![]() There are styles within genres, like Be Bop jazz. This talk about the tradition of classical music is inside baseball to me. Some classical composers moonlighted as film music composers, which has been pointed out in other comments. In my opinion, he stole a melody from Tchaikovsky’s Violin concerto for Star Wars the Empire Strikes Back, as well as from Holst’s Planets -Mars. John Williams often used the London Synphony Orchestra. I listen to a score, and learn the composer has identified characters by instrument, like Peter and the Wolf. Movies, programs, need music, but not so much the other way around. Try to imagine the movie without the music, or see an example on YouTube. It may seem that music takes a backseat in movies compared to pure orchestral works. The medium does not matter to me because the music has adapted to it through the years. I would argue that the classical genre should include movie scores, because it is program music. Back then, you’d go to the concert to hear a performer or group play music that was interpreting a poem or famous story, for example. I’m thinking about all the “program” music that developed during the Romantic era. Hasn’t music always served some kind of medium? You can play blues on a pipe organ, for example. Yes, a significant amount of film scores use orchestras but instruments do not define genre. I don't know him, but I would guess that he makes that distinction as well, at least to some degree. When we look at his music there is a clear distinction between his classical works and his film music. But what he is best known for are his film scores (which do borrow heavily from classical music). He has composed works clearly within the classical tradition and intended for the concert stage. John Williams is an interesting figure here. Of course there can be hybrid or "fused" works and the tradition(s) involved isn't always clear, so sometimes we are left with making guesses (hopefully educated ones). Film composers will also often use what they've learned from other genres (including, but not limited to, classical) but again, this doesn't make them works of those genres. Film composers do not appear to be part of that dialogue with Couperin, Chopin and Cage.įilm music is interesting in that it often borrows heavily from other genres, including classical, but that doesn't make the specific film scores be of those genres. I am part of a centuries' long dialogue with these composers.įilm music has its own tradition. What makes me a composer of classical music is that I work within the tradition of classical composers like Bach, Beethoven, and Boulez. ![]() When thinking about genre, I tend to think in terms of tradition, as in what tradition is a composer working within.
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