0:00:02 > 0:00:03- Do you like music?- Yes.
0:00:03 > 0:00:05Why don't you put a record on.
0:00:05 > 0:00:06Mozart.
0:00:06 > 0:00:08MUSIC: Eine Kleine Nachtmusik by Mozart
0:00:12 > 0:00:14Funny, isn't it?
0:00:14 > 0:00:17How adding music to a scene
0:00:17 > 0:00:20can inform a whole story.
0:00:20 > 0:00:22That's if it's the right music.
0:00:22 > 0:00:25This Mozart isn't really working for me, Michael.
0:00:25 > 0:00:26Let's try this instead.
0:00:27 > 0:00:29HAPHAZARD PIANO MUSIC
0:00:29 > 0:00:31For instance, when you hear music like this...
0:00:32 > 0:00:35..you just know everything's going to end really badly.
0:00:35 > 0:00:37Oh! Ow!
0:00:39 > 0:00:41When you hear a soundtrack like this...
0:00:41 > 0:00:42SLOW FUNKY GUITAR MUSIC
0:00:42 > 0:00:43..you get a real sense of...
0:00:43 > 0:00:45SOFT MOANING
0:00:45 > 0:00:47Hang on, I don't like where this is going at all.
0:00:51 > 0:00:53- RECORD PLAYER SCRATCHES - Quite enough of that.
0:00:55 > 0:01:00If, however, you're a film-scoring god, like John Barry,
0:01:00 > 0:01:03then it may still be a bloke making a cup of coffee.
0:01:03 > 0:01:06But the music's telling us a whole lot more.
0:01:06 > 0:01:07ALARM CLOCK RINGS
0:01:09 > 0:01:11MUSIC: Main Title Theme by John Barry
0:01:13 > 0:01:17To my mind, John Barry's title music for the cold war thriller,
0:01:17 > 0:01:20The Ipcress File, is one of the finest ever written.
0:01:32 > 0:01:35In his hands, the music becomes another character,
0:01:35 > 0:01:37reacting to what's on screen,
0:01:37 > 0:01:40allowing space for dialogue, sound effects.
0:01:40 > 0:01:45Even to the point of matching a note sounded by a coffee grinder
0:01:45 > 0:01:46when it's working.
0:01:46 > 0:01:49COFFEE GRINDER WHIRS
0:01:49 > 0:01:51HE PLAYS PART OF THE TITLE THEME
0:01:55 > 0:01:56COFFEE GRINDER WHIRS
0:01:59 > 0:02:03That particular coffee grinder was being sold through a mail order firm
0:02:03 > 0:02:06owned by the executive producer of the film.
0:02:15 > 0:02:18Central to Barry's theme is this...
0:02:18 > 0:02:20HE PLAYS SINISTER CHORDS
0:02:22 > 0:02:23That is a cimbalom,
0:02:23 > 0:02:26a Hungarian hammered dulcimer.
0:02:26 > 0:02:31What it gives him is a way into the spy world. The Cold War.
0:02:31 > 0:02:35HE PLAYS SINISTER CHORDS
0:02:35 > 0:02:38That sound is full of threat.
0:02:38 > 0:02:40Michael Caine may be waking up in his own apartment in London,
0:02:40 > 0:02:45but Soviet Russia is just over the curve of the world.
0:02:45 > 0:02:48However, being the master that he is,
0:02:48 > 0:02:51Barry adds a counterpoint that's actually warm.
0:02:51 > 0:02:54HE PLAYS WARMER CHORDS
0:02:56 > 0:03:00It captures the appeal of Michael Caine's character,
0:03:00 > 0:03:04and promises that the film will entertain us, as well as chill us.
0:03:07 > 0:03:10John Barry set out to create a score that was simple,
0:03:10 > 0:03:13and yet told us a huge amount, and in doing so
0:03:13 > 0:03:16he raised the film to a whole new level,
0:03:16 > 0:03:18as do all great film composers.
0:03:22 > 0:03:25And then that became this...
0:03:26 > 0:03:28MUSIC: Chariots Of Fire by Vangelis
0:03:32 > 0:03:35I always see the job as not to do what the director tells you
0:03:35 > 0:03:38to do, and good directors never tell you what to do.
0:03:38 > 0:03:41Your job is to go and do the thing that they can't imagine.
0:03:42 > 0:03:45DRAMATIC SCORE
0:03:51 > 0:03:55In my films, the music is inextricably interwoven
0:03:55 > 0:04:03with the drama, the dialogue, the sound effects, the moving camera
0:04:03 > 0:04:05and the actors' faces.
0:04:05 > 0:04:07It just... You can't have one without the other.
0:04:10 > 0:04:14In this series, I'll tell the story of the film soundtrack.
0:04:15 > 0:04:19How composers took the power of the orchestra and harnessed it
0:04:19 > 0:04:20to a new medium.
0:04:23 > 0:04:26And how they've embraced a rich, diverse range of music
0:04:26 > 0:04:30to keep the sound of cinema fresh and exciting.
0:04:32 > 0:04:36Some people say the best score is the one you don't hear.
0:04:36 > 0:04:39I say the best score is the one you hear when you need to,
0:04:39 > 0:04:43and after this series I want you to be able to hear more than you
0:04:43 > 0:04:44ever thought possible.
0:04:58 > 0:05:01Every week, millions of us go to the movies,
0:05:01 > 0:05:05and whether we're seeing a drama, a rom-com, or a science-fiction film,
0:05:05 > 0:05:08the chances are it'll be accompanied by an orchestral soundtrack.
0:05:13 > 0:05:17As a composer myself, I love working with a grand ensemble of brass
0:05:17 > 0:05:20and strings, woodwind and percussion.
0:05:20 > 0:05:23But how is it that people who would never go to a symphony concert
0:05:23 > 0:05:28continue to embrace and indeed expect that rich orchestral texture
0:05:28 > 0:05:29with their movies?
0:05:29 > 0:05:33How did the orchestral sound become the mainstay
0:05:33 > 0:05:34of the cinema experience?
0:05:37 > 0:05:39Our story begins in the 1920s.
0:05:39 > 0:05:43Cinema is emerging as the most popular form of entertainment.
0:05:45 > 0:05:47But even in this, the silent era,
0:05:47 > 0:05:50music was a key element of any visit to the cinema
0:05:50 > 0:05:53and it could be grand and sophisticated.
0:05:54 > 0:05:58Picturehouses often had their own small orchestras to accompany films.
0:05:58 > 0:06:01Ranging from a few musicians to much larger ensembles
0:06:01 > 0:06:02in the biggest theatres.
0:06:04 > 0:06:08And the sound was to grow even more, thanks to an exciting new arrival.
0:06:08 > 0:06:11HE PLAYS CLIMACTIC SCORE
0:06:19 > 0:06:21To enjoy the full silent film experience,
0:06:21 > 0:06:25I've come to America and the Loews Theatre in Jersey City.
0:06:28 > 0:06:31Built in the '20s, it could hold more than 3,000 people
0:06:31 > 0:06:34enjoying a pristine picture and state-of-the-art
0:06:34 > 0:06:36musical accompaniment.
0:06:38 > 0:06:41HE PLAYS DRAMATIC SCORE
0:06:48 > 0:06:51- That was astonishing.- Thank you. - Wonderful, wonderful sound.
0:06:51 > 0:06:54- Thank you.- Tell me about this extraordinary monster.
0:06:54 > 0:06:58This is what is considered a theatre pipe organ.
0:06:58 > 0:07:00It's 100% pipes, it's all acoustic.
0:07:00 > 0:07:04There is no amplification in this instrument. It works 100% on air.
0:07:04 > 0:07:07You know, you're seeing a 50-foot screen here,
0:07:07 > 0:07:09not like you would in a multiplex nowadays.
0:07:09 > 0:07:13- So you need to fill that scope.- So it's basically a one-man orchestra.
0:07:13 > 0:07:18It is. You have your drums, cymbals...
0:07:18 > 0:07:21BASS DRUM SOUND
0:07:26 > 0:07:28And then you have all your wonderful toys,
0:07:28 > 0:07:30which are actually real sound effects.
0:07:30 > 0:07:32Right. We have a car horn.
0:07:32 > 0:07:33HORN BLARES
0:07:33 > 0:07:34Actually, you got two.
0:07:34 > 0:07:35HORN BLARES
0:07:35 > 0:07:37HORN TOOTS
0:07:37 > 0:07:41If you're doing something fast, like a car chase...
0:07:41 > 0:07:44HE PLAYS THE ORGAN
0:07:44 > 0:07:46It's kind of hard...
0:07:47 > 0:07:49HORN BLARES
0:07:49 > 0:07:52- It's kind of hard to get to that. - May I have a go?- Yeah, sure.
0:07:52 > 0:07:54Absolutely.
0:07:54 > 0:07:57HE PLAYS ORGAN
0:07:59 > 0:08:03Whether an organist or an orchestra, the accompanists pretty much
0:08:03 > 0:08:06had carte blanche over what they chose to play.
0:08:06 > 0:08:09So, seeing a film in one cinema could be a very different experience
0:08:09 > 0:08:11from seeing it in another,
0:08:11 > 0:08:14and the wrong music could be hugely damaging.
0:08:15 > 0:08:19The studios had absolutely no power over what music the audience heard,
0:08:19 > 0:08:22and they were determined to take control.
0:08:28 > 0:08:32Enter, Don Juan, the first full-length feature film
0:08:32 > 0:08:35with pre-recorded sound, released in 1926.
0:08:38 > 0:08:40There's no dialogue, just music,
0:08:40 > 0:08:44and the occasional gimmicky sound effect, as in this scene...
0:08:44 > 0:08:46KNOCKING
0:08:46 > 0:08:50Its soundtrack came in the form of a disc, just like a record,
0:08:50 > 0:08:52which was synchronised with the projector.
0:08:55 > 0:08:58That same system, called Vitaphone,
0:08:58 > 0:09:01was used for a film called The Jazz Singer the following year.
0:09:02 > 0:09:06Only The Jazz Singer featured spoken dialogue as well as music.
0:09:06 > 0:09:11Just a few extemporised lines, but the first talkie had arrived.
0:09:12 > 0:09:14..And the silent era was over.
0:09:15 > 0:09:19The coming of sound had one strange musical consequence.
0:09:19 > 0:09:23The studios were convinced that audiences wouldn't accept music
0:09:23 > 0:09:25on the soundtrack unless they could see the musicians
0:09:25 > 0:09:28actually playing it onscreen.
0:09:30 > 0:09:32# All the time in the tropical clime
0:09:32 > 0:09:36# Where they do that funky, funky dance... #
0:09:36 > 0:09:38Now, this was fine where musicals were concerned,
0:09:38 > 0:09:41but it meant that dramas were pretty much reduced to opening
0:09:41 > 0:09:44and closing credit music, and that's it.
0:09:44 > 0:09:46What we might call an underscore,
0:09:46 > 0:09:50music added to enhance the action and dialogue, was out.
0:09:50 > 0:09:52And for that reason, if for no other,
0:09:52 > 0:09:55those early talkies are pretty dull affairs.
0:09:56 > 0:09:58KING KONG ROARS
0:09:58 > 0:10:03Then, in 1933, something big arrived that changed everything.
0:10:04 > 0:10:07WOMAN SCREAMS
0:10:09 > 0:10:14Everyone knows King Kong for its pioneering visual effects.
0:10:14 > 0:10:18But for me, its greatest achievement is what we hear -
0:10:18 > 0:10:19that thrilling score.
0:10:20 > 0:10:22This was the film that proved
0:10:22 > 0:10:26where music truly belongs - at the heart of the drama.
0:10:31 > 0:10:35King Kong was a huge risk for its studio, RKO.
0:10:35 > 0:10:38Would anyone buy into a film featuring extended
0:10:38 > 0:10:42dialogue-free scenes between actress Fay Wray and a model gorilla?
0:10:45 > 0:10:47The producers at RKO took a gamble
0:10:47 > 0:10:50and broke with tradition by commissioning a score
0:10:50 > 0:10:53that would run right the way through the film, underscoring dialogue,
0:10:53 > 0:10:55action, everything.
0:10:55 > 0:10:58They did this because they believed it was the only way they could
0:10:58 > 0:11:02get a modern audience to empathise with what was happening on screen.
0:11:02 > 0:11:05To do it, they turned to their own in-house composer,
0:11:05 > 0:11:07who was, thankfully, the best in the business.
0:11:08 > 0:11:10His name was Max Steiner
0:11:10 > 0:11:14and he wrote the first truly modern film score.
0:11:14 > 0:11:16But its roots were very much in the 19th century,
0:11:16 > 0:11:19and Steiner's own origins.
0:11:26 > 0:11:29The real home of film music isn't Hollywood,
0:11:29 > 0:11:32or anywhere else in America or Britain.
0:11:32 > 0:11:33It's Vienna, Austria.
0:11:35 > 0:11:37This is where Max Steiner was born,
0:11:37 > 0:11:41and where he and many other major film composers of his generation
0:11:41 > 0:11:44gained their musical grounding.
0:11:44 > 0:11:47In the 19th century, Vienna had become a leading centre
0:11:47 > 0:11:51of European opera and narrative music.
0:11:51 > 0:11:53Here, the great Austrian and German composers
0:11:53 > 0:11:57refined the art of setting action to rich, emotive music.
0:12:02 > 0:12:03A child prodigy,
0:12:03 > 0:12:06Steiner's early career took him to London's West End,
0:12:06 > 0:12:10where he spent eight years composing and conducting stage musicals.
0:12:10 > 0:12:13His reward was to be interned as an enemy alien
0:12:13 > 0:12:16at the outbreak of World War I.
0:12:16 > 0:12:19Steiner quickly relocated to New York.
0:12:21 > 0:12:25It was on Broadway that Steiner honed his musical skills
0:12:25 > 0:12:28in the face of ambitious producers and a demanding public.
0:12:28 > 0:12:30He had to be quick and adaptable,
0:12:30 > 0:12:34delivering rich scores for dramas, comedies and romances.
0:12:34 > 0:12:37So when Hollywood started creating its own soundtracks,
0:12:37 > 0:12:40Steiner was exactly the kind of man they needed.
0:12:43 > 0:12:47Steiner had been a musical director with RKO for three years
0:12:47 > 0:12:50when he was confronted with the challenge of Kong.
0:12:50 > 0:12:54How would he get people to care about this big gorilla?
0:12:54 > 0:12:57KING KONG ROARS
0:12:57 > 0:13:00Steiner decided to draw on the musical techniques
0:13:00 > 0:13:03he'd learned as a child in Vienna.
0:13:03 > 0:13:06Perhaps the most significant of these had been perfected
0:13:06 > 0:13:10by Richard Wagner in his epic operas - the leitmotif.
0:13:11 > 0:13:17A leitmotif is a short, very memorable musical idea or theme
0:13:17 > 0:13:21that fits to the central character in the story, in this case Kong.
0:13:21 > 0:13:23Here's his leitmotif.
0:13:23 > 0:13:26HE PLAYS DRAMATIC SCORE
0:13:28 > 0:13:32KING KONG LEITMOTIF
0:13:37 > 0:13:40Now, other leitmotifs that spin off from that,
0:13:40 > 0:13:43will link back to it both musically and dramatically.
0:13:43 > 0:13:46So in other words, they'll either start with that three-note drop...
0:13:46 > 0:13:49- HE PLAYS START OF LEITMOTIF - ..or run a variation on it.
0:13:49 > 0:13:52For instance, Fay Wray's leitmotif is this one.
0:13:52 > 0:13:55HE PLAYS LIGHTER SCORE
0:14:01 > 0:14:04FAY WRAY LEITMOTIF
0:14:07 > 0:14:09Much more romantic.
0:14:10 > 0:14:13And this simple technique would become a key element
0:14:13 > 0:14:15of the musical language of cinema.
0:14:16 > 0:14:20Now, how do we feel for King Kong? Let's look at this scene.
0:14:20 > 0:14:24QUIET GENTLE SCORE
0:14:29 > 0:14:32You can tell that there's actually a gentleness in the music
0:14:32 > 0:14:34with Kong, which we haven't heard before.
0:14:34 > 0:14:37And now, as he begins to strip away her clothes,
0:14:37 > 0:14:40we get something even more interesting.
0:14:40 > 0:14:42We get this...
0:14:42 > 0:14:45SLOW ROMANTIC TUNE
0:14:53 > 0:14:55I think it's Kong discovering sex.
0:14:56 > 0:14:59He's a red-blooded male and everybody in the auditorium
0:14:59 > 0:15:04suddenly feels what he feels, which is that Fay Wray does look gorgeous.
0:15:04 > 0:15:08And that's one of the things that Steiner has brought to this movie.
0:15:08 > 0:15:13He's made us feel that a lump of plasticine actually is like us.
0:15:13 > 0:15:16FAY WRAY LEITMOTIF
0:15:18 > 0:15:21Fay Wray wakes up and we get her leitmotif again.
0:15:26 > 0:15:28But we also get another ground-breaking aspect
0:15:28 > 0:15:30of Steiner's score.
0:15:30 > 0:15:32LOW WOODWIND SOUND
0:15:32 > 0:15:36Look at how precisely the woodwinds fit the movement of Kong's fingers.
0:15:36 > 0:15:38LOW WOODWIND SOUND
0:15:42 > 0:15:45Such accuracy was unprecedented in film music.
0:15:45 > 0:15:48How did Steiner pull if off?
0:15:53 > 0:15:59This is a strip of 35 mil film, and this is the optical soundtrack.
0:15:59 > 0:16:01It's the method they developed by the 1930s
0:16:01 > 0:16:04to actually put sound onto film.
0:16:04 > 0:16:07What Steiner did was to take the print of Kong he was going to use
0:16:07 > 0:16:11for his recording sessions, and actually punch tiny holes
0:16:11 > 0:16:15at regular intervals through that soundtrack area.
0:16:15 > 0:16:19It gave him the tempo he needed for the music in the scene.
0:16:19 > 0:16:21Then when he listened to the film through his headphones,
0:16:21 > 0:16:25those holes made regular clicking sounds, like a metronome,
0:16:25 > 0:16:27perfectly synchronised to the picture.
0:16:27 > 0:16:30SOFT CLICKING
0:16:30 > 0:16:33It became known as the click track, and it meant that Steiner
0:16:33 > 0:16:36could conduct the orchestra exactly in time
0:16:36 > 0:16:38with what was happening on screen.
0:16:41 > 0:16:45The music bill came in at an eye-watering 50,000,
0:16:45 > 0:16:48but audiences flocked to the picture.
0:16:48 > 0:16:51DRAMATIC ORCHESTRAL MUSIC
0:16:53 > 0:16:58During the 1930s, Steiner's lead was followed by other European composers
0:16:58 > 0:17:00who found a new life in Hollywood,
0:17:00 > 0:17:03many fleeing political turmoil at home.
0:17:04 > 0:17:09All brought a rich, orchestral style, formed in 19th-century Europe
0:17:09 > 0:17:11to bear on their work, which was so prolific
0:17:11 > 0:17:15that it quickly came to define the Hollywood sound.
0:17:15 > 0:17:19They included Dimitri Tiomkin, composer of Lost Horizon
0:17:19 > 0:17:21and It's A Wonderful Life.
0:17:21 > 0:17:25And Franz Waxman, composer of Bride Of Frankenstein and Rebecca.
0:17:28 > 0:17:31Steiner himself went on to compose Gone With The Wind
0:17:31 > 0:17:35for David O Selznick, and Casablanca for Warner Bros,
0:17:35 > 0:17:38in a career that would last another 30 years.
0:17:41 > 0:17:44The scoring stage at Warner's, where Steiner and his colleagues
0:17:44 > 0:17:48recorded many of their finest works, is still in use today.
0:17:51 > 0:17:55Wow. When you think of the people who have worked in this space...
0:17:56 > 0:17:59All the Warner Bros music was recorded here,
0:17:59 > 0:18:00right through the '30s.
0:18:03 > 0:18:06There's a suggestion that what made the Hollywood sound
0:18:06 > 0:18:09was that they mixed together classical musicians
0:18:09 > 0:18:14with big band horn players, and so the classical sound sounded rich
0:18:14 > 0:18:18and full and symphonic, but the horn-playing was really punchy.
0:18:18 > 0:18:22Can you imagine it...coming back off these walls?
0:18:22 > 0:18:24That slap-back.
0:18:24 > 0:18:26It's got power to it.
0:18:26 > 0:18:29Everything into the mics very, very controllable.
0:18:29 > 0:18:32Controlled through there with a range of guys, probably,
0:18:32 > 0:18:35watching levels, keeping an eye on what's coming off
0:18:35 > 0:18:38all these different instruments,
0:18:38 > 0:18:43and locking to that picture there, which is the job of the conductor.
0:18:45 > 0:18:49Orchestra sizes could range from 20 or so musicians,
0:18:49 > 0:18:52to well over 80 - depending on the film.
0:18:52 > 0:18:54Here...
0:18:54 > 0:18:57Here's the control centre.
0:18:57 > 0:18:59This is where the conductor would sit.
0:19:02 > 0:19:05This is where he's watching the screen.
0:19:05 > 0:19:08Straight there. His musicians here.
0:19:08 > 0:19:10And he lifts the baton...
0:19:11 > 0:19:14"Ladies and gentlemen, if you would."
0:19:17 > 0:19:21In 1934, a man lifted a baton in this room
0:19:21 > 0:19:23who'd been declared a genius by Gustav Mahler
0:19:23 > 0:19:25while he was still in his teens,
0:19:25 > 0:19:29who'd studied with Richard Strauss.
0:19:29 > 0:19:32He was possibly one of Europe's greatest composers,
0:19:32 > 0:19:35but now he was working for Hollywood.
0:19:35 > 0:19:38His name was Erich Wolfgang Korngold.
0:19:38 > 0:19:41Up that rigging, you monkeys! Aloft!
0:19:41 > 0:19:43There's no chains to hold you now!
0:19:43 > 0:19:46Korngold's first original score for Warners was for swashbuckler
0:19:46 > 0:19:51Captain Blood, and it showcases his signature style.
0:19:51 > 0:19:54UPBEAT ORCHESTRAL SCORE
0:20:03 > 0:20:06The music is romantic and richly layered,
0:20:06 > 0:20:10stirring our spirits as Errol Flynn launches himself on the high seas,
0:20:10 > 0:20:14yet nuanced enough to allow thoughtfulness and reflection.
0:20:14 > 0:20:17ROMANTIC ORCHESTRAL SCORE
0:20:22 > 0:20:25Korngold was another Viennese composer of operas
0:20:25 > 0:20:29and concert works, regarded as one of the finest in Europe.
0:20:32 > 0:20:35His reputation had already spread across the Atlantic
0:20:35 > 0:20:37by the time he came to Hollywood to supervise
0:20:37 > 0:20:41the music for a stage production of A Midsummer Night's Dream.
0:20:44 > 0:20:47Recognising the rich expressiveness of Korngold's music,
0:20:47 > 0:20:50and his remarkable gift for melody,
0:20:50 > 0:20:52Warners offered him an unprecedented deal.
0:20:57 > 0:20:59This is Building 66,
0:20:59 > 0:21:03which was the original music department at Warner Bros,
0:21:03 > 0:21:05and it's amazing to think that all the composers
0:21:05 > 0:21:07had their offices here.
0:21:07 > 0:21:12Steiner was here, Waxman was here, and of course, Korngold was here.
0:21:12 > 0:21:14But he was here under rather different circumstances
0:21:14 > 0:21:15to the others.
0:21:15 > 0:21:17Being the great catch that he was,
0:21:17 > 0:21:20he'd been able to negotiate a contract for himself whereby
0:21:20 > 0:21:24he had total control over how he wrote and what he wrote for.
0:21:24 > 0:21:26He could choose which scenes he scored.
0:21:26 > 0:21:29He could even ask for extra footage to be shot in those scenes
0:21:29 > 0:21:32so that he could actually finish a piece at the point he wanted to.
0:21:34 > 0:21:37The net result was that Korngold was able to write longer cues,
0:21:37 > 0:21:41more complex and with more sheer musicality in them
0:21:41 > 0:21:43than the movies had ever known before.
0:21:46 > 0:21:48For a perfect example of this musicality,
0:21:48 > 0:21:51listen to this scene from The Adventures Of Robin Hood.
0:21:52 > 0:21:54Underscoring romantic scenes with music
0:21:54 > 0:21:56had become a Hollywood convention.
0:21:56 > 0:21:59But Korngold adds a new level of depth.
0:21:59 > 0:22:01In less than a minute and a half,
0:22:01 > 0:22:04he gives us three notably beautiful tunes,
0:22:04 > 0:22:06seamlessly emerging from each other,
0:22:06 > 0:22:09all enriching the characters and dialogue.
0:22:09 > 0:22:11SLOW ROMANTIC SCORE I'm sorry to have to show you that.
0:22:11 > 0:22:14But once these poor people were all happy and contented.
0:22:14 > 0:22:16Just simple villagers who never harmed a soul.
0:22:16 > 0:22:20And now, tortured. Eyes put out.
0:22:20 > 0:22:22Tongues slit. Ears hacked off.
0:22:23 > 0:22:27They come to me for protection against your Norman friends.
0:22:30 > 0:22:33He starts off with a little love theme...
0:22:33 > 0:22:36HE PLAYS A ROMANTIC TUNE
0:22:40 > 0:22:42But it's quite timid,
0:22:42 > 0:22:44and you'll notice that beneath that melody,
0:22:44 > 0:22:46the chords are shifting all the time,
0:22:46 > 0:22:49as if the ground is shifting beneath Marion's feet.
0:22:49 > 0:22:50She can't be sure of him.
0:22:50 > 0:22:51Strange?
0:22:51 > 0:22:54Because I can feel for beaten, helpless people?
0:22:54 > 0:22:57Korngold now introduces a new theme,
0:22:57 > 0:22:59answering Marion's doubts, as it were.
0:22:59 > 0:23:03Played on a cello, it reveals the depth of Robin's integrity.
0:23:03 > 0:23:06DREAMY SCORE Norman or Saxon. What's that matter?
0:23:06 > 0:23:08It's injustice I hate, not the Normans.
0:23:08 > 0:23:10But it's lost you your rank, your lands.
0:23:10 > 0:23:11It's made you a hunted outlaw
0:23:11 > 0:23:14when you might have lived in comfort and security.
0:23:14 > 0:23:16What's your reward for all of this?
0:23:17 > 0:23:18Reward?
0:23:19 > 0:23:22You just don't understand, do you?
0:23:22 > 0:23:26HE PLAYS DREAMY SCORE
0:23:36 > 0:23:40There we have Robin, sacrificing without expecting a reward,
0:23:40 > 0:23:43and that's the moment she falls in love with him,
0:23:43 > 0:23:44and you can see it in her eyes.
0:23:45 > 0:23:49I do begin to see, a little now.
0:23:49 > 0:23:52And at that moment, the tune itself changes.
0:23:52 > 0:23:54It's this rather beautiful little roundelay,
0:23:54 > 0:23:58which has a kind of ancient folk song feel to it.
0:23:58 > 0:24:00It's almost like Greensleeves.
0:24:00 > 0:24:03MELLOW SCORE
0:24:08 > 0:24:11And it suggests their love is very pure, very innocent,
0:24:11 > 0:24:13very "of the forest".
0:24:13 > 0:24:14Very timeless.
0:24:18 > 0:24:20Even by Korngold's standards,
0:24:20 > 0:24:23there's something especially heart-felt and optimistic
0:24:23 > 0:24:26about his music for The Adventures Of Robin Hood.
0:24:26 > 0:24:30Perhaps that's because the film saved his and his family's lives.
0:24:32 > 0:24:35The Korngolds had been living in their house in Vienna.
0:24:35 > 0:24:38They came back to Hollywood so that Korngold
0:24:38 > 0:24:41could look at Robin Hood and decide if he wanted to score it.
0:24:41 > 0:24:43Initially, Korngold was reluctant.
0:24:43 > 0:24:46All those swashbuckling fight scenes looked a little bit too
0:24:46 > 0:24:48much like hard work.
0:24:48 > 0:24:51But events were overtaking him, and while he and his family
0:24:51 > 0:24:55were in Hollywood, the Nazis annexed his homeland, Austria.
0:24:55 > 0:24:57As a Jewish intellectual,
0:24:57 > 0:25:01Korngold had only just had the narrowest of escapes.
0:25:01 > 0:25:04But from now on, Robin Hood seemed to mean more to him.
0:25:04 > 0:25:07It's as if he really responded to this idea of a single man
0:25:07 > 0:25:09standing up against oppression,
0:25:09 > 0:25:12fighting for the rights of the individual, and for his freedom.
0:25:15 > 0:25:19Warner Bros kept copies of all the scores Korngold wrote for them,
0:25:19 > 0:25:22and they reveal the quality and detail of his work,
0:25:22 > 0:25:26as Joseph Bille from the studio's music library showed me.
0:25:26 > 0:25:28Neil, I have for you the conductor's score
0:25:28 > 0:25:30for The Adventures Of Robin Hood.
0:25:30 > 0:25:34Oh! That is so brilliant.
0:25:38 > 0:25:41- We didn't throw anything out. - No.- We saved it all.
0:25:42 > 0:25:44Here I can see the violins are playing...
0:25:44 > 0:25:50HE HUMS THE VIOLIN'S TUNE
0:25:55 > 0:25:56I love it. That's so brilliant.
0:25:58 > 0:26:02It's quite complex. The expectation was the musicians were pretty good.
0:26:02 > 0:26:05Korngold elevated the quality when he came to the studio.
0:26:05 > 0:26:08- He demanded good musicians. - Mm-hm.
0:26:08 > 0:26:09Here's the fight.
0:26:09 > 0:26:14It's a big, long cue, this, isn't it? A lot of notes.
0:26:14 > 0:26:15Yes.
0:26:16 > 0:26:19Here the speed, agility and sheer flare of Korngold's music
0:26:19 > 0:26:21more than augments the action.
0:26:21 > 0:26:25It gives us the effort and exhilaration of the fighters.
0:26:26 > 0:26:29FAST UPBEAT ORCHESTRAL MUSIC
0:26:34 > 0:26:37I believe that Korngold didn't like scoring fights
0:26:37 > 0:26:40because there was too much going on and it needed too many notes.
0:26:40 > 0:26:44- And you can see why. This is a lot of work.- Yeah.
0:26:46 > 0:26:48There we go, that's the love theme.
0:26:48 > 0:26:54HE HUMS THE LOVE THEME
0:26:58 > 0:27:00That is beautiful.
0:27:02 > 0:27:05And one of the many things that makes him such a great composer.
0:27:05 > 0:27:07He's such a fine melodist.
0:27:10 > 0:27:13And the library holds another treasure.
0:27:14 > 0:27:17This is the original piano that was in the music library
0:27:17 > 0:27:20- since before the Second World War. - Wow.
0:27:20 > 0:27:24And this piano was used by pretty much everybody, I should imagine.
0:27:24 > 0:27:29Korngold, Steiner, Waxman, Tiomkin.
0:27:29 > 0:27:32I note there is a memoir of Korngold sitting down
0:27:32 > 0:27:36and playing part of, I believe it's Kings Row.
0:27:36 > 0:27:40And everybody heard this wonderful opening theme.
0:27:40 > 0:27:43I mean, this won't be the right key, but that...
0:27:43 > 0:27:47HE PLAYS KINGS ROW MAIN TITLE
0:27:53 > 0:27:55- Brilliant!- Just... Isn't it?
0:27:55 > 0:27:58- It just blows you away. - It's incredible.
0:27:58 > 0:27:59- Yeah.- It's incredible.- So strong.
0:27:59 > 0:28:03Yeah. Neil, I've got one more thing to show you, if I may.
0:28:03 > 0:28:08This is one of Mr Korngold's batons.
0:28:08 > 0:28:11- May I?- Yes.- Thank you.
0:28:11 > 0:28:15Wow! That is astonishing.
0:28:15 > 0:28:19And the idea that the man who had come up with what
0:28:19 > 0:28:21we think of as film music,
0:28:21 > 0:28:23cos that's my feeling about him,
0:28:23 > 0:28:28is that he brought film music to a peak
0:28:28 > 0:28:31of artistic invention,
0:28:31 > 0:28:33even more so than Steiner did.
0:28:33 > 0:28:37And this was the baton he used to conduct his own music.
0:28:37 > 0:28:38Just magnificent.
0:28:54 > 0:28:57The composers of golden age Hollywood mostly came from
0:28:57 > 0:29:00the old world. They brought with them
0:29:00 > 0:29:04a form of orchestration which thousands of people knew,
0:29:04 > 0:29:06but when they got their hands on it,
0:29:06 > 0:29:10they turned it into something that millions of people would hear.
0:29:10 > 0:29:12America, for them, was a land of freedom,
0:29:12 > 0:29:14and the celebrational feel
0:29:14 > 0:29:16and the sense of embracing their new country,
0:29:16 > 0:29:19went into their orchestration.
0:29:19 > 0:29:20They turned that music into something
0:29:20 > 0:29:25they could offer to all of us - what we think of as film music.
0:29:29 > 0:29:34But the American experience isn't all about freedom and celebration.
0:29:34 > 0:29:36There's a darker psychological side,
0:29:36 > 0:29:41and by the 1940s, Hollywood was increasingly prepared to explore it.
0:29:43 > 0:29:45A new kind of film emerged,
0:29:45 > 0:29:49and it needed a soundtrack that was forged not in the old world
0:29:49 > 0:29:53of the 19th century, but the new world of the 20th.
0:29:56 > 0:29:57This is film noir,
0:29:57 > 0:30:00a genre of cinema that took basic moralities -
0:30:00 > 0:30:02good and bad, black and white -
0:30:02 > 0:30:07and mixed them up together into the grey areas of human experience.
0:30:09 > 0:30:13And I think that ambiguity is best captured in the title theme
0:30:13 > 0:30:15of Double Indemnity,
0:30:15 > 0:30:18perhaps the definitive film noir.
0:30:18 > 0:30:20DOUBLE INDEMNITY THEME PLAYS
0:30:20 > 0:30:23Listen to these chords.
0:30:23 > 0:30:26They feel neither entirely major nor minor.
0:30:27 > 0:30:30Neither entirely good, nor entirely bad.
0:30:30 > 0:30:33DOUBLE INDEMNITY THEME PLAYS
0:30:39 > 0:30:42Refusing to resolve, or reassure,
0:30:42 > 0:30:44the music marches on relentlessly,
0:30:44 > 0:30:47taking us towards an uncertain fate.
0:30:55 > 0:30:59Double Indemnity was scored by Miklos Rozsa,
0:30:59 > 0:31:03a Hungarian by birth who'd begun his career as a film composer in London.
0:31:05 > 0:31:08An early disciple of the 20th-century modernists,
0:31:08 > 0:31:11Rozsa experimented with complex tonalities
0:31:11 > 0:31:14which were unusual to the ears of film audiences.
0:31:17 > 0:31:21Double Indemnity has a classic noir plot in which a regular guy,
0:31:21 > 0:31:23an insurance salesman - Walter Neff -
0:31:23 > 0:31:27falls for a dangerously alluring married woman.
0:31:27 > 0:31:30Together they hatch a scheme to murder her husband.
0:31:33 > 0:31:36The actual killing is a brilliant example of less being more.
0:31:36 > 0:31:39With just Barbara Stanwyck's expression
0:31:39 > 0:31:42and Rozsa's score feeding our imagination.
0:31:42 > 0:31:43CAR HORN BLARES
0:31:43 > 0:31:45What are you doing that for?
0:31:46 > 0:31:47CAR HORN BLARES
0:31:47 > 0:31:49What are you honking the horn for?
0:31:49 > 0:31:51STRANGLED GROAN
0:31:51 > 0:31:59CLIMACTIC MUSIC DIMS
0:31:59 > 0:32:01So, the murder is done.
0:32:01 > 0:32:04But for Neff's plan to work...
0:32:04 > 0:32:07the alibi has to be watertight.
0:32:07 > 0:32:09Neff has to impersonate the husband
0:32:09 > 0:32:11and make it look like he fell off a train.
0:32:11 > 0:32:15And it's at this point that Rozsa does something very interesting.
0:32:15 > 0:32:18He gives us that striking opening music again,
0:32:18 > 0:32:21only this time in a completely different way.
0:32:21 > 0:32:25SOFTER MUSIC PLAYS
0:32:36 > 0:32:41It's the classic symphonic device of a variation on a theme.
0:32:41 > 0:32:44Rozsa has softened that music down to something much more human.
0:32:47 > 0:32:49We are being invited to go along on the journey
0:32:49 > 0:32:50these characters are taking,
0:32:50 > 0:32:53even to empathise with them.
0:32:53 > 0:32:55As such, Rozsa's music is giving us
0:32:55 > 0:32:58the underlying message of film noir...
0:32:58 > 0:33:00this could be you.
0:33:00 > 0:33:05DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYS
0:33:05 > 0:33:08Rozsa had shown that even composers trained in Europe
0:33:08 > 0:33:12were starting to embrace a much more contemporary sound.
0:33:14 > 0:33:17But the man who would become America's preeminent
0:33:17 > 0:33:21modern film composer was very much a home-grown talent.
0:33:29 > 0:33:31It's here on New York's East Side
0:33:31 > 0:33:34that Bernard Herrmann was born and raised.
0:33:34 > 0:33:36It's hard to imagine somewhere more different
0:33:36 > 0:33:39to the 19th-century elegance of Steiner
0:33:39 > 0:33:40and Korngold's Vienna.
0:33:40 > 0:33:43Instead Herrmann grew up in the greatest metropolis
0:33:43 > 0:33:45of the 20th century.
0:33:45 > 0:33:48Cacophonous, clashing, contradictory,
0:33:48 > 0:33:52the city would shape his character and his innate musical gift.
0:33:58 > 0:34:01From being a small child,
0:34:01 > 0:34:05he just devoured any music.
0:34:05 > 0:34:11He used to read scores the way you and I read a paperback book.
0:34:11 > 0:34:15He used to have them under the desk at school in a maths lesson
0:34:15 > 0:34:18and things and get into trouble for it.
0:34:20 > 0:34:22Herrmann honed his talents
0:34:22 > 0:34:24at the most creative broadcaster in America -
0:34:24 > 0:34:26CBS Radio.
0:34:28 > 0:34:30At their Madison Avenue studios,
0:34:30 > 0:34:33he created music for innovative radio dramas
0:34:33 > 0:34:36including perhaps the most daring ever broadcast -
0:34:36 > 0:34:39Orson Welles' War Of The Worlds.
0:34:41 > 0:34:43It made Welles a national sensation.
0:34:46 > 0:34:49Hollywood quickly came knocking.
0:34:49 > 0:34:52And when Welles agreed to direct his debut picture for RKO,
0:34:52 > 0:34:55he insisted that Herrmann should do the score.
0:34:56 > 0:34:58Welles planned to depict the rise
0:34:58 > 0:35:01and fall of a fictional great American figure
0:35:01 > 0:35:05with unprecedented psychological depth and insight.
0:35:05 > 0:35:08He needed a score from Herrmann that could take the audience
0:35:08 > 0:35:11inside the mind and world of this character from the outset.
0:35:12 > 0:35:16And that's what Herrmann delivers in Citizen Kane's celebrated
0:35:16 > 0:35:18dialogue-free opening sequence.
0:35:19 > 0:35:23Herrmann, trained in radio, has learnt about economy.
0:35:23 > 0:35:25Both economy of time -
0:35:25 > 0:35:26you haven't got very much time
0:35:26 > 0:35:28to make the statement you want to make -
0:35:28 > 0:35:30but also the economy of music.
0:35:30 > 0:35:34Making that statement in as few notes and as few chords as possible.
0:35:34 > 0:35:37BROODING MUSIC PLAYS
0:35:37 > 0:35:40The opening image is accompanied by brooding, mysterious,
0:35:40 > 0:35:43Wagneresque chords.
0:35:43 > 0:35:45There's a strength and a size to them,
0:35:45 > 0:35:47but then Herrmann brings in a strange,
0:35:47 > 0:35:50ambiguous leitmotif of just five notes.
0:35:50 > 0:35:54CITIZEN KANE LEITMOTIF PLAYS
0:36:01 > 0:36:08HE PLAYS CITIZEN KANE LEITMOTIF
0:36:08 > 0:36:10Now, they're very memorable.
0:36:10 > 0:36:12We could hear those again and again and again.
0:36:12 > 0:36:15They might be in a very slightly different pattern...
0:36:15 > 0:36:21HE PLAYS LEITMOTIF IN DIFFERENT PATTERN
0:36:21 > 0:36:24..but it's plain and it must have a meaning,
0:36:24 > 0:36:26and we don't know what that meaning is yet.
0:36:28 > 0:36:29As we move beyond the fence,
0:36:29 > 0:36:33Herrmann introduces a striking new element.
0:36:33 > 0:36:35VIBRAPHONE PLAYS
0:36:40 > 0:36:42HE PLAYS CHORDS THAT VIBRATE
0:36:42 > 0:36:44Beautiful, shimmering,
0:36:44 > 0:36:48strange little discord across the vibraphone, which he uses a lot,
0:36:48 > 0:36:52vibraphone at the top giving that shimmer, brooding chords underneath.
0:36:52 > 0:36:55You'll hear that later on in his career as well.
0:36:55 > 0:36:57HE PLAYS CHORDS
0:36:57 > 0:36:59It just deepens the mystery.
0:37:01 > 0:37:04The five-note theme accompanies us
0:37:04 > 0:37:07as we finally see inside the building.
0:37:07 > 0:37:09It's bringing us closer to something,
0:37:09 > 0:37:11but we don't know what.
0:37:15 > 0:37:16Rosebud.
0:37:17 > 0:37:22DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYS
0:37:22 > 0:37:26Kane has died, but the five notes return.
0:37:26 > 0:37:30HE PLAYS THE FIVE NOTES
0:37:30 > 0:37:32Only now they resolve.
0:37:37 > 0:37:41SOFT MUSIC PLAYS
0:37:50 > 0:37:53Until now, the whole of that sequence has been
0:37:53 > 0:37:56a lack of resolution stretching like elastic,
0:37:56 > 0:37:59and we've been aware that it hasn't resolved
0:37:59 > 0:38:02until the moment it does.
0:38:02 > 0:38:05Then suddenly this man's important to us.
0:38:05 > 0:38:07We care about him.
0:38:07 > 0:38:11And Herrmann has done that with the minimum number of chords
0:38:11 > 0:38:13and the minimum number of notes.
0:38:13 > 0:38:17The potency of that music is pure Bernard Herrmann.
0:38:21 > 0:38:24Herrmann provided the music for Welles' ill-fated
0:38:24 > 0:38:28follow-up to Citizen Kane - The Magnificent Ambersons -
0:38:28 > 0:38:32before embarking on a round of diverse and acclaimed scores.
0:38:32 > 0:38:36But it was more than a decade before he found a similarly brilliant
0:38:36 > 0:38:40collaborator when he became Alfred Hitchcock's composer of choice.
0:38:43 > 0:38:471958 saw them working on a film whose reputation is now
0:38:47 > 0:38:49rivalled only by Citizen Kane
0:38:49 > 0:38:52as the greatest American picture ever made.
0:38:56 > 0:38:59It's in Bernard Herrmann's contrary nature
0:38:59 > 0:39:01that his most haunting lyrical score
0:39:01 > 0:39:04and his personal favourite amongst the scores he wrote for Hitchcock,
0:39:04 > 0:39:06should be inspired by a dark,
0:39:06 > 0:39:10morbid tale in which the hero falls in love with a dead woman.
0:39:14 > 0:39:17In Vertigo, James Stewart plays a detective
0:39:17 > 0:39:21who is asked to protect a woman, played by Kim Novak,
0:39:21 > 0:39:25who believes she's possessed by the spirit of her suicidal ancestor.
0:39:29 > 0:39:33But this is a film in which nothing is as it seems,
0:39:33 > 0:39:35and Herrmann's score reflects this.
0:39:36 > 0:39:41One sequence in particular, he pulls off a clever musical double bluff.
0:39:43 > 0:39:46Stewart has tailed Novak to an art gallery
0:39:46 > 0:39:49which contains a portrait of her dead ancestor.
0:39:50 > 0:39:54The music here is eerie and disturbing.
0:39:54 > 0:39:57DISTURBING MUSIC PLAYS
0:39:57 > 0:39:59But when the scene shifts as Stewart follows Novak
0:39:59 > 0:40:01to the Golden Gate Bridge,
0:40:01 > 0:40:05the score also shifts almost imperceptibly.
0:40:05 > 0:40:07A tune begins to emerge.
0:40:07 > 0:40:12SOFTER MUSIC PLAYS
0:40:12 > 0:40:16By Hitchcock standards, this is a very long travelling scene,
0:40:16 > 0:40:17and it's unusual for him,
0:40:17 > 0:40:22except that of course the music's telling us more than we can see.
0:40:22 > 0:40:25What's happening is that there's a warmth growing in the music.
0:40:25 > 0:40:29A sense that these two people in their separate cars have got a link.
0:40:29 > 0:40:33Slowly, but surely, James Stewart's compassion for
0:40:33 > 0:40:36the Kim Novak character is becoming love.
0:40:39 > 0:40:41The cars arrive at the Bridge,
0:40:41 > 0:40:44and the score too comes to some sort of a rest.
0:40:44 > 0:40:48But it maintains a neutral, quizzical feel.
0:41:01 > 0:41:05PIERCING NOTES
0:41:05 > 0:41:08That jump is a complete shock.
0:41:08 > 0:41:11The music had done nothing to warn us that was coming,
0:41:11 > 0:41:13but it goes further -
0:41:13 > 0:41:16it sounds like the score didn't know she was going to jump.
0:41:16 > 0:41:19Those high horn arpeggios are screaming for help,
0:41:19 > 0:41:22for someone, preferably James Stewart, to dive in and get her out.
0:41:25 > 0:41:28Herrmann's remarkable gift for expressing our most primal emotions
0:41:28 > 0:41:33in orchestral form would result in his best-known piece of music.
0:41:36 > 0:41:39But it very nearly didn't happen.
0:41:39 > 0:41:42Because during the production of Psycho in 1960,
0:41:42 > 0:41:46Alfred Hitchcock was insistent that there should be no music
0:41:46 > 0:41:48for the murder in the shower.
0:41:49 > 0:41:52Herrmann ignored Hitchcock's instruction and went ahead
0:41:52 > 0:41:54and scored the shower scene -
0:41:54 > 0:41:56a brave decision that really only a talented
0:41:56 > 0:41:59and trusted collaborator could make.
0:41:59 > 0:42:01And this is the result.
0:42:01 > 0:42:05This is Bernard Herrmann's own copy of the original score for Psycho.
0:42:05 > 0:42:09It's one of the most famous pieces of music in film history,
0:42:09 > 0:42:13and you can see the notes stabbing down through the page,
0:42:13 > 0:42:15going lower and lower, deeper and deeper strings,
0:42:15 > 0:42:19as if the knife is going in deeper and deeper each time.
0:42:19 > 0:42:23SHOWER SCENE MUSIC PLAYS
0:42:28 > 0:42:30Perhaps more than any other scene in cinema,
0:42:30 > 0:42:34the Psycho shower sequence goes to prove that of all
0:42:34 > 0:42:35the directors' collaborators,
0:42:35 > 0:42:40it's the composer who's most able to raise a film to new heights.
0:42:40 > 0:42:44However, I also feel that in this case, Herrmann's success led him
0:42:44 > 0:42:49directly to making what he called, "the biggest mistake of my life."
0:42:52 > 0:42:54Shocking and sensational,
0:42:54 > 0:42:57Psycho felt like a film for the 1960s,
0:42:57 > 0:43:01appealing to a younger audience with less conventional tastes.
0:43:02 > 0:43:06But this new generation was also embracing TV and pop music
0:43:06 > 0:43:09at the expense of cinema.
0:43:09 > 0:43:13Hollywood and Hitchcock struggled to keep up.
0:43:14 > 0:43:18In 1964, Hitchcock and Herrmann's winning streak
0:43:18 > 0:43:22came to a sudden end with Marnie.
0:43:22 > 0:43:24This so-called sex mystery
0:43:24 > 0:43:27singularly failed to arouse the public.
0:43:28 > 0:43:30So, the following year,
0:43:30 > 0:43:34as he set about making the Cold War thriller Torn Curtain,
0:43:34 > 0:43:37Hitchcock was under unprecedented pressure to deliver a hit.
0:43:38 > 0:43:43He told Herrmann he wanted to break away from old-fashioned music
0:43:43 > 0:43:48because today's younger audiences required a beat and a rhythm.
0:43:48 > 0:43:51Herrmann said he'd be happy to comply,
0:43:51 > 0:43:53but he too was under pressure.
0:43:53 > 0:43:57His second marriage had come to and end.
0:43:57 > 0:43:59Holed up in this hotel,
0:43:59 > 0:44:02well-known as a haven for divorced Hollywood creative types,
0:44:02 > 0:44:05Herrmann wasn't in an ideal frame of mind.
0:44:07 > 0:44:11Herrmann cracked on for the score of Torn Curtain.
0:44:11 > 0:44:15But he wasn't giving Hitch the score that Hitch had asked for.
0:44:15 > 0:44:17He was giving him a Bernard Herrmann score.
0:44:17 > 0:44:21Dark, tough, ruthless,
0:44:21 > 0:44:23angry.
0:44:23 > 0:44:28It included 12 flutes which Herrmann thought would sound terrifying.
0:44:28 > 0:44:30DRAMATIC ORCHESTRAL MUSIC PLAYS
0:44:41 > 0:44:44I think he thought he could somehow shock Hitchcock
0:44:44 > 0:44:46back into being a great director
0:44:46 > 0:44:50by giving him a great Bernard Herrmann score.
0:44:50 > 0:44:52The problem was this wasn't Psycho.
0:44:52 > 0:44:55He couldn't just ignore Hitchcock's demands
0:44:55 > 0:44:58because Hitch himself was in trouble with the studio.
0:45:00 > 0:45:03Hitchcock turned up at the recording sessions unaware that Herrmann
0:45:03 > 0:45:07had been less than scrupulous in following his instructions.
0:45:07 > 0:45:11Hitch listened to the first cue,
0:45:11 > 0:45:12then furious,
0:45:12 > 0:45:14he fired Herrmann on the spot.
0:45:15 > 0:45:18Possibly the greatest partnership of director
0:45:18 > 0:45:20and composer in Hollywood history
0:45:20 > 0:45:22had been irreparably sundered.
0:45:30 > 0:45:33I think he wished that they could be friends again.
0:45:33 > 0:45:36I think he deeply wished they could.
0:45:36 > 0:45:39But they couldn't make up after all that.
0:45:39 > 0:45:43He didn't ever regret writing a piece of music that wasn't
0:45:43 > 0:45:44what Hitchcock had specified?
0:45:44 > 0:45:50He never regretted doing what he did on Torn Curtain.
0:45:50 > 0:45:52He was right.
0:45:52 > 0:45:54Hitchcock was wrong.
0:45:57 > 0:46:01Herrmann scored just three more films during the rest of the decade,
0:46:01 > 0:46:02none of them for Hollywood.
0:46:04 > 0:46:05But in the 1970s,
0:46:05 > 0:46:07he found himself back in demand.
0:46:07 > 0:46:10Ironically, from a younger generation of American directors
0:46:10 > 0:46:13who had grown up with his work and admired it.
0:46:13 > 0:46:17In 1975, Herrmann was asked to score a film by one of the rising stars
0:46:17 > 0:46:20of this generation - Martin Scorsese -
0:46:20 > 0:46:23who was forging a new kind of cinema -
0:46:23 > 0:46:26tough, streetwise, yet at times, poetic.
0:46:26 > 0:46:28But Herrmann still took a little persuading.
0:46:28 > 0:46:31I called him and said, "I'd like you to do the score in my picture."
0:46:31 > 0:46:32He said, "What's it called?"
0:46:32 > 0:46:34I said, "It's called Taxi Driver."
0:46:34 > 0:46:36He said, "I don't do pictures about cabbies."
0:46:36 > 0:46:39I said, "Actually, it's not a film about a cabby...
0:46:39 > 0:46:41"Let me just send you the script."
0:46:41 > 0:46:43"Well, all right, send the script."
0:46:43 > 0:46:47TAXI DRIVER THEME PLAYS
0:46:55 > 0:46:58Menacing, building percussion beats,
0:46:58 > 0:47:01ushering edgy, unsettling, horn chords.
0:47:01 > 0:47:03It's an attention grabber.
0:47:03 > 0:47:06Bernard Herrmann's classic opening to Taxi Driver,
0:47:06 > 0:47:09setting the scene for everything that's to come.
0:47:09 > 0:47:11And then the surprise.
0:47:11 > 0:47:13A beautiful, wistful,
0:47:13 > 0:47:17romantic saxophone tune just as the shot cuts to
0:47:17 > 0:47:22the eyes and the perspective of the film's protagonist Travis Bickle.
0:47:22 > 0:47:25SAXOPHONE PLAYS
0:47:35 > 0:47:38That duality in the music perfectly captures
0:47:38 > 0:47:41the contradictions in Robert DeNiro's character.
0:47:41 > 0:47:44Is Travis an everyman, or a madman?
0:47:44 > 0:47:46Someone yearning for love and warmth,
0:47:46 > 0:47:47or a psychopath?
0:47:47 > 0:47:51It's possibly the finest example of Bernard Herrmann's ability to
0:47:51 > 0:47:54get inside a character's head since Vertigo.
0:47:55 > 0:47:58I don't know what's going on inside him,
0:47:58 > 0:48:02except that it's disturbing and dangerous.
0:48:02 > 0:48:05And at the same time empathetic in a way, so the only person who
0:48:05 > 0:48:08could bring this on music I thought would be Bernard Herrmann.
0:48:08 > 0:48:13But I hadn't imagined the power that he would bring to it.
0:48:14 > 0:48:17He also told me he wanted to play with jazz for one of the first times.
0:48:17 > 0:48:21There was an element of noir-ish '40s in that...
0:48:21 > 0:48:22which I liked.
0:48:28 > 0:48:31Travis' nocturnal monologues are accompanied by
0:48:31 > 0:48:33a looming underscore that constantly suggests
0:48:33 > 0:48:37the potential for violence lurking beneath his angry thoughts.
0:48:39 > 0:48:41Only animals come out at night.
0:48:42 > 0:48:46Whores, skunk pussies, buggers, queens, fairies, dopers,
0:48:46 > 0:48:48junkies...
0:48:48 > 0:48:49sick, venal.
0:48:53 > 0:48:57Someday, a real rain will come and wash all this scum off the streets.
0:49:04 > 0:49:05Herrmann, though unwell,
0:49:05 > 0:49:08had insisted on flying to Los Angeles for the final
0:49:08 > 0:49:10Taxi Driver recording sessions.
0:49:10 > 0:49:13He also planned to meet several other directors keen to work
0:49:13 > 0:49:17with him now his reputation was firmly re-established.
0:49:17 > 0:49:20But early on Christmas Eve, 1975,
0:49:20 > 0:49:25just hours after supervising the final cues for Taxi Driver,
0:49:25 > 0:49:26Herrmann died in his sleep.
0:49:28 > 0:49:31Do you think he would be pleased at the way he's now seen
0:49:31 > 0:49:32as such a major figure?
0:49:32 > 0:49:34He would think...
0:49:34 > 0:49:40"Quite right too. How long it took them to get there.
0:49:40 > 0:49:42"Damn it," is what he'd think.
0:49:43 > 0:49:45Dark and realistic,
0:49:45 > 0:49:48Taxi Driver had seemed to capture the mood of America towards
0:49:48 > 0:49:50the end of the Vietnam era.
0:49:51 > 0:49:56Yet after the war, and the Bicentennial Celebrations in 1976,
0:49:56 > 0:49:58the country seemed hungry for more optimistic,
0:49:58 > 0:50:00carefree cinema.
0:50:00 > 0:50:03And the sound of golden age Hollywood experienced
0:50:03 > 0:50:04a surprising rebirth.
0:50:05 > 0:50:09STAR WARS THEME PLAYS
0:50:21 > 0:50:25HE PLAYS SAME THEME
0:50:30 > 0:50:32Now, just a minute.
0:50:32 > 0:50:35That's reminding me of something.
0:50:35 > 0:50:37How about this...
0:50:37 > 0:50:42HE PLAYS THEME IN A ROMANTIC TUNE
0:50:47 > 0:50:51Erich Wolfgang Korngold's theme to Kings Row.
0:50:51 > 0:50:53Coincidence?
0:50:55 > 0:50:58Well, maybe not entirely.
0:50:58 > 0:51:01To bring emotional resonance to the Star Wars films,
0:51:01 > 0:51:03full of alien characters and worlds,
0:51:03 > 0:51:07director George Lucas wanted composer John Williams
0:51:07 > 0:51:11to write in a traditional, romantic, symphonic style that echoed
0:51:11 > 0:51:15the 1930s serials and adventure films that had inspired him.
0:51:21 > 0:51:23PRINCESS LEIA: Here they come.
0:51:26 > 0:51:28Here, Luke and Leia could be Robin Hood and Marian
0:51:28 > 0:51:32as they swing across the chasm to a cool, goldesque accompaniment.
0:51:32 > 0:51:34Good luck.
0:51:42 > 0:51:45But where Williams really lives up to his golden age forebears
0:51:45 > 0:51:48is in extended cues like this one that switch back
0:51:48 > 0:51:52and forth between different characters and situations
0:51:52 > 0:51:55without ever sacrificing the unity and flow of the music,
0:51:55 > 0:51:58thus making the visual action all the more seamless.
0:51:58 > 0:52:01- C3PO:- Where could they be? - R2-D2 CHIRPS
0:52:04 > 0:52:06Close the blast doors.
0:52:12 > 0:52:13Open the blast doors!
0:52:13 > 0:52:15Open the blast doors!
0:52:18 > 0:52:21The huge success of the Star Wars films showed that the
0:52:21 > 0:52:24classical orchestral score, pioneered by the likes of
0:52:24 > 0:52:28Korngold and Steiner no longer belong to the past...
0:52:28 > 0:52:29I love you.
0:52:29 > 0:52:31I know.
0:52:31 > 0:52:34..but have acquired a timeless archetypal quality.
0:52:34 > 0:52:37ORCHESTRA PLAYS THEME
0:52:42 > 0:52:45And that sound has continued to grace cinema
0:52:45 > 0:52:48since Williams put it back on the map.
0:53:00 > 0:53:01The question today is
0:53:01 > 0:53:05whether it's still possible to work within that orchestral tradition
0:53:05 > 0:53:09without letting it become a straightjacket or indeed a cliche.
0:53:09 > 0:53:12It's a challenge faced by most leading film composers,
0:53:12 > 0:53:15whether they're following in the footsteps of the great golden-age
0:53:15 > 0:53:19figures or the more modern, complex sounds of Herrmann and Rozsa.
0:53:19 > 0:53:23German-born Hans Zimmer is one of the kings of the kind of big
0:53:23 > 0:53:27Hollywood studio score that would have been given to Steiner
0:53:27 > 0:53:29or Korngold 80 years ago.
0:53:29 > 0:53:32Working closely with powerful directors
0:53:32 > 0:53:36like Ridley Scott, Christopher Nolan and Terrence Malick,
0:53:36 > 0:53:40Zimmer's enjoyed an unusual degree of involvement in their films
0:53:40 > 0:53:42from a very early stage of production.
0:53:42 > 0:53:44In the case of Scott's Gladiator,
0:53:44 > 0:53:46in 2000,
0:53:46 > 0:53:50he influenced not only the sound, but even the shape of the film.
0:53:50 > 0:53:54I read the script, and it used to be the title Gladiator,
0:53:54 > 0:53:56and then you'd go into this battle.
0:53:56 > 0:53:59And...
0:53:59 > 0:54:03one of the things I always felt really strongly about with Ridley,
0:54:03 > 0:54:09he's very poetic, and this structure wasn't allowing any poetry.
0:54:09 > 0:54:13We needed to figure out a way of...
0:54:13 > 0:54:17doing a really poetic move right at the beginning
0:54:17 > 0:54:20so that it will allow you later on to go and take chances.
0:54:23 > 0:54:29The idea of holding a shot of the hand caressing the wheat,
0:54:29 > 0:54:32if you had put that into the script,
0:54:32 > 0:54:34that's the first thing that would have come out.
0:54:34 > 0:54:38It needed the music to validate this idea,
0:54:38 > 0:54:41and I do think it made it a different movie.
0:54:41 > 0:54:45It's important to set up the tone at an early stage.
0:54:45 > 0:54:47SOFT MUSIC PLAYS
0:54:55 > 0:54:58After the opening image of the hand on the wheat,
0:54:58 > 0:55:01Zimmer still had to score the huge battle scene
0:55:01 > 0:55:03which directly follows it.
0:55:03 > 0:55:06It required more than ten minutes of continuous music
0:55:06 > 0:55:07matched to the action.
0:55:12 > 0:55:14If one's being very formulaic about it,
0:55:14 > 0:55:17a battle scene feels like, one, two, three, four, one, two, three, four...
0:55:17 > 0:55:19- But I didn't want to do a march. - No.- Exactly.
0:55:19 > 0:55:22I did not want to do militaristic music.
0:55:22 > 0:55:24And I thought,
0:55:24 > 0:55:27"What if I did the whole action thing as a Viennese waltz?",
0:55:27 > 0:55:31make this dance into the savage feast.
0:55:31 > 0:55:34DRAMATIC BATTLE MUSIC PLAYS
0:55:42 > 0:55:44And something happens
0:55:44 > 0:55:46when you have...
0:55:48 > 0:55:50..I don't care how many people -
0:55:50 > 0:55:56string quartet up to a 100-piece orchestra -
0:55:56 > 0:55:59directing their emotion.
0:55:59 > 0:56:03Other than music, there are very few places on Earth where you get that.
0:56:05 > 0:56:09Zimmer would again draw on the power of the orchestra for Inception,
0:56:09 > 0:56:13director Christopher Nolan's film about characters who can build
0:56:13 > 0:56:16and manipulate entire dream worlds.
0:56:18 > 0:56:21Facing the same challenge that Max Steiner did with King Kong,
0:56:21 > 0:56:25Zimmer had to make the unbelievable believable.
0:56:30 > 0:56:33Here, these simple orchestral chords feel both huge
0:56:33 > 0:56:35and restrained,
0:56:35 > 0:56:39feeding our awe while at the same time playing the scene
0:56:39 > 0:56:40entirely straight.
0:56:40 > 0:56:45ORCHESTRAL CHORDS PLAY
0:56:45 > 0:56:47That big chord motif occurs
0:56:47 > 0:56:50throughout the film's complex twists.
0:56:58 > 0:57:02People were going, "Oh, this might be a little bit hard to understand."
0:57:02 > 0:57:04This is where I can help.
0:57:04 > 0:57:08When I thought, "If I can somehow make the audience feel that
0:57:08 > 0:57:10"they're in a little boat on this river,
0:57:10 > 0:57:13"and the music is a river, and it will just take you on a journey.
0:57:13 > 0:57:15"Sometimes it will get a bit rocky.
0:57:15 > 0:57:19"Sometimes it gets a little exciting and then sometimes it becomes calm."
0:57:19 > 0:57:21It is a journey, and just trust the music.
0:57:21 > 0:57:26CLIMATIC MUSIC PLAYS
0:57:26 > 0:57:28By the climax of Inception,
0:57:28 > 0:57:32the narrative cutting between multiple characters, dream worlds
0:57:32 > 0:57:35and a barrage of explosive action,
0:57:35 > 0:57:39Zimmer's power chords are binding everything together.
0:57:41 > 0:57:45And incredibly, they make an already enormous spectacular
0:57:45 > 0:57:47feel even bigger.
0:57:47 > 0:57:51ATMOSPHERIC MUSIC PLAYS
0:57:55 > 0:57:58The orchestra is a wonderfully flexible tool,
0:57:58 > 0:58:01enabling us to go from the smallest piano motif
0:58:01 > 0:58:04to the most sweeping epic gesture.
0:58:04 > 0:58:08But what's really kept it alive as the sound of cinema is
0:58:08 > 0:58:10the brilliance of composers who've understood how to
0:58:10 > 0:58:12adapt its language,
0:58:12 > 0:58:14how to keep it fresh
0:58:14 > 0:58:17and relevant for the changing needs of audiences and films.
0:58:19 > 0:58:23Next time - from The Beatles to Tarantino,
0:58:23 > 0:58:27how popular music rocked the film soundtrack.
0:58:50 > 0:58:53Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd