Film music for sweltering heat?
- This topic has 46 replies, 8 voices, and was last updated 1 month, 3 weeks ago by
.
-
Posts
-
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.I was convinced you’d go for Baxter’s BORA BORA (Piccioni’s version is good too)!
Oh, both of those are in rotation every summer!
Another interesting choice, Nick. Again one I don’t associate with summer. But there’s a lot of “sweltering” in DRACULA…not heat, necessarily, but it has that incessant drive to it.
How are you guys doing in the heat down on the continent (or across the pond)?
The heat wave has come here too, but it’s milder than most other places, rarely going over 30C.
Time to dig out those summer music recommendations again.
Today it was around 30 degrees and the actual heat wave with around 40 degrees is expected Friday/Saturday. If I am not melted then I will let you know 😉
Summer is always a good time for easy listening, groovy stuff. But actually I have no really a “season preference” in general.
I like hot days, I can handle the heat. I prefer sweltering heat over the kind of mediocre nothing weather that we get here a lot. I like any kind of actual weather: hot, cold, dry, plastering rain, clear sky or total fog. What I dislike is mediocre gray sky, drizzle, and temperatures too cold to not wear a coat but not cold enough to be freezing.
What I dislike is mediocre gray sky, drizzle, and temperatures too cold to not wear a coat but not cold enough to be freezing.
We here in the “North” have the saying there is no bad weather, just wrong clothes 😉 I even like our rain up here (although statistically we have less than many cities way south). But I also don’t like undecided weather like “April weather” that cannot decide if there is sun or rain or whatever. I only function properly up to 24 degrees or so. So this little heat wave is not really to my liking in general.
We here in the “North” have the saying there is no bad weather, just wrong clothes 😉
I know that saying. And it just ain’t true. I can wear what I want, I won’t get a tan unless the sun is shining. 🙂
I’ve just played through HILLBILLY ELEGY by Zimmer/Fleming for the first time and it was perfect music for this crazy heatwave the UK/Liverpool is currently sizzling under.
33 DEGREES!!!I know that saying. And it just ain’t true. I can wear what I want, I won’t get a tan unless the sun is shining. 🙂
😉
We have the same saying, and it even rhymes in ours. “Klær” (clothes) and “vær” (weather).
Our does not rhyme but normally is said with a thick Nothern German accent 😉
Offically we had 39 degrees today here, although my balcony thermometer says 41 and without much direct sunlight even. Awesome! 😉
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.