I have three words for you…modern. classical. music. Hey, where’d everybody go?
My introduction to one of the most prolific modern composers of avant-garde music today was through the score of The Hours. Philip Glass’ haunting scores cascade through films too numerous to list but as diverse as The Illusionist (available at Acorn), Kundun, Candyman, The Fog of War and a re-visitation of Bela Lugosi’s Dracula. He’s written operas, symphonies and, seemingly, most of that evocative music you hear in almost every movie trailer ever made…ever.
Personally, I prefer his more melodious experiments in repetition and resonance as represented by The Hours soundtrack that is playing as I write this. Here we encounter the hypnotic sound experience of being enveloped in a heartbeat; a sensual building of silences and crescendos, an ebb and flow, indicative of reserved passions, or ultimate despair, faltering at a precipice before finally crashing into being; an exaltation of the search for hope and the possible repercussions of that search symbolized in the film by the discovery that that search can only end in one of three ways…love, forbearance or death.
For the more sonically adventurous, Glass has numerous works to cater to your tastes as well. For a taste sampling, you could give The Essential Philip Glass a try, although, I would recommend listening to “Floe” with your hand firmly planted on the volume control unless the chaotic sound of two clowns trying to beat each other to death with squeaky toys appeals to you. I do highly recommend the five-disk set, Philip on Film, (especially the fifth disk) where there is something for everyone to enjoy whether your tastes run toward the melodious or are more firmly planted in the murderous clowns end of the spectrum.