many millions were introduced to Wagner through that scene in Apocalypse Now. 
"I love the smell of Napalm in the morning."


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## Itullian (Aug 27, 2011)

Clockwork Orange
Barry Lyndon


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## aleazk (Sep 30, 2011)

Kubrick owns this category. Not only because he used classical music, but because he exploited the high art of this music to produce sublime scenes. The music is not an accompaniment, it's part of a high art audiovisual experience.

2001 - Ligeti, the Strauss.

Barry Lyndon - Handel, Schubert.

A Clockwork Orange - Beethoven.

The Shining - Ligeti.

And more...


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## Itullian (Aug 27, 2011)

Crimes and Misdemeanors , Woody Allen
Death and the Maiden Quartet


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## Itullian (Aug 27, 2011)

aleazk said:


> Kubrick owns this category. Not only because he used classical music, but because he exploited the high art of this music to produce sublime scenes. The music is not an accompaniment, it's part of a high art audiovisual experience.
> 
> 2001 - Ligeti, the Strauss.
> 
> ...


Wasn't it Eyes Wide Shut that used Ligeti?
Not The Shining.
The Shining used part of Symphonie Fantastique, I believe.


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## aleazk (Sep 30, 2011)

Itullian said:


> Wasn't it Eyes Wide Shut that used Ligeti?
> Not The Shining.


Lontano was used in The Shining, if I recall correctly. Also Bartok.

In Eyes Wide Shut, Musica Ricercata.


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## Itullian (Aug 27, 2011)

aleazk said:


> Lontano was used in The Shining, if I recall correctly. Also Bartok.
> 
> In Eyes Wide Shut, Musica Ricercata.


the Bartok for sure as well as the Berlioz in the Shining.

A Ligeti piano piece in Eyes Wide Shut.


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## brianvds (May 1, 2013)

The Shining (that is, the version with Jack Nicholson) made very effective use of Bartok. I get the chills just thinking about it.


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## aleazk (Sep 30, 2011)

Here, Lontano in The Shining.


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## Svelte Silhouette (Nov 7, 2013)

Pialat's "Police" made extensive use of Gorecki's 3rd but it was later used hauntingly in a Holocaust movie after which the Upshaw version "topped the classical charts" in Britain and the United States and has, to date, sold more than a million copies which vastly exceeds the expected lifetime sales of a typical symphonic recording by a 20th-century composer.

The first movement invokes such a sorrowful feeling and I can't think of anything else I walk away from after hearing that leaves me with the same kind of sensation.


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## brianvds (May 1, 2013)

Ah, and how could I forget? Dvorak's cello concerto in "Witches of Eastwick."


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## Alfacharger (Dec 6, 2013)

The film "El Norte" has a hair raising scene using the "Gates of Heaven" music from Mahler's 4th. Crawling through the border crossing in a rat infested sewer pipe to get into the US, the brother and sister emerge from the pipe to meet their "coyote" and view from the hill the lights from the city of San Diego below with Mahler's music punctuating their relief.


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## GGluek (Dec 11, 2011)

aleazk said:


> Kubrick owns this category. Not only because he used classical music, but because he exploited the high art of this music to produce sublime scenes. The music is not an accompaniment, it's part of a high art audiovisual experience.
> 
> 2001 - Ligeti, the Strauss.
> 
> ...


I'm really in the minority here, but I have disliked Kubrick more than I have been blown away by him. He is an excellent film craftsman, but as an artist I find he makes films that are cold, self-involved, get carried away showing off new technologies to no point, and are often heartless -- and neither the films nor most of the characters portrayed in them have souls. All the music in the world cannot make up for that.


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## Blancrocher (Jul 6, 2013)

Alfacharger said:


> The film "El Norte" has a hair raising scene using the "Gates of Heaven" music from Mahler's 4th. Crawling through the border crossing in a rat infested sewer pipe to get into the US, the brother and sister emerge from the pipe to meet their "coyote" and view from the hill the lights from the city of San Diego below with Mahler's music punctuating their relief.


Not for the faint of heart, that scene! In fact, I think it was too much for me--still scares me whenever I think of it!


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## Itullian (Aug 27, 2011)

GGluek said:


> I'm really in the minority here, but I have disliked Kubrick more than I have been blown away by him. He is an excellent film craftsman, but as an artist I find he makes films that are cold, self-involved, get carried away showing off new technologies to no point, and are often heartless -- and neither the films nor most of the characters portrayed in them have souls. All the music in the world cannot make up for that.


Yes. I think he liked to show the parts of us that we don't like to look at.


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## LancsMan (Oct 28, 2013)

Itullian said:


> Crimes and Misdemeanors , Woody Allen
> Death and the Maiden Quartet


I think it was Schubert's String Quartet No 15 rather than the Death and the Maiden Quartet - if my memory serves.

I always think Martin Scorsese integrated music well into his films - including Bach St Matthew Passion.


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## starry (Jun 2, 2009)

I'm not sure the word Oscars should be used as substitute for film now as they mainly award soppy middle of the road stuff anyway.


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## GGluek (Dec 11, 2011)

bassClef said:


> "Excalibur" in 1981 was my boyhood introduction to Wagner.


Yes, John Boorman must have had a thing for Wagner. In his London Blitz memoir, "Hope and Glory," there's a wonderful scene of people on the ground trying to secure a deflated barrage balloon to the Dance of the Apprentices from Die Meistersinger!


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## GioCar (Oct 30, 2013)

Tarkovsky: Stalker

The final scene, with a short fragment of Beethoven 9, makes me shiver everytime.


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## Avey (Mar 5, 2013)

So, the OP didn't explicitly limit this to Oscar nominations (though the title suggested so). With that, I'm going to go outside the arbitrary "Oscar nominated" realm:

Melancholia, 2011 opens with Tristan and Isolde, a panning of screenshots, summation of the film, quite a dramatic opening. (Some editing in this clip)

There Will Be Blood, ends with Brahms, but carried through with Jonny Greenwood's haunting score, absolutely fantastic

The Royal Tenenbaums - Anderson is known for his soundtrack/score selection, and this film is arguably his best, scene-by-scene context-wise, if that makes sense. Ravel's S.Q. a great opening sequence.

Those are the ones that immediately came to mind.

Debussy is in every other film, and LvB as well.


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## Weston (Jul 11, 2008)

bassClef said:


> "Excalibur" in 1981 was my boyhood introduction to Wagner.


I confess the scene where Arthur instructs whoever it was, Gawain? Gallahad? Anyway, instructs him to throw the sword back into the water with a giant red sun setting behind is more moving than Siegfried's death in The Ring cycle. It's as if the music were written for that scene instead of for the opera.

Boorman also used Carl Orff, along with almost every other movie maker in history.

Man, that is still a great movie!

[Edit: Actually, I think now it is Perceval in that scene.]


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## tdc (Jan 17, 2011)

I believe that Mozart's Requiem in D minor is playing in the _Big Lebowski_ when the dude is smoking a joint in the other Lebowski's office, while being informed of a kidnapping, truly haunting!


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## CypressWillow (Apr 2, 2013)

In "The King's Speech" when the climactic broadcast at the beginning of WWII begins, and the first notes of the second movement of Beethoven's Symphony #7 softly sound, every hair on my head stood straight up.


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## worov (Oct 12, 2012)

Pier Paolo Pasolini is among my favourites. Bach's Matthaus Passion is used in several of his films : Accattone, Mamma Roma, The Gospel according to Matthew. And Theorema uses Mozart's Requiem.

I'm glad Tarkovsky was mentionned. He's definitely one of my favourites directors. The Sacrifice uses Bach. So does the Mirror and Solaris. Nostalghia uses Beethoven.


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## Manxfeeder (Oct 19, 2010)

There is an add-on to The Incredibles called Jack-Jack Attack. A babysitter tries to stimulate a superhero-child's brain with Mozart, so Eine Kleine Nachmusik is playing in the background. But when she shows him a flashcard, he bursts into flame, and the music is still Mozart, but it's the Dies Irae from his Requiem. I think that's a great use of the two sides of Mozart.


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## clara s (Jan 6, 2014)

aleazk said:


> Lontano was used in The Shining, if I recall correctly. Also Bartok.
> 
> In Eyes Wide Shut, Musica Ricercata.


in eyes wide shut also the great piece was Waltz suite of Dimitri Shostakovich


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## Guest (Mar 3, 2014)

I haven't actually seen the movie, but at least in the previews for the movie "Gravity," one hears Part's Spiegel im Spiegel, which seems like a great pairing.

How about the masterful use of the works of Mozart in "Amadeus?" Or those of Beethoven in "Immortal Beloved?" Sorry, couldn't resist. 

Someone already beat me to the punch with the second movement of Beethoven's 7th in "The King's Speech." I believe it also utilizes the 2nd movement of his 5th piano concerto, unless I am mistaken. 

Also, Barber's Adagio for Strings was featured in Oliver Stone's "Platoon."


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## brianvds (May 1, 2013)

DrMike said:


> Someone already beat me to the punch with the second movement of Beethoven's 7th in "The King's Speech."


It was also used in the SF film "Knowing," and if memory serves, one gets to see the end of the world with B. in the background.


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## SilenceIsGolden (May 5, 2013)

Heh, another in the "obvious" category would be the prominent use of Beethoven's Op. 131 quartet in the movie _A Late Quartet_, because it revolves around the final recital of a fictional renowned string quartet group who play that in their farewell concert. There are other works featured less prominently in it as well. Pretty good film, I thought.


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## Blancrocher (Jul 6, 2013)

I like the use of Erik Satie in several films by Louis Malle.


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## BurningDesire (Jul 15, 2012)

I put forth the anime series _Princess Tutu_, which has a score that almost entirely consists of Romantic period music (with some 20th Century). Its a fairy tale styled story heavily based in ballet, and utilizes music by Tchaikovsky, Mussorgsky, Chopin, Wagner, Prokofiev, Beethoven, Borodin, Lovenskiold, Adam, Debussy, Glinka, Delibes, and others. Its a beautiful story, and uses music masterfully, and I believe its a pretty good argument against the idea that film music is meant to just be background music, and shouldn't be interesting music on its own. I HIGHLY recommend this series to anybody here who likes a great story and likes great music, and wants to experience a great story set to great music


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## GreenMamba (Oct 14, 2012)

Being John Malkovich makes interesting use of Bartok's Music for Strings, Percussion and Celeste.

Man On Wire makes use of the Satie's Gymnopedie #1 (as does Malle's My Dinner With Andre, as referenced above). I might of been concerned that it would sound cliched, but it works.


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## KenDuctor (Mar 7, 2014)

Does Starwars count? Whether or not if you like Williams or not, it will certainly be remembered.


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## Alfacharger (Dec 6, 2013)

The wonderful film "Moonrise Kingdom" features several pieces by Benjamin Britten along with some Saint Saens Carnival of the Animals.


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## classifriend (Mar 9, 2014)

Werckmeister harmóniák from Tarr, any Mekas film uses them quite nicely too


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## FleshRobot (Jan 27, 2014)

KenDuctor said:


> Does Starwars count? Whether or not if you like Williams or not, it will certainly be remembered.


No, nor does Shostakovich's waltz used in _Eyes Wide Shut_.


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## GraemeG (Jun 30, 2009)

KenDuctor said:


> Does Starwars count? Whether or not if you like Williams or not, it will certainly be remembered.


Sure it counts, but only if the music is attributed to Holst... ;-)
GG


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