Alan Silvestri - Zemeckis reliable

Alan Silvestri started out doing TV work for the Series "CHIPS" and low-budget films. There is also reference to a "Wayne Cochran's Band" which presumably Silvestri played in at one time. He made the move to the larger Hollywood movies with Director Robert Zemeckis on "Romancing the Stone" and the hugely successful "Back to the Future" trilogy. Silvestri created a suberb set of themes and motifs for the original "Back to the Future" which were then re-used throughout the series, with the 3rd movie unleashing great musical tributes to the Western genre. Silvestri has continued his association with Zemeckis over the years and also produced a substantial quantity of scores for other directors. Perhaps having heard his excellent work for "Back to the Future III" with its occasional nod towards Ennio Morricone's western style, Sam Raimi chose Silvestri for his own "The Quick and the Dead" which pays a large homage to the movies of Sergio Leone.

Like many contemporary film composers Silvestri tends to re-use soundscapes from previous films, which then become identifiable as the composer's trademarks. Also like many other composers of today, he has scored the full range of genres from science fiction through to fast-paced thrillers. In Silvestri's case there have been a significant number of family movies, several including some kind of animation or specialist CGI effects. In fact animation is something he scored brilliantly in "Who Framed Roger Rabbit" in the style established by the former Disney composers, Carl Stalling who went on to score most of the Warner Brothers cartoons and Scott Bradley who became the resident composer for Tom and Jerry. Although the cartoon music for Roger Rabbit is great the two Ducks, Daffy and Donald, in their routine to Liszt's "Hungarian Rhapsody No.2" couldn't quite compete with Tom and Jerry in the original "Cat Concerto" story with the same music arranged by Bradley. Silvestri's contribution to the Roger Rabbit score was no only the authentic cartoonesque music for Roger's capers, but also the nicely contrasting slinky jazz for his girl friend Jessica and the film-noir jazz for Bob Hoskin's private detective.

Silvestri continues with a lot of lighter material such as "Main in Manhattan" and the excellent songs of "Polar Express", but has recently embarked upon some darker soundtracks for "The Mummy Returns", "Van Helsing" and the recent Zemeckis film Beowulf.

Films by Alan Silvestri:

• Las Vegas Lady
• The Amazing Dobermans
• Romancing the Stone - a first Zemeckis collaboration
• Fandango
• Cat's Eye
• Back to the Future 1, 2, 3 - number 3 introducing Western themes to this musically exciting series
• Summer Rental
• The Clan of the Cave Bear
• The Delta Force
• American Anthem
• Flight of the Navigator - a family Sci-Fi movie
• No Mercy
• Critical Condition
• Outrageous Fortune
• Predator 1, 2
• Overboard
• Who Framed Roger Rabbit - another Zemeckis one requiring some real cartoon music
• My Stepmother is an Alien
• She's Out of Control
• The Abyss - more adult Sci-Fi and worth a listen
• Young Guns 2 - but not 1
• Father of the Bride 1, 2 - the main titles weave in recognisable parts of the traditional Bridal Chorus and Wedding March
• Shattered
• Ricochet
• Dutch
• Soap Dish - look out for wonderful Latin numbers
• Death Becomes Her - Zemeckis again
• Fern Gully: The Last Rainforest - more family entertainment
• Stop or my Mum will Shoot
• The Bodyguard - not the Whitney Houston songs but a melancholy love theme
• Grumpy Old Men 1, 2 - the latter being "Grumpier"
• Ritchie Rich
• Forrest Gump - the introductory "feather theme" has just the right mix of simplicity and good humour, and the soundtrack features much period pop music (Zemeckis directed)
• Judge Dredd
• The Long Kiss Goodnight - scoring a lot of action sequences and a few more tender moments
• Eraser
• Fools Rush In
• Contact - and Zemeckis again
• Mac and Me
• Super Mario Brothers
• The Quick and the Dead - Sharon Stone is a gunfighter to music that effortlessly captures all those western associations
• Volcano
• Sergeant Bilko
• The Odd Couple 2
• Practical Magic
• Cast Away - little music while alone on the island, but a gentle hymn-like main theme emerges on strings and oboe when escape is in sight
• Stuart Little - a family movie with cartoonish moments, but allowing Silvestri the opportunity to score a boat race, and provide a Jazz mood for the alley cats
• What Lies Beneath - the music is required to stay suspenseful for much of the film, but turns into an overt homage to Bernard Herrmann and especially "Psycho" towards the end
• What Women Want - among the many songs, Silvestri provides a suggestion of mysterious forces turning into standard romance
• The Mummy Returns - picking up from Jerry Goldsmith's original
• Maid in Manhatten
• Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life - sequel to the computer game spinoff
• Van Helsing
• The Polar Express - with several songs, co-written along with Glen Ballard
• Night at the Museum - big fun orchestral score, with moments of suspense and slapstick
• Beowulf - epic in nature with a period theme tune for brass instruments and drums

TV work by Alan Silvestri:

• The "CHIPS" series

Recommendations:

Even if you go no further, check out the CDs of "Back to the Future" (which includes the well-known song "The Power of Love" by Huey Lewis and the News) and "Forrest Gump" (for which Silvestri was Oscar nominated). There is a comprehensive web-site dedicated to Silvestri at Alan-Silvestri.com