The Religious Sound
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OK, so I needed to have a topic on this – one of my dearest “sounds” in all of music.
By ‘religious sound’, I mean a calm, pastoral sound with almost psalm-like chord structures. If you want to call it ‘spiritual’ instead, that’s okay with me. John Williams is an expert on this, it is – in fact – one of the main reasons for why he’s my favourite composer. “Angela’s Prayer” from ANGELA’S ASHES, for example, or “The Penitant Man Will Pass” from INDY 3, or “Restoration” from JANE EYRE, etc. etc.
I have a BUNCH of examples, but I wonder what are yours?
I would think of Rozsas to some extent. For sure Delerue’s BLACK ROBE or William’s INDY AND THE LAST CRUSADE. More I probably remember when I read the titles here.
I’ve never been an atheist. Just your regular loose and liberal Christian, with plenty of doubt. But I see my interest in this sound kinda independent of that. I think it’s something about the minor modes…I think there’s something called the “Phrygian scale”(?)….but hard to pinpoint in musical terms as a layman.
Well, this topic didn’t exactly take off the way I had hoped.
Here’s a screenshot of a John Williams “Religious Sound” playlist I made way back when. That’s a start. There are obviously many more soundtracks and individual cues that could be mentioned, from other composers as well.
Isn’t Immolation from Schindler’s List more of religious sound?
And definitely Gloria from Monsignore is missing here.“Immolation” is a good suggestion.
Somehow, I never found MONSIGNOR particularly religioso-sounding, which is ironic given the subject matter of the film. More romantic, like an old Italian film or something. “Gloria” is rather modern in its phrasings, not a lot of psalm in it. In fact, I’d argue that “Exultate Justi” from EMPIRE OF THE SUN is more religoso, in the jubilant “Hosannah!” kind, than “Gloria” ever was.
Ok. I get closer to what for you means religioso. Then pieces like Anthem of Evil from The Rise Of Skywalker or the underwater passages from A.I. are not sounding religioso to you?
But I would claim that the theme from Jurassic Park has definitely a Hosannah vibe to it.
Not really, but they have a definite spiritual quality. I mean, “The Temple of Doom” from INDIANA JONES AND THE TEMPLE OF DOOM definitely concerns spiritual and occult going-ons, but I’ve never considered it particularly religious.
But I would claim that the theme from Jurassic Park has definitely a Hosannah vibe to it.
Most certainly!
Morricone has plenty of this type of music in his catalogue. As well as the genuinely spiritual stuff in his various scores to films about popes, the original “What Dreams May Come” and similar, you can find tangentially religious tracks in Moses the Law Giver and The Mission.
There’s also grotesquerie in The Temptress (Il Sorriso del Grande Tentatore) where liturgical chanting merges with hard rock and abstract jazz.
Indeed, TG. That is also something that occured to me while expanding my Morricone collection a few years ago. GIORDANO BRUNO, PADRE PIO, LA CACA BRUCIATA and others.
Btw, there’s a Morricone thread here that requires your input, even though the parameters may be too wide for your taste.
Thor, I appear to have just added to that conversation, but only because I was looking back at earlier threads, not because you told me to… 🙂
Such a bummer this thread died. Sooooo many great religioso scores and tracks that are worth showcasing. I DID share the John Williams playlist earlier, but there are so many others. Maybe I should just share a track here every now and then (just by going through my iTunes collection), if no one else has any more to share.
Obviously, there’s “Bud on the Ledge” from THE ABYSS, which everyone knows. Moving on to THE AGONY AND THE ECSTASY by Alex North – again a famous score, but always been one of my favourite religioso scores (and certainly my favourite by North) with a slightly modern twist.
I love that kind of sound too. I didn’t see E.T. on your list, Thor. That “alone in the woods” stuff near the beginning is very religioso. I must admit that I adore the full “in yer face” religioso scores for the classic religiosos movies. My favourites come from Rózsa and Alfred Newman. As an antitheist, I wonder what I’m actually responding to here… Maybe it’s a bit like how I still get a thrill out of (some) horror films and scores, but I don’t believe in vampires either.
What about classical music? Top of my list would be some of Vaughan Williams. I also listened to Alan Hovahness’ “Mysterious Mountain” the other day. That fits the mold, and it’s not specifically “religious”, just kind of generally spiritual.
Oh yes, “Mysterious Mountain” is right there. Love that.
And I often say that Ralph Vaughan Williams is my favourite classical composer because of things like Thomas Tallis. His pastoral stuff never really turned up in his film scores, though, did it? But I love it. In fact, I was “fooled” into thinking that was ALL he was about, until I discovered he did lots of modernistic stuff as well, of a kind that didn’t really appeal to me.
There are a couple of small bits in E.T that qualify, yes, primarily those chords that pop up in the wide shot of E.T. walking amongst the cathedral-like trees.
I see, Thor, that you mention North’s THE AGONY AND THE ECSTASY as fitting the bill. I would also include Goldsmith’s prologue piece to that, “The Artist Who Did Not Want To Paint”. If Michelangelo got Divine Inspiration for works, it sounds to me that Goldsmith (and North of course) found a way to express that. It doesn’t even have to have a directly religious inspiration, especially when it comes second hand, but I detect a sense of great humanity in the Goldsmith, as if he’s addressing what Man can achieve through Art. It can reach “the heavens”.
Again I see that although you mention INDIANA JONES AND THE TEMPLE OF DOOM, and INDY AND THE LAST CRUSADE, there’s nothing on “The Map Room” from the first film. Is that a different kind of thing? In this case I’m not sure how permeable the parameters are. If we push them a bit, I can think of many instances of music that expresses the awe and wonder of science for example.
I see, Thor, that you mention North’s THE AGONY AND THE ECSTASY as fitting the bill. I would also include Goldsmith’s prologue piece to that, “The Artist Who Did Not Want To Paint”. If Michelangelo got Divine Inspiration for works, it sounds to me that Goldsmith (and North of course) found a way to express that. It doesn’t even have to have a directly religious inspiration, especially when it comes second hand, but I detect a sense of great humanity in the Goldsmith, as if he’s addressing what Man can achieve through Art. It can reach “the heavens”.
Yes, you can include Goldsmith’s prologue, although it doesn’t quite reach those heights, if you’ll excuse the pun. Goldsmith never really did much of that, not even the Jesus music from THE FINAL CONFLICT. Somehow more on-the-nose, more ‘oooh’ and ‘aaah’ and less pastoral. I just don’t think he had that particular sensitivity. (I guess I’m relieved Yavar doesn’t post in this forum, as I believe this is his favourite JG composition….or the FSM Goldsmith Police, for that matter, who would no doubt set me straight here).
But I’ve added the prologue re-recording track on to my re-recording album of North’s TAATE nonetheless (appropriately conducted by Goldsmith) – just for completeness’ sake (you all know how much I love completeness, LOL).
I agree about Goldsmith.
Elliot Goldenthal is rather a go to composer for religious sound. Like in Alien 3 or Interview with a Vampire.I’ve never really gone to Elliot Goldenthal for religious-sounding music myself, but I agree there are a few bits in ALIEN 3 (for obvious reasons, it has a lot of Christian symbolism). He’s too “rough around the edges” to really go into that psalm-like, consonant sound with open arms.
Kamen’s Band of Brothers has a hymnal, spiritual feeling to it. Only just realised after all these years. Maybe the version they play on Classic FM emphasises that aspect, might be a little slower than the original.
I’ve always considered BAND OF BROTHERS more solemn, reverential Americana, but I suppose there’s a hymnal quality to that.
I shared an iTunes playlist of religioso Williams earlier. I know I also created one with various scores and composers years ago, but irritatingly I can’t find it anywhere.
I suppose there’s nothing else to do than to continue scrolling through my iTunes systematically and stop’n’share when I find either a whole score or track that contains this sound. I believe I brought up AGONY AND THE ECSTASY last. Next one would be Alfred Newman’s THE SONG OF BERNADETTE (1942). It’s a very “shimmering”, Hollywood-type of religiosity than the more pastoral European ones I gravitate towards, but there’s no denying the sublime quality of it. Especially those glissando strings.
I forgot to mention THE HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME by Alan Menken earlier, specifically the song “Hellfire”, which is a good candidate.
Moving on through my iTunes….
Angel Illarramendi has a few. I mentioned “Funeral de Juan” from LOS BORGIA in the “La Folia” thread, but he has a few more – even though the subject matter isn’t necessarily religious, the pastoral, psalm-like chord progressions kinda are. Like “Malokak” from YOYES:
Possibly my favourite score of 2022, Anne Dudley’s BENEDETTA (a modern-day nunsploitation film by Paul Verhoeven) fits the category!
The way I interpret “the religious sound”, it’s very often tied to what other people call ‘pastoral music’. So a good example is Christopher Young’s MURDER IN THE FIRST (my favourite Young score), which of course is linked to the issue of redemption. So not that far removed. Just gorgeous.
We don’t associate Craig Safan (what, the CHEERS guy?!) with the religious sound, but he has tapped into it, in the “Elegy” track from his SON OF THE MORNING STAR (1991). Blissful pastoral string harmonies in this. Here’s a live recording from 2014, in Cordoba, and with Safan himself conducting. Don’t know how well a cell phone-recorded video translates, but I couldn’t find the OST track itself on YouTube:
Sorry, this thread is getting a little YouTube heavy now. So soon, we’ll have to put the suggestions in text links instead, I think.
But moving on, Spanish composer Zacharias M. de la Riva’s score for HIERRO (2009) has a gorgeous religioso track in “Requiem for a Caravan” (his score for the Banderas-starring sci fi AUTÓMATA [2014] is also recommended, although it has nothing to do with the religious sound).
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