litlover12: (Casablanca)
litlover12 ([personal profile] litlover12) wrote2012-12-30 10:33 am

Call me a musical philistine

I'm about a quarter of the way through Lawrence of Arabia, and I will concede, it's not bad so far. Truthfully, I'm sure that when you get Peter O'Toole, Claude Rains, and Alec Guinness on board, it's difficult to have it turn out badly. (Even if Guinness looks about as Arabian as a Yorkshire pudding.)

But -- forgive me -- I'm gobsmacked by the idea that that score won an Oscar and is hailed as one of the greatest scores of all time. Maurice Jarre seems to have gone to the "Hey, guys! I wrote two really great bars! I think I'll repeat them forty-seven thousand times!" school of composition.

[identity profile] goldvermilion87.livejournal.com 2012-12-31 04:56 am (UTC)(link)
But isn't that how scores work, really?

[identity profile] litlover12.livejournal.com 2012-12-31 05:26 am (UTC)(link)
Well, not necessarily. For instance, if you're making "The Third Man," your score probably reads simply, "Take one zither and do all kinds of weird things with it." :-)