The Best Music in Film

Sequences & rescoring

Musicians

(see also: Directors)

Sight & Sound

Q: Which film either has music that you wished you'd written or is one you would like to rescore and why?

Badly Drawn Boy
(Mercury Music prize winner Damon Gough composed the music for About A Boy)
"Something that would be a huge challenge, I suppose, would be Citizen Kane (1941). It was a film that I boycotted watching for years because it was everybody's favourite film, and you think there's no point in watching it because your opinion has been taken away from you, and then when I watched it I thought: "Shit! Everybody's right" - it is amazing. I couldn't really remember the score, but just the stature of a project like that. At the moment I'm watching The Wizard of Oz (1930) at least ten times a day because my daughter is so into it. There is not a lot to be sniffed at in that film. Everything works so well. When Dorothy gets to Munchkin land there is like twenty minutes of Munchkin music!
"
Cinematic Orchestra
(Rescored Dziga Vertov's Man with a Movie Camera)
"La Haine (1995) is a great urban movie which would be a great challenge. It has a great 'hip hop' soundtrack already but would be interesting to subvert or change the meaning by adding a different kind of urban music. ie Cinematic Orchestra......It would in a way suggest a different kind of 'urban' ghetto."
Coldcut
(Coldcut are Jonathan More and Matt Black, DJs and remixers who are often credited with inventing 'Big Beat')
"Well, I like music films like Babylon (1980) with music from Aswad. Proper heavy roots music right at the heart of the film. I'd also like to remix Ballet Mécanique (1924) by Ferdinad Léger, early montage classic and put it through VJamm, our software we have developed for audiovisual remixing. Also, check out www.nowthemovie.org for a totally new type of film we are making. I'm looking forward to doing the music for that."
John Luther Adams
(Composer from Alaska. Former percussionist with the Fairbanks Symphony Orchestra and the Arctic Chamber Orchestra)
"For years I've dreamed of composing music for the remarkable series of films made in the early 1960s about the Netsilik people of Pelly Bay, Netsili Eskimo. The Netsilik ("The People of the Seal") were the last Inuit people to be contacted by Europeans. When explorer Knud Rasmussen visited them in 1923 they were still nomadic, living as they had for centuries -without guns, motors or other tools of Western technology. The Netsilik films were made when an extended family agreed to return for a year to the traditional ways of living, allowing a crew from the National Film Board of Canada to travel with them. The films are stunningly beautiful, strongly and sensitively composed in 16mm colour. Without relying on the usual conventions of dramatic or documentary film, they tell rich and compelling stories of life and death in a harsh and timeless land. We travel with the People by foot and dogsled through the landscapes and seasons of the Arctic, as they build kayaks, hunt seals on the ice, make caribou skin tents and clothing, construct snow houses and play traditional games with their children. In one especially memorable scene hunters kneel around the body of the first-killed seal of the season and partake in a sacrament as powerfully symbolic as Christian communion, with the primal immediacy of real flesh and blood. From the moment I first saw these films I wanted to work with them. They evoke a world parallel to the world I aspire to create in music. Their immediacy and deliberateness of tempo convey a vivid sense of being present in the light and landforms of the Arctic. There is no narration and no recorded musical score. The soundtracks consist entirely of sparse dialogue in the Netsilik dialect with natural sounds of the Arctic. Although I've been able to acquire rights to the Netsilik films, I had them in mind when I composed 'In the White Silence' -a seventy-five minute work for string quartet, harp, celesta and string orchestra. To complete the circle, I now imagine this music as the foundation for an entirely new film I hope to produce myself."
Barry Adamson
(Performed in the groups Magazine, Visage, and The Bad Seeds and contributed music to Lost Highway and The Beach)
"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."
David Arnold
(Composed the music for Independence Day, Zoolander)
"I wished I'd written every single score in my favourites list, because I would have been single handedly responsible for creating just about every genre of film music ever heard. I don't think there is a film I would like to rescore, I've never felt that a film that I have enjoyed so much that I would want to score it myself, would have been anywhere near as enjoyable without the music first written for it. Even though its the toughest part of the job of a film composer, to look at a movie and then a blank sheet of manuscript, potentially at that point you are about to start work on what might be the most incredible piece of music ever heard by mankind.......then of course, you actually have to mess it all up by actually writing something. I would love to work on a Pixar movie though; my playground status at my (at the moment) very young children's school would rise dramatically. 5 year old girls aren't that interested in James Bond or Changing Lanes (2002) yet. Not only that, but I love Pixar too."
Charles Bernstein
(Composed the music for A Nightmare on Elm Street)
"Like most film composers, I would be happy to have written just about any score by John Williams, Jerry Goldsmith, Ennio Morricone, and a few dozen other masters of our profession. As to re-scoring, I prefer not to think about re-scoring or, for that matter, about re-shooting, re-directing, re-writing, or re-editing a finished film. Once it's finished, I like to think of it as a fete acompli, that's it. Love it or hate it, it is what it is. In fact, I wish we could do away with the notion of re-scoring altogether, then all those great tossed out scores by Elmer Bernstein, Jerry Goldsmith and others would still be with us. In that ideal world, producers would have to leave rewrites to the great composers they hired in the first place. But sadly, most all films today are actually re-scores in the sense that virtually every film we see has been previously scored with a "temp track" for test audiences before the composer ever writes a note of music. This, of course, has had a huge impact on the sound, the quality and the direction of contemporary film scoring."
Claude Bolling
(Composed the music for California Suite)
"Around the World in Eighty Days (1956) by Victor Young was my favourite at this time with his waltz theme and all the music bringing the flavour of the countries travelled by Phileas Fog. It's still a great film."
DJ Brahms
(House and techno DJ performing Big Beat)
"One of the great travesties of film recently was The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001) . While the film itself is amazing and breathtaking, I feel that the music is very cliché, and despite the fact that Howard Shore won an Oscar. I felt given the amount of time he had, he could have come up with a much better score that could match the scope of the film itself. Alternatively, I wish I had written the score to The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly (1966). Ennio Morricone is great."
Neil Brand
(Composer and silent film accompanist. Rescored South, Sir Ernest Shackleton's Glorious Epic of the Antarctic and Alfred Hitchcock's The Ring. Recently composed a new jazz score for E. A. Dupont's Piccadilly)
"My choice of a film to rescore always gets me into trouble with purists - I would strip off the synchronised Hugo Riesenfeld score from F.W. Murnau's Sunrise (1927) and get the film rescored every ten years by the best film composers around. Sunrise is the highest achievement in silent cinema and, to my mind, it is dragged down by a plodding, pedestrian score which uses contemporary repertoire but flattens out all emotional complexity to the crudest broad terms. The greatest films are those which deal with the grey, problematic areas of human experience and Sunrise contains troubled, flawed characters whose emotional growth throughout the plot is totally believable and tracked in minute detail. The music was not planned with such an eye to detail - it couldn't be, since the music director was not the genius that the director was. Add to that the problem of the inclusion of a short piece of found music ('Funeral March of the Marionettes') that we now recognise for ever as the theme to Alfred Hitchcock Presents and the far greater consideration that a real virtue of silent cinema is its ability to be reinvented musically for succeeding generations, and we have, to my mind, good enough reason to rescue Sunrise from its suffocating score. As to a film I wish I'd scored it runs to hundreds. I would love to have lived inside the skin of Erich Wolfgang Korngold, Miklós Rózsa or Malcolm Arnold. I would go to my grave happy if I'd scored the St Trinian's films."
Joanna Bruzdowicz
(Frequent composer for Agnès Varda's films, including Vagabonde)
"Oh, again it will be Bernard Herrmann's score: Vertigo (1958) which I wished I had written! Well I heard a lot of good melodies in the French and German movies and some American too, which were 'overscored' ad too 'heavy' sometimes 'little' action. But is better not to mention all the names!"
Gavin Bryars
(Minimalist British composer who composed scores for independent film-maker Stephen Dwoskin)

"I wish I had written the music for Francis Ford Coppola's One from the Heart (1982) which has music at the centre of the film but here as a sequence of songs by Tom Waits, performed by Tom with Crystal Gayle. Not that I would want to replace the existing music, just that what Tom has done seems to me so perfect and quite exquisite. The film itself is a very simple love story but was a commercial disaster. However I love the way that the whole thing is completely theatrical - Coppola filmed the whole thing on a giant sound stage, creating an entirely artificial Las Vegas. I was actually pointed towards this film when I was first working with the American theatre director and designer Robert Wilson. His manager at the time, Lois Bianchi, told me that this film seemed to her to be almost a "pop" version of the way Bob's theatrical works looked. I was very happy - later - to have the chance to work with Tom.... I also wish that I had written the music for Twin Peaks (1990-1). But that is a longer story...."
William Camilleri
"My music is rated as one of the best in Hollywood because my melodic lines are extremely strong, my music is full of emotion, power and majesty. I can easily depict the mood in each part and compliment the film without overpowering the story and making a tremendous impact. Being a pianist and percussionist also helps me to write very beautiful solo piano pieces and giving excellent rhythmic pieces when needed. I find it very important to listen carefully to everyone's opinion especially the director's, as teamwork is vital. Coming from a classical, pop, electronic and jazz background also helps me to not only compose a brilliant theme but also an excellent song if needed eg; Titanic song. I would rate melody, emotion and depth as my most effective sequence. I am a highly eclectic film composer and my music is very evocative."
Eliza Carthy
(Folk singer and fiddle player)
"I often wish that I'd had the chance to put relevant traditional music into historical English material. I frequently feel let down by period films that are obviously painstakingly researched in every detail except music. People tend to assume that only modern people define themselves by their musical tastes and how and where they socialise, but people have always been the same, and to present characters with no musical context feels dumb and shallow. Cold Mountain (2003) made me wish that I was American and able to participate in that, teaching actors how to sing unaccompanied music from their ancestors."
Carl Craig
(Detroit techno pioneer)
"I wouldn't re-score someone else's work. If the director felt the original music fit best, then that's the way it should be. The music for Scarface (1983) sucked but the movie's still a hood classic! I would rather start with a silent film and base the music around the actions of the performers."
Mamadou Diabaté
(Composed the music for Moussa Sène Absa's Madame Brouette)
"I like documentary movies and would like writing music for this type of movie. Movies about adventure also are interesting to me for writing music."
Robert Farnon
(Composed the music for Raoul Walsh's Captain Horatio Hornblower R.N.)
"The first battle scene in Captain Horatio Hornblower R.N. (1950)"
Simon Fisher Turner
(Composed the music for many Derek Jarman films, including Caravaggio, The Last of England and The Garden, and recently Mike Hodges' Croupier and I'll Sleep When I'm Dead)
"a. Punch-drunk Love (2002). b. Elephant (2003)."
Lisa Gerrard
(Composed music for The Insider, Gladiator, Ali and Whale Rider)
"My favourite film score is Nina Rota's for Fellini's Satyricon (1969); I feel that this music achieves everything that I would love to be able to achieve with film score because it is completely unique, evocative in its simplicity and uses invented language, it is pure innovation because no one knows what music sounded like at this time, I also love the invented musical instruments in the film, aromatic and captivating."
Christopher Gordon
(Composed the music for Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World)
"Magnolia (1999) is a film that I would have liked to score. Wonderfully drawn characters and an insightful portrayal of everyday people stumbling through life and the ruts they carve out for themselves, followed by growing self-awareness and redemption. Jon Brion's score powers the bemused treadmill of life through hope to catharsis. A great melding of music and film."
The Handsome Family
(Husband and wife alt-country stars Brett and Rennie Sparks. Provided additional music for Bullet on a Wire)
"Amarcord (1973) - the main theme is such a beautiful evocation of the central theme of the film - the floating, ethereal nature of existence (as represented by the fluff that floats though the air of the town). The curvature of the melody is comprised of gently leaping Luftpausen and contrasting falling chromatic lines - like a feather bobbing in a gentle spring wind. Play this for someone who has never heard it and watch what their face does."
David Hirschfelder
Original music for Shekhar Kapur's Elizabeth (1998) and Baz Luhrmann's Strictly Ballroom (1992)
"I would have to say The Mission is a score I wish I had written because of it's powerful narrative enhancement combined with it's elegance as music in its own right. But then, I could say the same thing about so many other fine scores, including Miklós Rózsa's Ben-Hur (1959) or Herrmann's Psycho (1960)."
David Holmes
(Composed the music for Steven Soderbergh's Out of Sight)
"The love scene between George Clooney and Jennifer Lopez in Out of Sight (1998)"
Trevor Horn
(Former member of the groups The Bugles and Yes. Composed the music for Toys and Coyote Ugly, and was executive music producer on Mona Lisa Smile)
"I wish I had written the music to Taxi Driver (1976) and I think Heat (1995) has the best "modern" score."
Klive Humberstone
(Part of Sheffield based band 'In The Nursery'. Started the 'Optical Music Series' to compose scores to silent movies)
"There is still scope to bring something new and exciting to Fritz Lang's Metropolis (1926). Obviously the film has had numerous soundtracks written over the years - and it is hard to mention the film without referencing Giorgio Moroder's rock pastiche soundtrack that does nothing to enhance the futuristic imagery."
Mark Isham
(Composed the music for The Hitcher, Point Break, Short Cuts and Quiz Show)
"Right now I'm the most proud of my score to Miracle (2004). The last 10 minutes I think are very effective. But I feel the transition the score makes through the film is worth noting. I feel I really found the subtle change of emotion required to bring the film to its climax."
Jan Kaspersen
(Danish composer who wrote the music for Den Blå Munk)
"I like the atmosphere of the monkish solo piano going on nearly through the whole film - discreet but effective in Christian Braad Thomsen´s Den Blå Munk (1998). And the closing scene in Klaus Kjeldsen´s Amar (1954)with a jazz quartet playing a hard swinging minor blues with a sax in front with the pictures of a taxi driving for the airport. I was actually inspired by Lalo Schifrin´s music for Bullitt (1968), another old favourite of mine."
Kid Koala
(Chinese-Canadian DJ. Contributed to Edgar Wright's Shaun of the Dead)
"There is an unbelievable build up to the first kiss in the Coens' The Hudsucker Proxy (1994). Tim Robbins and Jennifer Jason Leigh are on a balcony under the stars carrying on about how they may have been an apex and a gazelle snorfelling from the same stream in their other lives. They lean closer and closer together... and the music crescendos to one of those all time wonderful high-five inducing moments. Carter Burwell's score is absolutely perfect for this film."
Kris Kristofferson
(Country singer/songwriter. Composed music for The Last Movie and acted in Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid, Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore and Heaven's Gate)
"O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000), produced by T-Bone Burnett is another wonderful soundtrack, carrying the action like a ballad carries a story. A perfect combination. You don't know whether you just heard a great song or just saw a great movie."
Borut Krzisnik
(Composer for theatrical productions who recently worked with Peter Greenaway on The Tulse Luper Suitcases)
"Peter Greenaway: Reitdiep Journeys (part of the Tulse Luper Suitcases (2003)). A scene where the film camera travels very slowly over a big painting with many details. Yet, the best marriage between the visual action and my music I was happy to see in the theatre, in the play Nietzsche Contra Wagner, directed by the American-Brazilian theatre director Gerald Thomas."
David Mansfield
(Composed the music for Heaven's Gate and Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood)
"In an age when film composers are replaced as frequently as screenwriters and are seen as completely disposable the term "rescore" has a rather offensive ring to it. And if there is a film score that I truly wished I'd written, that only means I never could have written it."
Branford Marsalis
(A regular saxophonist on Spike Lee's films, including Mo' Better Blues, Malcolm X and Do the Right Thing)
"I love music that has strong melodic sense and plenty of passion. While much of what I hear is less craft than manufacturing, there are many that fit the description. It was great to hear James Horner return from the musical graveyard of Titanic (1997) in the beautiful score to House of Sand and Fog (2003). The music he wrote for Sneakers (1992) was also fun to listen to as well as be a part of. Vangelis' music to Blade Runner (1982) is great, as is Franz Waxman's work on Sunset Blvd. (1950), My Geisha (1961) and Taras Bulba (1962). Goldsmith's work, from the melodic (like The Russia House (1990) to the ultra-modern (like Planet of the Apes (1967), is also great to listen to. There are many more, but I'm sure you don't have room for it. I'm a big music fan."
Marcus Miller
(Composed the music for Siesta (1987) with Miles Davis, Above the Rim and House Party)
"I would like to score one of the superhero films...Batman (1989), Daredevil (2003), or X-Men (2000) or something like that and give it a very urban score instead of an overly orchestral one. I think it would be interesting to feel the city that these characters are operating in when you hear the music!"
Jeff Mills
(One of the biggest names in American techno. In 2000 composed an alternative soundtrack to Fritz Lang's re-edited Metropolis)
"I wish I had written the music for the Ridley Scott's film Blade Runner (1982). Vangelis created a simply beautiful soundtrack that I listen to all the time and from time to time, even study his work as a reference in making the Electronic Music that I produce. Without being able to resist the temptation, I have in the past, scribbled a few ideas of what I might to it if I were given a chance to rescore it. As a composer of Techno Music, I am more than convinced that the futuristic visions and thoughts that circulate within the Techno genre could not only support such a storyline but also allow the viewers to "feel" again."
Angela Morley
(Composed the music for The Heart of a Man and Watership Down (1978). Frequently composed for television, including Hancock's Half-Hour)
"I cannot select one film but to try answer the question. Any Alex North score, David Raksin's score to Laura (1944), Jerry Goldsmith's Chinatown (1974), The Omen (1976) or almost any John Williams score."
Daniel Mudford
(With Pete Woodhead, composed the music for Shaun of the Dead)
"I wish I'd written the opening music to Aguirre: The Wrath of God (1972) by Popol Vuh because then I'd know I reached the top of the mountain. I'd like to rescore 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) because however effective it is, the use of pre-existing music is a cop out. Actually, I feel quite grim having just typed that last sentence, but if artists keep harking back to the past/familiar, then art has no future."
Stuart Murdoch (Belle & Sebastian)
(Lead vocalist with Belle and Sebastian who contributed to the soundtrack for Todd Solondz's Storytelling)
"My most compelling feeling of actually wishing I had been the scorer on a film was felt during my first viewing of Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship Of The Ring (2001). I was loving the film, lost in boyish dreams, but the soundtrack was a real ball breaker. Peter Jackson can't have been expected to have great taste right across the board, so he's gone for straight down the line orchestral Hollywood, all pervading strings and tension to trouble every mood swing, and ham up every drama. (Actually, after watching every episode a number of times I've come to like a couple of the main themes, mostly by association I guess.) Anyway, the second time, watching it in the cinema, I played a game where I imagined I was scoring the film, mostly from source music of course. Ironically, one of the artists that I drew from most is actually represented on the score. Liz Cocteau is singing on some of the real score, where I would've replaced it at points with real Cocteau Twins' stuff. I would have gone with the obvious Led Zeppelin for much of the wistful over the mountain stuff, and maybe risk some of the more rocking stuff for some of the battles, fight scenes. How about a bit of Tim Buckley in there? An extension of Bill the Pony's role and a bit of 'Chestnut Mare' by the Byrd's to accompany it. A sliver of the KLF's Chill Out to accompany the 'boring' bits; ie. Anything to do with elves, romance, sickness or cinematic representation of existential fear. Add a little unexpected beauty. Anyway, this isn't exactly a rescore. This is playing some of your favourite records to perk up a bit of a film that needs perking. But in essence that's what all 'scoring' is about. And I tell you this, if I ever make a film I'm going to play some of my favourite records. I ain't going to risk spending time and money on somebody coming up with something suitable. Because they might come up with something suitable but I bet they won't come up with something great."
Monty Norman
(Wrote the James Bond theme and composed the music for Dr. No (1962) and Terence Fisher's The Two Faces of Dr. Jekyll (1959))
"I wish I had written 'The Harry Lime Theme' for The Third Man (1949). Anton Karas's zither score is remarkable. Nowadays with all the technology available unusual sounding scores with strange sounding instruments are quite normal.. But not in the late Forties. I do believe that Karas wrote one of the great film themes of all times."
Will Oldham (Bonnie 'Prince' Billy)
(Singer songwriter, aka Bonnie 'Prince' Billy. Starred in Matewan)
"The Royal Tenenbaums (2001) should be re-scored, and for the right price I would be happy to do it."
John Ottman
(Composed the music for Bryan Singer's The Usual Suspects and X2)
"Well, I've scored a lot of bombs! -- So there's a long list of films I wish I had composed. I guess the obvious is Lord of the Rings (2001). Shore did a great job, but I wanted to do it! (Along with everyone else I'm sure!)"
The Pastels
(Scottish indie band who composed the music for David MacKenzie's The Last Great Wilderness (2002))
"I feel that films usually get the music that they deserve, and in most of the films I love, the music is excellent. It's impossible to think of improving the music in a Tati or a Truffaut or a Hitchcock. Equally when film-makers don't pay attention to the musical side, and plaster their film with 'cool tunes' and 'wild sound affects', then it suggests that it might be hard to dig them out of their hole. Even as beginners, rather than re-scoring something, we'd prefer to look forward to something new."
Jocelyn Pook
(Worked on soundtracks for several Derek Jarman films and composed the music for Eyes Wide Shut and L'emploi du temps)
"Blight (1997) was made in collaboration with the film maker John Smith for the BBC series Sound On Film, where a composer and film maker collaborate to make a 'music film'. Because we were working together from the outset, musical, visual and conceptual ideas evolved organically in a way I've rarely experienced, which made it quite an exhilarating process, and which I think took us both in unexpected directions. Blight revolves around the building of the M11 Link Road in East London, which provoked a long and bitter campaign by local residents to protect their homes from demolition. The film is constructed from images and sounds of demolition and road building in conjunction with the spoken words of residents - the musical qualities of the speech fragments and natural sounds form the basis of the score. One sequence that seems to have quite an emotional impact is 'Tango with Corrugated Iron', which uses the percussive sounds of corrugated iron recorded on site, with voices, strings and whizzing cars, and which has since also become a concert piece in its own right."
Zbigniew Preisner
(Composed the music for numerous Krzysztof Kieslowski films, from No End to Three Colours Red, Louis Malle's Damage and Charles Sturridge's Fairytale A True Story)
"You have placed me in a difficult position here; I would not like to be perceived as negating any existing scores which are very beautiful. But if somebody ventured to remake Out of Africa (1985) or The Big Blue (1988), I would like to write my soundtrack music for them."
André Previn
(Composed the music for Bad Day at Black Rock, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and Long Day's Journey into Night)
"I wish I could write music like The Sea Hawk, which was superbly composed by Korngold. It is a big, extrovert, splashy film, and it would be great fun to write a big, extrovert, splashy score for it."
Alan Price
(British rock musician of the 60s and keyboard player with The Animals. Composed music for Lindsay Anderson's O Lucky Man! and Britannia Hospital)
"I wish I'd written the music to Easy Rider (1969) because I could have played skiffle guitar on it."
A. R. Rahman
(Popular Bollywood composer. Composed the music for Ashutosh Gowariker's Lagaan)
"I never think like that..I believe that each film is destined to a composer and i respect the composer's vision .."
Josh Ritter
(American folk singer who's work has featured in Six Feet Under)
"I wouldn't change the original a bit, but if they ever wanted to do a remake of Nashville (1975), I'd be knocking down doors to write a bunch of songs for it."
Ryuichi Sakamoto
(Composed music for Nagisa Oshima's Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence and Gohatto, and Bernardo Bertolucci's The Last Emperor and The Sheltering Sky)
"I would love to rescore for Ozu's Tokyo Story (1953) or most of Ozu's films because he was one of the film angels but, in my opinion, the music in his films is terrible. It's a shame."
Lalo Schifrin
(Composed the music for Norman Jewison's The Cincinnati Kid, Peter Yates' Bullitt and many others)
"I am very happy to have done the best I could on all the scores I have written. I am also very content in accepting the ones I have been assigned to compose music for. I never gave any thought about trying to compose music for films whose scores have been composed by my colleagues."
Geoff Smith
(Recently conducted a live soundtrack on the hammered dulcimer to The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari)
"I wanted to compose a score for the expressionist masterpiece The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1919), and this is what I did. The Cabinet of Dr Caligari particularly appealed to me because it is such a uniquely rich and multi-dimensional film with an immense dynamic of narrative, plot, design, undertones and nuances occurring within a specific historical context. I also chose it because I knew it would be extremely difficult, demanding and challenging: most importantly it gave me the possibility to explore my particular compositional approach. This utilises microtonal 'fluid' tuning (i.e. 'bespoke' microtonal tuning per composition) in a symbiotic trinity with diatonic and chromatic instrumentation: in this instance dulcimers. This new creative process would potentially give me a much wider palette of 'colours' to work with in order to relate to the extreme emotional and psychological spectrum of The Cabinet of Dr Caligari. So, it was a prototype compositional methodology carried out on prototype instrumentation. It was a test and it's been very successful."
Tomasz Stanko
(Jazz musician and composer. Wrote the music for Michal Rosa's Cisza)
"Some pieces of music for Andrzej Trzos- Rastawiecki's Leprosy (originally entitled Trad, 1971) because of contrast between the music and the picture, and - for the same reason (lyrical jazz ballads) - to Filip Zylber's Farewell to Maria (1993) a love story set in the Warsaw Ghetto during the WWII."
John Surman
(Jazz musician. Composed the music for Chimère and Respiro)
"I'd have to say that there are countless film scores that I wish I'd written and I wouldn't mind re-scoring a few of my own past efforts too! It's so often the case that once you have watched a scene with music attached, it's difficult to imagine it any other way. My usual gripe will be that the composer has forgotten that ´less is more´!"
June Tabor
(British folk singer)
"Sergei Eisenstein's Alexander Nevsky (1938) score by Prokofiev - music is used to immense effect in the battle scenes instead of natural sound - I wish I'd written that!"
Neil Tennant
(Singer of the Pet Shop Boys, who contributed songs to Scandal and The Crying Game)
"In many ways this is the most ambitious project which Pet Shop Boys have undertaken. I think that writing the soundtrack to a silent film is completely different to writing the soundtrack to a contemporary film. You are not just enhancing the film musically; you are creating the sound on the film. In this much you have a continuous piece of music, which is quite rare in a film nowadays, despite the current trend in more 'action' films to have virtually continuous soundtracks. What has been interesting for us, is that you can add elements which are not necessarily relevant in style or period, but which can make you see the film in a new way. And this is very sympathetic to Eisenstein's ideas about the film's soundtrack. While usually The Battleship Potemkin (1925) is associated with a Shostakovitch symphony, we are creating a very modern soundtrack. Eisenstein said that the film should have a new soundtrack for every decade - and this complements his imagery has remained so fresh and vivid. There is the romantic notion of a 'good revolution' and of people wanting positive change in The Battleship Potemkin. And this seems to resonate down to the recent anti-war and anti-globalisation protests. As the soundtrack is being premiered in Trafalgar Square, London, there is also the sense that the film and its new soundtrack will be experienced in a public space which is historically very politically charged. We haven't used sound effects in the soundtrack until the scene when the soldiers open fire on the Odessa steps when we put the gunfire into synch and it really does create a shock - emphasising the relentlessness of this killing machine. We have collaborated with Torsten Rasch, who is a wonderful composer in the school of Alan Berg or Schoenberg, and while matching contemporary pop music to his style has not been easy, we feel the results are extremely successful. For Pet Shop Boys, this project maintains our career-long interest in working with not just other contemporary artists, but specifically with artist film-makers, such as Derek Jarman and Sam Taylor-Wood."
Linda Thomson
(British folk singer)
"I wish I'd written one of the spaghetti western Morricone scores, that doodloodleoo intro. is so iconic'"
Dickon Hinchliffe Tindersticks
(Violinist and arranger with the band Tindersticks. Composed the music for Claire Denis' films Nenette et Boni and Vendredi soir)
"I'd have liked to have written the Morricone scores to Sergio Leone's films. He probably had the biggest impact as a composer on a particular genre of film - in this case, the Western - ever. His use of unusual and groundbreaking orchestration and recording methods combined with more traditional use of melodic themes and motifs for characters (an approach that stems from opera) created some of the most original and dynamic film scores ever written."
David Boulter Tindersticks
(Member of Tindersticks)
"I'd love to have written the music to A Fistful of Dynamite! (1971) by Ennio Morricone, it just sounds like so much fun. I don't like to criticize, but if I had to change music in a film, it would be Betty Blue (1986). I love the film but find the music too much sometimes, not all of it, just moments."
Amon Tobin
(Producer and DJ on Ninjatune Records)
"Wish I'd written the music for the last Spider-Man (2002) film...what a load of rubbish that was."
Colin Towns
(Composer and music arranger on films and television, most notably Our Friends in the North)
"The score I would loved to have written is Vertigo (1958). Bernard Herrmann was unique, he also orchestrated brilliantly."
Jonny Trunk
(Musician who also runs Trunk Records. Has reissued several soundtracks including The Wicker Man and Dawn of the Dead)
"I wish I'd written the music from Kes (1969), especially the main theme. Or at least I'd have like to have been there when the session was recorded. A film I'd like to rescore - Dirty Dancing (1987), for my own perverse reasons."
Joseph Vitarelli
(Composed the music for The Last Seduction and She's So Lovely)
"I suppose we'd all like to rewrite most of our scores. Warren Beatty said “You never finish a film, you abandon it”. However, if I had to pick one to rescore, I suppose it would be She's So Lovely (1997). It was an orchestral score written and recorded in 12 days. While it was well received, I'm certain I could have done more with adequate time. On the other hand, there is a whimsical quality that I'm sure is a reflection of my exhaustion which serves the film well. The characters were not a healthy lot. Robin's performance in this film is brilliant. She reminded me of Giulietta Masina in Nights Of Cabiria (1957). Taxi Driver (1976) by Herrmann had the sensitivity and guts to take a romantic approach to brutality-hope amidst grief and loss. And of course, La Strada, perhaps the most beautiful, memorable theme I've ever heard. It still makes me cry."
Debbie Wiseman
(Composed the music for Brian Gilbert's Tom and Viv and Wilde)
"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."
Pete Woodhead
(With Daniel Mudford, composed the music for Shaun of the Dead)
"I have always wished that I had written the score to John Carpenter's Assault on Precinct 13 (1976) as it shows just how effective a sparse electronic score can be. Carpenter chose his sounds so well that the score refuses to date despite having been composed in 1976. It's icily cold when it needs to be, creates much of the film's tension and contains wonderfully sombre Fender Rhodes work that is clearly informed by the great Lalo Schifrin's Dirty Harry (1971) score. Despite this music only becoming commercially available very recently, it's simple, catchy main theme has found it's way onto countless hip hop records and even an old Commodore 64 computer game whilst miraculously retaining it's original freshness and vitality. Just thinking about this music is making me want to see the film again and that must surely be the mark of a great score. I would love to rescore Martin Scorsese's Goodfellas (1990) as I feel that it's a wonderful film marred by a phenomena that I call the 'jukebox soundtrack'. There appears to be a period pop hit playing in the background of every single scene in this film and in some scenes it's more than one. Whilst Scorsese's earlier work demonstrates just how effectively pop music can take the audience back in time, within Goodfellas it really grates and irritates. Sadly this film is also guilty of taking songs from other film soundtracks and forcing them into the action just for the hell of it and whilst this might make for a commercially successful soundtrack LP, if one is aware of the films and TV shows that the music has been lifted from, it's a technique that just serves to confuse. Mr Tarantino, please take note!"
Otomo Yoshihide
(Avant-garde musician and composer for Japanese films)
"I've never thought about re-composing a score for someone's completed film. I think if a film is finished, it is conceptually complete. So if you need to re-score it, you should also change the film images with it, like a re-mix CD."
Last Updated: 05 Sep 2006