nature boy

A kinda creepy rendition of ‘Mountain High, Valley Low’ from Lute Song by Dorothoy Collins (1953). Whether its the condition of the recording, the reverb and harmonies with the back-up singers together, it all sounds kind of ominous. Eartha Kit and Jo Stafford have much “prettier” recordings of this song out there, but otherwise this song is not highly recorded so that’s about it. I can see this being remixed into something really trippy.

I am highly affected by music, I will literally base screenplays ideas around a central piece of music that moves me in a particular manner, or would be suitable for this image or this scene or this kind of montage. My poetry teacher last year even commented my poems in class started taking on a “swinging” kind of rhythm after I started really listening to big band music, something I was happy about since for me, I feel creativity and what you enjoy should pretty much be present or at least be able to “leak” into each other, have a synergistic effect in your work.

I really look for that kind of synergy in the utilization of music in entertainment, especially film, it is so important. I think that’s one big glaring thing missing in a lot of movies today- good film scores and smart uses of music, even down to just sound effects. The “insert popular pop-song here” formula is starting to get really bad, and I feel if a bit more care went into the product, the piece of entertainment, then we would all benefit from it and we would have a lot better films. Course then there’s the issue with writing, but that’s another whole can of worms. That’s probably why I like old Hollywood and its often bombastic jazz scores and or suspense films with spidery strings or even the idea of musicals. I like bold and rich atmospheres, music can help trick you into thinking you’re in one much easier.

For example I really liked the soundtrack and score for Inception, which I thought overall was a very impressive movie regardless if you enjoyed it or not, I’m not really opening a discussion on that, already went there! Hans Zimmer did a terribly good job on it, for me at least it was very suspenseful and had me so damn nervous and on the edge of my seat, and that’s what I want out of music and scoring, a sense of atmosphere. It becomes even more fascinating that all the music in it is related in a way via a very interesting revelation from Christopher Nolan that revealed that many of the notes in the main theme were not exactly sampled from, but found by speeding up or slowing down Edith Pilaf’s ‘Non, Je Ne Regrette Rien’, which itself was used in its own right many times in the film, turning the procession of horns into that very distinct and accosting fog-horn sound. I like this, because it’s obvious the song choice has symbolic meaning for Nolan and the mood and theme for the script, it just creates a rather complete, enclosed, crystallized world. That is what film is, a world, encapsulated and meant to last regardless of time. Music can do that.

Being said, I’d love to incorporate the above song into a screenplay. I already have various “pet songs” that I find and dust off, there is so much beautiful music out there that’s been pretty much forgotten, it’s really terrible the abuse and misuse and just overall discarding of all sorts of stuff that would be ripe for use or incorporation into things that are “new”.

Tagged: music Raymond scott 1950s 1953 Dorothy Collins pop Lute Song Inception music music theory movies aesthetics movie making Hans Zimmer