Film music for sweltering heat?
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Although we can’t compare to the insane temperatures down on the continent (we’re about 10C lower, in general), it’s been pretty hefty up here over the last couple of weeks due to this climate change of ours, and it seems to continue for a while. It made me ponder — what are some scores or cues that capture sweltering heat?
One that comes to mind is Vangelis’ THE BOUNTY, especially that opening — ticking away the madness of the sunburn, broad chords to connote the sustained nature of it all (combined with cinematographer Arthur Ibbetson’s orange/purple sky hues, Tony Scott-style).
(and before anyone says Goldenthal’s HEAT, that score always sounded more urban/chilly to me, more nighttime than daytime).
Perhaps some Lalo Schifrin scores in Latin mode? Some Mancini or Morricone”easy listening” collections?
Hot weather makes me rather listen to some oriental flavoured music like Goldsmith’s The Mummy or The Wind And The Lion or HGW’s Kingdom Of Heaven.
Oh, I don’t know that one. But Rózsa’s Sahara or Valley Of The Kings might work, too. 🙂
Backdraft
WTF?!
Zimmer?If Graham Watt or Dr. Jacoby are reading, I would expect some smooth exotica recommendations from the likes of Robert Drasnin or Les Baxter. Although several of them aren’t film music, strictly speaking.
It’s totally subjective, and of course how one responds to music, but I actually do have some scores, both film and classical, that are “seasonal”, in the sense that I associate them more with certain types of weather or seasons. I agree that Elliot Goldenthal’s HEAT radiates more the warm, urban nightpulse of L.A., not “sweltering heat”.
Scores that are definitely “hot summer” scores for me are:
George Delerue: L’été meurtrier (Which is called “One Deadly Summer” in English)
Ennio Morricone: Lolita (The music is just sweltering hot, very much summer)
Jerry Goldsmith: Chinatown (It just conjures up hot, dry L.A.)
Maurice Jarre: Lawrence of Arabia (D’oh!)There are some classical compositions that have a summer flair in my mind too.
Felix Mendelssohn: A Midsummer Night’s Dream (perhaps obvious, but it’s so)
Joaquin Rodrigo: Concierto de AranjuezAnd, for some reason:
Johannes Brahms: Symphony No. 4 (that’s probably just me personally)The first ones that I reach for are Tennessee Williams/Faulkner adaptations such as A Streetcar Named Desire, Baby Doll, Summer and Smoke, and The Long Hot Summer.
I also associate summer with the water, so any kinds of summery water scores such as Jaws, of course, or Beneath the 12-Mile Reef work for me.
For tropical adventure scores, there are things like Lalo Schifrin’s Rhino and Johnny Mandel’s Drums of Africa.
As for Les Baxter, scores like Cervantes and Markko Polo fit the bill.
That’s just off the top of my head.
Funny side note: a film score I associate with sweltering hot heat is one most people probably would if at all associate with the opposite.
Ennio Morricone’s music for THE THING.
I received (and first listened to) the soundtrack on a sweltering hot day, it was in my early days of film score collecting, so I played it quite a few times during hot summer days. (I also saw the movie on a hot summer day when I first watched it in the theater.)
So even though the movie itself plays in the Antarctic in below freezing temperatures, the music itself still evokes those summer days.
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