Call me a musical philistine

[litlover12]

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.

Comments

[mosinging1986.livejournal.com]

"Hey, guys! I wrote two really great bars! I think I'll repeat them forty-seven thousand times!" school of composition.

Works for 'Les Mis'.

BA DA BING!

*runs*

[litlover12.livejournal.com]

Pbthththt!!

:-)

Yeah, there's a lot of repetition there, I'll grant you. But at least it's more than two bars!

[digne.livejournal.com]

> "Hey, guys! I wrote two really great bars! I think I'll repeat them forty-seven thousand times!" school of composition.

That's typical for the time period. Have you ever seen Ben-Hur? That movie also won the Oscar for its score.

[litlover12.livejournal.com]

No, but I've seen some of "Doctor Zhivago" (which I hear Jarre also wrote the score for) and noticed how the music did pretty much the same thing. Except there it's eight bars instead of two. :-)

[rachkmc.livejournal.com]

dude. i love you to death; but these be fighting words. I LOVE LAWRENCE OF ARABIA AND ITS SCORE AND ITS BAD GUINNESS-MAKEUP :D

[litlover12.livejournal.com]

BAD GUINNESS-MAKEUP FTW!!

Alec is turning out to be quite the interesting fellow, actually. Now that I'm getting more into the British classics, I've discovered that Alec is like the British Claude Rains. Well, not really, because Claude Rains is the British Claude Rains -- but you know what I mean. The way Claude is constantly popping up in American movies, Alec is constantly popping up in British movies. I had no idea he had such an extensive resume!

[goldvermilion87.livejournal.com]

But isn't that how scores work, really?

[litlover12.livejournal.com]

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." :-)