Background Score - 69

Guess the films

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'The Music of A.R.Rahman' Concert

From the names of the film directors and producers thanked in the above snapshot, here is my guess track listing of the Film themes and Songs played in ‘The Music of A.R.Rahman’ concert by London Philharmonic Orchestra in Alchemy Festival.

Maniratnam – “Bombay Theme” from Bombay

Andrew Lloyd Webber – “Bombay Awakes” from Bombay Dreams

Shekhar Kapur – “Divinity Theme” from Elizabeth – The Golden Age and “Waltz” from Passage

Kevin Wallace – “The Song of Hope” or “Lothlorien” from Lord of the Rings Musical

Danny Boyle – “Mausam & Escape” from Slumdog Millionaire (See Rashid Ali Asad Khan sitting at the centre of the concert podium)

Vince Vaughn – “Jason and Cynthia Theme”, “Jason and Cynthia Suite” and “Intervention” from Couples Retreat

He Ping – “Horses”, “Mountains” and “The Golden Era” from Warriors of Heaven and Earth

MF Hussain (that’s a tough one) – Orchestral Version of “Do Kadam” from Meenaxi

Ashutosh Gowariker – Lagaan Theme, Lagaan Opening Credits, Swades Title theme, Jodhaa Akbar Love Theme, Khwaja Mere Khwaja Instrumental

Ketan Mehta – Mangal Pandey Theme, Mangal Pandey End Credits

Shyam Benegal – Instrumental Themes from Bose: The Forgotten Hero especially the orchestral version of the national anthem “Jana Gana Mana” to end the show.

With this track list and a professional Symphony Orchestra, I guess it is exactly the kind of concert I have been wishing to watch. As usual, there will be no official release of audio or video recording of the concert. Sigh!

Here is the actual tracklisting of Film themes performed in the concert

And some High quality Pics from the Concert and Concert Rehearsals





Concert Reviews:

Telegraph

Times

Pictures Courtesy: @ashantiomkar

Sound Vs Score

Karthik Raaja speaks about background scores in an interview

"Coming up with a background score is a tough job as it is related to the psychology of the audience. You should know how to treat a scene and create the intended impact. Not everyone can pull it off well. And today, sound effects have started dominating the BGM (background music). There will always be a debate between the composer and the director during the final mix on whether to go for a BGM or a sound effect. But sound effects cannot convey an emotion. You can convey the breaking of a glass through sound effects but then, you can even convey that through the visual alone. On the other hand, a BGM can even tell you why the glass broke. My dad gives a lot of importance to emotions when it comes to BGM; for me, it is emotions as well as what’s being shown on screen that matter when composing BGM."

Sound Effects Vs Music

Appreciation of a Score

There is always some confusion about how to appreciate a film score. Should a film score be strongly thematic, high on melody and easily listenable even out of the film? Or is it just enough if it is ambient, a yawn to listen to it as standalone music and shirt-sits perfectly on the visual arm-sleeves of the film? A film score’s primary aim is to functionally work within a film but most often that doesn’t seem to make a film score get its due. The fact is that the criteria differs from one film and score to another.

‘Couples Retreat’ score was unanimously rejected by people in India or elsewhere, not because of quality of music but because Rahman chose to do music for a typical Hollywood rom-com after Oscars and Globes. As for me, I am really happy that Rahman did this score. It still is a very melodic and enjoyable musical ride I take on at least once in a week. Though I haven’t seen the film I like what I hear. In this case, I don’t really care much about how extensively, how loudly or how well it is used in the film. It gave Rahman to write some full length orchestral music pieces and instrumental tracks which we hardly get to listen to in his Indian film soundtracks.

On a more psychological level, the opinions depend on whether one wants to like the score or not. In this case, there are hundred reasons one can list down for not liking the music and of course most of them would be about everything else but the actual music. Will we ever judge music just by it? If one doesn’t like a particular score, does that make the score bad? Or if one likes the score does that make the score great? A score is just what it is.

Filmtracks.com lists Rahman’s Couples Retreat score in third spot next only to James Horner’s ‘Avatar’ in its “Top Scores of the Year 2009” list. ‘Jason and Cynthia Suite’ and ‘Animal Spirits’ are mentioned in the best film cues list. These sensibilities of people behind such Hollywood film score websites are more inclined towards music content than the music’s visual connect.

Here is a high praise ‘Couples Retreat’ soundtrack review by an American.

In Soundtracks.com podcast, a film score critic says that ‘Couples Retreat’ score deserved an Oscar nomination more than ‘Slumdog Millionaire’ did.

And this is the first post on http://www.backgroundscore.com