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The Best Music in Film
Debbie Wiseman
(Composed the music for Brian Gilbert's Tom and Viv and Wilde)
- S&S: What is your favourite film soundtrack music and why do you like it so much?
- "This is a really hard question - there are so many great soundtracks it's hard to choose just one. Choosing from fairly recent films, I loved John Williams' music for Schindler's List (1993). It had a great single theme that carried with it dignity, hope, passion, loss - all in just a few simple notes! Simple, memorable melodies are what every film composer aspires to write, and I feel this score achieved just that. The music stands alone too. Even without the pictures it would be inspiring music. This, to me, is also the test of a good film music. If the score can stand up to be played on its own without the film, and yet somehow remind you of the story, and also be "true" music - then that is a great film score."
- S&S: In what ways does music best enhance a film?
- "Music is a very powerful force in a film. The audience will always "believe" the music. If the music is telling the audience tension, then even if the picture is seemingly not tense, the audience will believe the music and expect something ominous to occur! Music connects absolutely directly with the audience - it goes straight to the heart. In this way, music can help the audience to feel terror, romance, horror, tension, fear. Often, just a few notes can do this - but they have to be the right notes!! Finally, music at its best will help the audience understand the delicate subtlety of the storyline - the subtext. Often what can't be spoken or seen in film is heard in the music score."
- S&S: Which film either has music that you wished you'd written or is one you would like to rescore and why?
- "It comes down to three films. I would have loved to have composed the music for Gone With the Wind (1939)- it's the kind of film that any composer would die for! I would also have loved to have written the score for Dances With Wolves (1990) - a real tour de force of composition, full of excitement and thrilling sequences. Finally, composing the score to The Piano (1992) would have been great - I'm a pianist so I'm attracted to the idea of having the piano as the central instrument in the film."