The first time I gauged the impact of a film score — also known as ‘background score’, ‘background music’, or ‘film music’ — was during my first journey into working for music label Saregama [then known as GRAMCO or, more popularly, HMV] in the mid-’90s when the company released the soundtrack of 1942: A Love Story, which was notable for, among other things, being the last major film recording of music director, Rahul Dev Burman, who passed away prior to the release, and being the first instance of an Indian film using ‘Dolby Stereo’. When the soundtrack was released, as was the want then months prior to the film release, it sold lakhs of units in the preferred recording format then, musicassette or audiocassette until, of course, the movie was released. The movie tanked and, with it, so did the sales of the soundtrack, and there was sufficient talk in the corridors of the music label that, perhaps, the movie’s release should have been delayed, or even a more extreme thought that may be the movie should not have been released at all! For the trivia-minded and for listeners of Western Classical music, the introduction of the film commences with an extract from Gustav Holst’s The Planets – Mars, The Bringer Of War.
A score is music written specifically to accompany a film. The “score” forms part of the film’s soundtrack, which may also include dialogue and sound effects, and comprises a number of orchestral or instrumental passages, called cues, which are timed to commence and close at specific points during the film in order to enhance the dramatic narrative and emotional impact of the scenes depicted. Scores are written by what is commonly referred to as music directors [in the Indian film industry] under the guidance of, or in collaboration with, the film director, and is usually performed by a troupe consisting of musicians, an orchestra, and with singers — although most of the film soundtracks nowadays are often undertaken by individual musicians with an impressive array of electronic/ digital instrumentation in support. Some of the Indian legends of the past, besides R.D. Burman, include his father, S.D. Burman, and others like Naushad, O.P. Nayyar, Shankar-Jaikishen, Kalyanji-Anandji, and Laxmikant-Pyarelal, to name just a few. From the recent past, I can easily think of A.R. Rahman, Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy, Vishal-Shekhar, Shantanu Moitra, and Ankit Tiwari.
While indeed there have been — and are — too many music directors for me to refer to as my favourites in this column, one that I grew up was from a Hollywood bygone era of what was referred to as “cowboy” movies, irrespective of the presence of Red Indians! This was during my school days in the ’70s in what was then heralded as “Spaghetti Westerns”, a nomenclature provided to a broad sub-genre of “cowboy” films that emerged in the mid-’60s in the wake of film director Sergio Leone’s film-making style and international box-office success [of which more later]. The term “spaghetti” was utilised by Hollywood critics because most of these movies were produced and directed by Italians!
Besides the fascination of the storyline — the eternal good [represented by a sheriff/ marshall or a bounty hunter] versus evil [bank robbers, killers, thieves, thugs; essentially, “outlaws”] — and, of course, the star cast [Clint Eastwood, Lee Van Cleef, Eli Wallach et al], it was the music that specifically lifted the movie viewing experience to another level and a single name that did that for me then was a film composer who was in the news earlier this year for winning an Oscar for the soundtrack of Quentin Tarantino’s The Hateful Eight, Ennio Morricone.
While there were over six hundred made-in-Italy and other European “Westerns” that were filmed between 1960 and 1980, the best-known “Spaghetti Westerns” were those directed by Sergio Leone and scored by Ennio Morricone, notably the three films of the Dollars’ trilogy – A Fistful Of Dollars [1964], For A Few Dollars More [1965], and The Good, The Bad And The Ugly [1966] – as well as, subsequently, Once Upon A Time In The West, which was released in 1968. Most of the soundtracks being marked by quirky, unusual sounds and instrumentation building to a crescendo for impending dramatic scenes. In fact, Ennio Morricone is also considered a notable composer as he orchestrates his own score, a task that music directors usually leave to others. So, next time you view a movie, besides paying attention to the moving pictures, you will find that, indeed, there is a sound life that goes beyond cricket scores!
The writer has been part of the media and entertainment business for over 23 years. He still continues to pursue his hobby, and earns an income out of it.
