A CLOCKWORK ORANGE. Can not hear Ludwig Van without thinking of this movie.
Classical music should just not be allowed in movies, advertisements or TV shows.
Fraser-Orr- Why? Please offer more than “Because.”
Ya know, maybe we shouldn’t even listen to classical music, ‘cause it seems you don’t want to it be a soundtrack for us.
That’s just an ignorant comment.
“Classical music should just not be allowed in movies, advertisements or TV shows.”
I disagree, while there are many cases of classical music being misused or overused in films it has done wonders for other movies.
a lyricized Pachelbel made ORDINARY PEOPLE even more luminous … and cogent
Maybe it shouldn’t have been used in cartoons either. That’s where most of us were introduced to it, but so what, classical music is just too important to be degraded by mass use.
(93.2% of people ‘tween the age of 40 and younger were introduced to classical music through films, cartoons and others forms, those who say they weren’t are probably lying or just didn’t realize it.)
As the two posts above me show, it cheapens the music and makes it attaches it to something it was never meant for. Plus, it’s lazy filmmaking. You can put amazing music over any old thing and it’s easy to make it provoke the emotions.
Music is best when it stands on its own, not when it’s a soundtrack to something else.
“Kill da’ rabbit! Kill da’ rabbit” My favorite Wagner opera.
Take all music out of film! Sound too perhaps.
Self Editing, damanit. The use of classical music in a film is not a bad thing, look at the opening of Raging Bull, or the use of Ride of the Valkyries in Apocalyspe Now.
I don’t think it should be over used, which has happened with some pieces, Fortuna Imperatrix Mundi, O Fortuna is one, but sometimes a recoginizable piece can help inform an audience on a character or situation.
Should Disney’s Peter and the Wolf or Fantasia never been made?
“Sometimes a recoginizable piece can help inform an audience on a character or situation”
This is what I’m saying about lazy filmmaking. If you just bring in a certain cue to say “Feel this feeling about this character”, that’s a crappy movie you’ve got right there.
“93.2% of people ‘tween the age of 40 and younger were introduced to classical music through films, cartoons and others forms, those who say they weren’t are probably lying or just didn’t realize it.”
How many of those people continue to listen to it on its own?
I’m not trying to be snobbish, but the brain can only pay so much attention to one thing at a time. Enjoying classical music while it’s in a film is like trying to study while you watch TV. You’re just not going to get as much out of it.
I will give you Raging Bull and Apocalypse Now, though. Raging Bull because nothing else is really going on and the music is meant to be listened to, Apocalypse Now because there’s an ironic statement being made that the music is essential to. It’s when it’s being used as a cliche that I don’t like it.
Fraser, I don’t think you are giving people enough credit, nor filmmakers who use classical music effectively. Personally I’d love to use Strauss’ “Death And Transfiguration” if the opportunity presented itself.
Now, do you feel this way about using any existing music, song?
Ulicain: Sorry to butt in, but I haven’t listened to much of Strauss’ music but what is Death and Transfiguration like?
Josh, it’s an interesting piece, calm with some nice peaks, like 23 mins long, first time I heard it I was on my way to work, eneded up being a few mins late so I could hear the full piece. See if you can find at your local library, iTunes as well, but you have to download the whole CD.
Fraser, I agree on the clicheness of some pieces like O Fortuna, it’s a piece about people complaining about life, but it’s always used for people heading to war. The music should be used appropriately, that’s a given.
Ulicain: I’ll try to find it, I’ve wanted to hear more of his music at some point.
Kubrick’s use of classical music?
@Fraser-Orr:
The point I was making about ORDINARY PEOPLE was that I feel the use of THAT specific piece is inspired. The Pachelbel Canon is a meticulous, metered Baroque chamber piece. The story, from an absolutely exquisite novel, and expertly written, is all about everything having a proper place and NOT having everything in it. The use of this music is at least as ironic (at least in how it is being used) as that of Wagner in APOCALYPSE NOW. It invokes a coolness – in this case to be applied to Upper-Middle-Class American WASPs – but results in another realm altogether.
And then you have the lyrics introduced in the opening scene of the high school choir; “In the silence of our souls, O Lord, we contemplate thy peace.” The SILENCE of our souls — these sure aint Baptists, no?
I think this is as perfect an adaptive use of classical music as you can have. And RAGING BULL and APOCALYPSE NOW, too.
no other thoughts?
Beethoven’s 7th on Irreversible, and tons of other bad movies. That’s just disrespect.
What are your thoughts on Adagio for Strings in The Elephant Man?
(First post by the way.)
I had no problem with it at all and thought it worked well
Kubrick nailed it in 2001, but got carried away with <A Clockwork Orange.
.
Brian De Palma sticks into Redacted the the Handel passacaglia that Kubrick used in Barry Lyndon.
I’m not sure why, but it’s mostly distracting, and unlike Barry Lyndon, doesn’t add an element of grace or highlight the formalized, repetitive social codes.
“Classical music should just not be allowed in movies, advertisements or TV shows.”
I would not have been introduced to any classical music at all if that were the case. Most of my favorite films (loads of my very favorite sequences at that) and TV shows have great use of classical music in them, which has further introduced me to other music, you just come across elitist.
Antichrist.
Also Kubrick was the man at using classical music. aRe you people on drugs?
It’s hard for me to find anything wrong with A Clockwork Orange :)
I think the only thing that bothers me about its use in films is when it becomes a pretentious way of trying to convince the audience that something is more serious or dramatic than it actually is. Or that it solely represents a higher knowledge or refined personality (not always the case, as one can be a fan of Beethoven or Handel and still be a witless dipshit or uncharming asshole). To that point it becomes an annoyance and an irritating vanity.
Charlesdegaulle
Mozart’s Requiem-The Big Lebowski, Ruined the music for me