Thursday, March 27, 2014

Something for Thursday

In the course of writing Lighthouse Boy (not the actual title), I've been listening to more film music lately (more than usual, anyway), with a special ear for classic scores of the Golden Age. Without doubt, my favorite Golden Age film composer is Erich Wolfgang Korngold, whose music formed the backdrop for many a fine Errol Flynn adventure. Here is a suite of his score to The Adventures of Robin Hood, played live at The Proms. (My newest addition to my "Things I Gotta Do Before I Die" list is to attend a concert or two at The Proms.)


Now there's some swashbuckling music for you!

(And as a onetime trumpet player, I was interested in one particular practice I saw here for the first time ever (it happens at the 7:28 mark, among others): the trumpeter stretches a mask of what looks like felt over the bell of the instrument. I imagine this softens the tone somewhat, muffling the trumpet without changing the instrument's tone outright, the way a mute does. Korngold knew his way around the orchestra, that's for sure!)

1 comment:

Roger Owen Green said...

It certainly buckled MY swash.