It had been many years since I'd last seen Jaws, and part of the experience was remembering that it's an even better movie than I'd given it credit for. I'd remembered it as "pretty good," but I thought still more of it this time around. I think this time, I gave more credit to the first half of the movie: the depiction of a politician beholden to the Almighty Dollar, throwing away common sense and decency in its pursuit and not giving a damn about the collateral damage. (For some reason, that resonated with me more than the last time I saw the movie.) The last half of the movie thrilled, as always, but I better appreciated the whole package this time around.
Of course, the star of the evening was not the film itself, but the famous score by John Williams, performed live by the orchestra. There were discoveries there too.
The bass strings and cello are every bit as important as you think and more. There were additional players in these sections, beyond the orchestra's normal complement. (They were also the only performers asked by the conductor to rise for the applause at the end, giving them a fun and deserved moment in the spotlight.) These are the sections that carry the famous shark theme, the theme I'd suggest is the most recognized in all of film history. (And you could also see them getting a workout at other times, too.)
The harp in this music is hyperactive even for a John Williams score, plucking out very precise melodies and only occasionally playing the sweeping runs for which a harp is most commonly known. The tuba is quite active too, playing the most prominent horn part in that main shark theme (a part that could have gone to french horns, but comes off more sinister for being played as high as a tuba will go). Percussion is busy in this one too (again more than usual for Williams), deployed rather steadily throughout rather than used more sparingly to accent moments.
A friend of mine had recently listened to the Jaws score and noted that, as brilliant as that main theme is, there was another strand of oddly bright adventure music in the score that struck him amiss. I was on the "listen-out" for this during the performance... not that it was hard to miss when it came. In interviews, Williams has said that he perceived an element of pirate adventure in the construction of the story, and this music is no doubt playing to that. It is a bit jarring compared to the rest of the score, I'd agree.
But moreover, what I think may really be going on there is that this "high adventure" music may be the only part of the score that sounds completely like conventional John Williams music. That's a bit backwards in terms of history -- this came before basically any John Williams score widely known today. But the style everyone knows is very much this particular, small slice of the Jaws music: prominent brass, bright melodies, and a strand of swashbuckler throughout.
What everyone remembers from Jaws is something entirely different. Critics have endlessly noted how director Steven Spielberg captured key elements of Alfred Hitchcock's style in making Jaws. Well, John Williams captured key elements of Bernard Herrmann's musical style in composing the score. Much of the music of Jaws (and certainly that iconic theme) sounds very much like an evolution and re-imagining of the music to Psycho, had it been composed for a full orchestra instead of strings only, with emphasis on the lower strings rather than the higher. Not that I think there are specific passages where Williams "copied" Herrmann, or anything so crude. The two compositions just seem cut from the same cloth to me, that cloth not being "typical John Williams."
Not that my appreciation for John Williams was lagging in any way, but this line of thought may have made me appreciate him even more. That "out of place" adventure melody really only seemed so to me in the sense that it wasn't fully compatible with this soundscape he'd created for this film, a soundscape that was essentially entirely out of his comfort zone. Making that choice, to do something unusual, couldn't have come easy. And it was a tremendous risk. (Famously, Spielberg was said to have laughed the first time Williams played for him on piano the "two note" theme for the shark. (It's more than two notes, by the way.)) John Williams took that risk, found this music, and it's beyond perfect for what this movie needed. If he also tacked on one sparingly used melody that doesn't quite gel with the rest, well, I can't begrudge him indulging in something more in his comfort zone. I hardly think it detracts from the genius of the rest, nor does it harm the whole of a really great movie.
Getting a chance to engage with this score I know less well than others made for a great night at the symphony. (Though it felt like maybe an expensive evening at first. Very, very little of the first half of the movie is scored. Fortunately, conversely, that felt like how much isn't scored in the second half.) Once again, the Film in Concert series delivered for me, and I'm looking forward to another one.
No comments:
Post a Comment