I’m currently listening to a 2 CD set called ‘Great Songs from the Movies’ - where the movies were released sometime before 1960 at my best guess - the second disc appears to have gone awol. It may be me, but it seems a bit much for Frank Sinatra to sing Ol’ Man River, especially with the full intro covering the desire to not incur the wrath of the ‘white man’ overseers… He’s certainly no Paul Robeson.
On Tuesday evening Jon and I finally sat down and watched North by Northwest. Given that I am a huge Cary Grant fan and vastly enjoy Hitchcock movies it was rather odd that it had taken us about 2 months to get around to watching the dvd which we had bought when I was last in Dublin.
The film itself is, of course, brilliant. Plus it meant tat Jon, a long time Eddie Izzard fan finally actually got to hear and see James Mason. However what struck me more was the theme music. The opening title sequence, designed by Saul Bass is wonderfully striking but the music was so similiar to that of V (for Victory). Back in the day, when the day was 1983, V was a big big tv event, or at least it was for us in Dublin. For me at the time I just equated it with my mum having to go to hospital because she got chicken bone stuck in throat and I had to go next door where they were watching V, it was rather late in the evening and I remembered people who were really lizards and someone having a lizard baby. Later on when I watched it properly the baby-lizard sequence wasn’t quite what I remembered but I was 4 at the time and probably watching it in the approved Dr Who/Dalek position (i.e. from behind a sofa). Still it has aged reasonably well and another sequel mini-series is seemingly in the works for next year.
Of course I had to get the CD (Bernard Herrmann) and when it arrived, I listened first to the title music and then the theme for V which I have on a rather good two cd sci-fi themes compilation set (called Next Generations - it has a good mix ) I think they sound a like, I need to get Jon - who although deaf and wears hearing aids its a rather good control subject for whether something is similiar.
I’ve now listened to the whole soundtrack cd which is a great edition with all the music including restored cues, and besides the understandable similarity to passages from Journey to the Centre of the Earth ( same composer, released in the same year) I’ve managed to pick out Men in Black, and various Star Wars like sequences ( very short some of them, a particular orchestration for a chord progression) and ET.
Its well worth a listen and a watch.
I’ve never been a big fan of Pachelbel’s Canon. I was amused to see it likened to ‘Stairway’, and this strikes me as apt, it seems to be the piece of music that people who want to show that they listen to / appreciate classical music cite when, in reality, their exposure to classical music hasn’t been much beyond Classic FM or Radio 3, and those free CDs of the ‘Classical Moods’ ilk that come with Sunday papers. There isn’t much variation either in composer or piece choice in any of them - unless CFM and Radio 3 have updated their auto-magic music selection-bot.
My reaction up until now to this piece has been summed up by a New Yorker cartoon entitled ‘Prisoner of Pachelbel’… now at least I know I am not alone.
So what do I recommend in place of PC (and ‘PC’ sums up its homogenized qualities perfectly for me). Well if you know YMCA, and who doesn’t and want a laugh listen to the overture from Prince Kholmsy by Glinka. The rest of the Entr’act music for Prince Kholmsy is very good, and the entr’act for Act 5 bears a striking resemblance to a track from John William’s score for The Revenge of the Sith.
And beyond those two? Well, Antonin Dvorak’s Symphonic poems are well worth a listen, The Water Goblin and The Golden Spinningwheel are two of my particular favourites.
Next time, I’ll reveal which single piece of music John Williams nicked two major themes from 
