Sunday, April 10, 2016
The God of Movie Music
An undated picture of Richard Wagner, holding movie music prisoner in his left hand
Re-posted by Nicholas Stix
Wagner's Influence on Movie Music
By McDuff
December 13, 2013
Wagner Tripping
Every man or woman in charge of the music of moving picture theater is, consciously or unconsciously, a disciple or follower of Richard Wagner
– Stephen Bush, film critic, 1911
Max Steiner
The influential 20th century composer, and teacher of several film composers, Arnold Schoenberg, said that Wagner “bequeathed to us three things: first, rich harmony; second, the short motive with its possibility of adapting the phrase as quickly and often as required to the smallest details of the mood; and third, at the same time, the art of building large-scale structures and the prospect of developing this art still further.”3
All three of these bequests were adopted by film composers, though at the base was usually “the short motive,” a.k.a. leitmotifs – what Wagner called “motifs of memory” – whose purpose is “to represent or symbolize a person, object, place, idea, state of mind, supernatural force or any other ingredient in a dramatic work.”4