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right there are two of my most cherished influences, orson welles and bernard herrmann. the former is obvious as he is one of our official muses but the latter, you may not be familiar with even though his melodies have probably haunted your hearts many times over. you know, inspiration is an odd thing, one never knows where it comes from, some say the heart, some say the lord, others say genes but i prefer to imagine that there's a jiminy cricket inside all of us that, once activated, feeds us ideas we think are ours. and herrmann's jiminy was dark and brooding and extremelly active.
from citizen kane to vertigo to taxi driver, the man was prolific to the point of indecency and his inspiration kept on coming whether he had a portly and amusing british director or a boy-genius from kenosha, wisconsin in front of him. famously ill-tempered when a situation did not suit him, he would storm out of rooms he did not feel welcome in and go back to his room to write. impetuous genius... no wonder what came out of the room was often worrysome, who knows what he would do in there, whose gods he would invoke in the name of inspiration.
if you are not familiar with his work, you could start with the wonderful collection of suites from esa-pekka salonen and the l.a. philharmonic (iTunes link) which will give you a small yet potent first lesson in the art of composing for film. not often can you really see a film in your mind's eye while listening to scores as they are often to bland to truly reach their visual goals. not true with danny elfman, not true with john williams and especially not with the bespectacled mr. herrmann.
i once heard it said that idolatry merely connects a part of you with a part of your idol that you recognize as available in you and if that's the case, boy am i doing well... anyway, have a fantastic weekend and i'll see you monday!
stefan - Apr 27 - 11:22 AM