BY STEPHANIE ESLAKE
There’s always a fair amount of discussion surrounding the role of screen music in the concert hall. Does it make for a less “serious” performance than, say, a Beethoven or Haydn symphony? Is it a novelty, or should film scores be programmed alongside the classics?
Here’s your answer: The FilmHarmonia Orchestra, which is dedicated to music for screen, has sold out all of its live performances. And the success of this arts organisation over the past five years has shown us that Australian audiences want to hear screen music in the concert hall. They want to listen to melodies that remind them of their favourite movie moments; that invigorate them as if they were battling a boss in a video game; that spirit them away with the score to a dreamy animation.
This is the discovery and achievement that founder and artistic director Josh McNulty and president Justina Hanna are celebrating in 2023. It’s the fifth anniversary of The FilmHarmonia Orchestra, and a milestone that calls for a huge event in its honour.
QuintEssential: Five Years of The FilmHarmonia Orchestra will bring together musicians from the Greater Sydney Region to perform film, TV, musical, and game classics — including the Australian premiere of Joe Hisaishi’s Studio Ghibli Suite — alongside a new composition from Josh himself.
Justina and Josh tell CutCommon how far The FilmHarmonia Orchestra has come in the past five years, and their big dreams for the future.
Justina, whoa — five years of The FilmHarmonia Orchestra! What does it feel like to hit the milestone?
JUSTINA: Unreal! We’ve overcome every obstacle the past five years have thrown at us as a fledgling orchestra — including a global pandemic — to develop into an incredibly strong ensemble composed of artists from all walks of life.
The founding members of this group had a dream to create a community that would come together to celebrate and promote incidental music as a legitimate art form, and I feel we have done exactly that.
We regularly attract musicians from across the Greater Sydney Region who have a passion for film and game music, but had no outlet through which to explore that passion prior to our formation. It’s wonderful to see these artists join us season after season, and grow in strength not only as individual musicians, but also as a collective.
Josh, how has your appreciation for film music evolved since you first started?
JOSH: From the perspective of preparing them for concert performance, two things have struck me – scoring and interpretation. Fewer and fewer scores are designed to sound naturally orchestral, often employing unbalanced sections plus the customary synthesisers and electronics. Reproducing the energy and sound that this scoring produces with traditional orchestral forces is an engaging challenge that we have approached from a variety of ways across the years.
On a related note, the familiarity of many of the scores we play raises the question of interpretation. Each season, I ask myself whether there is ‘wiggle room’ for a certain piece, or is the written notation sacred? After all, are audiences interested in hearing a unique take on a familiar work, or do they want to hear the original live in the concert hall? For me, it varies from piece to piece, which is part of the joy!
Looking back over these past five years, what have been some of your absolute favourite works to present with the orchestra — the screen music you’ve enjoyed off-screen?
JOSH: One thing the format of film score arrangements really limits is the capacity for thematic development.
Unlike a symphony — which takes the listener on a complete journey using related musical material — presenting a variety of works from different sources means the connections are often extra-musical or, at worst, linked only by being ‘film music’.
Back in early 2022, we played Stowaways at the Maritime Museum and presented suites from the first three Pirates of the Caribbean films, which functioned as a first, second, and third movement and gave audiences a taste of the full symphonic scope, which scoring a franchise really allows a composer to accomplish.
What was it like to launch and build an arts organisation essentially along the pandemic’s timeline, which has been hard for all arts organisations?
JOSH: Challenging. The first lockdown was announced 48 hours prior to Stowaways, scheduled in 2021. That was very stressful. Once we adjusted, it was bit like just having the off-season time extended because we only meet for the weeks leading up to a concert.
But on the flip side, it meant every time we tried to re-energise, reschedule, and recommence rehearsals, we ran the risk of it being a false start — which it was several times — and that was incredibly draining on the musicians and the committee. And yet it was the enthusiasm of those same two groups that really helped us recover with such success.
What have you learnt about your orchestra over the past five years? How have you watched it find its own identity?
JUSTINA: We have certainly seen this orchestra take on the identities of our many members across the years, and while we have never really deviated from our original mission, the character of the orchestra has certainly changed.
I don’t think we fully expected just how many would carry the torch with us when we founded The FilmHarmonia Orchestra, and it’s been wonderful to watch it take on a life of its own. It has become so much more than an artistic organisation: we are ultimately a community where each member adds to the strength of the whole, and contributes to the long-term direction of the group. The passion of the founding members is still very much present, but it no longer falls to us to sustain that passion alone.
How would you say The FilmHarmonia Orchestra has changed the way Australian audiences think about music for screen?
JUSTINA: I truly believe we are changing hearts and minds. As human beings, we all have an intrinsic love of the melodies, which accompanied beloved childhood films, which deepen the escape we experience in our favourite video games, and which flow through the theatres we frequent with family and friends. Performing and promoting these in a formal setting is what legitimises them, and our ever-growing audience base is a testament to that.
We are actually observing a trend in the world of professional and semi-professional ensembles where works of incidental music are being increasingly included in concert programs, and we are grateful to be a part of that change.
Having said that, all of our members are film and game enthusiasts at heart, and it’s impossible to not geek out when a particularly good score is programmed, simply have fun with it, and share that joy with our audiences!
So how did you pick the works for the fifth anniversary concert?
JOSH: The idea behind this program is to present one ‘essential’ score from each medium that regularly employs incidental music, and so we have:
- TV – Thunderbirds
- Animation – Studio Ghibli Suite
- Video game – Super Mario Bros.
- Musical – Les Miserables
- Film – Star Wars — an obvious choice, but one we have saved until now, having never played it before.
Additionally, I am thrilled that the orchestra are throwing themselves into a new work of mine, As Tascen, which is music I wrote narrating scenes from the novel A Darker Shade of Magic by V.E. Schwab. As I mentioned before, longer-form works are rare in a concert of this repertoire, and so the chance to present two suites provides plenty of material for audiences, musicians, and conductor alike!
You must be excited to premiere your own original work!
JOSH: It’s an unusual scenario, granted, for an orchestra that does not feature art music as a matter of course. However, As Tascen is a programmatic work that very intentionally narrates specific scenes and characters from the novel A Darker Shade of Magic and, in many ways, synthesises and represents a great deal of my own understanding of the power of incidental music.
I am very grateful the musicians have thrown themselves into learning something unfamiliar with such gusto, as I find conducting my own music far more nerve-wracking than representing another composer from the podium.
Having reached this milestone, where to next for FilmHarmonia? What are your big dreams?
JOSH: While TFO’s home will always be the concert hall, the legacy of the music we love is one that is based in recording, and to contribute to this would be a great honour. We have taken part in recording some incidental music for local theatre productions, and would love to expand this work into recording original scores by young Australian screen composers. This is something we were investigating before the pandemic struck, and our enthusiasm remains high.
We’d also love to find a permanent home for the orchestra as we have been operating out of a few different venues and council areas for a while – it’s time to settle down!
Parting words before Quintessential?
JUSTINA: We are forever grateful for the support of our audience, patrons, family, and friends over the years. We have consistently sold out every concert, and the outpouring of support after each has left us with a deep sense of fulfilment. The joy we bring to our audiences and members alike — from those who grew up in the age of the silver screen to those who have only ever known media at their fingertips — is an indicator that we are well and truly on the way to achieving our mission.
Hear QuintEssential: Five Years of The FilmHarmonia Orchestra at 5pm October 28 in Balmain Town Hall.
Images supplied.
