Piano Score
The tradition of scoring movies with pianos goes back to the silent era, when a pianist was given the task of providing the entire score live to picture using tricks of the trade. That included a laundry list of musical themes to be exploited during the movie, themes that could be interchangably used in any movie. Rain usually meant the rain music from Beethoven’s Sixth Symphony, etc.
Today, movies use piano music more strategically, usually as a way to indicate internal emotion, solitude, and character. Very few films are scored solely or mainly on the piano. In fact, I only know of one which uses only piano for the score, and that is the Tom Cruise movie The Firm. Aside from it actually being a very good movie, the score by Dave Grusin is excellent as it generally conveys the driving force of Cruise’s character, a hard-hitting lawyer. And even later during the intense chase scene, Grusin uses low piano notes as well as striking the strings inside the piano to create suspense. Like the way Indians used the buffalo, Grusin wastes no piano ivory in this singular score.
Mitch & Abby (mp3) - Dave Grusin Buy
Memphis Stomp (mp3) - Dave Grusin
David Shire himself did a similarly jazzy score although far more contemplative. His score for The Conversation is one of his best. The main theme has repetitive phrasing that sounds stubborn and neurotically willful, kind of like the personality of our main character played by Gene Hackman. It’s soulful music that sounds Modernist (remember this is the guy who based his funk music on a tone row) and slightly creepy.
Main Theme from The Conversation (mp3) - David Shire
Of course any mention of pianos in movies has to include the movie called The Piano. I know I seem to be on a Michael Nyman craze these days, but this movie actually does something completely different from his Mozart-influenced works. In this movie, he edges towards what some might call New Age (hence he was lumped into the infamous New Agey “as seen on TV” compilation Pure Moods). And within the context of the movie, his music would have been out of place during the Romantic era (think Chopin). Still though, the piano pieces tell us a lot about what the character is thinking and the incongruity of the music works to make her stand out even more as a modern woman stuck in the Colonial era.
Big My Secret (mp3) - Michael Nyman Buy
Movie Theory of the week:
One way to win an Oscar is to play a pianist in a movie. And you either have to be actually be playing the piano or look like you are (meaning revealing shots of what your fingers are doing). That’s right, none of that finger-syncing crap. Holly Hunter actually plays the music seen in the movie, and she won the Oscar. Geoffrey Rush learned to play piano for Shine and he won an Oscar for it too. Adrien Brody looks like he’s playing the piano and he won an Oscar. Jack Nicholson seemed to be playing a Chopin Prelude in Five Easy Pieces…and he got nominated for an Oscar but didn’t win. Why not? Well, here’s the final part of this theory…the piano piece you play on screen has to be difficult, which the Prelude in E minor is not so much.
October 16th, 2006 at 8:28 am
ms. hunter was taught to play the piano by the very talented composer and teacher Margie Balter for ‘the piano’. its fun to think that the same hands that taught holly to tickle the ivories taught my own.