That's entirely right! If I'm not mistaken it was Elmer Bernstein who said
something along the lines of "the best way to score a comedy is to score the
seriousness" rather than to "mickey-mouse" it. Here's a classic example from
Airplane and another from Pink Panther (Mancini) where, even if there's a bit
of a comedic element with the tuba, there's a sad theme at its heart.
If you notice the sharks theme, there's a transparent melody in strings (the
harp?) that's consistent with the water connotation (check out U-Boat theme
from Bose for the same kind of orchestration). And even if the music does get
dramatic and serious, it constantly switches to the water theme and back
hinting that it's not something dangerous.
That being said, the shark's theme is my least-liked track on the score. It's
just way overblown, and that drone at the end is the kind of musical recourse
that I wish composers used very sparingly.
And while we're on the topic, one of my peeves with CR is that a lot of it is
very sappy and overdone (pulls all the strings). Sure, there's an abundance of
melody that's not so common in comedies today, but I would have liked if it
toned things down. As for the themes, there's very little development with
them. It's not a good habit that he's taking a theme and repeating it over and
over. Take the "Jason & Cynthia suite"... its pretty good for 2 minutes after
which it just repeats with more dramatic renditions of the theme. What does it
mean musically? Thankfully there's a lovely respite in the middle with more
oboe goodness that's leads it to a fine close. Go back to the Netaji theme from
Bose. He introduces a beautiful theme but repeats it with very little
difference in orchestration. I'd like to see some economy with expression and
more of a development with themes and tying them together. There's definitely a
way to use repetitions wisely (think
'minimalism' and composers like Kilar, Nyman, Glass) but not like this.
I'm also not fond of his habit of punctuating things with (sometimes staggered
percussion followed by) cymbals before going to a crescendo. Here's an example.
And another. It sounds cliched to me.
I wish they had better lyrics to Sajna, which sounds cheesy to me. That ARR and
PJ will be performing this in LA, makes it further corny.
But all said and done, it's a fun score and it's for a rom-com so I'll take it
easy. There's something for everyone.
________________________________
From: ichord <purev...@yahoo.com>
To: arrahmanfans@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Wednesday, September 30, 2009 11:15:05 AM
Subject: [arr] Re: Sharks from CR
The use of serious music in a comedy film is to highlight the "seriousness" of
someone being the butt of a joke..meaning, when you're the butt of a joke, it's
not funny for you, but funny for everyone else. Many American comedies have
used serious music to highlight subtle humor in irony, paradox, and
counterpoint. I thought the music for Sharks was extremely cleverly done, to
heighten suspense for that scene. Most composers use a Jaws like theme to do
this, but ARR thought more creatively and added this unique music....just
brilliant IMO.
--- In arrahmanfans@yahoogroups.com, "Jahanzeb" <jahanzebti...@...> wrote:
>
> it is a great track however i felt it is misfit for a comedy soundtrack. it
> didn't gel well with that sharks scene in a video someone posted here. in
> fact the way track starts it seems from some horror, thriller movie.
> similarly a few other tracks i found too serious stuff to be used in a comedy
> movie e.g. Itinerary, Intervention and even Meeting Marcel.
> anyways this is too early to say, lets see how they are used in the film.
>
> -
> Jahanzeb
>
>
> --- In arrahmanfans@yahoogroups.com, "ichord" <purevibz@> wrote:
> >
> > I don't see people much talking about this track, but I think it's simply
> > one of the most brilliant tracks in CR. Love the dramatic use of
> > instruments in this track in fast motion amidst the raaga based vibrophone
> > interludes followed by a very intense ending with ARR's high pitched,
> > soaring voice and the high sustained strings......simply so haunting!
> >
>
