Film and TV music (1956)

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f Ex. 8 r © ^bt^ ^ m ® ^^ b» r-f- X^ We now come to the most diflScult problem of alL From the very outset all of us concerned with this projea had been giving much thought to the projection of the concept of God, which is a vital faaor in the mifolding of this picture. The creative artist who tackles this problem may not find the solution difficult if he is primarily concerned with a sub- jective expression of his own feeling in relation to God. In a medium like motion pictures the artist caimot afford the luxury of subjectivity. In a medium which reaches more people in one month than a so<alled "serious composer" reaches in an entire lifetime it is necessary that the screen composer have some recognition of the "language barrier" which exists between his own higjily sophisticated (we hope) language and the more primitive musical language of his vast and varied audience. The screen composer must also have an honest desire to communicate with his audience. The snob is lost in this medium. His future is an obscure end with a small coterie. The composer who either by choice or necessity invents tortured musical devices to mask a weak- ness of line or lack of spontaneity of emotion is similarly doomed. Lest there be any misunderstanding let me restate that I am referring to the motion picture as it is constituted today. I am simply saying that when an artist works in a medium in which he has a captive audience, he then has the responsibility to communicate with it in a language it understands. It was an acute awareness of this problem which led me to pro- crastitute for some time in the creation of music for the scenes which concerned themselves with the presence of God. In music God could be many things; Greg- orian chants, Palestrina, Eich, Beethoven, Mozart, or perhaps the Verdi of the Requiem, or perhaps I Believe. I am not building up to confessing that I took all these elements and fused them in some mechanical way. I mention the foregoing to try to give the reader an understanding of the thoughts that were conditioning my efforts as I approached the problem. The result appears below as Ex. 8. This is the most forthright statement of the theme as it appears in the prelude. After all this introduaion I dare not make any comments of my own about this theme. It is, of course, too early to try to judge whether I have succeeded in what I set out to accomplish with this theme. That is something the millions of people who see this film will have to judge for themselves. Copyrighl ^ 1957 Famous Music Corporation