Moving on from Britain’s John Barry, two pieces of work from the highly versatile US composer and conductor here showing contrasting styles that equally express the dark and disturbing. Of all his many scores, from Papillon to Total Recall, The Omen to Alien to LA Confidential, these are two of his best.
For Roman Polanski’s 1974 Chinatown starring Jack Nicholson as the cynical private detective and Faye Dunaway as the femme fatale widow, both under the shadow of corrupt local politics and her disturbing father, Noah Cross, Goldsmith creates a heart-wrenching love theme played beautifully by trumpeter Uan Rasey, and a score that scratches into a dark past.
For Planet of the Apes, meanwhile (1968, directed by Franklin J. Schaffner) while becoming mainstream sci-fi success, Goldsmith employ conventional, accessible classical soundtrack music, but something more akin to modern Stockhausen - prickly stops and starts, shrill woodwind and brass, all to conjure a sense of a fevered dream, a nightmare alternative world in which Charlton Heston wakes to find himself hunted and imprisoned our hairy humanoid cousins.
Want to suggest songs for Song of the Day or to say anything about it? Does this song make you think of something else? Then feel free to comment below, on the contact page, or on social media: Song Bar Twitter, Song Bar Facebook. Song Bar YouTube. Please subscribe, follow and share.
New to comment? It is quick and easy. You just need to login to Disqus once. All is explained in About/FAQs ...