BY STEPHANIE ESLAKE
Last year, we had a chat with Joshua McNulty about why we should show the love for film scores. The emerging conductor, who studied at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, launched a new Australian orchestra dedicated to the music of cinema. Pretty cool stuff.
The FilmHarmonia Orchestra is made up of a bunch of emerging musicians who also dig a great score. (Me, I can’t get enough of the sounds of Bernard Herrmann or Howard Shore. What do you like?)
We wanted to meet some of the performers, and grill them on their favourite pieces of film music. So Joshua hooked us up with these fantastic four FilmHarmonia talents. They show us what they’ve got ahead of their upcoming event Untamed this 1 June.
Okay, you FilmHarmonia four. Best film score of all time…and GO.
JUSTINA HANNA (PRESIDENT AND VIOLIN): A very difficult question to ask a film enthusiast, but it would have to be Harry Gregson-Williams’ score for The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. Growing up, the books were a doorway into a beautiful, fantastic world where animals could talk and children my own age were kings and queens. Fourteen years on from the creation of the movie, Gregson-Williams’ soaring melodies and heroic themes still have the power to take me back to late nights reading under the covers, or send my imagination flying. Howard Shore’s score for The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King comes a very close second, for the same reasons!
TOM O’SULLIVAN (FIRST HORN): Star Wars. Easily my favourite movie franchise of all time, and the score is no exception. The score enhances every aspect of what George Lucas was aiming to convey in terms of emotion, action, and pace of the movie. Without it, we’d have a far less ominous scene wherein Darth Vader reveals his true identity!
AIDEN QUAN (VIOLIN AND COMMITTEE MEMBER): Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl. This score has got to be one of the best film scores of all time! He’s a Pirate is so extravagant, if you were to play it in the background while doing anything mundane, it is guaranteed to lift your spirits. This set the bar high for contemporary film music, and as soon as you hear it there’s no mistaking it for anything else!
ALEX WOOF (PRINCIPAL FLUTE AND PICCOLO): How do I even begin to answer this question?! There are so many fantastic choices that immediately stick out from everything Hans Zimmer has done, to the beautiful work of Justin Hurwitz on La La Land; and how could you not mention the iconic original Star Wars trilogy music by living legend John Williams? But for me, I think the best score of all time will always be Howard Shore’s absolutely sublime work on The Lord of the Rings trilogy. Not only does it include some of the most recognisable melodies to this day, but Shore’s masterful use of motifs just elevates those movies to another level. […] There’s also so much musical depth and complexity for the music theory nerd to dig into. I could go on about it for hours.
So what do you love about playing film scores?
JUSTINA: Film scores capture what the vast majority of classical music narrowly misses: the power of imagination. Any given track, any soundscape, has the power to create an instant sense of déjà vu; to plunge a listener knee-deep into a battle on the Caribbean, or to drop them on a mountain top, head in the clouds. Regardless of whether the listener knows the particular film (or game) the music belongs to, it will inevitably stimulate their imagination.
TOM: I think my favourite part about playing film scores is visualising the specific scenes of the films in my head as the music rolls on. You can be sure that in Jurassic Park, I’ll have a pretty clear image in my head of all the dinosaurs roaming across the pastures!
AIDEN: I find playing film music refreshing and engaging, probably because many of us are classically trained. What film music has that may be absent from classical music is a connection to a story we are all familiar with. I also find the power to evoke nostalgia a lovable trait of film music.
ALEX: For me, a massive part of my exposure to music as a child was through films. I still have fond memories of renting 20th Century Fox’s Anastasia from the video shop down the road, and just watching it over and over with my sister as we sang along to all the songs. And then doing the same with Disney’s Mulan, and again with The Little Mermaid. And as I grew up and my tastes matured, and I started learning to play the flute, I really enjoyed learning music from all across history. But even then, as I watched my favourite movies to death over the summer holidays, I imagined what it would be like to be able to play such awesome music. Now as an adult, being able to play amazing orchestral music by some of the greatest composers in history is fantastic. But it can’t beat the magic of being able to sit down with a group of great musicians and play Hedwig’s Theme, and feel your inner 12-year-old absolutely giddy with joyous excitement.
Is FilmHarmonia pretty much just one big party?
JUSTINA: We’re a group of like-minded professionals who understand that some measure of focus in rehearsals is essential to producing a cohesive and clear sound. That being said, our rehearsals are definitely a barrel of laughs (often at the expense of the conductor or the brass section!), and you’ll often spot a bunch of our musicians out at social events together. While my role within the string section is simply to play where I am needed and fill in the occasional gap, my role as FilmHarmonia president for 2019 is slightly more extensive, and I am honoured to support this incredible group this year!
TOM: We’re a collection of like-minded musicians who have a passion for performing film and video game music, so needless to say we have some fun during rehearsals (often having a bit of friendly banter at Josh McNulty’s expense…but he’s in on it, too)! Within the horn section, I feel my role is to provide encouragement and support to the other members in order to function as a cohesive unit. When all of us are playing at once, there’s nothing like the sound of a full horn section!
AIDEN: It is one fantastic party, but there is a method to the madness! We often rehearse tutti but try to find time and space for sectionals to focus on difficult passages. As a string player, I find sectional practice sessions very beneficial to our section. Mark Rossman does a great job of making sure the strings are in shape, and Josh is very good at conducting the orchestra as a whole.
ALEX: Honestly, a lot of the time it is! Rehearsals can be stressful sometimes, but for the most part, it’s always so much fun being able to just make music with a whole bunch of like-minded individuals. Of course, it’s not all just fun and games, though. We have an amazing executive board who all work so hard to make sure everything runs smoothly each week, all while working full-time jobs, which I appreciate so much. And making good music takes lots of work. You can’t just turn up each week to rehearsal and expect to sound good – it takes lots of practise to get to know the music and be confident with your part so that you can fit it all together in rehearsal. But it’s always entirely worth it. Last year, our final rehearsal the week before the concert was stressful. But then when we played in the concert, we played better than any of our rehearsals and it sounded awesome! So it can be hard work at times, but when the concert comes around it’s some of the best fun I’ve ever had.
We’ll leave you with the biggest question of all: what role does film music play in the future of orchestral performance? Yep, we went there.
JUSTINA: I genuinely believe that film music will continue to grow and feature prominently in the repertoire of most, if not all, major orchestras. The Sydney Symphony Orchestra’s ‘film-in-concert’ series bears witness to that! Older professionals are beginning to realise that incidental music strongly appeals to the next generation of classical musicians and are adjusting their mindsets accordingly.
TOM: I feel that live performance of orchestral film music brings a new audience to the art; an audience that would not normally be interested in hearing a Mozart symphony. With this in mind, I feel that film music is most definitely ‘serious’ music, and I’ve loved the SSO ‘film-in-concert’ series of playing the live score to a film, with the film itself playing in the background.
AIDEN: I think film music will take a huge role in the future of orchestral performance. The film industry is growing very rapidly and it’s great that it is creating new opportunities for orchestras. With that being said, as cool as film music is, we shouldn’t neglect classical music in exchange for film music.
ALEX: I think it plays a massive role! There will always be a place for classical orchestral music; that’s not changing anytime soon. But I think film music is such a massive part of how our culture engages with music these days. Sure, there are massively famous classical pieces that most people would recognise; Vivaldi’s Winter seems to be in every second movie trailer. But so many people just aren’t exposed to or interested in much classical repertoire. However, movies are a massive part of our culture – think of the impact of Marvel’s Avengers movies. And the music in those films is almost entirely orchestral scoring. So I really think film music is the biggest industry for orchestral performance opportunities. Moreover, film music is so widely known and well-loved across our culture. FilmHarmonia’s upcoming concert Untamed is filled with popular and widely beloved film scores from The Jungle Book to Jurassic Park. These films contain some of the most iconic music of our generation, and people love to hear what they know. So even beyond the screen itself, film music has a huge role to play in drawing an audience for contemporary concerts. And it’s so exciting to be part of a group seeking to bring film music to the public.
The FilmHarmonia Orchestra will perform music from Jurassic Park, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, Pokemon, and more in Untamed at the Harold Park Community Hall, 3.30pm June 1.
This event is an official pop-up point in our 2019 Roving Launch! Be sure to grab a copy of CutCommon’s print issue #2 for FREE while you’re at the gig (be quick; limited numbers!).
Images supplied.
