Beltrami got his big break composing the score for Scream, and has gone on to work on several horror films ever since. But Beltrami is very versatile and actually some of my favorite work by him is not in the horror genre. He came on board for the western 3:10 To Yuma in 2007 and created a modern take on Morricone's spaghetti western style. The score is a real treat, with a nice dark edge to it and some unique instrumentation. The score actually got him an academy award nomination. This is a piece called Bible Study that comes from the ending of the film.
Friday, July 10, 2015
Score Sample: 3:10 To Yuma
I realized I haven't written to much about composer Marco Beltrami. He is one of the most gifted film composers in the current crop. Beltrami studied with Jerry Goldsmith, which may explain why his scores appeal to me. His style is different, but he uses similar approaches and techniques when scoring films.
Beltrami got his big break composing the score for Scream, and has gone on to work on several horror films ever since. But Beltrami is very versatile and actually some of my favorite work by him is not in the horror genre. He came on board for the western 3:10 To Yuma in 2007 and created a modern take on Morricone's spaghetti western style. The score is a real treat, with a nice dark edge to it and some unique instrumentation. The score actually got him an academy award nomination. This is a piece called Bible Study that comes from the ending of the film.
Beltrami got his big break composing the score for Scream, and has gone on to work on several horror films ever since. But Beltrami is very versatile and actually some of my favorite work by him is not in the horror genre. He came on board for the western 3:10 To Yuma in 2007 and created a modern take on Morricone's spaghetti western style. The score is a real treat, with a nice dark edge to it and some unique instrumentation. The score actually got him an academy award nomination. This is a piece called Bible Study that comes from the ending of the film.
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Yeah, the spaghetti western influence is definitely there. I always enjoyed Frankie Laine's occasional western songs in some of the older westerns too.
ReplyDeleteWhen it comes to modern westerns it seems that most of them pick up from Morricone's model of film scoring. But recently the parody film, "A Million Ways to Die in the West" actually used the older 50s style of film scoring a Western. So it sounded more like something from Tiomkin (who did "High Noon") or Bernstein (who did "The Magnificent Seven"). That score is a blast and one of my favorites from 2014.
DeleteIt's funny how early composers established standards that continue to influence those who follow. Would some Rip Van Cowboy who fell asleep in 1869 and woke up this year recognize any of the classic or current scores as particularly Western?
ReplyDeleteYeah a lot of Western film music was inspired by the work Aaron Copland.But one of the pioneers of the Western film sound was Dimitri Tiomkin, a Russian born composer who would take traditional American folk songs and modify them for the big screen. So some of his material might actually work for our Rip Van Cowboy. :) However Morricone went completely against the grain when he did his spaghetti westerns. Director Leone didn't want them to sound anything like traditional Hollywood westerns, and they certainly don't. Just funny how something that was supposed to be against the grain becomes the standard. Same thing happened with John Williams retro sound for Star Wars which ended up reviving old school film composing techniques for nearly two decades.
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