Film Music: Igor

By -

Patrick Doyle did the music for the animated film "Igor". He has credits for the music in a number of films, "Nim's Island", "Eragon" and even "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire" although for that film he used themes by John Williams who had established the initial Harry Potter theme. He was nominated for an Oscar for both "Hamlet" (1996) and "Sense and Sensibility" (1995), so he is a respected composer in the industry.

However, listening to the music in "Igor" you get the idea that much of the music was canned, pre-programmed for the scene rather like a laugh track. When the King's carriage is shown, there is a fanfare but nothing special. When the subject matter gets dark, the music sounds like it was pulled from any number of 50's style black and white horror films, or when there is a love interest the sappy music is sweet, but generic. While I was watching the film, before I researched the composer and his credits, I felt the film music was so much an after-thought that I was surprised to find such a major name associated with it.

The drop in music is even worse than the score. The "tunes" selected had only vague references to the action on the film. At one point a tune, "The Bigger the Figure" (Louis Prima) is played while the "monster" dances around. Yes, the monster is a large woman, but what the song is saying is that large women are the preference, and yet the film actions suggest she is NOT what Igor wants. Maybe the director was trying to foreshadow events, but if so he failed. It this was Doyle's suggestion, it was a bad one.

Overall the music didn't work. It didn't take away from the film (not that there was much to take away from), but it certainly didn't add to it either. In all the music felt as if it was filling a contract obligation and nothing else.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Role of Music in Opera

By -
There are numerous books on the topic, and every composer, librettist, director, singer and audience member has their opinion as to what role the music should play in an opera. In a play without music, the words ought to support the meaning behind a character's actions. However, in the case of action movies, often times the action is what tells the story and there aren't words, just images to forward the plot. We might hear music to accompany action, build tension, but the action tells the story. Musicals tend to speak until the emotion of the moment just "has" to break out in song - unless it's something like "Mama Mia" where the dialog is the rails we travel on between songs; the songs themselves, written before the concept of the musical, are the focus of the production, while the story is secondary. Operas are a different beast. The music provides emotion to the words spoken, but it also plays the role of ambience when there is only action. In &quo
Read more

Episode 210b: Joyeuse le départ

By -
Image
Podcast:  Play in new window  |  Download Subscribe:  Apple Podcasts  |  Android  |  Google Play  |  Stitcher  |  TuneIn  |  RSS Provost Cunningham has Transmigrated, but to where! What is Dr Sage going to do with his body? And how can she bring home her friends, Abigail and Erasmus, without also bring home Cunningham? What are they going to say when they find the “skeleton” she’s hiding in her closet? Cast: Eddie Louise Clark  as Dr Sage Chip Clark  as Professor Savant Justin Bremer  as the Narrator Emily Riley Piatt  as Abigail Entwhistle, Calypso & Dean Stewart Written by  Eddie Louise Theme music by  Unwoman Sound Design by  Chip Michael
Read more

The Art of String Quartets by Brian Ferneyhough

By -
Image
When an artist sets paint to canvas, there are brush strokes used for different effects. Sometimes those strokes are subtle, imperceptible; they produce works of art like the Mona Lisa . Other times the very obvious nature of the stroke is the art, as in works by Van Gogh. With some composers of music, the notes on the page are their craft. How those notes translate into an aural experience is what defines some composers as great artists. Brian Ferneyhough has a masterful command of the techniques of putting notes on the page. These techniques are sometimes so subtle, even though written in black and white, they escape detection. Some of what he attempts with his music is just that, to escape detection, to bury the framework, diverting the ear away from the structure, so only the music is heard . The subtlety is so fine it is almost imperceptible. Even though he studied at several institutions, he is considered self-taught, studying scores from Boule
Read more