Sep 9: One Soundtrack to rule them all...

A cross posting from my Geography in/on Film blog.

Classic FM viewers have been voting for their favourite film scores.

The results are here - you can count down from 100 to the winner.

The top five are as follows:

Here's an extract from the winning score.

And the first part of a series on the making of the music... seek out the others.

Aug 14: "The Lark Ascending" #1: Vaughan Williams & KES

"The art of music above all other arts is the expression of the soul of a nation"

Ralph Vaughan Williams

Richard King's 2019 book explores British music and its link with the landscape of Britain.

I have a copy of the book and enjoyed reading it when it first came out. I've mentioned it previously on the blog.

I've now revisited it for this blog and there is plenty of relevance to the blog's theme, so there will be a number of posts to follow through the next month or so.

Vaughan Williams is referenced in the prologue and his quote that "Folk music is not a cause of national music, it is a manifestation of it'.

He wrote 'The Lark Ascending' which was premiered in 1920 having been started at the outbreak of the Great War.

It was premiered near Bristol.

Vaughan Williams believed that music was a latent force in all people... "the only means of artistic expression which is natural to everybody."

The soundtrack to the Ken Loach film 'KES' (from Barry Hines' book) has a wonderful soundtrack by John Cameron.

"Kes flies higher" has a link to 'The Lark Ascending' in its structure and feel...

Chapter 1 of the book explores the piece in more detail.

It epitomises an idea of place, and because there are no lyrics it hasn't been (mis)interpreted as Blake's 'Jerusalem' has been.

It invokes a reverie: a country dance observed by a bird in flight, "a lyrical expression of grace and freedom".

King says that Vaughan Williams "achieves a synthesis of air and earth as the skylark shares in the merrymaking taking place below and the intoxicating sense of euphoria is absolute."

Vaughan Williams described folk songs as "an individual flowering on a common stem".

The book is available from all the usual places and comes highly recommended.

Jul 17: 1989

Some memorable sounds were released in 1989.

There was Peter Gabriel's soundtrack for 'The Last Temptation of Christ'. Some excellent world musicians added textures and unusual instrumentation. I had the LP of this album and it sounded great.

And the church bells ringing out at the beginning of Kate Bush's 'The Sensual World' complete with the voices of the Trio Bulgarka.

I had an instrumental version of this track on a single for a while... which was great...

1989 also brought Bob Mould's first solo album following the break up of the band Hüsker Du.

Hüsker Du had been famous for short songs which were fast and furious - check out 'Celebrated Summer' for a typical example.

Workbook was more varied, and featured some angry songs as well as moments of calm such as Sunspots.

1989 also saw the release of one of the finest albums of all time: 'Hats'.

This album deserves its own post...

We also had some controversy this year when Jethro Tull won the Grammy for 'Best Hard Rock and Heavy Metal' album for 'Crest of a Knave'. Metallica were odds on to win... 

Tull didn't even turn up...

Ian Anderson said:

The hot ticket was Metallica, in this newly introduced category of Hard Rock/ Metal. I was told by our record company, by the then-head of Chrysalis in the USA, not to bother going, which is a euphemism for: “We’re not going to pay your air fare or get you a hotel, because we don’t think you’re going to win.”

Jul 16: 1988

1988 was the year when I started teaching in full time roles rather than part time.

In January, I started my first term's contract, which was at John Flamsteed School in Denby (where there was a pottery - sadly now closing down...). I lived with the school secretary who rented me a room, in a house above the Amber river. It's very tucked away but I managed to find the end of the drive on Street View.

I took some of my music with me.

Talk Talk released 'Spirit of Eden', Eberhard Weber released 'Orchestra'.

The stand out album was 'Once around the World' from It Bites.

Here's 'Old Man and the Angel' live in Tokyo the year after.

Anthony Phillips - an early member of Genesis, released 'Tarka' with Harry Williamson telling the tale of Tarka the Otter, by Henry Williamson. I had this on vinyl.

Here's Part 1, with some visuals from the film that was made, which ended up using different music apparently.

This was followed by another term in Eckington School on the edge of Sheffield: which required a bus journey as I hadn't yet passed my test. An interesting period in my life.

That summer, I discovered the Blue Nile - who have featured on the blog a number of times. By then, only 'A Walk across the Rooftops' had been released - back in 1984.

In September I started my first full time teaching job. I didn't know it, but I would spend the next 20 years at King Edward VII School in King's Lynn - then, the old grammar - the best school in West Norfolk and with some excellent colleagues....