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Film music presentation a success!


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My lectures at Orange High School went down well last week. The children were all fairly receptive, particularly the 6th graders (who asked a lot of very perceptive questions).

I began by showing Chaplin's "His New Job" (1915) with Eric James' improvised piano accompaniment.

Next I showed King Kong (1933), the first appearance of Kong in which his appearance is preempted by the "footsteps" in the orchestra. Great moment for the importance of film music as "character". (Steiner)

I followed this with the death of the boy on the lilo in Jaws (1975). The shark is barely glimpsed in this scene, but the orchestra tells us clearly that it's there! (As does the enormous fountain of blood!) (Williams)

I next showed the driving scene from Psycho (1960) both with and without music. This is a clear representation of how music can almost completely create the mood of a scene! (Herrmann)

I next showed how the opening music of a film is vital in telling the audience what kind of a film they are about to see. I showed the opening credits for Heat, Carry On Teacher, Twelve Monkeys, and Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets to illustrate examples of serious, comedy, dark unpredictable, and mgical fantasy movies respectively.

I finished with the final 5 minutes of the Death Star battle from Star Wars. I included a handout (which I include here as an attachment) showing how the music reflects the onscreen action. This went down very well and made for a "climactic" close to the presentation. The kids all responded very well and will, with any luck, listen more closely to the score next time they go to the flicks.

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Sounds very cool, I actually would have sat in with the kids to see this! Good choice of Chamber of Secrets too. It's one of my favorite JW main title cues ever, and still my favorite quote of Hedwig's Theme, including those in POA.

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Yeah where the hell were people like you when I was in public school?

Every night at the concerts in Boston there were large groups of kids from schools there. They had no idea how lucky they were....

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thanks for teaching them about film music. i know when i do it amazes me the stuff they come up with. I'd be glad to put it on the education site we have at jw-music.net if you like.

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