Tag: film music

  • Oscars 2020: Year of The Cello

    Oscars 2020: Year of The Cello

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    by

    Brian Wise
    in

    In listening to several scores to films nominated for Academy Awards in 2020, a particular feature emerges: a prominent cello theme. The instrument has been called on to convey a range of moods and even shaped the plot of at least one film.

  • Michel Legrand: The Easy-Listening Modernist

    Michel Legrand: The Easy-Listening Modernist

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    by

    Brian Wise
    in

    In 1979 a critic for the New York Times confronted Michel Legrand with the criticism that his popular music was sentimental, “trite and treacly.” The occasion was the premiere of the off-Broadway adaptation of Jacques Demy’s film “The Umbrellas of Cherbourg,” with Legrand’s sung-dialogue score.