There are a variety of types of film-music concert (see latter part of this post for a list of the different varieties) and a particularly immersive and surprising one is when an orchestra performs the entire musical score of the movie live to the picture. The musical component of the soundtrack on the film can be switched off so all other sound effects and speaking parts are audible (and in all the ones I've been to they also use subtitles so you won't miss anything anyway) and replaced by the live orchestra and sometimes choir too. It's fantastic.
I don't know the history of these but they suddenly appeared as events a few years ago. I've been to small-scale ones (65 Days of Static doing their alternative live score for Silent Running, Notting Hill's Electric Cinema house band featuring a guest visit from Bond, Stargate and Independence Day composer David Arnold doing the score for short silent films) and massively large scale things at the Royal Albert Hall with Titanic and Star Trek Into Darkness.
The large scale ones aren't cheap, prices generally start at just under £30 for a fairly distant view from the screen and if you're in the main arena it's about £50/60 per seat (plus attendant travel and feeding costs) but it's not a cheap thing to put on and it's a fantastic experience. One of the most magical and surprising things for me was actually happened just before one of the films began, when the orchestra played the music for the studio logo ident for 20th Century Fox, amazing - I'd just not expected it. One of my favourite studio idents is Universal and one of my favourite films is Jurassic Park, however seeing that live you'd not get the ident music as the film begins with the opening sounds and music of the film (literally just given myself goosepimples typing that). Jurassic Park is available as a film that can be screened with a live score I'm just not aware of any listings in London as yet but it looks like it's going to happen somewhere in November 2016.
Before the film screenings at the Royal Albert Hall the composers are usually interviewed in the Elgar Room (upstairs) by Tommy Pearson, so it's always worth looking out for that as RAH don't always add it to the same page.
Anyway enough blether from me - here's a list of films that are to be performed in London in 2016 and a list of films that have previously been performed in London (and might be performed again). An excellent site where you can get information about new concerts is Movies in Concert (I set up an RSS to Twitter feed for it, @moviesinconcert).
If you know of a concert I've missed please let me know (this list is just for London, where I live, but I'm only too happy to link to a list of these in other cities or countries).
2016
Silent films with live music: beggars of life - 7 March 2016, Royal Albert Hall (Elgar Room)
- this one features Neil Brand and the Dodge Brothers
Raiders of the Lost Ark - 9-12 March 2016, Royal Albert Hall
Western music in concert - 11 March 2016, Royal Albert Hall
Gladiator - 25-26 May 2016, Royal Albert Hall
Amadeus - 14 October 2016, Royal Albert Hall
ET The Extra-Terrestrial - 28 December 2016, Royal Albert Hall
Vertigo - [date to be confirmed], Southbank Centre
"A new year-long series, Film Scores Live, culminates in a weekend dedicated to the films of Alfred Hitchcock, including the London premiere of the live score to Vertigo."
2015
Titanic - 27 April 2015, Royal Albert Hall
Not so silent movies - 7 June 2015, Electric Cinema. David Arnold was the special guest with the house band, creating a live score for some silent films - it was pretty funny :)
There Will Be Blood - 19 August 2015, Southbank Centre
Planet of the Apes - 28 August 2015, Southbank Centre
Ratatouille - 28 October 2015, Royal Albert Hall
Frozen - 29 October 2015, Royal Albert Hall
Star Trek: The Ultimate Voyage - 1 November 2015, Royal Albert Hall
The Godfather - 2 November 2015, Royal Albert Hall
Alice in Wonderland - 12 December 2015, Royal Albert Hall
Casablanca - 14 December 2015, Southbank Centre
2014
Silent Running - 27 April 2014, Village Underground - with 65 Days of Static providing their alternative score
Star Trek (2009) and Star Trek Into Darkness - 29-31 May 2014, Royal Albert Hall
Showing posts with label sound and music. Show all posts
Showing posts with label sound and music. Show all posts
Friday, 29 January 2016
Friday, 5 December 2014
Alexandre Desplat is film music concert-ing next Thursday at Barbican
by @JoBrodie, brodiesnotes.blogspot.com - cross-posted to the Sound stuff blog
Press play to enjoy a 11min sonic overview of the music of Alexandre Desplat including a short interview, by Tim Burden, then scroll down :)
Well now this is a good name for a film music concert! I might rethink the titles I give to my talks on diabetes research ;)
LSO on Film: The Magic and Majesty of Alexandre Desplat (link on LSO page)
with the London Symphony Orchestra
Thursday 11 December 2014 / 19:30
Hall, Barbican
Before the concert, at 6pm, there's also a free Q&A with the composer, hosted by the flautist / flutist / flute-player (LSO Principal Flute Gareth Davies).
Alexandre Desplat, whose name I can almost pronounce, is doing a concert of his film music next Thursday. He's done the scores for some very well-known films like Harry Potter, and The King's Speech (I felt that needed a comma given the style of naming films within the Harry Potter franchise) as well as some as yet unknown to me.
Two of my favourites from his work include Birth which also happens to be directed by Jonathan Glazer (I think he's amazing) who's just been announced as the Wellcome Trust's new Screenwriting Fellow, and Painted Veil.
It seems that Birth will be included among the concert pieces, woohoo - see the YouTube video at the end.
Programme to include music from:
Press play to enjoy a 11min sonic overview of the music of Alexandre Desplat including a short interview, by Tim Burden, then scroll down :)
Well now this is a good name for a film music concert! I might rethink the titles I give to my talks on diabetes research ;)
LSO on Film: The Magic and Majesty of Alexandre Desplat (link on LSO page)
with the London Symphony Orchestra
Thursday 11 December 2014 / 19:30
Hall, Barbican
Before the concert, at 6pm, there's also a free Q&A with the composer, hosted by the flautist / flutist / flute-player (LSO Principal Flute Gareth Davies).
Alexandre Desplat, whose name I can almost pronounce, is doing a concert of his film music next Thursday. He's done the scores for some very well-known films like Harry Potter, and The King's Speech (I felt that needed a comma given the style of naming films within the Harry Potter franchise) as well as some as yet unknown to me.
Two of my favourites from his work include Birth which also happens to be directed by Jonathan Glazer (I think he's amazing) who's just been announced as the Wellcome Trust's new Screenwriting Fellow, and Painted Veil.
It seems that Birth will be included among the concert pieces, woohoo - see the YouTube video at the end.
Programme to include music from:
- The Imitation Game
- Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
- The King's Speech
- The Queen
- Philomena
- Twilight: New Moon
- The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
- Girl with a Pearl Earring
- Godzilla
- The Ghost Writer
- Birth
- The Grand Budapest Hotel
- Coco avant Chanel
Monday, 1 December 2014
Guess who's doing more film music concerts in 2015? @DavidGArnold is, in Dublin, Manchester & Liverpool :)
Also cross-posted to my Sound Stuff blog.
tl;dr version: film composer David Arnold's doingthree four film music concerts in 2015 in Dublin (Jan), Manchester (April), Liverpool (April) and Birmingham (June).
*****On 2 December 2014*****
On Tuesday 2 December David Arnold's being interviewed by Tommy Pearson in the Elgar Room at Royal Albert Hall, 7pm, £11.20. Tickets have now sold out but it's worth checking the website for returns, a couple appeared last week before being snapped up again (and also try the Box Office on 0845 401 5034).
David's score for the film Shaft is also due to be released by La-La Land Records on 2/12, the same day as his RAH interview. Also he wrote the music for Made in Dagenham the musical which is at the Adelphi until March 2015 - it's a joyous thing, go.
He's on Twitter @DavidGArnold.
Before we start, press play... (there are a few more clips from his concert recorded from an iPhone by Jack Chapple).
I really enjoyed his July 2014 concert at the Royal Festival Hall (YouTube clip above) and so did all the reviewers as you'll see in this post (full list of reviews I've found at the end). We heard music from films he scored early in his career (Stargate and Independence Day) and of course all his James Bond films, but also more recently his work (with Michael Price) on the BBC Sherlock series and a whole lot of stuff in between. He's been consistently brilliant :)
"What last night did was give an overwhelming sense of satisfaction to the audience and to highlight the versatile nature, talent and musical legacy that David Arnold has given us. I can only hope this is something that many others have the opportunity to see and listen to as he is one of the finest in the business and worthy of every bit of praise that comes his way after this London concert."
David Arnold Live - The Passionata Project
"While this event was a one-off, we hope that the composer has the bug for more, as his terrific music deserves to be heard live."
‘David Arnold: Live in Concert’ review - Cult Box
Good news - his London concert wasn't a one-off and he's announced three concerts for 2015, in Dublin, Manchester and Liverpool.
Dublin
Thursday 22 January 2015, 8pm
National Concert Hall, Dublin
€20-€45 (conc. €18-€40.50)
Tickets and info - Dublin
Manchester
Tuesday 14 April 2015, 7.30pm
The Bridgewater Hall, Manchester
£26.50 - £44.50 + VIP packages available
Tickets and info - Manchester
Liverpool
Tuesday 21 April 2015, 7.30pm
Liverpool Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool
£24.50, £29.50, £37.50, £42.50, £50
Tickets and info - Liverpool
Birmingham
Friday 26 June 2015, 7.30pm
Symphony Hall, Birmingham
£24.50, £29.50, £37.50, £42.50 & £75 VIP plus transaction fee (£3)
Tickets and info - Birmingham
Based on the July 2014 concert I think everyone's in for a treat again.
"The first half of the program appeared hand-selected to show off the eclectic nature of Arnold’s oeuvre. Immediately, the audience was bombarded with the heroic fanfare of his overture for the late ’90s space adventure Wing Commander. From there, the program ventured into the gorgeous, Barryesque gestures of Last of the Dogmen, the bluesy guitar of Four Brothers, the cool, understated majesty of his 2012 London Olympics Closing Medals Ceremony, the thundering monster movie heights of Godzilla, and the delirious, waltzy splendor of The Stepford Wives."
David Arnold plays his greatest hits in his London concert debut - Enjoy the crawl
"During this segment Mr Arnold unsheathed his “secret weapon”, singer David Mcalmont, who stepped onto the stage to perform Play Dead, a song made famous by Bjork. The shot was a bullseye. The target exploded. And the audience, including David Walliams, Mark Gatiss, Steve Furst, Amanda Abbington and Martin Freeman, roared with excitement."
Review: David Arnold at the Royal Festival Hall - beige
"The mood sobered briefly when Arnold assumed singing duties for a never-before-heard song from his upcoming stage musical, Made in Dagenham—a work about the late ’60s women’s rights movement in the UK. With lyrics written from the perspective of a wife and mother, this heartbreaking song was delivered by Arnold with all the passion and all the poignancy it deserves."
David Arnold plays his greatest hits in his London concert debut - Enjoy the crawl
"We enjoyed Arnold’s vocals again on the title track from The World is Not Enough, as well the unused ‘Only Myself to Blame’ from the same film, both songs written in collaboration with legendary lyricist Don Black. Arnold also performed a raw and pounding instrumental version of ‘You Know My Name’ from Daniel Craig’s debut Casino Royale."
‘David Arnold: Live in Concert’ review - Cult Box
Incidentally his work on the Bond films has also had a nice citation in the academic literature on film music: "Arnold’s music represents an elegant integration of broad orchestral statements, big-band inspired brass, electronica, and exotic percussion. ... He references the established Bond motives and gestures and, consequently, the scores sound like the contemporary continuation of a tradition. In short, Arnold fulfilled many of the unwritten rules of the Bond scores."
"The star character of this memorable event however was not 007, but undoubtedly Sherlock. It is rare for any contemporary television series to have such an imaginative and well written score, which when performed last night as an orchestral suite, captivated and invigorated the entire auditorium."
Review: David Arnold at the Royal Festival Hall - beige
So there you go, and go you should :D
Music
David Arnold's film and television scores on iTunes and Amazon
If you like film music concerts in general you'll probably like the Movies in Concert site.
Further reading
Here are the reviews for David's July 2014 concert.
Over the next few days a couple of David's scores for James Bond and Hot Fuzz can be heard on UK terrestrial television - Die Another Day (10.40pm, ITV, Thursday 4 December); Hot Fuzz (9pm, ITV2, Monday 8 December & rpt 9pm, ITV2, Friday 12 December), Casino Royale (10.40pm, ITV, Friday 12 December).
Here's Tim Burden's interview with David on Soundcloud, shortly before the July 2014 concert
tl;dr version: film composer David Arnold's doing
*****On 2 December 2014*****
David's score for the film Shaft is also due to be released by La-La Land Records on 2/12, the same day as his RAH interview. Also he wrote the music for Made in Dagenham the musical which is at the Adelphi until March 2015 - it's a joyous thing, go.
He's on Twitter @DavidGArnold.
Before we start, press play... (there are a few more clips from his concert recorded from an iPhone by Jack Chapple).
I really enjoyed his July 2014 concert at the Royal Festival Hall (YouTube clip above) and so did all the reviewers as you'll see in this post (full list of reviews I've found at the end). We heard music from films he scored early in his career (Stargate and Independence Day) and of course all his James Bond films, but also more recently his work (with Michael Price) on the BBC Sherlock series and a whole lot of stuff in between. He's been consistently brilliant :)
"What last night did was give an overwhelming sense of satisfaction to the audience and to highlight the versatile nature, talent and musical legacy that David Arnold has given us. I can only hope this is something that many others have the opportunity to see and listen to as he is one of the finest in the business and worthy of every bit of praise that comes his way after this London concert."
David Arnold Live - The Passionata Project
"While this event was a one-off, we hope that the composer has the bug for more, as his terrific music deserves to be heard live."
‘David Arnold: Live in Concert’ review - Cult Box
Good news - his London concert wasn't a one-off and he's announced three concerts for 2015, in Dublin, Manchester and Liverpool.
Dublin
Thursday 22 January 2015, 8pm
National Concert Hall, Dublin
€20-€45 (conc. €18-€40.50)
Tickets and info - Dublin
Manchester
Tuesday 14 April 2015, 7.30pm
The Bridgewater Hall, Manchester
£26.50 - £44.50 + VIP packages available
Tickets and info - Manchester
Liverpool
Tuesday 21 April 2015, 7.30pm
Liverpool Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool
£24.50, £29.50, £37.50, £42.50, £50
Tickets and info - Liverpool
Birmingham
Friday 26 June 2015, 7.30pm
Symphony Hall, Birmingham
£24.50, £29.50, £37.50, £42.50 & £75 VIP plus transaction fee (£3)
Tickets and info - Birmingham
Based on the July 2014 concert I think everyone's in for a treat again.
"The first half of the program appeared hand-selected to show off the eclectic nature of Arnold’s oeuvre. Immediately, the audience was bombarded with the heroic fanfare of his overture for the late ’90s space adventure Wing Commander. From there, the program ventured into the gorgeous, Barryesque gestures of Last of the Dogmen, the bluesy guitar of Four Brothers, the cool, understated majesty of his 2012 London Olympics Closing Medals Ceremony, the thundering monster movie heights of Godzilla, and the delirious, waltzy splendor of The Stepford Wives."
David Arnold plays his greatest hits in his London concert debut - Enjoy the crawl
"During this segment Mr Arnold unsheathed his “secret weapon”, singer David Mcalmont, who stepped onto the stage to perform Play Dead, a song made famous by Bjork. The shot was a bullseye. The target exploded. And the audience, including David Walliams, Mark Gatiss, Steve Furst, Amanda Abbington and Martin Freeman, roared with excitement."
Review: David Arnold at the Royal Festival Hall - beige
"The mood sobered briefly when Arnold assumed singing duties for a never-before-heard song from his upcoming stage musical, Made in Dagenham—a work about the late ’60s women’s rights movement in the UK. With lyrics written from the perspective of a wife and mother, this heartbreaking song was delivered by Arnold with all the passion and all the poignancy it deserves."
David Arnold plays his greatest hits in his London concert debut - Enjoy the crawl
"We enjoyed Arnold’s vocals again on the title track from The World is Not Enough, as well the unused ‘Only Myself to Blame’ from the same film, both songs written in collaboration with legendary lyricist Don Black. Arnold also performed a raw and pounding instrumental version of ‘You Know My Name’ from Daniel Craig’s debut Casino Royale."
‘David Arnold: Live in Concert’ review - Cult Box
Incidentally his work on the Bond films has also had a nice citation in the academic literature on film music: "Arnold’s music represents an elegant integration of broad orchestral statements, big-band inspired brass, electronica, and exotic percussion. ... He references the established Bond motives and gestures and, consequently, the scores sound like the contemporary continuation of a tradition. In short, Arnold fulfilled many of the unwritten rules of the Bond scores."
"The star character of this memorable event however was not 007, but undoubtedly Sherlock. It is rare for any contemporary television series to have such an imaginative and well written score, which when performed last night as an orchestral suite, captivated and invigorated the entire auditorium."
Review: David Arnold at the Royal Festival Hall - beige
So there you go, and go you should :D
Music
David Arnold's film and television scores on iTunes and Amazon
If you like film music concerts in general you'll probably like the Movies in Concert site.
Further reading
Here are the reviews for David's July 2014 concert.
- David Arnold Live (7 July 2014) Passionata Project
- Review: David Arnold at the Royal Festival Hall (7 July 2014) Beige
- Review: David Arnold: Live in Concert (7 July 2014) Sci-Fi Bulletin
- ‘David Arnold: Live in Concert’ review (8 July 2014) Cult Box
- Bondmisc special correspondent Bob Foster reviews David Arnold's recent concert (15 July 2014) Bond Miscellany
- David Arnold plays his greatest hits in his London concert debut (17 July 2014) Enjoy the Crawl
Over the next few days a couple of David's scores for James Bond and Hot Fuzz can be heard on UK terrestrial television - Die Another Day (10.40pm, ITV, Thursday 4 December); Hot Fuzz (9pm, ITV2, Monday 8 December & rpt 9pm, ITV2, Friday 12 December), Casino Royale (10.40pm, ITV, Friday 12 December).
Here's Tim Burden's interview with David on Soundcloud, shortly before the July 2014 concert
Saturday, 11 October 2014
I am totally recommending the musical Made in Dagenham
by @JoBrodie, brodiesnotes.blogspot.com
Edit 12 Oct - at the end there are (1) instructions for how to get the £15 tickets (there are 150 Upper Circle tickets available at £15 for every show during the preview season) and (2) an embedded Storify that @MadeInDagenham made from some of the lovely tweets received after the first couple of previews.
I had a fantastic time at Made in Dagenham on its Thursday opening preview night :D It's ace. It's also really, really funny and astute, and full of lovely little touches. The theatre, Adelphi on the Strand, was packed and very warm (glad of an interval ice cream) and I plonked the scarf I'd brought in my bag and rolled my sleeves up.
While I'm keen to avoid spoilers the set design is one of the most startling things I've ever seen - it all seems to be cunningly rigged with pieces coming in from every direction (in from the sides, up from the floor, from above, from the back and things moving backwards). That's when it hit me - that's where dark rides have gone! (Those things where you sit in a moving capsule / seat and get whizzed around historical tableaux, loved them).
Previews are a little like the theatre equivalent of a soft-launch or a sort of postmarketing surveillance - a way to find out what works when an audience is in the room, so the show will likely change after a bit of tinkering during the previews run, until early November. Don Black sent a text to the director, Rupert Goold, wishing everyone well and saying that a preview is a bit like having sex with the light on. You'll still enjoy it but you might see things that perhaps you're not meant to ;) Other than a small technical hitch, quickly fixed within minutes, I think everything went perfectly.
I'm curious to see how things will change once previews are finished but I'd want to go an see it again anyway. For someone who's not been to a musical in 30 years and who rarely goes to the theatre it's gloriously overwhelming with all the singing, dancing, acting, live music, visuals - it's a very visceral experience and I probably missed bits from just being so surprised and delighted by it all.
There are some beautiful tunes in there, no surprise as the fantastic David Arnold is behind the music (he's doing a couple of concerts next year and an interview at RAH in December) - the two chaps sitting next to me were singing along as best as they could (don't think they knew the words) and I heard a bit of singing in the ladies loos too. Everyone was humming the chorus to 'Everybody out!' in the interval.
The lyrics for all the songs are clever and funny (and occasionally ribald) - I think my mum would have enjoyed the word play. I had no idea so many things rhymed with Made in Dagenham! Gemma Arterton does indeed have a fantastic voice and is brilliant in the show.
One of my favourite songs from the first act was... well if I write it I'll give too much away... it's a scene in which one of the women who seems a bit dithery tells us what she'd say if she went to a meeting with management to discuss the news that the women workers at the Ford plant in Dagenham had been downgraded from C to B (unskilled workers). Turns out she has plenty to say and I thought that song was cleverly done.
Special mention goes to everyone really - I didn't really know who Steve Furst was other than I already like him because he co-founded the amazing Double Six Club that kept me amused in my early 20s but he's fantastic as the brash American from Ford HQ in the US. We all enjoyed booing him affectionately at the end. There's a wonderful double act with the people playing Harold Wilson and Barbara Castle - some exceptionally funny scenes there. I'd like to have heard more from the 'maid' character who seemed to move silently through a number of scenes, playing different characters I think (but always clearing up after people) - she was great.
An example of the amusing little touches happened just before the curtain rose on the second act - we were taken back in time with some 1960s-style adverts for shops on Dagenham High Street, loved that. There's a beautiful song in the second half that I was surprised to realise I recognised and was trying to work out how (other than 'Everybody Out' I'd avoided listening to the songs they'd made available as I wanted to experience it fresh), then remembered that David had sung it at his concert back in July. Despite being in a very warm room I had to roll my sleeves down - goosebumps.
The narrative doesn't follow the film exactly but the story's the same - the women machinists who sewed the seat covers for the Ford cars found their pay had been unfairly downgraded. The management had determined that their roles were unskilled but as each machinist had to pass a number of tests to get in the factory (and once there they had to sew pieces of fabric together without a template or instructions) it was clear that skill was needed. While the story starts out being about being properly acknowledged as a skilled worker it soon becomes about the wider theme of overarching pay inequality between men and women. The real-life women involved in the story were fighting for fairness and equality in pay and their actions eventually led to the Equal Pay Act 1970 (superseded by the Equality Act 2010).
After the show I realised I was standing right next to David Arnold so I introduced myself and congratulated him on a fantastic musical but I was a bit too shy to say hello to Stephen Woolley who was nearby (he produced the film version, which David also scored).
It's a great show and I hope it has a long and successful run, and I hope they're all really proud of themselves and are breathing sighs of relief :)
Further reading
A Women's Worth: the story of the Ford sewing machinists notes by Sue Hastings (2006), click on the PDF icon on that page to open the four page document.
In 2013 The Fawcett Society and the TUC (and other unions) marked 'Equal Pay Day' on 7 November (this year it falls on a Friday) - that's the day on which "women effectively stop being paid for the year because of the gender pay gap".
40+ years on from the strike action by the Ford women machinists and it's still a problem. In December 2013 the Office for National Statistics (ONS) released their 'Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings' for the preceding year. Somewhat depressingly the "gender pay gap (i.e. the difference between men's and women's earnings as a percentage of men's earnings) based on median gross hourly earnings (excluding overtime) for full-time employees increased to 10.0% from 9.5% in 2012."
There are 150 tickets for £15 during the preview season
Here's how to get the £15 tickets in case you're not sure where to find them (click to embiggen the pictures and then you probably have to use the back button on your browser to return to this page).
Go to the ticket booking website and select the date on which you want to see the show...
...then choose Upper Circle (thats' where the £15 tickets are)...
...find a circle that isn't white (unavailable) and hover over it to see the price - the pink ones in the image below are both £15 - at time of writing it's just these two left (K3 and N38).
Here's the Storify from @MadeInDagenham
Edit 12 Oct - at the end there are (1) instructions for how to get the £15 tickets (there are 150 Upper Circle tickets available at £15 for every show during the preview season) and (2) an embedded Storify that @MadeInDagenham made from some of the lovely tweets received after the first couple of previews.
I had a fantastic time at Made in Dagenham on its Thursday opening preview night :D It's ace. It's also really, really funny and astute, and full of lovely little touches. The theatre, Adelphi on the Strand, was packed and very warm (glad of an interval ice cream) and I plonked the scarf I'd brought in my bag and rolled my sleeves up.
.JPG) |
| A picture I took from outside the theatre |
While I'm keen to avoid spoilers the set design is one of the most startling things I've ever seen - it all seems to be cunningly rigged with pieces coming in from every direction (in from the sides, up from the floor, from above, from the back and things moving backwards). That's when it hit me - that's where dark rides have gone! (Those things where you sit in a moving capsule / seat and get whizzed around historical tableaux, loved them).
Previews are a little like the theatre equivalent of a soft-launch or a sort of postmarketing surveillance - a way to find out what works when an audience is in the room, so the show will likely change after a bit of tinkering during the previews run, until early November. Don Black sent a text to the director, Rupert Goold, wishing everyone well and saying that a preview is a bit like having sex with the light on. You'll still enjoy it but you might see things that perhaps you're not meant to ;) Other than a small technical hitch, quickly fixed within minutes, I think everything went perfectly.
I'm curious to see how things will change once previews are finished but I'd want to go an see it again anyway. For someone who's not been to a musical in 30 years and who rarely goes to the theatre it's gloriously overwhelming with all the singing, dancing, acting, live music, visuals - it's a very visceral experience and I probably missed bits from just being so surprised and delighted by it all.
There are some beautiful tunes in there, no surprise as the fantastic David Arnold is behind the music (he's doing a couple of concerts next year and an interview at RAH in December) - the two chaps sitting next to me were singing along as best as they could (don't think they knew the words) and I heard a bit of singing in the ladies loos too. Everyone was humming the chorus to 'Everybody out!' in the interval.
The lyrics for all the songs are clever and funny (and occasionally ribald) - I think my mum would have enjoyed the word play. I had no idea so many things rhymed with Made in Dagenham! Gemma Arterton does indeed have a fantastic voice and is brilliant in the show.
One of my favourite songs from the first act was... well if I write it I'll give too much away... it's a scene in which one of the women who seems a bit dithery tells us what she'd say if she went to a meeting with management to discuss the news that the women workers at the Ford plant in Dagenham had been downgraded from C to B (unskilled workers). Turns out she has plenty to say and I thought that song was cleverly done.
.JPG) |
| A picture I took from inside the threatre |
Special mention goes to everyone really - I didn't really know who Steve Furst was other than I already like him because he co-founded the amazing Double Six Club that kept me amused in my early 20s but he's fantastic as the brash American from Ford HQ in the US. We all enjoyed booing him affectionately at the end. There's a wonderful double act with the people playing Harold Wilson and Barbara Castle - some exceptionally funny scenes there. I'd like to have heard more from the 'maid' character who seemed to move silently through a number of scenes, playing different characters I think (but always clearing up after people) - she was great.
An example of the amusing little touches happened just before the curtain rose on the second act - we were taken back in time with some 1960s-style adverts for shops on Dagenham High Street, loved that. There's a beautiful song in the second half that I was surprised to realise I recognised and was trying to work out how (other than 'Everybody Out' I'd avoided listening to the songs they'd made available as I wanted to experience it fresh), then remembered that David had sung it at his concert back in July. Despite being in a very warm room I had to roll my sleeves down - goosebumps.
The narrative doesn't follow the film exactly but the story's the same - the women machinists who sewed the seat covers for the Ford cars found their pay had been unfairly downgraded. The management had determined that their roles were unskilled but as each machinist had to pass a number of tests to get in the factory (and once there they had to sew pieces of fabric together without a template or instructions) it was clear that skill was needed. While the story starts out being about being properly acknowledged as a skilled worker it soon becomes about the wider theme of overarching pay inequality between men and women. The real-life women involved in the story were fighting for fairness and equality in pay and their actions eventually led to the Equal Pay Act 1970 (superseded by the Equality Act 2010).
After the show I realised I was standing right next to David Arnold so I introduced myself and congratulated him on a fantastic musical but I was a bit too shy to say hello to Stephen Woolley who was nearby (he produced the film version, which David also scored).
It's a great show and I hope it has a long and successful run, and I hope they're all really proud of themselves and are breathing sighs of relief :)
Further reading
A Women's Worth: the story of the Ford sewing machinists notes by Sue Hastings (2006), click on the PDF icon on that page to open the four page document.
In 2013 The Fawcett Society and the TUC (and other unions) marked 'Equal Pay Day' on 7 November (this year it falls on a Friday) - that's the day on which "women effectively stop being paid for the year because of the gender pay gap".
40+ years on from the strike action by the Ford women machinists and it's still a problem. In December 2013 the Office for National Statistics (ONS) released their 'Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings' for the preceding year. Somewhat depressingly the "gender pay gap (i.e. the difference between men's and women's earnings as a percentage of men's earnings) based on median gross hourly earnings (excluding overtime) for full-time employees increased to 10.0% from 9.5% in 2012."
There are 150 tickets for £15 during the preview season
Here's how to get the £15 tickets in case you're not sure where to find them (click to embiggen the pictures and then you probably have to use the back button on your browser to return to this page).
Go to the ticket booking website and select the date on which you want to see the show...
...then choose Upper Circle (thats' where the £15 tickets are)...
...find a circle that isn't white (unavailable) and hover over it to see the price - the pink ones in the image below are both £15 - at time of writing it's just these two left (K3 and N38).
Here's the Storify from @MadeInDagenham
Wednesday, 10 September 2014
People on the #dontstopthemusic tag might like these Government reports on music in the UK
From the #dontstopthemusic tag last night it seems that lots of people enjoyed James Rhodes' programme in which he tried to get hold of some musical instruments and support a stronger teaching infrastructure for children in schools. Music teaching appears to be ... somewhat undervalued in some schools and, according to snippets of speeches from a music teachers' conference this problem seems to be fairly systemic. Here's a great post from Mark Robinson's Teach Kids Music blog on 5 Valuable Lessons From James Rhodes’ Don’t Stop The Music.
and he's playing tonight at The Ambassadors Theatre (7.30pm) in London as part of a tour.
There are a few publications from the GOV.UK website that people might find interesting. If you're looking for their publications go to https://www.gov.uk/ then scroll to the end for the Publications link, which as I've linked it you could just click of course, then type in your search terms or browse by topic.
Anyway here are some Government reports (bold bits boldened by me):
Music Education in England: a review by Darren Henley for the Department for Education and the Department for Culture, Media and Sport
Department for Education and Department for Culture, Media & Sport
7 February 2011
Music education in England: the government response to Darren Henley's review
Department for Education and Department for Culture, Media & Sport
7 February 2011
The importance of music: a national plan for music education
Department for Education
25 November 2011- this document is referenced in the petition above.
National curriculum in England: music programmes of study
Department for Education
11 September 2013
- also "Further music resources are available on the TES website. This is free of charge to schools and teachers but they will have to register with the website to use it."
Government spend on school music department instruments since 2009 (FOI release)
Department for Education
19 September 2013
- you can also find other examples of requests made under the Freedom of Information Act at WhatDoTheyKnow.com for example a request made to Fife Council about Music Education Cuts
As it happens I was lucky enough to go to a school where music was a big thing, however I'm afraid to say it did nothing for me and I was frankly a bit rubbish at it. Unfortunately I was the not-very-musical daughter of very musical parents. The only instrument I took up voluntarily was the flute but there was compulsory violin and piano and, being reasonably tall, cello (the decision to include me in cello lessons was made by the music teacher turning up to an art class, getting us all to stand up and picking the four tallest in the room). I also managed to get into the choir - the teacher employed a sort of 'exception reporting' system, assuming that all of us were choirable until proven otherwise. Sadly I was able to pick out the middle note from a three-note chord and hold a tune so I got roped into that too.
However as an adult I love listening to it, buying it and going to see it performed live - I don't think my childhood experiences have any impact on that, as I rarely wish I could join in ;)
There's an awful lot of flannel written or spoken about music and the developing brain and I'm wary of an over-reliance on functional MRI (fMRI) and other brain scanning techniques used to propound the idea that learning a musical instrument is great 'because we can see how the brain lights up'.
I'm not wary of fMRI otherwise (just on overextrapolating conclusions) or of the idea that learning a musical instrument is great, it is - though not for me. Here's a post from violinist Eos Chater which talks about a range of personal and social benefits of learning music Ten Lessons for Life through Music Education.
channel4.com/dontstopthemusic - Two-part documentary in which pianist James Rhodes attempts to give schoolchildren the chance to learn a musical instrument by calling for an 'instrument amnesty' (if you've got old instruments to donate, you can).There's a petition "Deliver on the Government’s promise to give EVERY child the opportunity to learn an instrument"
Campaign website | Campaign Twitter | James on Twitter
There are a few publications from the GOV.UK website that people might find interesting. If you're looking for their publications go to https://www.gov.uk/ then scroll to the end for the Publications link, which as I've linked it you could just click of course, then type in your search terms or browse by topic.
Anyway here are some Government reports (bold bits boldened by me):
Music Education in England: a review by Darren Henley for the Department for Education and the Department for Culture, Media and Sport
Department for Education and Department for Culture, Media & Sport
7 February 2011
Music education in England: the government response to Darren Henley's review
Department for Education and Department for Culture, Media & Sport
7 February 2011
The importance of music: a national plan for music education
Department for Education
25 November 2011- this document is referenced in the petition above.
National curriculum in England: music programmes of study
Department for Education
11 September 2013
- also "Further music resources are available on the TES website. This is free of charge to schools and teachers but they will have to register with the website to use it."
Government spend on school music department instruments since 2009 (FOI release)
Department for Education
19 September 2013
- you can also find other examples of requests made under the Freedom of Information Act at WhatDoTheyKnow.com for example a request made to Fife Council about Music Education Cuts
As it happens I was lucky enough to go to a school where music was a big thing, however I'm afraid to say it did nothing for me and I was frankly a bit rubbish at it. Unfortunately I was the not-very-musical daughter of very musical parents. The only instrument I took up voluntarily was the flute but there was compulsory violin and piano and, being reasonably tall, cello (the decision to include me in cello lessons was made by the music teacher turning up to an art class, getting us all to stand up and picking the four tallest in the room). I also managed to get into the choir - the teacher employed a sort of 'exception reporting' system, assuming that all of us were choirable until proven otherwise. Sadly I was able to pick out the middle note from a three-note chord and hold a tune so I got roped into that too.
However as an adult I love listening to it, buying it and going to see it performed live - I don't think my childhood experiences have any impact on that, as I rarely wish I could join in ;)
There's an awful lot of flannel written or spoken about music and the developing brain and I'm wary of an over-reliance on functional MRI (fMRI) and other brain scanning techniques used to propound the idea that learning a musical instrument is great 'because we can see how the brain lights up'.
I'm not wary of fMRI otherwise (just on overextrapolating conclusions) or of the idea that learning a musical instrument is great, it is - though not for me. Here's a post from violinist Eos Chater which talks about a range of personal and social benefits of learning music Ten Lessons for Life through Music Education.
Tuesday, 15 July 2014
What I'm listening to today, the #Harkive project
The first tweet I saw today was this from Pete Paphides, followed by the second one.
I'm going to take part and will update this blog post today with the music and sounds I chose to listen to today, how I listened to it and why.
7.30am - first three minutes (instrumental) of 'Matthew the Man' by Iona, on YouTube viewed on iPhone. Link copied from desktop to Pocket, picked up on phone app - YouTube plays in-app it seems.
This is a song I discovered in a shop that had some awful muzak, but occasionally brightened listeners' ears with this track that reminded me a bit of Porcupine Tree. It was noticeably different from the other musical fare on offer so tended to stick out. Not that long ago I discovered that the only reason I ever heard it in the first place was because the shop was trying to stream music but the stream had failed and the device was playing this, its default track - so I learned a little bit about muzak infrastructure too. More about the Imagesound AHD1 here: If you've ever heard this piece of music in a chainstore this is probably why. - with some very nerdy comments.
8am - 9.30am - no music, having my gas meter changed and had Radio 4 (on a DAB radio* that I'm not that fond of) on in the kitchen. Off the top of my head I can't think of any songs about, or featuring, gas that I particularly like so nothing to report.
9.30 - well now I'm listening to Tracking the Lincolnshire poacher (see appendix below) cos I started playing it on YouTube. It is a bit spooky.
10.00 - and of course that reminded me of the spooky going on from the BBC's Radiophonic Workshop, 'Alchemists of Sound'. It used to be on YouTube but isn't anymore, which is a shame as they've no plans to release it as a DVD (I asked 2 Entertain who deal with that sort of thing for the BBC and they said no).
11am-12.43pm - no music played, made the foolish mistake to try and tackle my work inbox but in the process I seem to have deleted almost all of my emails (all the ones that I'd carefully put into folders). Most irritating.
12.44pm - listening to Clannad's 'Robin the Hooded Man' theme tune for the ITV series about Robin Hood that was on in the mid 1980s. This was played in a background window on YouTube, next up is the theme tune for ITV's Sherlock Holmes series (example from The Musgrave Ritual). Last week I went to a rather good concert where they played some of the music for the current BBC Sherlock series, here's 'Redbeard' from Series 3.
2pm - trying to recover some lost emails so not listening to much music in a carefree fashion, but generally peeved ;) Pink Floyd's 'Comfortably Numb' was something a friend introduced me to when I was 12 at school. I spent ages listening to it on a cassette tape recorder device under my pillow (boarding school) and saving battery by rewinding the tape with a biro. My mum always told me I'd grow out of the music I liked as a child (this also includes Jean-Michel Jarre) but so far, no.
5.30pm
Didn't listen to anything until a bit of music was played at a meeting at 5.30pm, don't know what it was but can probably find out.
8pm
Heard a bit of piped music in Royal Festival Hall when I popped in there on my way home, then on way to ferry heard some live music (a singer and a guitarist, separately).
9.45pm
Back home, watching the film Made in Dagenham on BBC Four - enjoying the music for that. The last time I watched it I couldn't hear it cos it was so cold I had my small fan heater on :)
Appendix
*other than televisions I have a constitutional dislike of presets and prefer to be able to take in the entire radio spectrum. I quite like finding oddities down the back of the broadcast spectrum though I've never actually heard one of the numbers stations (hear 'Tracking the Lincolnshire Poacher' below for more about these and their assumed use in cryptography / covert communications).
Today, I'll be keeping a Twitter diary of every piece of music I play as part of the annual @Harkive project. #Harkive
— Pete Paphides (@petepaphides) July 15, 2014
If you want to take part, there's more info at http://t.co/VqQTF7iiWj #Harkive
— Pete Paphides (@petepaphides) July 15, 2014
I'm going to take part and will update this blog post today with the music and sounds I chose to listen to today, how I listened to it and why.
7.30am - first three minutes (instrumental) of 'Matthew the Man' by Iona, on YouTube viewed on iPhone. Link copied from desktop to Pocket, picked up on phone app - YouTube plays in-app it seems.
This is a song I discovered in a shop that had some awful muzak, but occasionally brightened listeners' ears with this track that reminded me a bit of Porcupine Tree. It was noticeably different from the other musical fare on offer so tended to stick out. Not that long ago I discovered that the only reason I ever heard it in the first place was because the shop was trying to stream music but the stream had failed and the device was playing this, its default track - so I learned a little bit about muzak infrastructure too. More about the Imagesound AHD1 here: If you've ever heard this piece of music in a chainstore this is probably why. - with some very nerdy comments.
8am - 9.30am - no music, having my gas meter changed and had Radio 4 (on a DAB radio* that I'm not that fond of) on in the kitchen. Off the top of my head I can't think of any songs about, or featuring, gas that I particularly like so nothing to report.
9.30 - well now I'm listening to Tracking the Lincolnshire poacher (see appendix below) cos I started playing it on YouTube. It is a bit spooky.
10.00 - and of course that reminded me of the spooky going on from the BBC's Radiophonic Workshop, 'Alchemists of Sound'. It used to be on YouTube but isn't anymore, which is a shame as they've no plans to release it as a DVD (I asked 2 Entertain who deal with that sort of thing for the BBC and they said no).
11am-12.43pm - no music played, made the foolish mistake to try and tackle my work inbox but in the process I seem to have deleted almost all of my emails (all the ones that I'd carefully put into folders). Most irritating.
12.44pm - listening to Clannad's 'Robin the Hooded Man' theme tune for the ITV series about Robin Hood that was on in the mid 1980s. This was played in a background window on YouTube, next up is the theme tune for ITV's Sherlock Holmes series (example from The Musgrave Ritual). Last week I went to a rather good concert where they played some of the music for the current BBC Sherlock series, here's 'Redbeard' from Series 3.
2pm - trying to recover some lost emails so not listening to much music in a carefree fashion, but generally peeved ;) Pink Floyd's 'Comfortably Numb' was something a friend introduced me to when I was 12 at school. I spent ages listening to it on a cassette tape recorder device under my pillow (boarding school) and saving battery by rewinding the tape with a biro. My mum always told me I'd grow out of the music I liked as a child (this also includes Jean-Michel Jarre) but so far, no.
5.30pm
Didn't listen to anything until a bit of music was played at a meeting at 5.30pm, don't know what it was but can probably find out.
8pm
Heard a bit of piped music in Royal Festival Hall when I popped in there on my way home, then on way to ferry heard some live music (a singer and a guitarist, separately).
9.45pm
Back home, watching the film Made in Dagenham on BBC Four - enjoying the music for that. The last time I watched it I couldn't hear it cos it was so cold I had my small fan heater on :)
Appendix
*other than televisions I have a constitutional dislike of presets and prefer to be able to take in the entire radio spectrum. I quite like finding oddities down the back of the broadcast spectrum though I've never actually heard one of the numbers stations (hear 'Tracking the Lincolnshire Poacher' below for more about these and their assumed use in cryptography / covert communications).
Friday, 7 March 2014
Michael Price (one of the #Sherlock composers) is doing an interview about composing for the screen
...and I can't go as I'm meant to be in Swindon for a works away day (two days) thingy! To be fair the works thing will actually be really good fun anyway, I work on a massive project to do with making medical devices safer, but if you've seen more than two of my tweets one of them was probably about film music - a subject that I find endlessly fascinating.
Over the last couple of years I've been to see ... 15... 20 (lost count) film / TV / screen composers talking about how they approach their work. Music in films is often the thing I'll notice most or remember (not always though, and sometimes not until I see a film again much later) and it's a topic I'd cheerfully study academically, although I reserve the right to chuckle at some of the language used in the literature.
I'm a bit sad not to get to the event listed below because Michael Price (@michael__price) is going to be talking about his work as well as playing (with cellist Peter Gregson) some of the Sherlock music. A previous talk of his, at Screened Music, sounds like it was absolutely brilliant but I wasn't aware of it at the time, but that post is a fascinating read.
So far I know of him only through his work on Sherlock, and I know of that only because I happened to hear the music being played by the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra in Manchester last year and was rather taken with it. I actually came to the television programme through discovering that I loved its music. Every time I go and hear a composer speak or attend a film music concert I end up discovering more lovely films and music.
Michael will be talking to Tommy Pearson who, coincidentally, was involved in producing the Manchester concert. It was part of a series of four film music concerts celebrating Mark Kermode's 50th birthday and I went to one at the Barbican and then the one at Bridgewater Hall in Manchester. Through following Tommy on Twitter I've heard about a few other interviews with composers he's done and been along to the Elgar Room at The Royal Albert Hall to hear him interview George Fenton and Dario Marianelli, as part of the BAFTA Conversations with Screen Composers series. Some of the interviews are on the BAFTA website too.
So this event sounds awesome yet I won't be there, so I hope lots of other people will go and tweet about it and I'll read them over the wine and bread rolls at dinner in Swindon.
Michael Price in conversation with Tommy Pearson
Monday 31 March 2014, 7pm
Royal Albert Hall (Elgar Room)
Tickets: £11.20
Further reading
The Sound of Sherlock with Michael Price Sherlockology - this is a talk Michael gave to Screened Music in 2012. It's linked above but it's so interesting I have added it here again in case you missed it :)
Further listening
Sherlock CDs: S1 – Amazon UK | S2 – Amazon UK | S3 – Amazon UK
Sherlock mp3s: S1 – iTunes GB | S2 – iTunes GB | S3 – iTunes GB
You might also like
David Arnold: Live in Concert at the Royal Festival Hall - another opportunity to hear a bit of Sherlock music played, among his other music including Stargate and some of the James Bond films he scored - Sunday 6 July 2014.
Over the last couple of years I've been to see ... 15... 20 (lost count) film / TV / screen composers talking about how they approach their work. Music in films is often the thing I'll notice most or remember (not always though, and sometimes not until I see a film again much later) and it's a topic I'd cheerfully study academically, although I reserve the right to chuckle at some of the language used in the literature.
I'm a bit sad not to get to the event listed below because Michael Price (@michael__price) is going to be talking about his work as well as playing (with cellist Peter Gregson) some of the Sherlock music. A previous talk of his, at Screened Music, sounds like it was absolutely brilliant but I wasn't aware of it at the time, but that post is a fascinating read.
So far I know of him only through his work on Sherlock, and I know of that only because I happened to hear the music being played by the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra in Manchester last year and was rather taken with it. I actually came to the television programme through discovering that I loved its music. Every time I go and hear a composer speak or attend a film music concert I end up discovering more lovely films and music.
Michael will be talking to Tommy Pearson who, coincidentally, was involved in producing the Manchester concert. It was part of a series of four film music concerts celebrating Mark Kermode's 50th birthday and I went to one at the Barbican and then the one at Bridgewater Hall in Manchester. Through following Tommy on Twitter I've heard about a few other interviews with composers he's done and been along to the Elgar Room at The Royal Albert Hall to hear him interview George Fenton and Dario Marianelli, as part of the BAFTA Conversations with Screen Composers series. Some of the interviews are on the BAFTA website too.
So this event sounds awesome yet I won't be there, so I hope lots of other people will go and tweet about it and I'll read them over the wine and bread rolls at dinner in Swindon.
 |
| Composer Michael Price |
Michael Price in conversation with Tommy Pearson
Monday 31 March 2014, 7pm
Royal Albert Hall (Elgar Room)
Tickets: £11.20
Even my Mum's coming. And we'll be playing bits from #Sherlock live. With @petergregson http://t.co/jHtJwYDY92
— Michael Price (@michael__price) February 22, 2014
"Michael Price is one of the UK's most sought after composers. His work on the critically acclaimed BBC series Sherlock (which he scored with David Arnold) has earned him double Emmy and BAFTA nominations as well as a Royal Television Society Award.
Prior to achieving acclaim as a composer himself, Michael enjoyed significant achievements as a music editor, working on some of the most celebrated films of the past decade, including The Lord of the Rings Trilogy, Richard Curtis' Love Actually, Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason and Children of Men. As a music editor, Michael has been nominated for four MPSE Golden Reel Awards, winning in 2001 for The Fellowship of the Ring.
Michael is currently recording a new classical album in Berlin for Erased Tapes Records and scoring the new Inbetweeners film with David Arnold."
Further reading
The Sound of Sherlock with Michael Price Sherlockology - this is a talk Michael gave to Screened Music in 2012. It's linked above but it's so interesting I have added it here again in case you missed it :)
Further listening
Sherlock CDs: S1 – Amazon UK | S2 – Amazon UK | S3 – Amazon UK
Sherlock mp3s: S1 – iTunes GB | S2 – iTunes GB | S3 – iTunes GB
You might also like
David Arnold: Live in Concert at the Royal Festival Hall - another opportunity to hear a bit of Sherlock music played, among his other music including Stargate and some of the James Bond films he scored - Sunday 6 July 2014.
Wednesday, 1 January 2014
Charity concert listings that anyone can update - does this exist?
I've started noticing that there are quite a few musical events to benefit charities - I've always followed a lot of charities on Twitter but recently have started following a few musicians so am probably twice as aware as I was.
Here's an example of one I spotted a couple of days ago, from a charity:
Each charity will promote their event to their supporters (and not just via Twitter of course!) and musicians and special guests will do likewise to their fans etc.
It occurred to me that people who aren't connected with either the charity, or the people performing at it, might still like to know about these events - and if they would, where would they look?
Is there a charity concerts listing, that visitors can update themselves ("submit your event")* - and is there even much of a need for one? There might not be.
If I want to go to see a film I can check the local listings and see where it's on. But I can also look at the overarching listings and see that a much-loved film will be showing at some location I'd never heard of - the existence of the overarching listings means that I'll hear about other stuff. That's what I imagine the benefit of a charity concert listings might be, to augment the signal a bit.
I suppose I tend to see more than one example of 'something in a particular category' (in this case charity music events' as an indication that the category itself might be curated!
Here's one I've found: "Charity Concert" | Events | The List - it looks interesting but I don't think I can auto-submit an event.
*presumably the time cost of this is that for the website to work efficiently there'd have to be someone who'd receive a notification that a new event needs approving and then approve it. Without that it will end up being filled with spam.
Here's an example of one I spotted a couple of days ago, from a charity:
There's a great night of classical music ahead for Amy's Sarcoma Symphony Orchestra @funkeyryhmes http://t.co/IpLltleHQo
— Sarcoma UK (@Sarcoma_UK) December 27, 2013
Each charity will promote their event to their supporters (and not just via Twitter of course!) and musicians and special guests will do likewise to their fans etc.
It occurred to me that people who aren't connected with either the charity, or the people performing at it, might still like to know about these events - and if they would, where would they look?
Is there a charity concerts listing, that visitors can update themselves ("submit your event")* - and is there even much of a need for one? There might not be.
If I want to go to see a film I can check the local listings and see where it's on. But I can also look at the overarching listings and see that a much-loved film will be showing at some location I'd never heard of - the existence of the overarching listings means that I'll hear about other stuff. That's what I imagine the benefit of a charity concert listings might be, to augment the signal a bit.
I suppose I tend to see more than one example of 'something in a particular category' (in this case charity music events' as an indication that the category itself might be curated!
Here's one I've found: "Charity Concert" | Events | The List - it looks interesting but I don't think I can auto-submit an event.
*presumably the time cost of this is that for the website to work efficiently there'd have to be someone who'd receive a notification that a new event needs approving and then approve it. Without that it will end up being filled with spam.
Wednesday, 4 December 2013
Sounds in the urban environment that aren't intended to give information, but do anyway
Today I went to another one of the Interactional Sound And Music (ISAM) reading group / meetings where I work. I don't work in the area and don't have any direct link with that type of research but I'm ridiculously fond of sound-related stuff and the group has made me feel very welcome. Their stuff fascinates me.
One of the things we talked about today was the type of sounds that people meet in their everyday urban environment - cars honking, train doors beeping etc and how some of these might be intended to convey some information (help, get out of the way, pay attention) and whether or not that works particularly well.
It appears that quite a lot of these sounds don't quite hit their mark - people might not understand what the sound is meant to indicate, the sound is unpleasant and avoided or the sound competes with other sounds (including headphones) etc.
People were talking about how to make the information a bit richer - for example microwaves beep when the cooking time has elapsed but the beeps don't tell you much about the state of the food (is it cooked? Presumably some information about the combined time it's cooked for plus temperature information in the oven could be used). I'm someone who's not a fan of microwave beeps so I hope any research-based developments here keep the beeps short and sweet.
I've thought up some of the sounds I'm aware of in London (and a little bit beyond) but wondered what other sounds you're aware of in your local area and what they're trying to tell you. I suppose it's meant to be just designed sounds, so the sound shoes make when someone's walking on different surfaces might indicate if they're walking on grass, tarmac or cobbles (and also indicate the type of footwear that's being worn) but the shoe designer probably wasn't thinking about the sonic properties of either shoe or environment.
Other non-designed sounds in our environment that can give info might be the sound an engine makes - people more familiar with them than me might know from the engine's sound if all is well or not.
It might be quite fun to have a quiz of sounds that would be familiar to a British audience. There was a crowdsourced project a few years ago collecting urban soundscapes and you could easily tell if it was London or New York for example.
Although not really related to my work on the CHI+MED project (about making medical devices safer) some bits of it do remind me of the concept of resilience strategies. These are unofficial practices that people adopt to prevent some problem or annoyance from happening - eg leaving something by the door tonight so that you don't forget to take it tomorrow morning. An example might be observing a particular sound and noticing that it tells you different information if the sound is different (eg the engine example above).
Here is my slightly random taxonomy of urban sounds that will probably have bits moved around and new sections put in, etc.
Sounds that are intended to give information, and mostly do
Sounds that are not intended to give information, but do
One of the things we talked about today was the type of sounds that people meet in their everyday urban environment - cars honking, train doors beeping etc and how some of these might be intended to convey some information (help, get out of the way, pay attention) and whether or not that works particularly well.
It appears that quite a lot of these sounds don't quite hit their mark - people might not understand what the sound is meant to indicate, the sound is unpleasant and avoided or the sound competes with other sounds (including headphones) etc.
People were talking about how to make the information a bit richer - for example microwaves beep when the cooking time has elapsed but the beeps don't tell you much about the state of the food (is it cooked? Presumably some information about the combined time it's cooked for plus temperature information in the oven could be used). I'm someone who's not a fan of microwave beeps so I hope any research-based developments here keep the beeps short and sweet.
I've thought up some of the sounds I'm aware of in London (and a little bit beyond) but wondered what other sounds you're aware of in your local area and what they're trying to tell you. I suppose it's meant to be just designed sounds, so the sound shoes make when someone's walking on different surfaces might indicate if they're walking on grass, tarmac or cobbles (and also indicate the type of footwear that's being worn) but the shoe designer probably wasn't thinking about the sonic properties of either shoe or environment.
Other non-designed sounds in our environment that can give info might be the sound an engine makes - people more familiar with them than me might know from the engine's sound if all is well or not.
It might be quite fun to have a quiz of sounds that would be familiar to a British audience. There was a crowdsourced project a few years ago collecting urban soundscapes and you could easily tell if it was London or New York for example.
Although not really related to my work on the CHI+MED project (about making medical devices safer) some bits of it do remind me of the concept of resilience strategies. These are unofficial practices that people adopt to prevent some problem or annoyance from happening - eg leaving something by the door tonight so that you don't forget to take it tomorrow morning. An example might be observing a particular sound and noticing that it tells you different information if the sound is different (eg the engine example above).
Here is my slightly random taxonomy of urban sounds that will probably have bits moved around and new sections put in, etc.
Sounds that are intended to give information, and mostly do
- Alerts or warnings
- 5 fake sounds designed to help humans Humans Invent blog (20 June 2011) - covers the car door 'clunk', the 'vroom' noise of electric enginers (which are otherwise almost silent), extra sounds added in to a mix, such as crowd sounds fed through stadium speakers, 'comfort noise' to radios broadcasting a minute's silence and a debate on whether or not the whirr of a cashpoint accurately reflects any real-time money-counting procedure.
- Pings and buzzers on buses and trains, might also include spoken instructions over tannoys and the GPS bus location info ("341... to.... Chancery Lane.... this is... Angel"), as well as the ping to let people know that the bus is going to stop at the next stop (it also tells people that there's no need to press the buzzer temselves)
- The alarm sound that Tower Bridge makes when it's about to open or close
- The sound that larger vehicles make when reversing - this can be sonic (beeps) but some also have verbal warning ("whoop whoop whoop, this vehicle is reversing")
- The alarm call that is fitted to all London buses that makes a high-pitched sound and then says "this vehicle is under attack, dial 999" - these ask passersby to take action
- Emergency and police vehicles driven under blue light conditions with sirens on - these say get out of the way
- Office telephones that distinguish between internal and external calls
- The 'ping' that train doors make to indicate that it is now possible to open them (also matched with a flashing light on the button used to open them), similarly elevators often ping on opening and give verbal instructions 'the lift is on its way' or 'floor 3, ladies coats and handbags'. Not sure that this really counts as urban but aircraft also have a 'you may now unbuckle your seatbelt' that has an accompanying ping. It's so recognisable I can hear it in my head.
- Oyster reader units (the bits you touch in / out) make a single pitched beep when an Oyster card is successfully read and there's enough money on it. I don't have an Oyster card but I do have a card with a chip in it that the readers don't recognise. This results in a lower-pitched 'annoyed tone' of two beeps (the error message is '77'). This YouTube video explains how to use Oyster card and also has examples of the two different beeps.
This is more for the next section but in googling Oyster card beeps to see if there was much info about the different kinds and what they mean I discovered something I'd spotted but forgotten - a child's card also makes multiple (assume 2) beeps. Someone's noticed it though and created a Facebook page with the title "If her Oyster card beeps more than once she's too young for you bro". Lovely ;)
- Air raid siren - very evocative. Most people living in Britain would recognise this even if they weren't alive when they were used to indicate danger - we've all seen the films and understand their meaning. Nowadays we might not know what to do if we hear one in real life - is it a surprise fleet of enemy aircraft or just testing the flood warning?
- Communication
- Horn-honking from lorry drivers, sometimes used to show solidarity when a lot of lorry drivers are campaigning or annoyed about something, obviously cars use them to say 'get out of the way' and the Thames Clipper ferry captains use them to acknowledge other vessels. Cyclists also have bells or horns.
- That three note rising tone that indicates to on-board train staff that it's time for them to go and collect rubbish or distribute beverages - I don't know which trains it's in use on but when I mentioned it today a few other people were familiar with it. I only found out what it was when I happened to be sitting in part of a train that had the on-board staff sitting behind me and every time the sound went off they'd leap up to go and do stuff. Previously I'd not spotted the causality because I was sitting somewhere else in the train and so the sound wasn't temporally linked to any obvious event.
- bing-bing-bing, three tone dropping in pitch, of old-fashioned public address systems to alert people that a message is about to begin
- The Audio Captcha which plays a scrambled message and asks you to pick out words that you can hear (it sounds rather spooky) [recording]
Sounds that are not intended to give information, but do
- Ridiculous ring tones broadcast to everyone in the vicinity that their owner is a bit of an idiot and this might well be combined with a loud one-sided conversation which further confirms it. But if people use key-clicks with a dual-tone multi-frequency (such as you get on most touch tone type phones) then it would be possible for someone with a good pitch awareness to work out what numbers are being pressed, and possibly surmise something about the letters used in a text. The video below shows a two year old child doing this with ease.
- The 50 or 60Hz mostly inaudible hum from mains electricity has been used forensically to pin down the time, from fluctuations in the frequency, that an audio recording was made "Any digital recording made anywhere near an electrical power source, be it plug socket, light or pylon, will pick up this noise and it will be embedded throughout the audio." More info at http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-20629671 - not a designed sound, but nicely exploited.
- Alice Bell's post on How the refrigerator got its hum charts the history of competing refrigeration technology but also gives an example of a friend of hers who noticed that the sounds her fridge made gave an indication of when she needed to put another 50p in the meter. I've just added, to my Soundnoticeboard blog, a related example of an Electrolux freezer manual that includes cartoon images of the freezer and words indicating the sounds it should be making under normal operation. I've never seen anything like it!
- It's pretty easy to tell the number of carriages making up a train solely from the sound made as the wheel units pass the points - the traim below, with 4 carriages would sound like this:
[da-dum.....da-dum]-[da-dum.....da-dum]-[da-dum.....da-dum]-[da-dum.....da-dum] o-o o-o o-o o-o o-o o-o o-o o-o
- although this isn't really a designed sound. And now I'm wondering if the 'da-dum' isn't actually the last wheel of the carriage followed by the first wheel of the next carriage, ie not da-dum, da-dum but just da-dum. More research needed. - The sound that rails make when a train or tube is approaching, this sound often appears before the train is visible where there's a curve, there are other sounds that the train itself makes but the flexing of the rails ahead of the train heralds its arrival // the sound that points make when they click, which indicates when another train is coming and might indicate something about its direction (I've not worked it out). Again, not a designed sound, just the sound something makes.
- It's pretty obvious when my toaster's stopped toasting ('pop') and my kettle's stopped boiling (the on-button pops to off).
- See the bit above on Oyster beeps. A child's card makes a different sound from an adult's - presumably the intention is to alert bus drivers etc that the card sound matches the apparent age of the child and not someone using the wrong ticket. But people have surmised another meaning from it.
- Edit 16 September 2014 - our printers have been offline this morning, don't know why, thought I'd wait a bit before pointing it out. Then I could hear the sounds of the printer outside my office springing into life so this obviously communicated to me that the servers were back online.
Friday, 29 November 2013
David Arnold's introducing You Only Live Twice at BFI in January - need to be a member and apply for free tickets
Edit 10 December 2013
The members' ticket ballot has now finished and the event is sold out / full. Members have until 20.30pm on Friday 13 December 2013 to claim the ticket(s) they've won in the ballot and if they don't claim them then any remaining tickets will be made available from Saturday for other members to buy. If you want a ticket you need to be (a) a BFI member and (b) get ready to buy on Saturday. If that fails then try again a bit nearer the time (and on the day too of course) as someone may return a ticket at the last-minute.
Oh this sounds cool!
BFI Screen epiphanies in partnership with American Express present
David Arnold introduces You Only Live Twice
https://whatson.bfi.org.uk/Online/davidarnoldyouonlylivetwice
Thursday 23 January 2014
8.30pm
NFT1, BFI, Southbank
David Arnold is talking about and introducing You Only Live Twice which is one of the films and film scores (music by John Barry) that inspired him to become a film composer (and he's scored a fair few Bond films himself).
I like David Arnold and have heard him speak at a couple of events. He's funny, thoughtful and knowledgeable and has a really good strategic overview* of what it is that needs to be done in terms of creating music for the screen. Not to mention he's written some lovely music for all sorts of films and television programmes. Highly recommended.
*Yeah I was looking for something a bit less business-speak but I suppose that will do.
To get tickets...
Blow the bloody doors off! An evening of film music from Michael Caine films at Barbican on 6 February 2014, including The Ipcress File (John Barry), Alfie, Get Carter and The Italian Job
See also
The members' ticket ballot has now finished and the event is sold out / full. Members have until 20.30pm on Friday 13 December 2013 to claim the ticket(s) they've won in the ballot and if they don't claim them then any remaining tickets will be made available from Saturday for other members to buy. If you want a ticket you need to be (a) a BFI member and (b) get ready to buy on Saturday. If that fails then try again a bit nearer the time (and on the day too of course) as someone may return a ticket at the last-minute.
Oh this sounds cool!
BFI Screen epiphanies in partnership with American Express present
David Arnold introduces You Only Live Twice
https://whatson.bfi.org.uk/Online/davidarnoldyouonlylivetwice
Thursday 23 January 2014
8.30pm
NFT1, BFI, Southbank
David Arnold is talking about and introducing You Only Live Twice which is one of the films and film scores (music by John Barry) that inspired him to become a film composer (and he's scored a fair few Bond films himself).
I like David Arnold and have heard him speak at a couple of events. He's funny, thoughtful and knowledgeable and has a really good strategic overview* of what it is that needs to be done in terms of creating music for the screen. Not to mention he's written some lovely music for all sorts of films and television programmes. Highly recommended.
*Yeah I was looking for something a bit less business-speak but I suppose that will do.
To get tickets...
- You need to be a BFI member
- You need to apply for a ticket in the ballot (one is free but you pay for a second if you want two).
- Or, if you have an American Express card you might be able to get tickets that way but they don't seem to be listed yet.
Blow the bloody doors off! An evening of film music from Michael Caine films at Barbican on 6 February 2014, including The Ipcress File (John Barry), Alfie, Get Carter and The Italian Job
See also
- Nice things said in an academic journal article about David Arnold's scores for James Bond - quite right too (8 November 2013)
- Is there a Songkick for films? (4 March 2012) - I always feel that I hear about these types of events through good fortune rather than good advertising, think of what I might miss though ;)
Sunday, 17 November 2013
The world is divided into people who listen to song lyrics and people who don't
I've been quite intrigued while investigating (well, 'surfing' web forums really) the differences in how people listen to songs. Ages ago a friend and I joked that we should divide the world into people who do or don't listen to song lyrics. This happened after he'd had a conversation with this then girlfriend who couldn't understand that while he knew the lyrics to songs they didn't have any particular deep meaning for him. I'm the same and really only know the lyrics for 'singing along' purposes, as an alternative to 'la la la'.
Thanks to this tweet, I recently went along to hear an event celebrating the work of the lyricist Don Black - it'll be broadcast on the BBC around Christmas. For me it was definitely one of the more unusual nights out I've ever been to. I've never been much into musicals or show tunes so it was rather fascinating to hear them belted out by popular singers with lots of sparkle. Some of the tunes were very familiar though I'd have to confess I'd not paid much attention to the words but it was pretty interesting hearing Don talk about how he plays with words and constructs a lyric.
My response to tunes (whether or not they have lyrics) is remarkably similar to Peter Griffin of Family Guy, here singing a piece of music from one of the Indiana Jones films ;)
I've no idea why people do or don't listen to lyrics - I'm not much of a fan of poetry either (it seems a very inefficient way to transmit information, though I tolerate it well enough if it rhymes or is funny) and have never quite been able to suspend disbelief when people burst into songs during musical films.
Presumably it's not a binary thing but I'm definitely in the 'ignore lyrics' camp and have been amused to read others stories of how they came to the realisation that they listen to music in quite a different way from those around them.
The only time I've ever really tried to learn lyrics are for two songs in Welsh, so that I can sing along with them as I like the way they sound. One is 'Lisa Lan' (lyrics) which I first heard in the film Crash, arranged by the film's composer Mark Isham, there's also a nice version sung by Cerys Matthews. Another is 'Gwn mi wn' (lyrics) sung by Gruff Rhys - I've given up trying to pronounce most of that!
Back to the post by Dyske:
Thanks to this tweet, I recently went along to hear an event celebrating the work of the lyricist Don Black - it'll be broadcast on the BBC around Christmas. For me it was definitely one of the more unusual nights out I've ever been to. I've never been much into musicals or show tunes so it was rather fascinating to hear them belted out by popular singers with lots of sparkle. Some of the tunes were very familiar though I'd have to confess I'd not paid much attention to the words but it was pretty interesting hearing Don talk about how he plays with words and constructs a lyric.
My response to tunes (whether or not they have lyrics) is remarkably similar to Peter Griffin of Family Guy, here singing a piece of music from one of the Indiana Jones films ;)
I've no idea why people do or don't listen to lyrics - I'm not much of a fan of poetry either (it seems a very inefficient way to transmit information, though I tolerate it well enough if it rhymes or is funny) and have never quite been able to suspend disbelief when people burst into songs during musical films.
Presumably it's not a binary thing but I'm definitely in the 'ignore lyrics' camp and have been amused to read others stories of how they came to the realisation that they listen to music in quite a different way from those around them.
This post "Why Americans don't like jazz", from Dyske Suematru, is rather interesting as it suggests an aspect of language. He is Japanese and pointed out that "...if you don’t speak English, any songs written in English are instrumental music. Singers turn into just another musical instrument."
"I almost never listen to lyrics, even in songs I love. I prefer instrumental music in almost all cases. Good lyrics do not suddenly make bad music "good." But, good music with bad lyrics is fine with me - I probably wouldn't even notice that the lyrics are "bad" because I just simply don't care.
My wife is always talking about how great such and such song is... when I comment that I don't think it is anything special, she tries to convince me of how deep the meaning is, etc. After 12 years, I think she is finally starting to figure out that I just don't hear words in songs.
A couple of friends of mine were trying to convince me how great Elvis Costello is. I said I just don't like him, he does nothing for me. After forcing me to listen to a whole CD, they were baffled that I still didn't like it - "You don't love the poetry, the storytelling!?" My reply - "You said these were great songs, not great poems. I read poems, I don't listen to them."
People clearly have different priorities when it comes to musical enjoyment. Some people ONLY listen to lyrics and couldn't care less about the music. And they think we are crazy for not hearing the lyrics." SamsDaddy on The Gear Page forum
"This means that most non-English speakers grow up listening to a lot of instrumental music. In Japan, I would say, it constitutes about half of what people listen to. When they are listening to Madonna, Michael Jackson, or Britney Spears, they have very little understanding of what their songs are about. In this sense, their ears are trained to listen to and enjoy instrumental music, which explains why Jazz is still so popular in Japan."Although this sounds perfectly reasonable it certainly doesn't account for the fact that while I listen to music in precisely this way... I've really never liked any jazz music that I've heard (yet).
The only time I've ever really tried to learn lyrics are for two songs in Welsh, so that I can sing along with them as I like the way they sound. One is 'Lisa Lan' (lyrics) which I first heard in the film Crash, arranged by the film's composer Mark Isham, there's also a nice version sung by Cerys Matthews. Another is 'Gwn mi wn' (lyrics) sung by Gruff Rhys - I've given up trying to pronounce most of that!
Back to the post by Dyske:
"My wife and I have always known how differently we listen to music. I tend to entirely ignore lyrics, while she tends to entirely ignore music. We are the two opposite ends of the spectrum in this sense, and it appears that my wife’s side is more common. Many of my friends think that I have a peculiar, or plain bad, taste for music. Whenever I say I like this song or that song, they look at me like I am crazy. Then they go on to explain why it is bad, and I realize that they are referring to the lyrics, not to the music. I then pay attention to the lyrics for the first time, and realize that they are right. The opposite happens often too where many of my friends love a particular song, and I can’t understand what’s good about it until I pay attention to the lyrics."
This pretty much describes me.
Fifteen years after hearing a song by Lamb at a party but not remembering what it was called I finally discovered it was 'Lusty'. I was intrigued by the sampled melody and the rhythm and was delighted to find it on YouTube and listen to it a few times. It was only when I watched one of the videos for the song, that had the lyrics, that I noticed it's a little bit saucy. This had passed me by despite several listens, but of course having now clocked the lyrics I can't unhear them ;)
Here's the version with the lyrics.
Other things I've found from googling things like "I don't listen to song lyrics"
I don't listen to song lyrics (forum posts):
http://personalitycafe.com/book-music-movie-reviews/156650-i-dont-listen-song-lyrics.html
Does anyone else not listen to lyrics in music?
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20100428133801AAoBFUL
Musicians listen to music differently than other people
http://forums.stevehoffman.tv/threads/musicians-listen-to-music-differently-than-other-people.177127/
Edit 29 June 2025: Found a whole bunch of people having this exact discussion on several Reddit threads.
r/Music
• Does anyone else really have to concentrate to hear the lyrics of a song?
• How many of you don't listen or care about lyrics?
r/LetsTalkMusic
• What does it mean when you listen to music but not the lyrics?
• Do you “hear” the lyrics?
• When don't pay attention to the lyrics
r/ADHD
• Hear songs but don't comprehend the lyric meaning automatically?
r/Metalcore
• Does anyone else not listen to lyrics at all?
Sunday, 10 November 2013
Guy Farley wrote the lovely music for this Vodafone advert
It must be a wonderful thing to be able to write a lively piece of music that expresses a thought or idea to match something happening on screen, and for it to fit that film while be pleasing to the ear. And to last for only a minute. Delightful economy :)
I'm not one who switches over during adverts as there's always the hope I'll hear a nice bit of music (I've previously blithered on about wonderful music in adverts on more than one occasion - see below) and although I might not be paying much initial attention to an ad, after a few incidences of exposure to it I start to notice it.
There's a bit in the TV version of this advert where some trumpets make a very pleasing sound, in the example below (which is longer) it's delayed a little bit but still there. I just found that I kept noticing this advert and looking up at it every time I heard it. I've now found out that it's written by Guy Farley, so hooray for him and his composering skills :)
I did ask Vodafone who composed the piece and they replied that it was "composed by our agency". Well... no, Guy Farley did it, why on earth not give him credit (or even give the agency credit and I'd have contacted them).
Vodafone 4G - Lost in Entertainment from GUY FARLEY on Vimeo.
Edit 2 September 2016: I think he won (in 2014) an award for this advert (he certainly won one for his music for an M&S ad)
Recently I went along to hear Clint Mansell talk about his work in film composing - he was interviewed at the BFI by someone from BAFTA, an excellent interview. The interviewer introduced the event by highlighting that in the world of film often the directors and actors get to talk about their involvement but BAFTA want to make it easier for people to hear from screenwriters, costume and wardrobe folk, sound designers and composers - I've been to a few BAFTA events and enjoyed many talks from composers, so I am hugely behind this.
Anyway, hooray for Guy Farley - this is his unofficial website. I'm afraid I'd never heard of him before today but will now look out for his films etc.
Edit... later that same day
I'm watching Downton Abbey and the advert appeared. I'd forgotten I had subtitles on (don't need them, just like them) and looked up to see it explain what the music was doing :)
The subtitles (which I actually picked up on 14 February 2014) are "suspenseful strings" as the ad (this is the 30s version, not the one above) starts, then "epic soundtrack builds" and finally "triumphant fanfare". Hats off to the subtitlers.
Edit 24 December 2013
I have just found this lovely ~4m video showing the recording of the music used in a drinks commercial from a few years ago. It looks like it's recorded in the beautiful Lyndhurst Hall at Air Studios, annoyingly not open to the public ;) I'd never heard of the studios until this year. I follow on Twitter the people who write the music for the television series Sherlock and they occasionally post photos of the place.
More on adverts and music
I'm not one who switches over during adverts as there's always the hope I'll hear a nice bit of music (I've previously blithered on about wonderful music in adverts on more than one occasion - see below) and although I might not be paying much initial attention to an ad, after a few incidences of exposure to it I start to notice it.
There's a bit in the TV version of this advert where some trumpets make a very pleasing sound, in the example below (which is longer) it's delayed a little bit but still there. I just found that I kept noticing this advert and looking up at it every time I heard it. I've now found out that it's written by Guy Farley, so hooray for him and his composering skills :)
I did ask Vodafone who composed the piece and they replied that it was "composed by our agency". Well... no, Guy Farley did it, why on earth not give him credit (or even give the agency credit and I'd have contacted them).
Vodafone 4G - Lost in Entertainment from GUY FARLEY on Vimeo.
Edit 2 September 2016: I think he won (in 2014) an award for this advert (he certainly won one for his music for an M&S ad)
Recently I went along to hear Clint Mansell talk about his work in film composing - he was interviewed at the BFI by someone from BAFTA, an excellent interview. The interviewer introduced the event by highlighting that in the world of film often the directors and actors get to talk about their involvement but BAFTA want to make it easier for people to hear from screenwriters, costume and wardrobe folk, sound designers and composers - I've been to a few BAFTA events and enjoyed many talks from composers, so I am hugely behind this.
Anyway, hooray for Guy Farley - this is his unofficial website. I'm afraid I'd never heard of him before today but will now look out for his films etc.
Edit... later that same day
I'm watching Downton Abbey and the advert appeared. I'd forgotten I had subtitles on (don't need them, just like them) and looked up to see it explain what the music was doing :)
The subtitles (which I actually picked up on 14 February 2014) are "suspenseful strings" as the ad (this is the 30s version, not the one above) starts, then "epic soundtrack builds" and finally "triumphant fanfare". Hats off to the subtitlers.
Edit 24 December 2013
I have just found this lovely ~4m video showing the recording of the music used in a drinks commercial from a few years ago. It looks like it's recorded in the beautiful Lyndhurst Hall at Air Studios, annoyingly not open to the public ;) I'd never heard of the studios until this year. I follow on Twitter the people who write the music for the television series Sherlock and they occasionally post photos of the place.
More on adverts and music
- Music that I discovered from adverts (19 May 2003)
- Jonathan Glazer makes amazing adverts (4 November 2012)
- Car adverts - they're usually pretty good on the music front (29 August 2012)
Friday, 8 November 2013
Nice things said in an academic journal article about David Arnold's scores for James Bond - quite right too
Edit 3 December 2013
I bet London-based readers of this page will also be interested in: David Arnold's introducing You Only Live Twice at BFI in January 2014 - you need to be a BFI member or have an Amex card, and apply for free tickets - details in the post.
In the past year I've been to hear about 10 'screen composers' (those lovely people that write music for film and television, which seems like a magical thing to do) talk about their work, or about film music more generally. I have also been hoovering up journal articles about film music - much of it is quite beyond me, especially when it goes into music theory, but my favourite journal is Music, Sound, and the Moving Image which is the most readable for an outsider.
I recently read this article by Dr Miguel Mera which has nice things to say about David Arnold's work in scoring some of the James Bond films. Both Miguel and David are in the 10 composers I've heard talk so it was nice to read one praising the work of another.
Having recently heard him sing 'The World is Not Enough' (he wrote the music, Don Black wrote the lyrics I think) at Southbank* I can't help thinking he should be singing the Bond themes as well as scoring the films! Very nice voice.
*It was for Don Black's "A life in song" event that was hosted by Michael Grade with the BBC Concert Orchestra and recorded. They said it would be broadcast around Christmas.
See also - David Arnold saying nice things about John Barry's arrangement of Monty Norman's Bond theme :)
John Barry invented the spy movie score: Unique arrangements ushered in a new genre of films from Variety, 2008
See also also
Were it feasible I would go and hear film / TV composer David Arnold talk at this thing in Edinburgh (18 August 2013) - on this blog
I bet London-based readers of this page will also be interested in: David Arnold's introducing You Only Live Twice at BFI in January 2014 - you need to be a BFI member or have an Amex card, and apply for free tickets - details in the post.
In the past year I've been to hear about 10 'screen composers' (those lovely people that write music for film and television, which seems like a magical thing to do) talk about their work, or about film music more generally. I have also been hoovering up journal articles about film music - much of it is quite beyond me, especially when it goes into music theory, but my favourite journal is Music, Sound, and the Moving Image which is the most readable for an outsider.
I recently read this article by Dr Miguel Mera which has nice things to say about David Arnold's work in scoring some of the James Bond films. Both Miguel and David are in the 10 composers I've heard talk so it was nice to read one praising the work of another.
- Miguel's website and academic staff page.
- David's website seems to be offline at the moment, but he's on Twitter at @DavidGArnold
"Recurrent motives such as the silhouetted opening title graphics, evil megalomaniacal villains with evil megalomaniacal sidekicks, exotic locations, fast cars, Bond girls, gadgets, and extraordinary stunts, are all recognisable Bond clichés. The way Bond manages to overcome insurmountable odds and almost certain death (deadly lasers, poisonous snakes, planes about to crash into mountains, and so on) is what is so beguiling. The mythical idea of Bond that has accrued since the 1950s is much more important than whichever actor is portraying him at a particular point in history. This principle also pervades the repeated use of music throughout the film series, as Jeff Smith has observed: ‘The almost Pavlovian association of music and character has been a key to the series’ success in both domestic and international markets’ (2003: 119).
David Arnold’s accomplishment in scoring the Bond films in recent years is due as much to his respectful acknowledgement of John Barry’s 1960s sound and Monty Norman’s original Bond theme, as to the new elements brought to the franchise. Arnold’s music represents an elegant integration of broad orchestral statements, big-band inspired brass, electronica, and exotic percussion. Arnold has also consistently been involved in the creation of title songs, incorporating their elements into his scores. He references the established Bond motives and gestures and, consequently, the scores sound like the contemporary continuation of a tradition. In short, Arnold fulfilled many of the unwritten rules of the Bond scores.
... ... ... ... ...
...Arnold upheld the basic principles of consistency and change that have shaped the Bond series’ success for over fifty years..."
Having recently heard him sing 'The World is Not Enough' (he wrote the music, Don Black wrote the lyrics I think) at Southbank* I can't help thinking he should be singing the Bond themes as well as scoring the films! Very nice voice.
*It was for Don Black's "A life in song" event that was hosted by Michael Grade with the BBC Concert Orchestra and recorded. They said it would be broadcast around Christmas.
See also - David Arnold saying nice things about John Barry's arrangement of Monty Norman's Bond theme :)
John Barry invented the spy movie score: Unique arrangements ushered in a new genre of films from Variety, 2008
"Barry’s arrangement of the Bond theme for “Dr. No” in 1962 started it all. “You have the bebop-swing vibe coupled with that vicious, dark, distorted electric guitar, definitely an instrument of rock ‘n’ roll,” Arnold says. “Sound-wise, it represented everything about the character you would want: It was cocky, swaggering, confident, dark, dangerous, suggestive, sexy, unstoppable. And he did it in two minutes.”"
See also also
Were it feasible I would go and hear film / TV composer David Arnold talk at this thing in Edinburgh (18 August 2013) - on this blog
Saturday, 12 October 2013
I hope the BBC makes more programmes about film music and its history
The BBC has been running a fantastic meta-series of programmes under the #BBCSoundOfCinema banner. There have been several television programmes including a couple of the Proms and the BBC's new series 'The Sound of Cinema' along with radio programmes on BBC Radio 3, Radio 4, 6 Music and BBC Asian Network.
There's been so much film music stuff that I'm sure I've missed loads, but a couple of things particularly stood out for me - Neil Brand's "Sound of Cinema: The Music that made the Movies", a glorious three-part journey through film sound, and David Arnold's and Matt Berry's one hour "Sound of Cinema" programme plus their 30m appearance on Edith Bowman's show, the day before it was broadcast, to talk about it*.
*[at time of writing there are only 3 days left to download that; they talk about the thinking that went in to putting the programme together, so it's a nice bit of background info; the other hour long programme should be up available to listen for another year].
There's a nice quote from Ben Goldacre (can't find it though!) pointing out that one of the reasons BBC Radio 4 science programmes are often so good is that they usually have a high proportion of scientists on who are speaking, directly, about their work.
What was particularly good about these film music programmes was having experienced "practitioner-communicators" (suggestions for a less ridiculous phrase welcomed) putting other people's work in context and bringing their own knowledge, skill and experience.
Anyone can talk (or write) about a subject they're passionate and knowledgeable about but people who know their stuff, from experience (ie people with a sufficient level of expertise that they can not just 'do stuff' but troubleshoot if problems arise), might also spot some interesting aspects that I'd just miss, and be able to explain them.
Of course 'outsiders' often spot different things and I'm all for a mixture of voices, but in the genre of film / screen music I'm particularly interested in hearing from people who've created it themselves. This year alone I've been to hear 10 composers talk about their work, so possibly I am unusually enthusiastic!
When I went to hear Neil Brand introduce episode one of his series to a packed and enthusiastic audience at the BFI (really, more television programmes should be shown at the BFI!) one of the themes in the Q and A, and acknowledged by Neil and series producer John Das, was that the series just scratched the surface and there's a LOT more to say about film music. They gave the analogy of there being enough to say about film music that would fill three 'baths' but they were only really able to broadcast three cups' worth in the time available.
Viewing figures suggest The Sound of Cinema is a popular programme
I've no idea how many times the 6 Music radio programmes with David and Matt were listened to or downloaded but according to BARB (the Broadcast Audience Research Board) figures for Neil's television programme were pretty healthy.
The page for viewing information on Top 10 programmes is here http://www.barb.co.uk/viewing/weekly-top-10 and you can select different weeks to view what was most-watched then.
For BBC Four, the third episode (broadcast on the Thursday and then repeated on the Sunday) made the top 10 twice. Not too shabby. For comparison the number one programme on BBC Four that week, with 903 thousand viewers was Lucy Worsley's 'A very British murder'.
These figures tell us nothing about the numbers of people who 'watch again' on BBC iPlayer of course.
Episode One - this had the highest viewing figures, perhaps not surprising as it was pretty well promoted and also was the first.
BBC4
w/e 15 Sep 2013
2 SOUND OF CINEMA: THE MUSIC THAT MADE THE (THU 2103) - 771 thousand
Episode Two
BBC4
w/e 22 Sep 2013
2 SOUND OF CINEMA: THE MUSIC THAT MADE THE (THU 2101) - 593 thousand
Episode Three
BBC4
w/e 29 Sep 2013
5 SOUND OF CINEMA: THE MUSIC THAT MADE THE (THU 2101) - 562 thousand
10 SOUND OF CINEMA: THE MUSIC THAT MADE THE (SUN 2235) - 383,000
There's been so much film music stuff that I'm sure I've missed loads, but a couple of things particularly stood out for me - Neil Brand's "Sound of Cinema: The Music that made the Movies", a glorious three-part journey through film sound, and David Arnold's and Matt Berry's one hour "Sound of Cinema" programme plus their 30m appearance on Edith Bowman's show, the day before it was broadcast, to talk about it*.
*[at time of writing there are only 3 days left to download that; they talk about the thinking that went in to putting the programme together, so it's a nice bit of background info; the other hour long programme should be up available to listen for another year].
There's a nice quote from Ben Goldacre (can't find it though!) pointing out that one of the reasons BBC Radio 4 science programmes are often so good is that they usually have a high proportion of scientists on who are speaking, directly, about their work.
What was particularly good about these film music programmes was having experienced "practitioner-communicators" (suggestions for a less ridiculous phrase welcomed) putting other people's work in context and bringing their own knowledge, skill and experience.
Anyone can talk (or write) about a subject they're passionate and knowledgeable about but people who know their stuff, from experience (ie people with a sufficient level of expertise that they can not just 'do stuff' but troubleshoot if problems arise), might also spot some interesting aspects that I'd just miss, and be able to explain them.
Of course 'outsiders' often spot different things and I'm all for a mixture of voices, but in the genre of film / screen music I'm particularly interested in hearing from people who've created it themselves. This year alone I've been to hear 10 composers talk about their work, so possibly I am unusually enthusiastic!
When I went to hear Neil Brand introduce episode one of his series to a packed and enthusiastic audience at the BFI (really, more television programmes should be shown at the BFI!) one of the themes in the Q and A, and acknowledged by Neil and series producer John Das, was that the series just scratched the surface and there's a LOT more to say about film music. They gave the analogy of there being enough to say about film music that would fill three 'baths' but they were only really able to broadcast three cups' worth in the time available.
- Please can we have some more television programmes about film music?
- Any chance Neil's series could be released on DVD?
I understand that getting rights to show clips, beyond initial broadcast, can be a bit fiddly - this seems an annoyingly solvable problem, but I shall link to an interesting paper (behind a paywall unless you have an academic login, but abstract is very clear) about the practical challenges faced by academic researchers writing about film and film music, when trying to get hold of stills or clips etc.
Annette Davison (2007) Copyright and scholars' rights Music, Sound and the Moving Image 1:1 (9-13)
Viewing figures suggest The Sound of Cinema is a popular programme
I've no idea how many times the 6 Music radio programmes with David and Matt were listened to or downloaded but according to BARB (the Broadcast Audience Research Board) figures for Neil's television programme were pretty healthy.
The page for viewing information on Top 10 programmes is here http://www.barb.co.uk/viewing/weekly-top-10 and you can select different weeks to view what was most-watched then.
For BBC Four, the third episode (broadcast on the Thursday and then repeated on the Sunday) made the top 10 twice. Not too shabby. For comparison the number one programme on BBC Four that week, with 903 thousand viewers was Lucy Worsley's 'A very British murder'.
These figures tell us nothing about the numbers of people who 'watch again' on BBC iPlayer of course.
Episode One - this had the highest viewing figures, perhaps not surprising as it was pretty well promoted and also was the first.
BBC4
w/e 15 Sep 2013
2 SOUND OF CINEMA: THE MUSIC THAT MADE THE (THU 2103) - 771 thousand
Episode Two
BBC4
w/e 22 Sep 2013
2 SOUND OF CINEMA: THE MUSIC THAT MADE THE (THU 2101) - 593 thousand
Episode Three
BBC4
w/e 29 Sep 2013
5 SOUND OF CINEMA: THE MUSIC THAT MADE THE (THU 2101) - 562 thousand
10 SOUND OF CINEMA: THE MUSIC THAT MADE THE (SUN 2235) - 383,000
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