Quote:
Originally Posted by Andre
I think that, even around here, there's quite a bit of elitism & snobbism. Like, a while back, I made a thread about George Gershwin & some members reacted very negatively, saying to effect that he was nothing more than a composer of show tunes. This is ridiculous, because he composed many serious works as well. The same can be said of Rozsa, he had two types of output - film and 'serious' music. But that's not a problem for me, escpecially considering how all that I've heard of him is of excellent quality.
I also find it interesting how, even though he moved first to Western Europe then to the USA, his concert music always retained an essentially Hungarian flavour. At the same time, his film scores sounded more 'international' for want of a better term. So I suppose he was conscious about dividing his output stylistically in this way...
|
Well, I may be able to understand the negative sentiment for Gershwin. I, personally, cannot stand Gershwin. His light and jazzy style does not appeal to me in the slightest. So, I can, I admit, understand his lack of popularity around here. I think it hase to do more with his STYLE vs. whether or not he wrote for films or the concert hall, and he did both.
Rozsa's style is more "traditional" in the sense it sounds like serious concert hall music more than show tuney (to coin a phrase). With the similarities to Bartok and perhaps Kodaly, this is more "sure ground" for the average classical fan. At least this applies to me.
Notwithstanding, regardless of the composer's style, the fact that they write (or wrote) for films should not have anything to do with their classical "street cred." Some of my favorite composers wrote for films (Khachaturain, Shostakovich, Ifukube, Kilar, etc.) but they are all clearly great concert hall composers, too. Again, they supplied incidental music to one of our newst forms of media. Who knows...perhaps even Mozart would have written for films had he been given the chance. And had he, I doubt that would affect the general opinion of his concert output. He was, after all, the genius to end all geniuses.