Film Music Central

Film Composer Interviews A-H

Michael Kamen talks Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves (1991)

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Film Composer Interviews K-Z

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*Everything is copyright to Warner Bros.

When silence speaks volumes: The chariot race in Ben-Hur (1959)

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Film composers have the difficult task of choosing music that correctly fits the intended mood of a particular scene or action sequence. But on a rare occasion, the composer will make the decision to give a scene no music at all, because doing so would actually detract from the moment.

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Credit to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)

A good case in point comes in William Wyler’s 1959 epic Ben-Hur. Scored by film composing legend Miklos Rozsa (1907-1995), the film broke a record for winning 11 Oscars at the Academy Awards, a feat that has never been surpassed (though Titanic and Return of the King have since matched it).

Rozsa’s score contains a number of musical moments: the “Overture” (covered in Soundtracks); the “Rowing of the Galley Slaves”; “Parade of the Charioteers”; and the ever beautiful “Nativity.” However, what many consider the action climax of the film, the chariot race in Part II, has no music at all after the initial “Parade of the Charioteers.”

Rozsa considered for a long time whether or not he should give the actual race any music, but he quickly determined that the action itself would be “music” enough.

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The chariot race of Ben-Hur was an event over two years in the making. Not only did the race track have to be built from the ground up, but also the horses had to be trained to run in groups of three and four, the various stunts had to be planned out, and the chariots had to be built and tested to make sure they would hold up under stress. Once everything was ready and the cameras were rolling, the entire race was filmed in one take. The production had become so expensive that it was only possible to do the entire race once.

The entire clip runs for about ten minutes, but it is well worth it to watch all the way through. One moment in particular that always stands out to me comes at 5:35 when Ben-Hur’s (Charlton Heston) horses (in white) and Messala’s (Stephen Boyd) horses (the blacks) are running stride for stride down the track. And on a quick side note, the moment when Ben-Hur nearly falls out of his chariot was NOT scripted. The jump over the fallen chariot was planned, but Heston’s stunt double refused to wear a harness, insisting that he could ride the jump without it (oh was he ever wrong).

Please watch the race here: Ben-Hur Chariot Race and note the complete lack of music, diegetic or otherwise until the race is over. In my opinion, the true test of a film composer’s talent comes when they have to decide when NOT to use the music. Enjoy!

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“Overture” from Ben-Hur by Miklos Rozsa

Miklos Rozsa conducts Ben-Hur suite (1979)

*Everything is copyright to MGM Studio

Film Music 101: Music Editor

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In the filmmaking process, the music editor is a person who works closely with the composer and the film’s production company to organize, document and time the music cues for a given film project.

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While the composer/conductor leads the recording, the music editor will be off to the side keeping track of what is being recorded and when.

A music editor is also responsible for compiling the temp track used as the film’s temporary soundtrack (see The Temp Track for details about this feature of film music).

A music editor will, as a general rule, be present during the recording sessions and document (i.e. keep track of) each cue as it is recorded and may also have the responsibility of generating the click track for a particular cue (see The Click Track).

Putting a film’s soundtrack together is definitely a team effort, to say the least.

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Scoring session for The Incredibles

Film Music 101: The Click Track

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In the process of scoring film music, musicians rely on a click track to help synch the music perfectly with the image on the screen.

A click track is an audible metronome signal that the conductor and musicians hear through a set of headphones while recording is in progress. Some examples below include:

Frozen Recording Session

Note how all the musician’s are wearing headphones.

The click track was invented in the early 1930s just as the Golden Era of Hollywood began to take off. The invention of the click track is attributed to two people: Max Steiner (1888-1971), one of the three founders of film music and Carl W. Stalling (1891-1972), Warner Bros. house composer for their animated cartoons.

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The click track is actually similar to the ear plugs that singers will wear to help them keep the beat, that’s why when a singer goes a cappella, they will take the ear piece out.

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I wondered for years what those ear pieces were for…

Hope you enjoyed this look into film music! Have a great week!

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Film Music 101: Dubbing

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Imagine Darth Vader with a thick Welsh accent…

In the world of films and film music, dubbing is the process whereby a new soundtrack is added to an already completed film. This could mean adding dialogue, sound effects or music.

Dialogue might have to be dubbed in if the original recording was deemed unsuitable. Most (in)famously, David Prowse’s performance as Darth Vader was dubbed over by James Earl Jones (allegedly without Prowse’s knowledge, though this has been disputed).
Sound effects can be dubbed in to create a desired mood in a particular scene. Screwball comedies often did this by dubbing in slapstick sound effects to emphasize comedic falls or double takes.

Music, both diegetic and non-diegetic, might have to be dubbed in if the original recording was damaged in some way or the director becomes unsatisfied with the initial result. For example, say a movie originally features a certain diegetic song playing on the radio. If the director changes their mind and wants a different song, the editors would go back and dub in a new song, so that the audience would never be able to tell that a new song was added in.

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Gottfried Huppertz: The composer behind Metropolis

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In the world of silent film, Metropolis is rightfully considered a masterwork. Released in 1927 by UFA, the film was directed by Fritz Lang and told the story of a great city called Metropolis, set in the distant year 2000. The film is notable for containing the earliest intact appearance of a robot on the silver screen (an earlier example from L’uomo meccanico (1921) does exist, but only in a 21 minute fragment.)

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The “Machine Man” was invented by Rotwang (on the right) as a secret means to overthrow Joh Fredersen (on the far left).

The score for this amazing film was composed by Gottfried Huppertz, a composer who wrote the music for several of Fritz Lang’s films.

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Huppertz was born in Koln, Germany on March 11, 1887. His first composition was published in 1905 and the composer worked as an opera singer during the first World War. In 1922 while in Berlin, Huppertz met Thea von Harbou, a close friend of Fritz Lang, and the two became introduced. Huppertz first composed a score for Lang’s film Die Nibelungen (1924).

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Huppertz on the set of Metropolis

The score for Metropolis, written and recorded in 1926, is seen today as Huppertz’s greatest work. During the filming process, Huppertz would actually visit the set and play music to help set the mood for a scene (this was very unusual at the time). At the film’s premiere, the score was performed by a 66 piece orchestra, and was very well received. Though the film was heavily cut shortly thereafter, with major chunks lost for decades (a situation that would not be resolved until 2010), Huppertz’s full score has always been available and has remained an invaluable source for outlining the pieces of the film that remain missing.

You can find a suite arrangement of Huppertz’s score here: Metropolis: Soundtrack Suite

After Metropolis, Huppertz continued to write film music, even composing for several sound films: Der Judas von Tirol (1933), Elisabeth und der Narr (1933), Hanneles Himmelfahrt (1934) and Le Domino Vert (1935).

The composer died of a heart attack on February 7, 1937 and became forgotten for over forty years, until Metropolis and Die Nibelungen came back to the attention of the cinematic and musical world.

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Film Music 101: Leitmotif

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In film music (and classical music, especially opera), a leitmotif is “a short, constantly recurring musical phrase, that is associated with a particular person, place, or idea.”

The most famous user of leitmotif in 21st century Hollywood would have to be composer John Williams in the seven Star Wars scores (1977-ongoing)

(for more on the leitmotifs of Star Wars see: The Empire Strikes Back or, Everyone has a Theme! Part One: Leitmotif and “The Imperial March” and The Empire Strikes Back Part Two!: Han and Leia in Love and Yoda!! )

Leitmotifs can be found in many films, for example, in the Star Trek franchise there is a popular theme known as the “Enterprise motif,” this is the fanfare of rising fourths that occurs almost every time the Enterprise appears on the screen (this is especially true in the original series and in the Next Generation films).

The concept of leitmotif (which roughly translates to “leading motive”) predates the creation of film by several decades and is closely associated with the late-Romantic composer Richard Wagner (though Wagner did NOT invent the concept himself as some have claimed)

Wagner’s operatic music had a HUGE influence on modern film music

In Wagner’s famous cycle of operas known as Der Ring des Nibelungen (The Ring of the Nibelungs, aka “The Ring Cycle”), Wagner created an entire series of leitmotifs to represent specific characters or themes in the story.

For example, the hero Siegfried is represented by a leitmotif known as “Siegfried’s Horn Call,” seen here below:

Another important motif represents the god Wotan’s spear:

Other motifs represent: Fire, The Rhine, The Ring, and Sleep

Whatever the context, leitmotifs are an integral part of a film score (when they are used), and they provide an interesting connection to the world of 19th century opera.

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