Knowing the Score: Notes on Film Music

Knowing the Score: Notes on Film Music, by Irwin Bazelon (Van Nostrand Reinhold, 352 pp., illus., $12.50). Beethoven said that there is music in a pause. But in the most banal films there is no pause, only Muzak, responding to cinematic horror vacua. Irwin Bazelon, a renowned composer, devotes little time to surveying the history of music in the cinema, concentrating instead on contemporary problems and their often ingenious solutions. Should music drown a film? Should it match action scene for scene, clueing the viewer to the “proper” emotion? Should music work to downplay mood? Should it be applied sparingly or in heavy doses? These are a few of the many subjects Bazelon discusses. About a third of the text reproduces interviews—with 14 current masters in the field, including Elmer Bernstein, Jerry Goldsmith, Lalo Schifrin, and Gail Kubik—wherein we get an illuminating variety of views and anecdotes about producers, directors, and other occupational hazards facing those who make music for the movies. Film music is as diverse a medium as film itself; its possibilities for enriching film are nearly limitless; yet it is only subliminally perceived by the average moviegoer. With its many pages of movie scores, its literate interviews, and its sensible approach to a complex problem, Bazelon’s gracefully written book is one of those rare items about which one may confidently predict that, for devotees of films, it will be indispensable.

david brudnoy

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David Brudnoy

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Knowing the Score: Notes on Film Music, by Irwin Bazelon (Van Nostrand Reinhold, 352 pp., illus., $12.50). Beethoven said that there is music in a pause. But in the most banal films there is no pause, only Muzak, responding to cinematic horror vacua. Irwin Bazelon, a renowned composer, devotes little time to surveying the history of music in the cinema, concentrating instead on contemporary problems and their often ingenious solutions. Should music drown a film? Should it match action scene for scene, clueing the viewer to the “proper” emotion? Should music work to downplay mood? Should it be applied sparingly or in heavy doses? These are a few of the many subjects Bazelon discusses. About a third of the text reproduces interviews—with 14 current masters in the field, including Elmer Bernstein, Jerry Goldsmith, Lalo Schifrin, and Gail Kubik—wherein we get an illuminating variety of views and anecdotes about producers, directors, and other occupational hazards facing those who make music for the movies. Film music is as diverse a medium as film itself; its possibilities for enriching film are nearly limitless; yet it is only subliminally perceived by the average moviegoer. With its many pages of movie scores, its literate interviews, and its sensible approach to a complex problem, Bazelon’s gracefully written book is one of those rare items about which one may confidently predict that, for devotees of films, it will be indispensable.

david brudnoy