With film scores, hearing is believing
If you’re listening carefully, you can hear an early clue to solving the Rosebud mystery in Orson Welles’ “Citizen Kane,†long before it’s revealed at the end. Composer Bernard Herrmann has tipped us off in his music for the movie.
If you have doubts, get over to the new exhibit on the role of music in film at the Library of Congress / Ira Gershwin Gallery on the second floor of the Walt Disney Concert Hall. There, you’ll see an appropriate film clip, hear the music and see Herrmann’s score, opened to the key page.
The exhibit, containing a number of music manuscripts, photos, letters and film clips, was curated by Sam Brylawski, former head of the Recorded Sound Section at the Library of Congress in Washington.
“I felt very strongly we can’t have an exhibition about music without music in it,†Brylawski said. “We have about 10 clips in which music plays an important role.â€
The clips begin and end with music by two Newmans -- Alfred’s fanfare for 20th Century Fox and nephew Randy’s triumphant finale for “The Natural,†when Robert Redford hits a home run.
In between are clips from “Jaws,†“Stavisky,†“The Sea Hawk,†“The Magnificent Seven†and other movies. But some exhibit entries can’t be heard. One is Samuel Goldwyn’s contract with Metropolitan Opera star Geraldine Farrar for a 1915 silent film version of Bizet’s “Carmen.†The contract stipulates that Farrar would be provided with a house, a car and an “experienced chauffeur.†But “the car is not to be a Ford Model-T.†Farrar, who was paid $2,500 a week ($47,000 in today’s terms), evidently expected something a little classier.
You also can’t hear the theme song from D.W. Griffith’s controversial 1915 film “Birth of a Nation,†which depicted the Ku Klux Klan favorably. But you can see the sheet music version: “The Perfect Song.†The irony is that the music wound up being used as the theme song for the “Amos ‘n’ Andy†radio show in the 1930s.
The exhibit will be up through the summer and open to ticket-holders to all performances or to anyone who purchases the self-guided audio tour.
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The Library of Congress / Ira Gershwin Gallery, Walt Disney Concert Hall, second floor, 111 S. Grand Ave., L.A. (323) 850-2000.
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