[Nick Zwar]

I don’t object to and have no problems with terms such as “absolute music” or “applied music,” or “concert music” or “media music” or whatever.
What I do object to, and that is my own contention, is that these distinctions are not musical; they are not in any way describing musical differences, but only and exclusively contextual differences.

My contention is that the self-sufficiency of music has nothing to do per se with the contextual cause of its origin. My contention is not that these differences aren’t real, but that they are not musical. And it’s obvious to see they are not, as so far not a single actual musical difference between film music and non-film music has been laid out.

I also object to the idea that such film scores as Once Upon a Time in the West or The Thin Red Line are in any way less representative of film music than… exactly what other film scores? I don’t even understand that line of reasoning. I can easily name dozens and dozens of film scores to underline my point. What exactly is your point? What exact film scores are you referring to? These two are highly acclaimed film scores.
(Of course, could be and I concede that perhaps my entire film score collection is exclusively made up out of non-representative exceptions, as why would I listen to music that cannot self-suffciently stand on its own as music?)

I have mentioned film music examples specifically tied to picture and scenes, I have mentioned classical music pieces that have been tied to picture and scene just as much, I have named examples of film scores that are not tied to any specific scene, and I could easily name dozens of classical music examples which are specifically tied to “scenes” with clear “stingers” but don’t have to correspond to any scene. I think it’s not fair to dismiss all that as “exceptions” without providing counter examples that (according to you) represent the “rule” then.

The “exceptions,” and I put that in quotation marks because there are so many “exceptions” that it underlines my point: there are some statistical tendencies in film music, but there is no musical distinction between film music and any other type of music. Not one. Not a single one. And I have the examples on my side.