Looking at the career of Lalo Schifrin, who provided us with music to the original "Mission: Impossible", "Bullitt", "Dirty Harry", "Enter the Dragon", "Rush Hour", "The Amityville Horror" and so many more iconic movies. In this obituary, John Caps pays tribute to the distinguished composer. More...
Beyond The Godfather: The Concert Music of Nino Rota is a concert being given in Washington DC and Baltimore this week. Though we know Nino Rota primarily for his film music, the event will focus on his concert music. Angel Gil-Ordόñez is conducting the PostClassical Ensemble, and it is hoped they might be persuaded to take the concert on a wider tour. More...
Elliot Goldenthal is the latest composer in the Music for Film album series. From Batman through Vampires, Shakespeare, Alien and Final Fantasy, this is a wonderful collection demonstrating the power and versatility of this classically trained composer. More...
Night After Night is an album of "Music from the movies of M. Night Shyamalan". Composer James Newton Howard reworks his scores for the director's films with emphasis on piano, highlighting his skills at mood setting and story telling through music. More...
Here are some arrangements of baroque works, originally composed for solo instrument plus orchestra. These include two arrangements of Bach's Badinerie from the Orchestral Suite no.2 and two arrangements of Vivaldi's Largo from Winter of the "Four Seasons":
Quincy Jones died last week at the age of 91, 50 years after a near-death experience in 1974. In this Quincy Jones Obituary, John Caps looks back on the multifaceted career of the hugely talented composer and producer. More...
Charles-Louis Hanon was a French composer and pianist who devised the well-known and influential Hanon Exercises. On mfiles we present the "preparatory exercises" (1-20) with videos for 1-5:
Though based on characters from the original Twister, Twisters is a standalone sequel. The score by Benjamin Wallfisch features a rich tapestry of mood, pace, character, location and above all loads of adrenalin fuelled excitement. More...
David Shire seems to have retired as a film composer and songwriter, but well into his 80s he is still very active musically. In Life After Hollywood John Caps fills us in on David Shire's more recent career. More...
Domenico Scarlatti was a contemporary of Bach and Handel and an excellent harpsichordist. He is famous as the composer of 555 sonatas, mostly for keyboard, and here is a small selection of sonatas and arrangements - with sheet music, videos and audio files:
"Plaisir d'Amour" is a Love Song written in 1784 by Jean-Paul-Égide Martini with words from a poem by Jean-Pierre Claris de Florian. We present the original Song with Lyrics, and 4 arrangements with videos, sheet music & parts, midi & mp3 files:
Among Henry Purcell's keyboard music (in his day the main instruments were Harpsichord or Organ) are a number of "Grounds". A Ground is a repeating bass line which serves as the basis for a set of variations. Here is his quirky Ground in C minor with its idiosyncratic syncopation - including sheet music, video, midi & mp3 files. More...
Laurence Rosenthal visits his alma mater, the Eastman School of Music, to be presented with the Eastman Artist Award. In October this year Eastman will host a new Festival dedicated to film, TV and games music, joining Film Fest Gent and the London Soundtrack Festival due to launch soon. John Caps reports. More...
A Symphonic Celebration is a collection of music from the scores of Joe Hisaishi for the Studio Ghibli films of Hayao Miyazaki. The collaboration spawned some memorable film animations, and equally memorable music. The album has re-orchestrated and re-worked suites of music from 10 films. More...
Mainly known as a film composer, Danny Elfman has written quite a lot of concert music lately. His latest such album includes a Percussion Concerto performed by Colin Currie, the 3 movement work "Wunderkammer" and "Are You Lost?". More...
The Prelude (1st movement) from Bach's 1st Cello Suite in G major is one of the most famous works for solo Cello. On mfiles we present 3 versions with sheet music, videos, mp3 and midi files:
Alessandro Scarlatti was an Italian composer, the father of Domenico Scarlatti and a famous composer of operas and oratorios. However, here is one of his keyboard works based on the chord sequence known as "La Folia" or "Spanish Folies":
The Escape Artist is an unusual film about a young escape artist, who seems destined to follow his father's tragic career path. The score is by French composer Georges Delerue who uses two gorgeous themes to tell the story, together with a tight mix of tension and suspense, as the past and present struggle to unwind. More....
Christian Petzold was a contemporary of Bach, and like him was an organist and composer though in Petzold's case based in Dresden. A linked pair of Minuets from Petzold's Harpsichord Suite appear in the famous "Bach Notebook", and ironically these are now his most famous works:
In his latest article Women Film Composers John Caps provides a short history of the topic starting with the eccentric Elisabeth Lutyens, who eschewed her previous 12-tone serial style for something more melodic in her film music. He continues with many fine composers through to acclaimed Icelandic cellist and composer Hildur Guðnadóttir. More....
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