Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
A composer of film scores for Gandhi and Groundhog Day, TV music for The Blue Planet, and many news themes.
On the island
Eight records
Fantasia and Fugue in G minor, BWV 542
I learnt my music mainly by playing the organ and of course the greatest organist probably, and certainly the greatest writer of organ music was Bach
What a Mouth (What a North and South)
I grew up in Bromley, which is just south of London, and one of the earliest heroes of South London was Tommy Steele, and I used to sing as a child all his songs
This is really my earliest memories of the record player at home, where all the family were quite musical.
Ninety-Nine and a Half Won't Do
She's one of those singers that was like the heart of the black gospel movement, but she never went mainstream because she's driven by this amazing conviction.
I'd just want s one thing that reminded me about the best part of writing, which is really the fact that you write something and then you're so surprised and thrilled at the way it's played.
My dad was an absolute major fan of big bands and big bands writing, great big band writing, apart from being brilliantly skilful, is very often incredibly witty.
Eternal Source of Light Divine
James Bowman with The King's Consort
I love Handel's music. He was a very, very cool composer. So I've chosen um this because I can imagine standing on the beach at sunset listening to this
Beim Schlafengehen (from Four Last Songs)Favourite
Renée Fleming with the Houston Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Christoph Eschenbach
Strauss, when he wrote this, really had decided what his power was and signed off with these songs in a way that he knew what he wrote. And there's a kind of confidence in this music that I find so reassuring.
In conversation
Presenter asks
1:50What do you think the job of film music is?
Well, I think its real role is to interpret for another sensibility, the sensibility of the ear and the emotional sensibility of music, to sort of interpret that and license the audience to respond emotionally to what they're seeing on the screen.
Presenter asks
6:06How do you begin [writing a score like Dangerous Liaisons]?
Well, we go through this period which is partly how you find out what the director's th thoughts and feelings are, which we call spotting the film, which is where you physically decide where the music goes. So almost by a sort of geographical route, you get a sense of the emphasis of music in terms of where the long bits are, where the short bits are, where there's a lot of music in the film, where there isn't, etc. etc.
Presenter asks
15:33How did you survive [when you first went to London to make a living]?
I w I worked in a an off licence as the uh... Salaman... bottling up as they we used to call it. And then while I was in the midst of this, my mother called me up and said that she'd seen an advertisement in the Daily Telegraph which said boys wanted... And they gave me a part in Forty Years On.
The keepsakes
The book
Anton Chekhov
I probably wouldn't take a book, a long book. because I'd feel kind of sad when I got to the end of it, so I'd probably take [Chekhov's] short stories. Chekhov said once that there was no human experience so small that you couldn't write a play about it. And I think probably on a desert island some of my experiences would be so minuscule that I could test the theory. But but it would be nice to have just a short story to read, you know, and then get on with something, a bit of work or building something or whatever I've got to do to survive on the desert island, so I'll take [Chekhov's] short stories.
The luxury
If I could take a piano [I]'d take a piano. Otherwise I'd take ... [a] tin of condensed milk. That's that's my idea of bliss. and an opener.
Presenter asks
18:55What was the first television commission you got?
Um it ca the first thing I wrote was something called Hitting Town, which Steven Polyakoff wrote. And it was directed by Peter Gill, who I'd done most of my work for in the theatre. He gave me my break in the theatre really, writing, and then in television too, so I o owe it really all to the to then and to him.
Presenter asks
25:33How great a difference is there between what you do and being a classical composer?
The difference, I think, between writing film music and r and and a and a a classical composer is that I think the gesture is a different gesture. I think there's no comparison. I think to sit down and write a classical commission. You have to know who you are musically.
“I think its real role is to interpret for another sensibility, the sensibility of the ear and the emotional sensibility of music, to sort of interpret that and license the audience to respond emotionally to what they're seeing on the screen.”
“If you don't tell the truth, you're just manipulating the moments. You have to understand the truth of the film. And in that sense, I think that's the importance of the role of a film composer, not whether they can write notes or not. It's more to do with whether they can read the film and understand what the filmmaker wants the audience to feel about his film or her film.”
“I've got a very poor musical memory actually, which has always been very helpful as a writer.”
“Writing is solitary, there's no question about that. I spend a lot of time alone, so I I wouldn't I wouldn't mind it. I've always also thought that, you know, music came along for me in a way. I didn't go looking for it. And my career writing just came along. I I I didn't go looking for that either. And if it stops, it wouldn't worry me. I would just wait for something else to come along.”