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Home / Articles / Classical Music Silent film's composer hailed an artist I'm looking for... By Melissa Lesnie on Feb 24, 2012 filed under Classical Music | Comment Now

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Ludovic Bource's acclaimed score for The Artist draws as Sat New Music Up Late much from Brahms as from Hitchcock. DEC 29 When Ludovic Bource agreed to 10:30PM compose music for a feature film with Sun All Night Classics no dialogue, he knew he would have his DEC Jean Dujardin and Bérénice work cut out for him. The so-called Bejo in The Artist. Below: 30 “silent” films of yesteryear are in fact Ludovic Bource with his 12:30AM BAFTA trophy. dominated by rich, dramatic scores; syrupy strings and bombastic brass giving voice to the situations and On air now: sentiments the actors cannot express in words. The music stands in place Listen Now to ABC Classic FM of a narrator, commenting on and fuelling the action with hardly a moment’s respite from the orchestral onslaught. The composer doesn’t Show Details Just Played Keywords get a break. Played yesterday < 1 day ago Played today SEARCH artist, cinema, silent, The Artist, Michel Hazanavicius’s new silent film about the dying art of Playing tomorrow film, hazanavicius, silent film in the 1920s, harks back to the era both visually and musically. Future dates bource, score, Since its triumphant premiere at the Cannes Festival last year, this Browse full listings schedule orchestra, academy, unusual production has been the talk of the town, and looks set to take its award, oscar, bafta, place among the classics it emulates. Visit ABC Classic FM website to learn more about french, soundtrack programs, presenters, frequency guide and more. Bource, a longtime collaborator of director Michel Hazanavicius, knew it would be “a very risky project. Related MOST READ LATEST "Michel spoke to me many years ago about the idea of making a silent

The Artist wins Oscar period piece. I didn’t expect him to bring it to life; it was the opposite of the The 10 Greatest Pianists of All Time other films we had worked on together.” for Best Film Score Sex, Love and Erotica in Classical Music The Artist (Michel It also required twice the amount of music he had supplied for The 13 scariest pieces of classical music Hazanavicius) Hazanavicius’s previous OSS movies. Even though it was a daunting for Halloween Sex, Love and Erotica prospect, Bource seized on “the opportunity to express truly the emotional Classical GRAMMY Awards 2013 state of the principal characters. It was a real challenge and a great, great in Classical Music Julie Andrews to tour Australia adventure – just what a composer needs.” Score for The Girl Love Song Dedications for Valentine's with the Dragon Speaking over the phone in thickly accented English, the 41-year-old Day: 10 Classical Muses Taoo revealed describes working on music for film in poetic, typically Gallic style: “a strange chemical process.” But it was also a lot of hard work. He responded quickly to Hazanavicius’s intricately detailed storyboards, and LATEST COMMENTS POPULAR COMMENTS

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then to the first rushes as shooting got underway. A classically trained Latest Articles pianist with jazz leanings, Bource worked with a team of orchestrators to smiley17 create the lush score, which flits from heady romanticism to breezy Here Here !! Is musical beauty in nostalgia and big-band exuberance. He also supervised the rehearsals the brain of the and a week of recording sessions with the 80-piece Flanders Ageists vs Youthists · 5 hours ago beholder? Philharmonic Orchestra in Brussels. Opera Australia's phaeidaeux Falstaﬀ: It ain’t over For the protagonist, fictional silent film actor George Valentin (Jean till the fat knight sings Dujardin), Bource had to come up with themes that encompassed his I would agree with Glenn Gould being journey from on-top-of-the-world matinee idol suavity to the depths of right up there. I might not always have Tan Dun: composing despair (the Suicide theme is dedicated enigmatically to “03.29.1967” – agreed with his interpretations is Zen; conducting is (especially when he would "step out" on Hazanavicus’s date of birth). Valentin’s love interest and rival Peppy Miller like tai chi Bach and play Brahms or Beethoven, (Bérénice Bejo), on the other hand, experiences a meteoric rise in the the latter he... Dancing with Cacti: brave new world of “talkies” that transforms her from ingénue extra into a · Prickly business at bona fide celebrity clad head to toe in furs. Bource says he wanted to The 10 Greatest Pianists of All Time 1 day ago Sydney Dance emphasise “fragility, emotional simplicity and innocence” of the Company characters, and he does just that in the couple’s waltz theme for solo piano. Carolei

Current Issue Bource and Hazanavicius immersed themselves in cinema of the 1920s Whilst Wagner is not one of my and ‘30s for inspiration: the composer cites Korngold as “the real genius favourites, Isolde's love death aria has to be the sexiest, most orgasmic piece. February 2013 issue on of film music of the last century”, while Franz Waxman’s score for Sunset At the risk of being vulgar, I'd say that it sale now! Boulevard was a clear favourite for the director. Bource sees his work not sounds as though she doesn't know... The Young Joan as a pastiche of these sources, but as a “declaration of love to the great Sutherland: from composers of Hollywood films”. Sex, Love and Erotica in Classical secretary to superstar. Music · 4 days ago But one iconic siren of the silver screen calls it “rape”, not love. Kim Schubert's Last Year: a time of miracles and Novak, star of Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo, has publicly denounced the use wonders of a quotation from the Bernard Herrmann score for the 1958 John Ferguson Scheherazade: the story psychological thriller in The Artist. “I want to report a rape”, she wrote in I love the comment once made by behind Rimsky- Variety. “I feel as if my body – or, at least my body of work – has been Danny Kaye as he conducted the New Korsakov's fragrant violated by the movie The Artist." York Philharmonic. "I cannot continue oriental fantasy until there is a deathly hush!" :) Novak added, “It is morally wrong for the artistry of our industry to use and Do classical audiences cough on more details... abuse famous pieces of work to gain attention and applause for other than purpose? · 4 days ago what they were intended.”

But Bource stands by the homage. “We used a temp track from Vertigo in JuliaCarol the test screening. I knew it would be impossible to surpass it. For me it’s a fantastic honour to pay tribute to the master Bernard Hermann.” i enjoyed the post, you have a nice site.thanks for the information,I’ll be And as the composer points out, most film scores, including his own, are making the necessary changes thanks to your tips. indebted to any number of classical symphonic works. Bource also drew

SS UU BB SS CC RR I I BB EE NN OOWW! ! on Brahms’s Sapphic Ode for the poignant theme Comme une Rosée de YouTube Symphony aracts 33 million Larmes (The Dew of Tears), which Hazanavicius frequently played on set views worldwide · 1 week ago to get actors in the mood.

“Ravel and Debussy are inspirational to me”, Bource adds. “If you want to Powered by Disqus understand the American composers of the golden age you must know and analyse European composers like Richard Strauss, Mahler and Sibelius.” He says the gutsy final dance sequence owes much to Duke Competitions Ellington, Cole Porter and Gershwin. Win a double pass to The Addams Family With so many masterpieces as touchstones, it’s no wonder Bource is up Broadway Musical for an Oscar for Best Original Score (one of 10 nominations for The Win a double pass to The Addams Family - Broadway’s smash hit musical comedy! Artist), having won a BAFTA, Golden Globe ("I'm sorry, I'm French!" he apologised sheepishly for his broken English as he collected the award) and now the coveted Oscar. Although “honoured” by these official accolades, he insists that he "needed just one prize to celebrate my work, and that is the recognition of my colleagues and the musicians.”

2 of 4 2/18/13 10:35 AM Silent film's composer hailed an artist - Classical Music - ... http://www.limelightmagazine.com.au/Article/291541,silent-...

The hype isn’t dying down: Bource hints at the possibility of The Artist being screened with live accompaniment by orchestras around the world, in tours that may include Australia. With Sydney Symphony having recently performed the complete score of Fritz Lang’s classic Metropolis in this format, it seems silent cinema has found its voice again.

Ludovic Bource's soundtrack to The Artist is out now on Sony Classical. Read Limelight's review of the film here.

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