Any movie buff knows composer John Williams is the usual choice for director Steven Spielberg. But for The Color Purple, which was released on today’s date in 1985, Spielberg turned to jazz great and master orchestrator Quincy Jones.

The Color Purple was based on a Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by Alice Walker that tells the story of Celie Harris, graphically depicting the trauma of a young African-American woman during the early 20th century. Spielberg cast Whoopi Goldberg — better-known then for stand-up comedy — in the intensely dramatic role of Celie.

For Spielberg, it was a movie without dazzling special effects or space aliens; for Jones, who had just finished producing Michael Jackson’s Thriller, working on The Color Purple was, as he put it, “An amazing experience … the biggest of my life.”

Whoopi Goldberg was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress — Quincy Jones, for both Best Original Score and Best Original Song. Neither Goldberg nor Jones won an Oscar, but Jones says he felt honored to participate in a project that, despite the many warnings of nay-sayers, he had absolute faith in, inspired by the passion of all those involved in its making.

Music Played in Today's Program

Quincy Jones (1933-2024): The Color Purple: Main Theme; Itzhak Perlman, violin; Pittsburgh Symphony; John Williams, conductor; Sony 63005

On the latest episode of ‘New Classical Tracks’ with host Julie Amacher, violinist Ray Chen explores the immersive nature of video game music on his new album ‘Player 1,’ with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. Listen now!

On Saturday Cinema, I mentioned in passing that my sons, Peter and Joshua, and I had a list of Christmas films we watched in a certain order, a list established by the time they were in middle school. New ones were added over the years and a couple of honorable mentions, but back when the kids lived at home this film fest started Thanksgiving night and ran through Christmas Eve. Movies were big at our house, as you might imagine. (PJs, hot chocolate and cookies required.)

In response to the many listener requests I’ve received, here’s our list, in order:

• Miracle on 34th Street (the original black and white!)

• It's a Wonderful Life

• A Charlie Brown Christmas

• White Christmas

• The Bishop's Wife

• The Preacher's Wife

• The Santa Clause

• How the Grinch Stole Christmas (the animated TV version, with Boris Karloff)

• Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas (the Ron Howard version with the irrepressible Jim Carrey)

• Scrooged

• Elf

• Home Alone

• A Christmas Story

• Mister Magoo’s Christmas Carol

• Christmas Carol (1951 Alastair Sim version)

• Christmas Carol (1999 Patrick Stewart version)

• Christmas Carol (1984 George C. Scott version)

• The Polar Express

The last two are always viewed on Christmas Eve!

• Scrooge (1970 musical with Albert Finney)

• A Muppet Christmas Carol

New in the lineup are two discoveries that the kids introduced to me for recent Christmases:

• The Man Who Invented Christmas (2017)

• Klaus (a 2019 Netflix film)

And these three I introduced to the kids this year:

• Remember the Night

• It Happened on 5th Avenue

• The Shop Around the Corner

Ridley Scott’s highly anticipated film Gladiator II opens Nov. 22, but for many fans the acid test of the film will come Nov. 15, when the soundtrack is released.

That soundtrack was composed not by Hans Zimmer — who wrote the Oscar-nominated score for Gladiator, with notable contributions from Lisa Gerrard — but by Zimmer protégé Harry Gregson-Williams, whose résumé includes the music for Shrek and The Chronicles of Narnia.

Zimmer’s score for the 2000 film, by turns sweeping, noble and emotional, is widely beloved. He declined to write for the new movie, saying he didn’t want to repeat himself.

“It’s really very simple. I’ve done that world. And I think I did it well,” he said in an interview with the movie website Curzon. “It wouldn’t have mattered if I had written the most amazing score [for the sequel], because the music in the first movie sticks in people’s hearts.”

But he’s given his successor a vote of confidence.

“Harry is family for me. He’s a phenomenal composer,” Zimmer said. “That film is in really good hands. Trust me.

“Harry and I have spoken about it. He feels the old score barking at his heels a little bit. So he’s on his A game.”

Why the angst among music fans? When the first trailer for Gladiator II was released in July, it featured the rap song “No Church in the Wild,” by Jay-Z and Kanye West, setting some fans’ teeth on edge. Some wondered why there was no callback to memorable themes such as “Now We Are Free,” featuring Gerrard’s iconic “wailing woman.”

The most recent trailer has a more conventionally epic musical background, but as with all trailers, the final music might not be reflected.

Perhaps it’s inevitable that the music has been updated. The sequel concentrates on the next generation, with its central focus on Lucius (Paul Mescal), the son of Russell Crowe’s Maximus.

“I thought, what if I could create a theme for Lucius that becomes Hans’ theme from the first movie?” Gregson-Williams says in this behind-the-scenes video.

“I love it that he took it and just expanded it, making something that is so extraordinary,” Zimmer adds.

“Music is a statement. It’s a sound statement,” Scott says, adding hopefully, “I think they’re going to love it.”

Indeed, will fans be entertained, or have their vengeance? Stay tuned.

Lin-Manuel Miranda, the creator of Hamilton, and playwright Eisa Davis, a Pulitzer Prize finalist, have created a new Broadway musical — which is not actually on Broadway.

Instead, it's a concept album, meant to be listened to in one sitting. That idea came about because Miranda wanted to write something about The Warriors, the 1979 cult-classic movie about members of a Coney Island street gang who are trying to get back home to Brooklyn after they're accused of assassinating a leader advocating for peace.

It's one of his favorite movies. And he couldn't stop thinking about how he could do his own love letter to it. Then he brought Davis on board — and they started thinking about the 1970s.

"We were inspired by the concept albums from the '70s that we love," Miranda said, "where you would sit on your living room floor and read the liner notes to your vinyl. And we wanted to create that feeling."

The album tells the Warriors' story by using music that crosses genres, including hip-hop, rock, ska and salsa; it's sung by a cast that includes everyone from artists like Lauryn Hill, Nas, Ghostface Killah and Billy Porter to Broadway stars Phillipa Soo, Jasmine Cephas Jones and Amber Gray.

"We just got this dream team" of musical artists, Miranda said. "So it was very freeing, always full of joy."

Mixing it up

Miranda and Davis flipped the gender of the Warriors so that, in their version, the gang is all women. This means a central romance is one between women, as well.

"The gender flipping allowed us to angle in on the sexism and homophobia in the film and make sure that we left that in '79," Davis said. "We're in 2024 here."

Miranda and Davis say they have no plans for Warriors to come to Broadway, but that "We'd love to see a stage adaptation of this down the road."

There likely won't be a movie version, though, because, as Miranda says, "That already exists."

Ciera Crawford edited the audio and digital versions of this story. Chloee Weiner mixed the audio.

Copyright 2025, NPR

Hans Zimmer has written some of the most iconic and memorable movie scores of all time. He’s both prolific and award-winning, with two Oscars and four Grammys on his shelf. Here are his 10 best scores (plus a few extras we couldn’t leave out).

Oscar winners

The Lion King (1994): Sure, you know “Circle of Life” and “Hakuna Matata.” But Zimmer’s score for this animated juggernaut incorporated those Elton John/Tim Rice earworms into an immersive aural landscape that won him his first Oscar. He’s also responsible for recruiting South African musician Lebo M, who voices the spine-tingling Zulu chant that opens the movie (below). Zimmer said later that he almost turned the gig down (“I did everything not to get the job,” he says) but took it to impress his then-6-year-old daughter.

Oscar-worthy bonus: The Lion King was the award-winner, but don’t overlook Zimmer’s other animated standout, The Prince of Egypt (1998), in which his Oscar-nominated score supported songs by Stephen Schwartz. He expressed anxiety about adapting the religious story; “The Burning Bush” was particularly troublesome, but he said later, “I think I pulled it off.” See if you agree.

Dune: Part One (2021): For Denis Villeneuve’s sci-fi classic, Zimmer avoided watching David Lynch’s 1984 version so as not to be influenced by its Toto/Brian Eno soundtrack. He instead spent time in the desert, the better to incorporate its sounds into his score. He used female voices, percussion, and acoustic and wind instruments — including hybrid instruments that were produced to create otherworldly sounds. This innovation, which did as much for the film’s world-building as cinematographer Greig Fraser’s visuals, helped win Zimmer his second Oscar. Here’s the hypnotic “Paul’s Dream.”

Zimmer followed up with the score to Dune: Part Two in 2024; he composed about 90 minutes of music before the script was even written to help inspire Villeneuve.

Action movies

Gladiator (2000): The soundtrack to Ridley Scott’s Oscar-winning epic, which Zimmer wrote with Australian singer/composer Lisa Gerrard, borrowed from Richard Wagner and Gustav Holst. (Indeed, he settled with the Holst estate on claims that he borrowed too liberally.) It is a masterful showcase of Zimmer’s powerhouse style, exemplified by “The Battle,” written in a frenetic waltz time. Are you not entertained?

Black Hawk Down (2001): Zimmer, teaming up again with Scott, said he avoided more traditional composition in favor of an experimental approach. “I wanted to do it like the way the movie was,” he said. To that end, he sent an assistant to scout instruments and sounds native to the African desert to help inform the score. He also incorporated vocals from Senegal’s Baaba Maal and France’s Denez Prigent, plus his Gladiator collaborator Gerrard. Feast on “Hunger,” featuring Maal’s haunting voice.

Pirates of the Caribbean series (2003-2011): Zimmer wrote or collaborated on the scores for the first four of the five-film franchise; after delegating the lion’s share of the first installment (The Curse of the Black Pearl) to Klaus Badelt, he put his stamp on the series in the second, Dead Man’s Chest. For “The Kraken,” the theme for Jack Sparrow’s nemesis, Davy Jones, he fed organ music through a guitar amp to create music he calls “very Lemmy from Motörhead.”

Swashbuckling bonus: This wasn’t Zimmer’s first voyage on the high seas. A decade earlier, he crafted the unforgettable music for Muppet Treasure Island (1996), building an adventurous score around songs by Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil.

The Last Samurai (2003): This story of a Civil War soldier embroiled in a clash between Japan’s Imperial army and its samurai culture gave Zimmer an opportunity to fuse Western orchestral elements with traditional Japanese instruments, including the taiko drum for action sequences and the bamboo flute and the zither-like koto for pastoral passages. Hear examples of each in this soundtrack sampler.

The Dark Knight trilogy (2005-2012): Zimmer began a fruitful collaboration with Christopher Nolan in this three-film series that was launched with Batman Begins, continuing through The Dark Knight and The Dark Knight Rises. The composer, who worked with James Newton-Howard on the first two scores, says he saw an “endless heroic theme” in the superhero origin story. Through talking with Nolan about the duality of the Batman/Bruce Wayne character, he developed the signature two-note motif that’s carried through the trilogy. Listen for the hint of flapping bat wings that open “Vespertilio” from Batman Begins before that distinctive theme enters.

Sci-fi standouts

Inception (2010): Zimmer said of his score for Nolan’s mindbender, “I’m nearly resentful of the way people are describing this music as being smart and intellectual. What I was writing was nostalgia and sadness. This character [Dom Cobb] carries this sadness all the time that he cannot express.” He upped the nostalgia by working snippets of Edith Piaf’s poignant “Non, Je ne Regrette Rien” into the score to serve as cues for the dream sequences. Zimmer also enlisted former Smiths guitarist Johnny Marr to contribute to the score, vowing there would be no guitar unless Marr agreed. Here’s the result of that alliance.

Interstellar (2014): Nolan provided no script for his dystopian drama to Zimmer, giving him only a brief description of a father leaving his child because of an important job. In one night, Zimmer wrote a four-minute piano-and-organ piece that in his mind represented fatherhood. He protested that his piece was too “tiny and fragile” once he realized the scope of the story, but Nolan reassured him that it provided the heart of the film. The two also decided that the 1926 four-keyboard organ of London’s Temple Church would become the score’s signature instrument. Listen to the majesty it supplies to “First Step.”

Quiet dramas

Driving Miss Daisy (1989): The race-relations story is dated but Zimmer’s Southern-inflected, gently jazzy music holds up, contrasting nicely with his more bombastic scores to come. He performed the music entirely by himself electronically, using samplers and synthesizers; there are no live instruments to be heard. Here’s the main theme, “Driving.” You might swear you hear a clarinet, but it’s all Zimmer.

Debut bonus: Another in the quieter vein is Zimmer’s first major score, for Rain Man (1988). He used synthesizers and steel drums to conjure what he called the “jangly” feel of a road movie, nabbing an Oscar nomination and announcing that he was a musical force to be reckoned with. Here’s the main theme.

Video games are famous for creating worlds, and a big part of those worlds is the musical landscape. Some games (The Legend of Zelda, Final Fantasy, Castlevania) have well-loved original scores. And games such as Starfield and The Elder Scrolls have even allotted a large portion of their budgets for full orchestras to perform their scores, attesting to the importance of the music. But many other titles have borrowed music from the realm of classical music.

Here are some prime examples of classical music favorites in the gaming world. How many have you played?

‘Night on Bald Mountain’ (Modest Mussorgsky)

This spooky, evocative music has been featured in many games, including Earthworm Jim and Skylanders: Trap Team. Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance bases a whole world on Disney’s Fantasia — featuring Mickey Mouse, of course — that uses music from the film, including Paul Dukas’ The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, Pyotr Tchaikovsky’s “Waltz of the Flowers” from The Nutcracker and Mussorgsky’s popular work, as seen here.

‘Moonlight Sonata’ (Ludwig van Beethoven)

Resident Evil and Earthworm Jim 2 (below), among many other games, have featured the moody, progressively dramatic piece.

‘Requiem’ (Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart)

The steampunk-inspired BioShock Infinite featured an original score by Gary Schyman that took inspiration partly from Jonny Greenwood’s film score for There Will Be Blood, in keeping with the game’s 1912 setting. But it also included “Lacrimosa” (translated as “Tearful”) from Mozart’s classic Requiem, accompanying what some fans call the best scene in the game.

Mozart’s Requiem provides musical support again as its “Dies Irae” (“Days of Wrath”) is used as the theme for another Wolfgang — surname, Krauser — in Fatal Fury 2. Often used as shorthand for impending doom or death, the music is fitting for the character considered within the game as the world’s most powerful and feared martial artist.

‘Flight of the Bumblebee’ (Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov)

The Bumblebee is a character in It Takes Two, so it’s only natural that this frenetic piece would appear in that game. The buzzing earworm also has shown up in several other games over the decades, including Dungeon Encounters and Overboard! — as heard here in the latter’s trailer.

‘Ride of the Valkyries’ (Richard Wagner)

Borrowing imagery from the gunship scene in the film Apocalypse Now, this bombastic work is heard in Metal Solid Gear V: Ground Zeroes as the character Big Boss is extracted by helicopter from Camp Omega. And, yes, the Ring video game is based on the composer’s Der Ring des Nibelungen, and his music, including “Valkyries,” appears throughout.

‘Clair de Lune’ (Claude Debussy)

This serene classic is heard in the survival game The Evil Within 2 when Sebastian escapes a nightmare realm through the portal to Safe Haven. The gentle strains have a calming and almost eerie influence.

‘Mars, the Bringer of War’ (Gustav Holst)

Skylanders: Trap Team offers a remix of “Mars,” from Holst’s The Planets, during Phase 3 of the final fight against the wicked Kaos, truly bringing war to the table.

‘Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy’ (Pytor Ilyich Tchaikovsky)

You haven’t truly heard this Tchaikovsky classic from The Nutcracker until you’ve heard it rendered in tinny Tetris style. The delicate music befits the puzzle game’s plinky toy-piano vibe.

Swan Lake (Tchaikovsky)

George Lucas’ fantasy-themed Loom features the character of Lady Cygna Threadbare (“cygna” translates to “swan”), and other characters that are turned into the elegant creatures. Naturally, the developers included music from Tchaikovsky’s ballet, including its overture.

Other notable uses

Here are more instances of classical music in gaming.

• Gran Turismo 5 includes, among other works, Johann Sebastian Bach’s “Air on a G String,” played by pianist Lang Lang.

• The Hitman soundtrack prominently features Franz Schubert’s “Ave Maria,” which serves as the theme for Agent 47. It’s performed by the Zurich Boys’ Choir.

• In Grand Theft Auto III and GTA Liberty Stories, one radio station that gamers can hear while they drive around in a (probably stolen) vehicle is Double Clef FM, playing classical music and Italian opera. The faux station presents an aura of high-brow connoisseurs but offers suspect cultural knowledge. No matter — the music is sublime. And the host, Morgan Merryweather, is hilarious: “Now more hits from the sixties — 1760s, that is!”

• The Fallout series includes the in-game radio stations Galaxy News Radio and Enclave Radio, which offer fife and drum arrangements of patriotic tunes (“America the Beautiful,” “Stars and Stripes Forever” and “Yankee Doodle Dandy”) and jazz standards of the 1930s-‘50s (“Anything Goes,” “I Don’t Want to Set the World on Fire”).  Pieces also can be unlocked by completing a certain in-game task, at which time a character named Agatha performs a violin solo (among them Bach’s Partita for Violin No. 3 and Antonin Dvořák’s Violin Concerto).

• Eternal Sonata, befitting its name, is a role-playing game based on the life of composer Frederic Chopin. The game, with characters going by such musical monikers as Polka, Allegretto and Viola, features Chopin works played by pianist Stanislav Bunin.

• In the Civilization series, works such as Mozart’s “Rondo Alla Turca” and Jean-Joseph Mouret’s “Rondeau” from Symphonies and Fanfares for the King’s Supper are played depending on what time period is being built. Here’s a tour through the Renaissance from Civilization IV.

• And if you were inspired by the Leonard Bernstein biopic Maestro or just have always wanted to know what it’s like to wield the baton, the game Maestro, described as an “immersive rhythmic music video game,” allows gamers to “experience the thrill of conducting a symphony orchestra” through virtual reality. A demo version is available now.

These are just a few examples of classical music’s influence in video games. Listen for more the next time you play!

When you hear Michael Giacchino’s name, you think of all of his terrific movie music — the Oscar-winning Up, Coco, The Incredibles, Ratatouille and the rebooted Star Trek film franchise. You might even know that he started his compositional career working with Steven Spielberg on — wait for it — video games!

But you probably don’t think of him as a filmmaker or director, and yet that is precisely Giacchino’s background, his first love. That’s how he ended up directing — and composing the music for — the Marvel movie Werewolf by Night, which will be screened with a live performance of his score by the Minnesota Orchestra on Wednesday, Oct. 4, at Orchestra Hall in Minneapolis.

Giacchino studied filmmaking at the School of Visual Arts in New York City, and, as his mother, Josephine, says, “He went to Julliard in his spare time.” The concept of Julliard as a side gig is amazing, but the Giacchino family seems to take everything in their South Jersey stride without a lot of fuss or fanfare. Talking with Giacchino is no different. He’s approachable, friendly, funny, warm and down to earth. 

Making Werewolf by Night was a return to childhood for Giacchino. He was the geeky kid with his movie nerd buddies, watching Creature Double Feature on TV by night, and by day making Super 8 movies all over his hometown, proud of their special effects — which included dueling with real swords, throwing real knives, taping firecrackers to each other for the effect of being shot and clambering on suburban rooftops.

Werewolf by Night was one of his favorite comic books, especially because it was an outlier in the Marvel Universe. He loved the character, his flaws, persecutions and tribulations, feeling it was the stuff of a good film. It was an easy choice.

Giacchino also wrote the music for Werewolf by Night, although he’s most assuredly right at home in the director’s chair, bringing his effusive and contagious love of films and filmmaking to cast, crew and audience. 

Listen to his interview above, or read below, in advance of the Minnesota Orchestra’s Oct. 4 performance of Werewolf by Night.

What are the challenges of directing and being responsible for a crew, as compared with the relatively isolated job of scoring a film?

“Growing up wanting to be a director and wanting to make movies, it absolutely informed how I wrote music for films. I always approached it from the mind of a filmmaker, and it was all about storytelling. Over the years, I've met a lot of people that write music for films, and some of them really are just interested in the music and others are also interested in the story. And for me, if you're not interested in the story, just go write concert music. That's fine, because we need that, too. But a lot of people look at this career and say, ‘Oh, it's like a good job. I could write music for a living.’ But I really feel like to do this correctly, you have to love movies.

“You have to love telling stories, and you have to love sharing this excitement of an unfolding parable in front of you with an audience, with a bunch of people, with millions of people, hopefully. For me, so much of what I do today is really rooted in my childhood love of movies, and it all comes out of that. It's not a music-first thing for me, which seems to surprise people.”

Well, you win an Oscar for film composing and people begin to guess. 

“Well, that's the funny thing. They think, ‘Oh, wait, you can actually can do something different, too?’ And that's the other thing about this town is, like, the second you do one thing fairly well, then that's all you're allowed to do for the rest of your life. And trying to break that mold or break that paradigm that is sort of instilled in this entire industry is very difficult.”

Now that you're behind the camera and you’re running the show, how did it feel? How was it different for you than what you could do when you're composing?

“When I'm writing music for a film, I'm home in my office. I work 9 to 5. I'm pretty much in control of my whole world. But when I’m directing, I’m at the mercy of God knows what. Anything could go wrong. The schedule doesn't work, whether it’s happening or you go over time; there's all kinds of things that could go terribly wrong while you're directing. But I loved it. When I first got on set for Werewolf by Night, I honestly felt more at home there than I ever have writing music for movies, because I felt like I was getting back to the roots of what I wanted to do when I was growing up.

“My whole life I grew up making movies as a kid, that's all I ever did. I never really wrote music while I was growing up. I took piano lessons and I loved music, I listened to film scores and I was incredibly nerdy about all of that. But at the same time, I was also incredibly nerdy about blowing up miniatures and filming them and doing stop-motion films or using my friends to make these crazy science-fiction sort of Twilight Zone-ish-type things.

“My real love was all of that. And I ended up in this sort of path where it became a specialized thing as opposed to when I was a kid, when I could do everything, and I really missed that. I missed this idea that I didn't have to do just one thing. I can do all of this. I want to try all of it! So that was a great joy on the set. I could say, ‘Hey, I want to try that crane,’ and they would let me move the crane. Or, ‘I want to move the dolly,’ and they'd be like, ‘Great! Move the dolly.’ I was, like, I want to do all of it, because I have such respect and love for everyone that works on a film set. It's an incredibly hard job. And when everyone is in sync and when it's all working together, it's one of the most fun experiences you could ever have. I just love it.” 

In your brother Anthony’s documentary, Director by Night, you talk about loving horror films and how they're an allegory of humanity, of the things we go through as human beings. Could you talk a little bit about that?

“As a kid watching monster movies, my brother and I, we would watch Creature Double Feature out of Philadelphia every single Saturday. That was our church; that's the way we worshiped, by watching these old movies from the ‘30s, ‘40s, ‘50s and ‘60s. And it was filled with all kinds of things, whether it was King Kong or Vincent Price movies, or whether it was The Mummy, all of those classic horror films. And the one thing I remember in watching them was that I always felt so bad for the monster, because in almost every case this monster was here accidentally or was created accidentally, or landed here from another planet, at no fault of its own. And they're just being themselves, and the rest of the world is like, ‘Oh, there's a thing that's different. Let's kill it.’ And it was always so sad to me. I always felt bad for Frankenstein's monster.

“And I never forgot the idea of the ‘other’ being treated in a terrible way. It made me feel bad. So when we went to go make Werewolf by Night, I wanted to make sure that this was a story about somebody who had a problem they can't handle and they need help. They don't need persecution, they need understanding and empathy. They don't need violence against them.

“And that's something that you could look at across the board in our society, which is just one of the biggest problems that we have, is this lack of understanding for anything that is different from you or what you know. And there tends to be a reactionary thing that happens where people just lash out and want to destroy whatever isn't something that they feel is right. So for me it was important to lean into that because I couldn't get away from it. Every time I think of those movies, that's what I think about, my sadness for these creatures.” 

While watching Werewolf by Night, I was very interested in the actors, like Gael García Bernal and the fabulous villain, Harriet Sansom Harris.

“Harriet is the greatest; she was amazing. You don't know how it's going to be on set with certain people. You're hoping it's all going to work out and everyone's going to get along. And I have to say, we got so lucky with everyone. Harriet, Laura [Donnelly] and Gael set a tone that was both professional but also fun and also incredibly flexible. Harriet, for example, would come in, say her line, and she’d kill it right off the bat. And then you'd say, ‘Oh, but what if at the end you actually held it for a moment before you say that last word?’ And she goes, ‘I know exactly what you're talking about; yes, let's do it again.’ She was just so game to jump in and be a part of the creative process.

“And I love when there's a sense that the person you're working with is as excited about what you're doing as you are, that just makes all the difference in the world. It didn't feel like anyone was there because it was a job. This was a weird Marvel project, right? This was the weirdest Marvel project on the planet. And I think that because it was so weird and so different, everyone just wanted to be a part of it. And I was so lucky to have so many great people involved.

“But, yeah, the cast! Gael is sort of like the Buster Keaton of our times. He can do the smallest look and give you everything you need. He can be hilarious without almost doing anything. He's just a brilliant actor. And Laura Donnelly, how do you get better than her? What I was amazed at was that you could change a whole page of dialogue with her and she would remember it instantly. You didn't have to worry about it. She was so impressive and so amazing. They were all such a huge lift to the entire project. I was lucky to have them.”

I was noticing when you were directing Gael you giving him directions according to how the music would play out in the scene. Not many directors do that. What came first in this project, the music or the filming?

“It was sort of a concurrent thing. I would be working on the story with Heather Quinn, who was the writer. We had so much fun building this story together, and while we were doing that, I would write down themes and things that would indicate the tone of the scene. It's one thing when you read it on paper because everyone has a different interpretation in their head of how a scene is going to play out and what it's meant to say. But I'm the one that has to have the final word on that.

“So what I would do is write the music and I could play it for the actors, and it would instantly put them in the right mood. They would know the tone, they would understand it, and there were no questions about it. And if there was a question about it, we could discuss it. The music tells you everything that you need emotionally from a scene. And so it was just a great way to get everyone on the same page very quickly, as opposed to going in there and saying, ‘Just trust me,’ which is hard.”

Is there a moment in the score that you really want the audience members to listen for?

“I want them to just be engrossed in the experience the way that I was as a kid. Watching a movie, you're just lost in this story, and the fun thing is that you're sort of getting a tutorial on how movies are made, in a way. When you get to go to see a symphony perform a score, take a moment and actually look down from the movie screen and look at those people playing the instruments. You don't get to do that unless you have practiced for years and years to get good at what you do. That is not an easy job to do on that stage.

“It is so hard and I'm always so incredibly thankful to the players because without them, a score is literally just little black dots on a piece of paper. If I were to just show that to somebody, 99.9% of the people would not know what the heck that is. But until a player plays it and brings it out, suddenly they're spreading emotion all over the place with their performance.

“And I always tell audiences, just take a beat while you're watching. Yes. Enjoy the show, boo the villains, cheer the heroes, but also watch that orchestra. Because honestly, that night, they’re the biggest heroes of the experience and they're guiding you through this emotional journey that you're experiencing. So that's it for me, simply take a moment to look at them, see what they do, and appreciate the fact that they just spent 20 years of their life to get that good so they could do this for you. To me, that’s really cool.”

Find out more about the Minnesota Orchestra’s performance and screening of Werewolf by Night on its official website.

We asked listeners to tell us their favorite film scores. Dim the lights, grab some popcorn and read on for their top 25 selections in movie music.

1. ‘The Lord of the Rings’ series (Howard Shore, 2000-04)

Peter Jackson’s grand trilogy deserved an equally monumental score, and Shore delivered an operatic work that is notable for its sheer length, the variety of musical styles and multitude of themes. He spent nearly four years writing the music, about as long as it takes to watch the movies (we kid!). Here’s the “Shire” theme.

2. ‘Star Wars’ (John Williams, 1977)

The American Film Institute lists it as the world’s most recognizable film score of all time; and who doesn’t get chills from the opening fanfare? You might prefer the lushness of “Princess Leia’s Theme” or the goofiness of “Cantina Band,” but that main title might be among the most indelible music in all of movies.

3. ‘The Mission’ (Ennio Morricone, 1986)

Morricone used liturgical music, Spanish guitars and native drums to capture the varied cultures that figure in this 18th-century story. And, of course, there’s the woodwind of “Gabriel’s Oboe,” the score’s main theme.

4. ‘Schindler's List’ (John Williams, 1993)

The haunting, violin-powered “Theme from Schindler’s List” might be most well-known as the accompaniment for many a figure skating routine, an incongruous image to associate with Steven Spielberg’s Holocaust-themed film. Listen to Itzhak Perlman (who has been outspoken about the violin’s importance in the internment camps) play it.

5. ‘Dances With Wolves’ (John Barry, 1990)

The sweeping strings evoke the wide western plain where Lt. John Dunbar is posted after the Civil War. Barry, who persuaded director and star Kevin Costner that an intimate approach was needed, listened to Native American music for inspiration while composing — some of which made it into the score. And there are bagpipes! Listen to the “John Dunbar Theme.”

6. ‘Doctor Zhivago’ (Maurice Jarre, 1965)

Jarre avoided using Russian folk music for this score, opting instead for Russian “flavor” through the balalaika. As for that famous tune: Director David Lean allegedly rejected Jarre’s first few attempts at a love melody, finally ordering him to a mountain retreat with his girlfriend for romantic inspiration. Out of that interlude came “Lara’s Theme,” as achingly lovely as Julie Christie.

7. ‘Out of Africa’ (John Barry, 1985)

The film is long and some would say excessively navel-gazing, but the score is atypically short (about 35 minutes, including a Mozart clarinet concerto and a popular song from the period-appropriate 1910s). Even in its brevity it manages to convey the emotional breadth of the doomed romance. The soaring “Flying Over Africa” lifts the characters, and the listeners.

8. ‘Lawrence of Arabia’ (Maurice Jarre, 1962)

The producers reportedly considered a multitude of composers — including Malcolm Arnold, William Walton, Aram Khachaturian, Benjamin Britten and Richard Rodgers (whose early draft David Lean called “rubbish”) — before landing on the young Jarre, who already had been hired to orchestrate Rodgers’ score. Here’s the tune, “Theme from Lawrence of Arabia,” that sealed the deal.

9. ‘Harry Potter’ series (John Williams/Alexandre Desplat, 2001-11)

Williams composed the scores for only the first three films, but several of his melodies (including the main “Hedwig’s Theme,” heard in all eight movies) were incorporated throughout the franchise. Among Desplat’s contributions to the last two installments was a new theme for He-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named. But who are we kidding, “Hedwig” is Harry Potter.

10. ‘Seven Years in Tibet’ (John Williams, 1997)

A showcase for cellist Yo-Yo Ma, the score includes a few Tibetan embellishments, but it’s mainly good, old Williams schmaltz. Ma’s exquisite performance in this main theme is enhanced by the delicate piano that introduces the melody and the horns that usher in the climax at 5:17.

11. ‘The Magnificent Seven’ (Elmer Bernstein, 1960)

Is there a more, um, magnificent theme for a western? You can almost smell the gun smoke and hear the horses in Bernstein’s masterful use of rousing strings and syncopated horns in the iconic main title. The propulsive score is a necessary tonic to the film’s slow-moving action, and indeed, Bernstein said, “I remember being very excited when I found that opening rhythm. It was like a surge of energy.”

12. ‘Chariots of Fire’ (Vangelis, 1981)

Director Hugh Hudson resolved not to use a traditional orchestral score for this 1924-set drama, instead choosing electronic composer Vangelis to lend the film a modern sensibility and exuberance. The resulting synthesizer-driven music is a fine complement to the ambient national anthems, Gilbert and Sullivan snippets and English hymns. Cue the slo-mo!

13. ‘Raiders of the Lost Ark’ (John Williams, 1981)

Williams offered Steven Spielberg two melodies for Indiana Jones’ main theme, which at the director’s behest he combined into the now-familiar trumpet fanfare with a strings-and-horn bridge. Notable too is the segue from the sublimely romantic “Marion’s Theme” to the screeching strings and ominous low horns of “The Crate,” evoking the villains of the 1930s serials the film emulates. Grab your whip for “The Raiders March.”

14. ‘Gone With the Wind’ (Max Steiner, 1939)

The grandeur of Steiner’s score instantly conjures the old South, for good or ill. Producer David O. Selznick insisted he incorporate contemporaneous music, including Stephen Foster tunes and “Dixie,” to anchor the film in the Civil War era. But it’s this romantic and magisterial melody that puts you on the lawn at Tara.

15. ‘South Pacific’ (Richard Rodgers, 1958)

The only musical on this list, it spawned the showtune classics “There Is Nothing Like a Dame,” “I’m Gonna Wash That Man Right Out of My Hair” and, perhaps most famously, “Some Enchanted Evening.” But the most enchanting of the bunch just might be “This Nearly Was Mine.” Listen to Giorgio Tozzi’s gorgeous bass, dubbing for actor Rossano Brazzi.

16. ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’ series (Klaus Badelt/Hans Zimmer/Geoff Zanelli, 2003-17)

Products of Zimmer’s Remote Control film score company, these soundtracks sound like a sampler from any number of action movies. But they are fun! The bombastic anthems, rollicking chanteys and thundering choruses offer a pleasurable assault on the senses. Here’s Zimmer’s organ-infused “The Kraken” from Dead Man’s Chest.

17. ‘Jurassic Park’ (John Williams, 1993)

With the film’s signature theme, Williams sought to capture the “awesome beauty and sublimity of the dinosaurs in nature,” which he accomplished admirably. But as we know, things don’t stay pastoral for long in this world. For the most harrowing scenes (kids in the kitchen!) he borrowed his own technique from Jaws — the menacing four-note sequence that ups the intensity to 11. Let’s lower our stress level with that main theme.

18. ‘Pride and Prejudice’ (Dario Marianelli, 2005)

Beethoven’s early piano sonatas became “a point of reference” for this elegant score, Marianelli has said, and the gentle, romantic tone is in good hands with pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet. Before filming began, Marianelli composed several pieces for the actors to play onscreen, which helped inform the rest of the music. “Dawn” opens the film.

19. ‘The Adventures of Robin Hood’ (Erich Korngold, 1938)

Korngold originally turned down this project because, as an opera composer, he thought it had too much action! But the Nazis’ invasion of his home country of Austria compelled him to remain in the United States and stick to it, with fortuitous results. The swashbuckling score, with its Wagnerian flourishes and regal splendor, propelled Korngold to the top ranks of movie composers. “March of the Merry Men” puts a fine sword point on it.

20. ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ (Elmer Bernstein, 1962)

The Magnificent Seven composer took a far different approach to this tender story, grounding it in “the magic of a child’s world” with the high registers of the piano, flute, bells and harp. That nostalgic music-box quality, contrasted with this dark and foreboding “Ewell’s Hatred,” perfectly expresses the tensions of the 1930s South.

21. ‘Breakfast at Tiffany's’ (Henry Mancini, 1961)

You had us at “Moon River,” Henry. Legend has it that star Audrey Hepburn saved this classic from being cut by the producers, who called it “dead weight.” The melody (in infinite variations) weaves itself in and out of Mancini’s jazzy, lounge-inflected score, providing a poignant counterpart. Here is Hepburn’s version.

22. ‘Apollo 13’ (James Horner, 1995)

The patriotic drum cadence and trumpet fanfare that open the main title give way to a more reverent melody that speaks to the lofty goals of space exploration, before “Master Alarm” ratchets up the anxiety with heart-pounding drums and horn crescendos. You can see the sweat on Tom Hanks’ brow! Breathe a sigh of relief with the triumphant “Re-Entry and Splashdown.”

23. ‘Ben Hur’ (Miklos Rozsa, 1959)

In this massive score (befitting a 212-minute epic), Rosza carved out distinct themes for each group — Roman (strident and percussive), Macedonian (sinister and disquieting), Jewish (melancholy and minor key) and Christian (stirring and major key). The classic chariot race has no musical accompaniment, but listen to the triumphant “Parade of the Charioteers.”

24. ‘Last of the Mohicans’ (Trevor Jones and Randy Edelman, 1992)

Director Michael Mann changed his mind on the music so many times that original composer Jones’ electronic score had to be refashioned for traditional orchestra at the 11th hour, with Edelman brought in to augment minor scenes. Mann was so besotted with Scottish folkie Dougie MacLean’s “The Gael” that he requested it be adapted into the main theme, “Promentory.” His instincts were right, as its hypnotic fiddle befits the Gaelic influence on early American music.

25. ‘North by Northwest’ (Bernard Herrmann, 1959)

You’ll never look at Mount Rushmore again without hearing Herrmann’s distinctly nonmelodic but dynamic score, one of seven he composed for Alfred Hitchcock. He used the Spanish fandango with its heavy reliance on percussion (castanets and even hand-clapping) for the clashing rhythms that set the tone for the chaos thrust upon unwitting adman Roger Thornhill.

While movie music buffs can debate whether John Williams' Star Wars score is truly the greatest film score of all time, the composer has certainly created the most recognizable musical universe ever to accompany a motion picture. The familiarity and resonance of the score has grown with each new installment of the series, and Williams has continued to develop new themes for the expanding cast of characters having adventures a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away.

In this exploration of the musical world of Star Wars, we're tracing Williams' classical influences.

A trend-setting throwback

One of the reasons Star Wars made such an impact was that in a decade marked by stark, intellectually ambitious science fiction films—including George Lucas's own THX-1138 (1971)—Star Wars was a shamelessly sweeping throwback to space operas in the Buck Rogers mode.

Part and parcel of Lucas's approach was to commission a grand symphonic score, rather than an experimental electronic soundtrack. In his mid-40s, Williams was already an experienced film composer. Juilliard-trained, he'd worked with such legends as Bernard Herrmann and won two Academy Awards—including one for his still-iconic score for Steven Spielberg's Jaws, the movie that's credited for establishing the summer blockbuster genre.

It wasn't Williams's job, then, to break new aesthetic ground. In fact, it was precisely in the nature of his assignment that he produce a score harking back to the swashbuckling classics Lucas grew up with. His triumph, with Star Wars, was to deploy that musical vocabulary with an unprecedented power and sweep—a sweep that grew with each of the film's two sequels, and then with the three prequels Lucas directed 20 years later.

Wagner: The original franchise king

The ultimate influence on Williams's vision for Star Wars was Richard Wagner, whose Ring cycle combines a wealth of musical ideas that would inform Williams's work. Daringly dissonant and boldly dramatic for its time, Wagner's four-opera cycle was the original "cinematic" composition, its lurid Romantic vocabulary providing the basic toolbox for a century's worth of film composers.

The idea Williams is best-known for copping from Wagner—via many other opera and film composers—is the device of the leitmotif: a distinctive musical "voice" for each major character, a melody and arrangement that can be adapted in various ways to complement the evolving story.

Where the ordinary filmgoer most conspicuously hears Wagner in Star Wars, is in the brass-laden theme for Darth Vader and his evil Empire—which is distinctively reminiscent of Wagner's music for his majestic Valkyries.

Tchaikovsky: Instrumental color

You don't necessarily think Nutcracker Suite when you think Star Wars—but it's more appropriate than you might realize that The Force Awakens was released during the Christmas season. Tchaikovsky was a master of orchestral color, and when you listen to his score for the "coffee" interlude next to Williams's Jawa theme, you're reminded that Clara's magical sojourn was the original trip to a galaxy far, far away.

The grandly Romantic theme from Swan Lake is also echoed in Williams's love theme for Han and Leia, from The Empire Strikes Back. Whether or not Williams was explicitly thinking about a dying swan as he penned this elegiac music, he was certainly going for that feeling that a curtain (of stars?) is about to fall.

Holst: Journey into space

Other than the composers shot into orbit by Stanley Kubrick in 2001 (Ligeti, Khachaturian, both of the Strausses)—and the composers literally shot into orbit on Voyager II (Bach, Mozart, Beethoven)—there's no composer in the classical repertoire who's more closely associated with outer space than Gustav Holst. The Planets has been mined for any number of sci-fi spectaculars, and Mars in particular has been a favorite of film composers including Williams, whose stormtroopers march to a distinctly Martian beat.

Korngold: Movie master

Of all Williams's borrowings, there's none more notorious than his nod to Erich Korngold—right out of the gate, no less. As many listeners have noted, the main Star Wars theme (technically, Luke Skywalker's theme) bears more than a passing resemblance to Korngold's theme for Kings Row (1942).

Whether you'd go so far as to call this a "cinematic swipe," it's no shocker that Williams looked to channel Korngold, whose music for classic films like The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938) and The Sea Hawk (1940) is clearly the immediate template from which Williams was working with Star Wars and his other best-known film scores.

Kings Row, ironically, is a hard-edged drama about dark secrets in a small town. One of its stars was none other than Ronald Reagan, who would go on as President to appropriate the terms "Star Wars" (for his proposed missile defense system) and "evil empire" (for the Soviet Union).

Stravinsky: Uncanny Rite

Stravinsky's influence on Star Wars might have come by way of Fantasia, where his instantly infamous Rite of Spring was used to soundtrack a desiccated landscape where dinosaurs marched to their deaths. As C-3PO and R2-D2 survey the barren sands of Tatooine, classical music fans must have wondered when a young Twi'lek was going to dance herself to death.

Orff: Sing a song of Sith

Believe it or not, when it came time to score the Star Wars prequels, there was one classical monster hit that just about every film composer except for Williams had plundered. That's Carl Orff's Carmina Burana, whose O Fortuna choir has been cribbed for seemingly every movie that culminates in a supernatural apocalypse. When it came time for Qui-Gon Jinn and Obi-Wan Kenobi to duel to the death with Darth Maul in The Phantom Menace, Williams knew who to call.

Elgar: A New Hope and Glory

The theme that soundtracks the Throne Room procession (sorry for the spoiler) in the original Star Wars movie is a perfect example of Williams's special talent for creating music that's simultaneously new and old. Thanks to Williams's gift for melody and tone, you probably don't think about your high school graduation when Luke and Han are walking down the aisle—but listening to Williams's music for this scene next to Elgar's Pomp and Circumstance march makes clear that Williams knew whose arrangement to crib when he wanted to evoke the feeling of a formal award ceremony.

An original alchemy

Although Williams owes debts to all these composers—and many more—every composer stands on the shoulders of giants. Williams's homages may have been a bit more direct than some other composers', but the bottom line is that his mastery of melody and deftness of tone make the Star Wars scores a signal achievement in the history of cinema. Just as Lucas knew to hit the books (specifically, Joseph Campbell's Hero with a Thousand Faces), so did Williams; together, the two reinvigorated ancient tropes with freshness and verve.

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Composer Chanda Dancy has been scoring film music for more than 20 years. Starting her career working on independent films and video games, she now has transitioned to larger studios, including the recent Korean War film Devotion, and works on her multimedia label, CYD Music.

How did you get into and navigate the film industry? 

“My start in the film industry started with the USC film scoring program. I decided in undergrad that I would give this a go. I've always been a classical musician since I was a kid. I started composing in middle school. Playing the violin in orchestra and composing has always been a part of my life.

“I wouldn't necessarily say that doing smaller independent films was my calling. It was just where I found myself. It was the natural progression of things because at USC, I was fortunate to create an incredible community as I found my creative career foundation. I've made friends with many filmmakers from the USC Cinema School, as well as the UCLA program and CalPERS community. In school, we're taught that you need to go out and network and hand out your business card. I never did that. It wasn't necessarily because I didn't think I should. I couldn't because I'm such an introvert.

“I just worked on my communities’ projects. Then the project's editor would ask me to do my first film. Then that person's editor or producer would do the same. All my work for 15 years straight was just like through the community and my neighborhood. Then all of a sudden, the studio people saw my work and now I'm in the studio world. I had a twisting, winding road map to get where I am.”

Do you like working in the studio?

”Yes, I am open to beautiful, meaningful projects. So far in the studio world, that's what I've been getting into. It's been fantastic, but I would still work on an independent film. It's what allows my soul to sing essentially.” 

How did you get involved with the recent film Devotion, and what was it like to create music for it?

“I know the director, J.D. Dillard, was looking for a fresh sound. Now, I couldn't tell you whether that explicitly was a Black American composer or a woman composer or anything different. But I do know he wanted a different kind of sound. That's what brought his attention to me. I got on his radar because my agent is pretty good friends with the producers at Black Label Media. He's had experience with them because he also represented Jóhann Jóhannsson. He said, ‘Hey, I have this composer, Chanda. She's different.’

“Dillard said that he listened to my soundtrack to After We Leave. I guess I had the sound he was looking for because, from what I heard, quite a few composers were up for the job. Some were composers of color, as well. I wasn't the only one. I had such an easy working relationship with him. One big reason why he chose me is that he liked how I let my music sing.” 

How did you come about that sound, and how do you let it sing?

”I just be me. I know that sounds cliché, but it’s not. I was purposefully trying to craft my sound a certain way. I was bringing various components of my own life experience into my music. 

“In my experience, I have a classical music foundation. The orchestra is the foundation of my musical life. But then I worked for a sound design company, so I did a lot of sound processing in my scores. I also played in a rock band. There's a whole part of me that plays my bass guitar and creates awesome crumbling textures and sounds. That’s in addition to me playing the violin, viola and cello.

“So when I create things, I sing them. They feel more connected to me emotionally, and I feel like I can bring that out in the music better when I sing it.” 

What is your project CYD Music?

“It is a side thing. It's not my main focus but allows me to be as creative as possible with sound. The film After We Leave was a perfect project for that. I said I worked for a sound design company right out of USC. Sound editing and design have always been a part of me since. This was an excellent opportunity to create an entire place for soundscape music, sound design, editing and making sound art. … It's an art experience. 

”I've had a few pieces commissioned by Anthony Parker, the conductor of the San Bernardino Symphony. I was playing in the Southeast Symphony as a violinist under his tutelage. He commissioned a piece from me in 2016 for the Southeast Symphony and then another piece in 2021 for the San Bernardino Symphony.”

The Star Wars franchise has been an iconic sci-fi series for more than 40 years. It has grown from a simple three-movie saga into a bigger movie saga, TV series, spin-offs, video games and even theme-park attractions. But the most recognizable part is the music. Nothing is more satisfying than listening to the opening credits at the beginning of each movie.

John Williams has been the composer behind most of the music, and it is common knowledge that inspiration for the music came from other composers, such as Igor Stravinsky, Wolfgang Mozart and Richard Wagner. If you like these popular musical selections from the Star Wars films, you’ll probably enjoy our recommendations for similarly styled classical works.

"The Throne Room" from A New Hope

After the rebels blow up the Death Star, our heroes Luke, Han and Chewie are greeted by Leia with a warriors’ welcome. At the big ceremony, you hear this triumphant melody.

John Williams — “Throne Room and Finale” from Star Wars

Originally part of the four-act opera Mlada, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov arranged “Procession of the Nobles” as a symphonic piece. It uses an opening brass fanfare to signal the entry of nobles, kings and sultans.

Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov —  “Procession of the Nobles”

"Duel of the Fates" from The Phantom Menace

While not the most popular film of the franchise, The Phantom Menace gave us one of the most exciting lightsaber fight scenes of all time. While Darth Maul battles both Qui-Gon Jinn and Obi-Wan Kenobi, the massive choral piece gives the audience shivers to accompany the exhilarating visuals.

John Williams — “Duel of the Fates”

“O Fortuna” from Carmina Burana might already be a familiar work because it has been used in many films, including Natural Born Killers, Excalibur and The Hunt for Red October. The work gives a sense of an epic battle waging before you.

Carl Orff — “O Fortuna” from Carmina Burana

“Main Title” from Star Wars

This is the tune everyone knows, even people who have never seen Star Wars. (Do they exist?) It is accompanied by the unforgettable golden-lettered scroll that begins every movie.

John Williams — "Main Title" from A New Hope

We know that Williams got inspiration from classical and romantic composers. But what many don’t realize is that he also drew material from early American film composer Erich Wolfgang Korngold. Some of the films Korngold scored included The Adventures of Robin Hood and Kings Row, whose triplet-driven main theme many cite as a direct influence on Williams. But Korngold’s music should resonate with many Star Wars fans, including his main title for The Sea Hawk.

Erich Wolfgang Korngold — “Main Title” from The Sea Hawk

“Cantina Band” from A New Hope

The ditty heard in the alien-crowded cantina is one of the most iconic works from Star Wars, setting the tone of the spaceport Mos Eisley, a “wretched hive of scum and villainy.” But did you know that the work and the band have a name? In the fictional world of Star Wars, the song is “Mad About Me” and is performed by Figrin D'an and the Modal Nodes.

John Williams — “Cantina Band”

Klezmer is a musical tradition that was created by Ashkenazi Jews. Used primarily for social functions, like weddings, there is a large performance scene in Eastern Europe. After the Holocaust, Klezmer music was introduced to the United States and influenced popular and classical music — and offers a cantina vibe for our purposes.

Barcelona Gipsy balKan Orchestra — “Od Ebra do Dunava“

“Princess Leia's Theme” from A New Hope

“Princess Leia’s Theme” is one of the most obvious uses of Wagner’s concept of leitmotifs. Often when Leia is on screen, we hear her theme.

John Williams — “Princess Leia's Theme”

With its soft, beautiful background accompaniment and lush but sensitive horn, Maurice Ravel’s Pavane for a Dead Princess has the same style and feel to its Star Wars counterpart.

Maurice Ravel — Pavane for a Dead Princess

“The Imperial March” from The Empire Strikes Back

“The Imperial March” is meant to strike fear into viewers. When you first hear it in The Empire Strikes Back, you know that Darth Vader is a formidable enemy of the rebellion.

John Williams — “The Imperial March” (“Darth Vader's Theme”)

Another power yet menacing march, any lover of Darth Vader is sure to enjoy in the 2nd Movement of Dmitri Shostakovich’s 10th Symphony.

Dmitri Shostakovich — Symphony No. 10, Mvt. 2

“Luke and Leia” from Return of the Jedi

This piece captures the essence of Luke and Leia perfectly. A cautious, yet wondrous melody is supported by a heartwarming orchestra portraying the complicated past and future of the siblings.

John Williams — “Luke and Leia”

Peter Tchaikovsky’s horn solo in the 2nd Movement of his Fifth Symphony displays more complexity and passion than heard in Luke and Leia’s theme. A master of emotion, Tchaikovsky should be a favorite for all fans of the Star Wars franchise.

Peter Tchaikovsky — Fifth Symphony No. 5, Mvt. 2

NPR's Mary Louise Kelly talks with actor Kelvin Harrison Jr. about starring in the 2022 movie Chevalier, which tells the forgotten story of Joseph Bologne, a Black composer and violinist of the 1700s.

Transcript

MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:

The new movie "Chevalier" opens with a concert in Paris conducted by Mozart himself. Mid-performance, a young Black man strides forward and asks...

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "CHEVALIER")

KELVIN HARRISON: (As Joseph Bologne) May I play with you, monsieur?

JOSEPH PROWEN: (As Mozart) All right, fine. Come up here. I assume you know this piece.

HARRISON: (As Joseph Bologne) Yes, monsieur.

PROWEN: (As Mozart) Well, I hope this won't be embarrassing for you.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

KELLY: The two take turns playing.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

KELLY: Far from being embarrassed, he captivates the audience.

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "CHEVALIER")

PROWEN: (As Mozart) Who the hell is that?

KELLY: That was Joseph Bologne, also known as the Chevalier de Saint-Georges. The son of a French plantation owner and an enslaved Senegalese woman, he was a celebrated composer and violinist in 1700s Paris. His concerts were frequently attended by Queen Marie Antoinette. But if the name Joseph Bologne is not ringing a bell, you're not alone.

HARRISON: My dad's a classical music teacher, and he never knew about Joseph. And all we did growing up was listen to classical music.

KELLY: That's Kelvin Harrison Jr., who plays Joseph Bologne. He says after he got the part, he went to tell his dad about it.

HARRISON: He was just like, what? How'd I never hear about this cat? You know, we started listening to the music, and he was blown away. He was like, this guy.

(SOUNDBITE OF LONDON CONTEMPORARY ORCHESTRA'S "VIOLIN CONCERTO IN G MAJOR, OP. 8, NO. 2: I. ALLEGRO (FROM "CHEVALIER")")

HARRISON: You know, my dad really had a field day with him.

KELLY: The new movie "Chevalier" hopes to introduce a wider audience to Joseph Bologne, a man that some have dubbed the Black Mozart. When we spoke the other day, I asked Kelvin Harrison Jr. for his thoughts on that nickname.

HARRISON: I think it's fascinating that everybody wants to compare simply because Mozart was the notable composer that we all know of. But arguably, Joseph kind of came first. You can see certain lines from Joseph's work that Mozart actually took and just raised it up two, three whole steps. You hear the same melodies and some of the inspiration, and he had so much flavor. But Mozart was the acceptable guy to listen to at the time. He was the one we could look at as the hotshot, the celebrity of the moment. And...

KELLY: Yeah.

HARRISON: Joseph was still just a man who was lucky enough to be even knighted as a chevalier at the time.

KELLY: Is that actually you playing, like, the amazing finger work, what we see on camera?

HARRISON: Yep. And it was me doing all those finger works, all those bow strokes.

KELLY: Did you play violin before this film?

HARRISON: So my first instrument was the violin. I got into a program in elementary school, and I guess I caught on to it fairly quickly. And then Katrina happened, and I lost the violin. It was damaged. And I just - I changed instruments, and I started playing piano and trumpet because my dad was like, if you're going to live in my house, you're going to play an instrument because he's a music teacher. So when I got the job, I knew I had enough of a grasp on the instrument because of my previous time that - I thought it was going to be movie magic to an extent. And then...

KELLY: Right.

HARRISON: Stephen Williams, our director, was like, no, absolutely not.

KELLY: The skill level you're playing at is obviously not elementary school. It's amazing.

HARRISON: Yeah, it took six months. I got the job when I was in Australia shooting "Elvis," and then immediately I was like, I have to get back home. And I went to my dad, and he got a violin. I got a violin. We started working on our dexterity because that was the biggest thing - making sure those fingers were mobile enough. He's a showman, Joseph. So it's tricky. But you know, you just - six hours a day, every day for six months and so...

KELLY: Oh, wow.

HARRISON: You hope for the best after that.

KELLY: This dude was so insanely talented. He also happened to be the best fencer in Paris. Really? Is that historically accurate? Do we know?

HARRISON: Well, you know, he was - he beat Poinsette (ph). I mean, Poinsette was actually documented to be the best fencer of the time. And it was documented that Joseph beat him in a bout. You know, there's a book called "Virtuoso Of The Sword And Bow" by Gabriel Banat. And he kind of chronicles his entire life from start to finish and really getting into the details of specifically La Boessiere's academy and some of the players that went through the academy and, you know, the envy they experience, how quick he was on his feet. They describe him as catlike. You know, it makes sense historically that he was just this incredible feline of a fencer.

KELLY: So did you have to learn to fence to play this role, too?

HARRISON: Yes, I did. It was - that was - actually, I think it was a lot easier than the violin. But I think with the schedule of the violin, it became harder.

KELLY: Because you were doing, you just told me, six hours of violin a day. So where did fencing fit in?

HARRISON: Oh, my God. So the six hours started before we started shooting, and then we started shooting 10 hours a day. But then after that, I would have to go to fencing for an hour, and then I would do violin for another couple hours, and then I would start learning my lines for the next day.

KELLY: Oh, my goodness.

HARRISON: It was like school.

KELLY: Wow. The movie is a lot of fun to watch, as people may be gathering. It also has moments that are very uncomfortable to watch. I'm thinking of some of the scenes where Joseph is grappling with the racial politics of the era, the racist politics of the era. Were they hard to play?

HARRISON: You know, there are times. There are times when things become very heavy on your heart. And, you know, we shot in Prague, which isn't Paris, but there's still a lot of history. And one of the theaters we shot in was where Mozart premiered "Don Giovanni."

KELLY: Yeah.

HARRISON: You can go through the halls of that theater, and you can still see photos of plays like "Othello" done in blackface. Digesting some of the fact that it's not fully removed, we're not fully out of it in some respects and it was even worse at the time can be heavy on your heart. But I also like to keep in the mindset that at the end of the day, it's a privilege to tell the story. But it's not lost on me in some of those moments, you know?

KELLY: Yeah. There is a line that struck me.

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "CHEVALIER")

JIM HIGH: (As George Bologne) Do not give anyone any reason to tear you down. No one may tear down an excellent Frenchman.

KELLY: It made me wonder - as I watched you on screen, wonder if you've ever felt this way. Did that resonate for you?

HARRISON: Oh, 100%. I mean, I think I made a whole career out of that kind of quote.

(LAUGHTER)

KELLY: Being a Frenchman aside. Yeah.

HARRISON: Being a Frenchman aside, yeah, other than on Frenchmen Street in New Orleans (laughter). You know, my dad is such a tough competitor, and I want to say competitive because he moves, as a musician, like an athlete. And the way he taught us to have discipline, the way he taught us to practice, the way he taught us to just move through life was so specific. And so - it's so much resilience. And that movie "Waves" - the line where I was like, you have to work 10 times harder as a Black man to be great - you know, what was so fascinating for me with this movie was seeing how that line just hops from generation to generation to generation to make up for the lost time and the lack of opportunity and the disregard for who we were as people of color. I definitely felt that.

KELLY: Well, Kelvin Harrison, this has been a total pleasure. Thank you for talking to us about this new movie.

HARRISON: Oh, thank you for watching, and thank you for wanting to talk about it. It means a lot to Joseph, I'm sure, and to me. So thank you.

KELLY: Kelvin Harrison - he is the star of the new movie "Chevalier."

(SOUNDBITE OF TAKASHI NISHIZAKI PERFORMANCE OF BACH'S "I. ALLEGRO")

Copyright © 2023 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information.

Ferde Grofe's Grand Canyon Suite doesn't seem like music for Christmas, at least not on its own, but then it was used in a crucial part of the 1983 movie "A Christmas Story." Join us today to hear iconic holiday movies: A Christmas Story, Home Alone, and Miracle on 34th Street.

Episode Playlist

Hour 1

John Wiliams: Home Alone: We Wish You a Merry Christmas/End Title
Studio Orchestra | John Williams, conductor
Album: Home Alone Original Motion Picture Soundtrack
Sony 46595

Cyril Mockridge: Miracle on 34th Street: Suite
Royal Philharmonic Orchestra | David Newman, conductor
Album: It's A Wonderful Life, Miracle On 34th St. & A Christmas Carol
Telarc 88801

John Williams: Home Alone: Somewhere in My Memory
Studio Orchestra | John Williams, conductor
Album: Home Alone Original Motion Picture Soundtrack
Sony 46595

John Williams: Home Alone: Holiday Flight
Boston Pops Orchestra | John Williams, conductor
Album: Joy to the World
Sony 48232

John Williams: Home Alone: Star of Bethlehem
Boston Pops Orchestra | John Williams, conductor
Album: Joy to the World
Sony 48232

Ferde Grofe: Grand Canyon Suite
The Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra | JoAnn Falletta, conductor
The Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, Kleinhans Music Hall, Buffalo, NY

Hour 2

Kenneth Jennings: Noel: Christmas Eve
St. Olaf Choir
Album: My Soul's Been Anchored in the Lord
St. Olaf 2396

Traditional, arr. Dan Forrest: See Amid the Winters Snow
BYU Combined Choirs and Philharmonic | Andrew Crane, conductor
Brigham Young University, De Jong Concert Hall, Provo, UT

Wynton Marsalis: Violin Concerto in D: Mvts 2-4
Nicola Benedetti, violin | The Philadelphia Orchestra | Cristian Macelaru, conductor
Album: Wynton Marsalis Violin Concerto, Fiddle Dance Suite
Decca 30521

Mel Torme & Robert Wells, arr. Giovanni De Chiaro: The Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire)
Giovanni De Chiaro, guitar
Album: The Sounds Of Christmas On Guitar
Centaur 2262

Traditional, arr. John Rutter: Past Three O'Clock
Judy Mason, piano | Spivey Hall Tour Choir | Martha Shaw, conductor
Spivey Hall, Clayton State University, Morrow, GA
Music: 01:25

The new opera The Hours is based on a film directed by Stephen Daldry and a novel by Michael Cunningham, which itself is based on a book (Mrs. Dalloway) by Virginia Woolf.

But it captures the material in a brand-new way.

"I knew the book. I knew the film," said Pulitzer Prize-winning composer, Kevin Puts. "I knew that what you can do on an opera stage, and through music and through harmony...that simultaneity...is something that works. I could imagine, you know, duets and trios that would eventually involve the three ladies who live in these different time periods in the 20th century, in different places. And that was compelling, just from a musical standpoint."

Michael Cunningham's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel is a look at an eventful day in the lives of three women, and how their experiences intersect. Evoking Virginia Woolf's writing techniques, he entwines three characters' stories: the British novelist herself, struggling to create Mrs. Dalloway in 1923; an unhappy 1940s housewife in Los Angeles who is reading the book; and a New York editor in the late 1990s preparing a party for her friend and former lover, who's dying of AIDS.

Now those three women are being played by a powerhouse trio of divas at the Metropolitan Opera: Renée Fleming, Joyce DiDonato and Kelli O'Hara. It will be broadcast in HD at movie theaters around the world on Saturday.

The opera came about because Puts collaborated with opera superstar Fleming on a song cycle called The Brightness of Light – a setting of letters between Georgia O'Keefe and Alfred Stieglitz. Puts approached Fleming at a party after the cycle's premiere, asking if she'd like to work on an opera together.

"And I said, 'Absolutely. You know, I would love it,'" said Fleming. "And that's how the conversation started."

When someone in Fleming's office suggested The Hours, they both thought it was a perfect idea - as did the Metropolitan Opera and Philadelphia Orchestra, which co-commissioned the piece.

Greg Pierce, a playwright who has written the scripts for a couple of musicals with John Kander and the libretto for the opera Fellow Travelers was enlisted to do the libretto.

"The Met is a very big space," Pierce said. "It's got a massive chorus, a big orchestra. Why not make use of all of that? You could do an Hours that's really intimate, a chamber piece. That's not what we wanted to do."

Much of the book's narration is interior, and Puts and Pierce decided to use the chorus to express some of the inner voices of the three main characters.

"We didn't want the chorus to be townspeople, you know? And nothing against townspeople. You know, I love Brigadoon, but we needed them to do something else for The Hours," said Pierce. "And the idea that they could potentially go in and out of the minds of these main characters and argue with them, they could be in inner argument – it was really exciting to us."

In Phelim McDermott's staging and Annie-B Parson's choreography, the chorus and dancers are constantly onstage, helping to underline the central characters' emotional states.

Having three lead roles in three different time frames led composer Puts to come up with three different "musics," as he put it. Clarissa, the 1990s character – who shares the same first name as the protagonist in Mrs. Dalloway – has "a kind of American quality to the harmony, and a certain kind of minimalist pulse," Puts said.

The character of Laura Brown, the depressed, suicidal 1940s housewife, played by Kelli O'Hara, is based, in part, on Michael Cunningham's own mother. Puts wrote music in the scenes with her family that "have a kind of Lawrence Welk/ Leave It to Beaver/Henry Mancini sort of quality. But it's not really her. It's really her family," he said.

Virginia Woolf is also suicidal - in the opera and in real life – but filled with abundant creativity. For mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato, Puts composed music that's dark, with surprising harmonies and moments that sometimes have "a kind of baroque quality to some of the ornamentation," said Puts. He said he was naturally thinking of Joyce DiDonato's vocal quality, especially the way she sounds while singing baroque repertoire.

The process of creating the opera was intensely collaborative with all three singers, who were free to make suggestions about their vocal lines.

"I tell you it has truly been one of the great experiences of my artistic life," said the multi-Grammy Award-winning DiDonato. "I said, 'If I do this, I can achieve something a little bit more magical or whatever.' And he said, 'The only constraint is I can't change the orchestra, but everything else was open for discussion.' And I think we found some really wonderful things."

While there have been inevitable changes in the transfer from page and screenplay to stage, the themes of Michael Cunningham's novel are still there – the issues of mental health and suicidal ideation, how past and present are constantly in conversation with one another, queerness, how all three women are filled with regrets and loneliness.

Yet novelist Cunningham left the creators to their own devices. He didn't see the opera until opening night at the Met. "It was fantastic," he said. "It's a strange experience. as it would be. It was a strange experience seeing the movie all those years ago."

"I genuinely don't have this thing about the 'sacred text," Cunningham said. "If anything, I feel like it is a life sign in a novel, that it can be adapted; that it has enough space to be able to take on other forms."

If there is one moment in the opera that deviates most from Cunningham's original, it's the ending, said librettist Pierce.

"We knew that we needed these three incredible singers to sing together," he said. "When you're telling these three stories and you're in an opera, people are going to be waiting for that. And I was waiting for that. And it was really scary writing that because we wanted to do it right."

What he and Puts did was create a trio that's kind of afterHours – the narrative is wrapped up, the relationship between all three characters is made clear and the three women sing to one another out of time and space.

"I feel like that's where opera solved the problem of needing to really connect these three souls," said O'Hara. "These three entities, hour after hour over the years. At some point, you had to break these walls and bring these three women together."

DiDonato said she has a hard time getting through the finale without crying. "This moment, these three titanic divas sitting down and saying, 'You're not alone.' That is deeply comforting, especially in 2022."

Copyright 2025, NPR

Violin prodigy and inspiration for Mozart, Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges was an illegitimate son of an African slave and a French plantation owner. He rose to heights in French society as a composer and swordsman before an ill-fated love affair.

When you think of classical music and playing video games, not many games come to mind. Now one does. Trombone Champ takes inspiration from Guitar Hero to make a game that will win over prospective brass players.

The creator of the game, Holy Wow, said “Trombone Champ is the world’s first trombone-based rhythm music game. Unlike most music games, you can freely play any note at anytime. You're not just following along with the music. You're actually playing the music!”

At the game’s release, it has more than 20 tracks, including classical works, anthems, marches and more. Not only does the game have guest artists that show up, but there also are unlockable “Tromboner Cards” that teach players about a famous performer.

You won't believe how much Bradley Cooper looks like Leonard Bernstein in an upcoming Netflix film, Maestro.

The film is said to focus on the relationship between Bernstein and his wife, Felicia Montealegre. Their relationship was complex, to say the least. While they did love each other and had three children together, it is rumored that because of the conservative nature of orchestras during that time, Bernstein had to conceal his homosexuality. Eventually, he could no longer hide and left Montealegre in 1976. A year later, she was diagnosed with lung cancer and Bernstein moved back to care for her until her death in 1978.

Take a sneak peek at photos from Netflix’s Twitter feed of Cooper’s transformation into Bernstein. With Martin Scorsese and Steven Spielberg as producers, expectations for the film are high. The film is planned for release in 2023.

Throughout history, many things have been turned into musicals — books, shows, operas and more. But have you ever heard of a musical based on a video game?

California's John Burroughs High School choir created a musical performance that tells the story of Rapture, an underwater city where the video game BioShock takes place. The show includes characters from the game such as Andrew Ryan and Sander Cohen, which makes the adaptation more akin to a history lesson on the fictional events leading to the beginning of the franchise. 

The choir borrows popular songs such as Tina Turner’s “Proud Mary” and adapts them to fit the BioShock world’s 1960s setting.

Watch John Burroughs High School choir’s 22-minute musical performance inspired by the video game BioShock.  

What sort of relationship do video games and classical music share? Join host Liz Lyon for an exploration of video-game music and how it has developed a deep relationship with classical music.

Episode 82 playlist

Koji Kondo: Super Mario Brothers Theme — This was originally composed for the 1985 Nintendo Entertainment System video game Super Mario Brothers. Sound designer Koji Kondo says he found this piece to be the most difficult to compose. This version of the theme is performed by the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra.

LISTEN — Koji Kondo: Super Mario Brothers Theme

Yoko Shimomura: Kingdom Hearts, Hikari — Yoko Shimomura is a Japanese composer and pianist. She has written for video games such as the Mario & Luigi series as well as Final Fantasy XV, but she is best known for writing the music for the video game Kingdom Hearts. Here is a popular piece from that game performed by the New Japanese Philharmonic Orchestra.

LISTEN — Yoko Shimomura: Kingdom Hearts, Hikari

Claude Debussy: Claire de Lune — Video-game music is often used to help set the mood and provide insight into the specific game. Those who know the game The Evil Within, a game for older teens and adults, also know that when they hear Claire de Lune, by Claude Debussy, within the game, safety is nearby.

LISTEN — Claude Debussy: Claire de Lune

You can now search and listen to YourClassical Adventures where podcasts are found.

Explore more from YourClassical Adventures!

What are you curious about?

You must be 13 or older to submit any information to American Public Media/Minnesota Public Radio. The personally identifying information you provide will not be sold, shared, or used for purposes other than to communicate with you about things like our programs, products and services. See Terms of Use and Privacy.

There is a strange instrument that was once believed to have magical powers. Join host Liz Lyon as we learn a little about the history of the glass armonica and listen to music composed for this unique instrument.

Episode 80 Glass Armonica

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Adagio for Glass Armonica — In the last year of Mozart’s life, he composed this piece for the glass armonica, which has been referred to as one of unearthly beauty.

LISTEN — Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Adagio for Glass Armonica

Johann Abraham Peter Schulz: Largo — There were many rumors surrounding the glass armonica. In Germany, some towns actually banned the instrument. Here is a piece written for it by German composer Johann Abraham Peter Schulz.

LISTEN — Johann Abraham Peter Schulz: Largo

James Horner: Spock — The glass armonica also is sometimes referred to as the bowl organ. It produces ethereal sounds and when paired with the harp, composer James Horner thought it created the perfect theme for Spock in the Star Trek movie The Wrath of Khan.

LISTEN — James Horner: Spock

Carter Burwell: The Glass Armonica — Carter Burwell is best known for his work as a film composer. He wrote this piece for the glass armonica to accompany the movie Mr. Holmes, which portrays the famous literary detective Sherlock Holmes in his old age.

LISTEN — Carter Burwell: The Glass Armonica

You can now search and listen to YourClassical Adventures where podcasts are found.

Explore more from YourClassical Adventures!

What are you curious about?

You must be 13 or older to submit any information to American Public Media/Minnesota Public Radio. The personally identifying information you provide will not be sold, shared, or used for purposes other than to communicate with you about things like our programs, products and services. See Terms of Use and Privacy.

Monday is the 100th birthday anniversary of Elmer Bernstein, Oscar-winning composer for The Ten Commandments, The Great Escape, and The Magnificent Seven.  Epic scores all, yet for me his most affecting music is his gorgeous score for To Kill a Mockingbird.  Does any other music capture childhood, fragility and innocence more beautifully?

Thursday brings the next chapter in the annual Twin Cities Hitchcock Film Festival. This year it includes the 1942 rarity Saboteur,  and – just a few days after Doris Day’s 100th birthday anniversary – The Man Who Knew Too Much, in which music becomes a pivotal plot device, not only Doris Day’s heart-wrenchingly suspenseful take on “Que Sera, Sera,” but also in Arthur Benjamin’s Storm Cloud Cantata, the perfect musical coverup for an assassin’s bullet?

Saturday, the La Crosse Symphony plays “The Best of British Movie Scores,” including a visit from the fabulous pianist Alessio Bax performing Rachmaninoff’s Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini.

The weekend also brings the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra’s new orchestral arrangement of Bach’s keyboard classic, the Goldberg Variations.  Although not originally movie music, its gentle theme has been used in many movies — including, to terrifying effect, in The Silence of the Lambs!

Jonny Greenwood was known primarily as a guitarist and keyboardist for the rock band Radiohead at the time that filmmaker Paul Thomas Anderson reached out about Greenwood writing the score for his 2007 movie, There Will Be Blood.

"My reaction when Paul asked me was excitement," Greenwood tells Fresh Air. "I thought, 'This is going to be a bit like being in a band with somebody — except I'm in a band with Paul and the people who are making this film.' "

Greenwood went on to write the music for three more of Anderson's films — The Master, Phantom Thread and most recently Licorice Pizza — as well as scores for The Power of the Dog and Spencer, both released last year.

Greenwood was eventually recognized for his inventive, organic film compositions, receiving an Academy Award nomination in 2018 for Phantom Thread, as well as a Golden Globe nomination for The Power of the Dog. (Oscar nominations for 2021 will be announced on Tues., Feb. 8).

Scoring movies gave Greenwood a chance to more deeply explore his interest in baroque and avant-garde music, which he traces back to childhood. In elementary school, a teacher encouraged his class to try to make a different noise with their instruments — in response, Greenwood remembers, he put the bow of his violin under the strings, playing the bottom string and top string at the same time.

"That really stuck with me," he says, "just realizing that there were really no rules. ... The variety of color that one player can make with a string instrument is quite mind blowing."

You can read highlights from this interview below, or listen to the broadcast version via the audio player at the top of this page.

Pretending to play keyboards when he first joined Radiohead

Thom [Yorke]'s band had a keyboard player — [whom] I think they didn't get on with because he played his keyboard so loud. And so when I got the chance to play with them, the first thing I did was make sure my keyboard was turned off ... I must have done months of rehearsals with them with this keyboard, and they didn't know that I'd already turned it off.

They made quite a racket, quite a noise. It was all guitars and distortion — and so I would pretend to play for weeks on end and Thom would say, "I can't quite hear what you're doing, but I think you're adding a really interesting texture, because I can tell when you're not playing." And I'm thinking, "No, you can't, because I'm really not playing." And I'd go home in the evening and work out how to actually play chords and cautiously over the next few months, I would start turning this keyboard up. And that's how I started in with Radiohead.

Why he prefers working with real instruments

I think the danger with writing music not-on-paper and relying on computers and demos is that you start to get used to how some strings sound, and then just look to replicate that. Whereas the variety of color that one player can make with a string instrument, it's quite mind-blowing. And just the combination of a whole ensemble and all the directions it can go, it's really exciting and daunting, and it's easily my favorite day of the year when the string players turn up for an afternoon.

I always found acoustic instruments, certainly orchestral instruments, to be capable of much more variety and strangeness and complexity than nearly all of the software I've used in the past. And I think that's maybe why, to me, music by people like [Krzysztof] Penderecki and [Gyorgy] Ligeti ... still sounds very strange and contemporary, and they still sound like the music of the future to me. Whereas lots of the electronic stuff that was done in the '60s and '70s, you hear it now, and it's just of its time.

The strange sound of his "Phantom Thread II" theme

There's a roll of felt laid between the hammers and the strings, which is why it sounds like that. And it's a little bit out of tune — just because I'm a bit lazy with my booking the piano tuner, I'm afraid.

[Violinist] Daniel [Pioro] is a very physical player indeed, and is interested in every possible color and texture. I also love a recording where you can hear the physicality of what's happening, whether it's the breathing of the player or just the effort involved in making the music. I know it drives some people crazy, but things like Glenn Gould singing along and all of that remind that there's all this muscle ... behind the making of the music. It just makes it more exciting to me. I think that stuff is, quite often, clinically stripped out in most people's consumption of music. Especially classical music.

On the more baroque version of that theme, "Phantom Thread III"

I'm a big fan of these historically very inaccurate recordings of baroque music that were done in the '60s, '70s, '80s even, before the authenticity police stepped in and made everyone play with the right size of orchestra and the right kind of violins. Because it's sort of glorious hearing this baroque music done with big romantic orchestras — it would never have sounded like that. So that was a reference I sent to Paul [Thomas Anderson], and he was also talking about that [Stanley] Kubrick film, Barry Lyndon, that has some big baroque orchestral things in it. It was, on one level, another excuse to get in a room with an orchestra and just revel in that beautiful big sound they make.

Fitting the music to a film's story

There's a few cues in Phantom Thread that were written specifically for the scene they're in, but they're the minority. It's usually more a case of writing music about the characters, or the scenery, or the story itself. Like in There Will Be Blood, I remember being really taken with the story of H.W. and this sort of abandoned boy being taken — I enjoyed writing quite a lot of, I suppose, quite sentimental music for that. I enjoyed that easily as much as writing the more atonal and relatively stranger orchestrations and things.

I try to avoid things like click tracks, so quite often the players are just being asked to play two or three minutes of music and I and Paul, the editor or director, have to just put up with something that might not fit a picture, or even move the picture around so it fits the music. But this is partly from just trying to avoid computers as being the arbiter in how music is played and how tempos are conducted.

Working off of early footage, before a film has even wrapped

Usually, a lot of it gets written when I see the first test footage. Like with Jane Campion's film [The Power of the Dog], it was seeing all of the footage of New Zealand that was standing in [for] Montana, and just seeing the colors of the film and understanding the script and the characters. That's already lots of really fertile ground to start writing music — and I'd rather write twice as much music as needed and just keep going, rather than panic about dropping the level of the music at the right place so a line of dialogue can be fitted in exactly in the right second. And so I'm very indulged in that way, and I'm allowed to start at work very early while films are being shot. Or even before.

Heidi Saman and Seth Kelley produced and edited this interview for broadcast. Bridget Bentz and Molly Seavy-Nesper adapted it for the web.

Copyright 2025, Fresh Air, NPR

Join host Lynne Warfel for a special Valentine's Day program and offshoot of the weekly national program Saturday Cinema. Love at the Movies is an hour of classic movie scores from romantic films, rom-coms, animated love stories and more.

Program

• Rota: “Romeo and Juliet” - Love Theme

• Doyle: “Much Ado About Nothing” - Overture

• Jarre: “Doctor Zhivago” - Lara’s Theme

• Newman: “Wuthering Heights” - Cathy's Theme

• Brown: “Singin' in the Rain” - Main Theme

• Bernstein: “West Side Story” - Somewhere

• Chaplin: “City Lights” - Suite

• Rogers: Where or When

• Waxman: “Philadelphia Story” - Suite

• Warren: An Affair to Remember

• Lai: “Love Story” - Theme

• Santaoalalla: Selections from “Brokeback Mountain”

• Steiner: “Casablanca” - Suite

Scott Simon talks to radio host and author Martin Goldsmith about ‘Winter Journey,’ a film about his parents, who were musicians in a Jewish orchestra during Nazi Germany.

Transcript

SCOTT SIMON, HOST:

Thursday, the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra will perform Carl Nielsen's Symphony No. 4 and show a film, "Winter Journey." The film's a mix of memoir, documentary and re-creation to show the story of two musicians who played in a Jewish Kulturbund orchestra. The film stars Bruno Ganz in his last performance. He plays a member of that orchestra recollecting those times.

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "WINTER JOURNEY")

BRUNO GANZ: (As George Goldsmith) I'm George Goldsmith. I'm a boring, old man.

MARTIN GOLDSMITH: Who used to be a musician.

GANZ: (As George Goldsmith) ...Who used to be a musician.

GOLDSMITH: And who used to be Gunther Goldschmidt.

GANZ: (As George Goldsmith) Uh-huh.

GOLDSMITH: That's what I'd like to talk about.

SIMON: And the voice of the son trying to bring out his family's story is Martin Goldsmith. The true story is taken from his book "The Inextinguishable Symphony." And Martin Goldsmith, a host on Sirius XM, who was once our colleague here at NPR, joins us now. Marty, thanks so much for being with us.

GOLDSMITH: Thank you for having me, Scott.

SIMON: First, tell us about this extraordinary orchestra that included your parents, the Jewish orchestra in Nazi Germany.

GOLDSMITH: These were artists who, after Adolf Hitler became chancellor of Germany in 1933, were summarily booted out of their positions with German opera companies, orchestras and theater companies. And in the late spring and early summer of 1933, these now-displaced Jewish artists came together to create this Kulturbund, this cultural association, reasoning that if they could no longer make art for their fellow Germans, they could make art for their fellow German Jews. Dr. Joseph Goebbels at the Ministry for Public Enlightenment and Propaganda, as it was called, quickly realized that he could use this organization, this Kulturbund as a propaganda tool. When other countries around the world began to object to stories of the way the Jews were treated in Germany, Goebbels could feign surprise and say, look, the Jews have their own orchestra. They have their own opera company. Surely, all of these stories you are hearing are fake.

SIMON: And this was happening at the same time that other Jews were already beginning to disappear.

GOLDSMITH: Certainly, that was the case towards the end of the 1930s. But during all of this, the Kulturbund continued to perform heroically.

SIMON: Marty, when you were growing up, what were you told about what had happened to your grandparents and relatives in Germany?

GOLDSMITH: Not a thing. But my older brother Peter and I were obviously aware that at Thanksgiving, we had no grandmothers or grandfathers or aunts or uncles. It was a subject that just didn't come up at the dinner table. There was no reason for it to. My brother once summoned the courage to ask my father, where are our aunts and uncles and grandparents? And my father replied, they died in the war. That was the extent of the explanation when the actual truth was so much more horrific than that.

SIMON: You spent some time in this film playing you, questioning and sometimes being upset with your father, who died in 2009. Was that difficult?

GOLDSMITH: It was, and it wasn't. I mean, my father, when he found out, when he first saw these grisly newsreels coming out of Germany and he realized that his whole family had been murdered in the camps, he, in my opinion, decided to do penance by giving up music, giving up the thing he loved. And that made him unhappy with his life. And there is a scene in the film in which my frustration with my father having thrown away the art that he so loved and which was so much a part of his life, that frustration and pity and sorrow and anger sort of boiled over.

SIMON: I got to tell you, Marty, it's hard to see that scene. You know that you love your father, and yet, you know, you can see the wounds in his heart almost opening in front of you when you say that.

GOLDSMITH: Yes. As I say, it was both not so hard and very hard to do - not so hard because I could summon these feelings which are still smoldering, I suppose, somewhere within me. But I simultaneously have so much pity and love and respect for this man, who was able to live the next 50, 60 years of his life knowing that he had put music aside.

SIMON: I don't have to tell you that there are still anti-Semitic attacks or displays in America of one kind or another almost every week. And just this week, Whoopi Goldberg, a beloved American media figure, said, quote, "the Holocaust isn't about race. This is white people doing it to white people." She immediately apologized. What haven't we learned? Or what did we learn and forget?

GOLDSMITH: It pains me to say this, but in many ways, we've learned nothing. In many ways, we've learned nothing when it comes to racism. Also, in this week's news, we see a number of United States senators saying, in effect, that the only way a Black woman could be appointed to the Supreme Court is if she were the beneficiary of some kind of affirmative action, a more blatant expression of racism I really can't imagine. Many things have been prettied up and beautified, and many rules of social conduct have been established. And we see that beneath the decorations and the polite expressions - beneath all of that, the same ancient prejudices and hatreds remain, whether the objects are Jews or African Americans. We have learned a lot, and yet we have learned nothing.

SIMON: Tell us about the Nielsen Symphony No. 4 that the Buffalo Philharmonic's going to play.

GOLDSMITH: It's an extraordinary piece, Scott. It was composed in 1916 at the height of the grand folly known as World War I. Carl Nielsen, living up in Denmark, was appalled by what he heard and read about the carnage of the first world war. But as horrified and as appalled as Nielsen was, he was ultimately an optimistic man and, at the head of the score, wrote that even if somehow the human race managed to destroy itself through warfare, life would eventually return to the Earth, perhaps in the form of plant life or bird life or animal life. Nielsen wrote, music is life and, like life, inextinguishable.

The Kulturbund orchestra in Berlin in the spring of 1941, just before my parents managed to escape, rehearsed the Nielsen Fourth for a performance in the coming autumn season. Of course, the autumn season never arrived because on September 11, 1941, the Kulturbund was dissolved. And everybody who had not made it out by then were sent to the camps.

But the title "Inextinguishable Symphony" speaks to the courage and valor of the members of the Kulturbund, who continued doing their best to provide some kind of solace to their fellow Jews from 1933 all the way up until 1941. Hearing this glorious, glorious music, the story of those brave, indistinguishable artists in their minds - I'm very much looking forward to this first multimedia presentation.

SIMON: Martin Goldsmith is the voice of the film "Winter Journey," which will be shown this Thursday as part of a performance with the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra. Marty, thanks so much for being with us.

GOLDSMITH: It's been a great pleasure, Scott. Thank you.

(SOUNDBITE OF CARL NIELSEN'S "SYMPHONY NO. 4, OP. 29, FS 76 THE INEXTINGUISHABLE")

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“Here rests in honored glory an American soldier known but to God.” - Tomb of the Unknown Soldier

One hundred years ago this Veterans Day, the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier was erected at Arlington National Cemetery. Originally constructed to provide the final resting place for unidentified American service members of World War I, the tomb serves that purpose for all unknown military members from all conflicts. To commemorate the tomb’s centennial, the Virginia-based opera company UrbanArias is presenting its new musical film, Unknown, which features the title work that it commissioned from composer Shawn Okpebholo and librettist Marcus Amaker.

Honor our veterans and enjoy this new video adventure that implores the audience to reflect on the ideas of war and honor and how they pertain to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. The video is free to watch starting at midnight eastern time on Nov. 11, but viewers must register beforehand. Visit the Unknown website for more information.

Meanwhile, see what’s in store by watching the trailer below.

The silent films of a century ago were never really silent. Damsels were rescued from railroad tracks and the Keystone Cops chased the bad guys accompanied by a pianist or theater organist. Sitting in the dark with the rest of the crowd, they’d watch the film and improvise, heightening the onscreen action. 

At 1 p.m. Sunday, Philip Brunelle, the founder and mastermind of VocalEssence, will take the bench of the Mighty Wurlitzer organ at the Historic Heights Theater in Columbia Heights and accompany Safety Last, Harold Lloyd’s most famous film. You’ve probably seen the 1923 movie’s iconic image of Lloyd hanging onto a skyscraper’s clock high above the street.

Brunelle is a natural for this gig. In the 1980s and ‘90s, he accompanied dozens of silent films that the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis presented each summer. 

“It’s total improvisation the whole time,” he says. “The entire 60 minutes. No silence.”

For prep, Brunelle watches the film ahead of time to get a sense of key moments and overall pacing. But there’s no sheet music — he can’t even see his hands on the keys in the dark of the theater. For him, there’s a certain mystery to how this works. 

“I create improvisations on the hymns each week at Plymouth Congregational Church,” he says of the Minneapolis church where he’s organist and choirmaster, “and have a great love of all kinds of composers. That’s helpful for doing silent films. Still, my wife has said many times, ‘I have no idea how you do that.’ I don’t either!”

Tickets for Sunday’s show are available at the Heights Theater website. The venue is at 3951 Central Ave. NE in Columbia Heights. This is a benefit for Groveland Food Shelf; cash donations and nonperishable food items will be accepted at the event. 

Ruby Rossi (Emilia Jones) is in her last year of high school. She doesn't have much of a plan beyond graduation, because she assumes she's going to continue as she has been, working with her father and brother on the family fishing boat out of Gloucester, Mass. Ruby loves music and loves to sing, but the idea of actually trying to study or explore music seems like an impossible idea, even after her choir teacher (Eugenio Derbez) sees promise in her and encourages her to apply to Berklee College of Music in Boston.

Deciding whether to work in the family business or strike out on your own is always tough, but for Ruby, it has an added wrinkle: her parents (Marlee Matlin and Troy Kotsur) and her brother (Daniel Durant) are deaf. Ruby herself is not; she is what's called a CODA: a Child of Deaf Adults.

Directed and written by Sian Heder, CODA is closely based on a 2014 French film called La Famille Bélier, but this version has one important quality that the French film didn't: The deaf characters are played by deaf actors. Matlin is probably the most famous deaf actor in the United States, but CODA also has hugely appealing turns from Kotsur and Durant, both of whom have worked with the Deaf West Theatre in Los Angeles, including on its lauded production of Spring Awakening. Matlin has worked there, too.

The fundamental conflict for Ruby is the disruption it would cause in her family for her to leave. She's been her parents' interpreter since she was a child, and she feels responsible for things like making sure her father isn't cheated when he sells his fish at the end of every day.

Her parents — especially her mother — wonder what they would do without her to act as a bridge to the local community, which seems to have made no effort at all, either socially or in business terms, to communicate with the Rossis. This weighs on her parents, and it weighs on Ruby. It cannot go on like this forever, but what, her mother wonders, is the alternative?

CODA is a cheerfully conventional story in many respects: a kid discovers what she loves and has to figure out what she's willing to give up to follow her dream. She has an inspirational teacher who believes in her. She's met a boy, and that relationship is also making her think about life beyond the family she defends fiercely and sometimes resents. It's a predictable piece in structure that's sharp in execution, and that's so inventive and fresh in some of its particulars that it almost disguises the most conventional story beats.

Widely released films rarely embrace ASL as much as CODA does, even for deaf characters: here, rather than speech being prioritized for hearing audiences, the actors sign and are subtitled, and the language is allowed to breathe in a way that's moving, often funny, and very effective. (According to Variety, the French film didn't subtitle the signing; hearing audiences only understood it through the daughter repeating or responding to it.)

There is no question that Ruby's awakening about music can be vigorously corny — but the thing is ... so are a lot of real high school awakenings about art. I myself went to a summer music camp as a teenager where lots of people were very serious musicians headed for conservatories. We learned the song "I Sing The Body Electric" from Fame — from actual, literal Fame, for heaven's sake! — and believe me, at 15 I was deeply moved by singing lines like "I'll look back on Venus, look back on Mars/and I'll burn with the fire of ten million stars." It was extremely corny and it meant the world to me. What's more, our choral director believed everyone should know how to learn parts by ear, so she taught us that one without sheet music, just standing around together, which made it feel even more like a thing that would ... you know, happen in a movie.

So while Ruby's path is audience-ready and feels engineered to cause tears, sometimes music and theater kids are exactly that swept up in what they're doing. It might be cheesy, but if you're going to go for this kind of grand emotion, this actually might be the right setting for it.

And in the meantime, you get a much more subtle story alongside that about the ways in which this family dynamic both hurts and serves everyone in it. Ruby feels like she's sacrificed a great deal for her family; her brother senses that she gets something from being the only person she thinks can communicate with the rest of the world effectively. This gentle study of patterns in families, where everybody can love each other while still being stuck in habits they need to break, doesn't have the bombast of the musical sequences, but it has its own resonance.

Did CODA deserve to crowd out everything else to the degree that it did when Sundance handed out its awards? Probably not. But there is a place for the crowd-pleaser, the tear-jerker, the movie that wants to manipulate your emotions and make you cry — particularly if it manages to bring something new to an old formula. The performances here, especially from Kotsur and Durant, neither of whom were actors I had seen much of, are excellent. And if it feels silly to cry while people sing, then, well, as we all learn in time, there are worse reasons for tears.

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If you’re a fan of composer Benjamin Britten – or even if you only know him from kiddie concert performances of his Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra – you’re not alone. Filmmaker Wes Anderson’s Britten-filled quirky cupcake Moonrise Kingdom evoked the comic, angsty mysteries of childhood through several Britten scores, including Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra. And, Britten’s children’s opera Noye’s Floode (Noah’s Flood) becomes a central plot point of Anderson’s movie.

Moonrise Kingdom is one of five Wes Anderson classics (Rushmore, The Royal Tenenbaums, The Life Aquatic, Moonrise Kingdom, The Grand Budapest Hotel) featured in the Heights Theater’s retrospective Wes Anderson’s Kingdom, which starts this week and runs through August.

Meanwhile, relax and watch every Wes Anderson movie ever made, in seven minutes.

E3 is for video games what the BBC Proms are for classical music. The Electronic Entertainment Expo, which runs virtually Saturday through Tuesday, is the biggest video game event during the year, and it’s a chance for developers to show off the latest and greatest creations in their field. But as video games have advanced, so has the music that immerses you in the action. From old 8-bit computer sounds to fully orchestrated and original scores, video game music has elevated itself to a place where the classical music and video game communities can come together. In the spirit of E3, here are 10 great video-game soundtracks with great music that nongamers are sure to enjoy, too.

‘Super Mario Bros.’

Koji Kondo was the first person hired by Nintendo in 1984 specifically trained in music composition. After he scored the 1985 game Super Mario Bros., and with it the theme music that has become one of the most recognizable melodies in video games, Kondo has contributed in one way or another to most of Nintendo’s games, including Star Fox and The Legend of Zelda. 

‘Tetris’ 

Video game folklore says that Tetris is the only game to make it past the Iron Curtain, and the truth isn’t far off. The creator, Alexey Pajiynov, worked for the Soviet Academy of Sciences with the goal of using computers to make people happy. Little did he know that he would achieve his goal when his game went on to become one of the most popular and iconic puzzle games ever. The Russian folk song “Korobeiniki” became the theme song to Tetris after it was arranged by Hirokazu Tanaka for the 1989 Nintendo Game Boy version. 

‘Final Fantasy X’

Final Fantasy is one of the longest-running and most well-known science fantasy RPG franchises in video games. It was scored by Nobun Uematsu, with Masashi Hamauzu and Junya Nakano. The music featured on Final Fantasy X is among the most popular in the 15-game series, beaten out only by Final Fantasy VII, VIII and it’s sequel, X-2.

‘Chrono Trigger’ 

Chrono Trigger was released in 1995, and for video game lovers this was the combination of three legendary designers: Akira Toriyama (Dragon Quest and Dragon Ball Z) Hironobu Sakaguchi (Final Fantasy) and Yuji Horii (Dragon Quest). The high-octane music often combines thrilling guitar riffs with passionate orchestral harmonies that are scored by Yasunori Mitsuda.

‘The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim’

Skyrim’s soundtrack has become legendary since its 2011 release. Series veteran Jeremy Soule was no stranger to scoring for the large, open-world settings in the fictional land of Tamriel, where the series takes place. Some music critics have called Soule "the John Williams of video game music" because his compositions are heavily influenced by film music. 

‘Halo’

Halo: Combat Evolved swept the gaming world by storm when it was released in summer 2002. While first-person shooters were always popular, Halo brought the genre to a new level. The game also was praised for its soundtrack, which before its release was something that was talked about only in role-playing or adventure games. The title track is one of the most recognizable vocal melodies, which composer Martin O’Donnell describes as "Gregorian chant, string orchestra, percussion and just a bit of a 'Qawwali voice.'"

‘Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater’

The Metal Gear franchise is a brilliantly bizarre tactical espionage game that takes us deep inside the fictional conspiracy theory world of Hideo Kojima.  The theme of the third game’s title track is reminiscent of the opening to a James Bond movie. The track plays in the opening credits just like in the 007 movies. Norihiko Hibino wrote the music and the words, with a huge influence from ‘70s spy dramas. The original vocalist, Cynthia Harrell, won the award for best original pop-vocal song from the Game Audio Network Guild for this recording, and she also voiced “I Am the Wind” from the 1997 game Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. 

‘The Legend of Zelda’

The Legend of Zelda is one of the few mainstream game franchises that has used musical instruments to create fun and entertaining musical puzzles nestled within the game. The ocarina in Ocarina of Time and the three different musical instruments associated with masks in Majora’s Mask created a break from smashing all the clay pots. Music has been a tremendous part of the franchise, and it is all thanks, again, to series composer Koji Kondo. His music for the games sparked an international orchestra tour called The Legend of Zelda: Symphony of the Goddesses. 

‘Sid Meier’s Civilization IV’

‘Baba Yetu’

’Sogno di Volare’

Sid Meier’s is a powerhouse when it comes to 4X games. The ‘4X’ meaning eXplore ,eXpand, eXploit and eXterminate. His Civilization series is among the best and the music, historically, has always been amazing. Composer Christopher Tin won a Grammy for the theme song for Civilization IV, “Baba Yetu.” He displayed his amazing talent again when he was asked to compose the opening theme for Civilization VI, “Sogno di Volare.”