To Kill a Mockingbird (ELMER BERNSTEIN)

To Kill A Mockingbird MP3

To write music that with a singular melody can transform you back to a time, a place or a memory is truly a feat indeed. The achingly beautiful music written for the film adaptation of Harper Lee's famous novel fulfils this and then some...
The story itself concerns the plight of a white lawyer defending an innocent black man agains the charges of raping a white woman in 1930's racially-biased Alabama. As told from the lawyer's children's perspective, it is also a heart-wrenchingly bitter sweet tale of the memories of childhood and the loss of innocence surrounding the subsequent trial, the backlash against their father and of their own 'demons' in the form of a disturbing local character who is not all that he seems.


The piano introduces the piece, as simple as a music box; playing around the lines of the melody; setting a mood and introducing the lightest of phrases. Then comes a pair of flutes and a harp, introducing an uneasy calm which is picked up by the piano as if in a nursery-rhyme. From which, springs the central melody. The charmed and dancing notes of the flute introduce the sweetest, most melancholic of phrases, backed with nothing more than a repetition of un-altering rolled chords. This then leads us into the full ensemble of strings, flute, woodwind and harp which repeat and re-inforce the phrase once more.

This for me is the pulling together of all the emotional upheaval and child-like joy of the central story (from which it descends back into the simple piano and onto the light-hearted, skipping melody which is used throughout the film).
To dissect it in some ways misses the point, though I think what it illustrates is what this piece does so well; it hints at an almost universal memory of childhood as something not only sweet, but as something lost and never to be recovered. The simplicity of the melody alone and the subtle tension in the chords would have done this alone, but with the addition of the flute and in particular, the piano's introduction (which again is used beautifully at points during the film) it creates a musical simplicity which when returned to, feels familiar and warm such as memories often are.

Alongside all this, is the casting of the brilliant Gregory Peck as Atticus Finch, with direction by Robert Mulligan and the stunning cinematography of Russell Harlan. The latter two were nominated for Academy Awards that year in 1963 alongside Bernstein for his score (Peck deservedly won his Oscar, though I am at a loss to explain Bernstein's losing out). The famous opening sequence was the work of the original and talented Stephen Frankfurt who I think also managed to capture the essence of the story and of the child's mind view and which complements Bernstein's theme entirely.

See the film. It really is superb.

Midnight Cowboy (JOHN BARRY)

Midnight Cowboy MP3

Standing out as the central theme of this Academy Award winning picture by director John Schlesinger (the first and only X-rated film to do so incidentally) the theme from Midnight Cowboy is a master-stroke in setting a tone and mood for an entire film.
As a piece of music that stands up to repeated listening as only the best can, this has to be one of the most beautifully simplistic of Barry's creations. To me, it's effectiveness lies in the mixture of such an incredibly simple melody, alongside a laconic, yet quietly driving 6/8 beat.
It effortlessly blends the languid orchestral strings, (in particular the legato violins) into and alongside the beautiful harmonica (played by the legendary Toots Thielemans) with the underpinning blues feel of the 12-string guitar.
It is these subtle guitar licks, coupled with the harmonica's central theme which create the overall feel of the piece, invoking it's feel of summer heat , hicksville & of the melancholic nature of the story.

Barry, in an interview, referred to Mr Mancini as the King of integrating song, (as opposed to purely instrumental tracks) into film.
I would have to argue against this in the light of a piece as unique as Midnight Cowboy, which creates a mood so perfectly suited to the screenplay, that it is truly a masterpiece.