The Best Music in Film

Barry Adamson

(Performed in the groups Magazine, Visage, and The Bad Seeds and contributed music to Lost Highway and The Beach)

S&S: What is your favourite film soundtrack music and why do you like it so much?
"I think it has to be Bernard Herrmann's score for Taxi Driver (1976). The combination of the 'Travis Bickle' inner world portraiture, set amongst the seedy urban NY (at that time) landscape, Herrmann's depth of musical vision (for me) amazingly surpasses the idea that Scorsese wanted, of Herrmann merely repeating Psycho (1960) which he throws in a lick from, anyway). He even sets us up in Travis' past by use of military drums that echo Bickle's past disturbance of the Vietnam war, commenting on his ability to 'snap into a distorted regimen once his obsessions have ensnared him. Genius."
S&S: In what ways does music best enhance a film?
"It depends, really. I personally think that the 3rd dimension of the movie (the emotional) is where a composer can be of the greatest aid to a director. I'm thinking again about putting us in the characters shoes. Everybody has an emotional life and music should speak their language and play around with the possibilities of dramatic incident. It also of course can become a commentator on time, space and location. (See Vertigo and know that we are in San Francisco by the way the score moves up and down the scales like a street car! before plunging into the Jimmy Stewart character's fear of falling (in love?) Finally I think music can also shift the perspective, giving the Director another tool to manipulate (in the best possible way) the audience from an obvious eventuality, thus keeping us glued to the screen without even realising the effect the music is having on us."
S&S: Which film either has music that you wished you'd written or is one you would like to rescore and why?
"If you mean the films I've supplied music for, then I would say that creating part of the melange of sound in David Lynch's Lost Highway (1996) was fairly satisfying. From 'terror' music, out of this world soundscapes and straight ahead themes, the payoff on intrigue and the use of the musical language I discussed earlier were as close to these ideas as I've come to so far. I think the days where soundtrack was king, are somewhat over due to the revenue that can be made through the use of an existing song but as an art form I think film composition is right up there."
Last Updated: 29 Sep 2008