Steven Schwartz wrote:

>Mike Cole:
>
>>I still feel that Bernstein's score for "On the Waterfront" is the best
>>film music I have ever heard.
>
>Have you heard Prokofiev's Alexander Nevsky, Ivan the Terrible, or Lt. Kije?

I have heard Nevsky, which I didn't care for that much, but I tend not to
like much of the choral repetoire.  I have neither seen nor heard Ivan the
Terrible.  Lt.  Kije is one of my favorite pieces of music, I did not
realize it was a movie soundtrack and have obviously not seen the movie, so
I cannot comment on how effective it is in that capacity.  I did not mean
that there was not much other fine film music, only that, IMHO On the
Waterfront is the best.

>>Another use of music in film that I find very effective is that of John
>>Ford's sweeping Irish march melodies in many of his John Wayne Westerns.
>
>I love John Ford's movies.  In fact, I can only smile with infinite pity
>on those who don't accept him as our greatest movie director.  However,
>to me the music he generally uses is incredibly weak, usually provided by
>routineers.  The only exception that comes to mind immediately is Victor
>Young's score for The Quiet Man.

The arrangements of those Irish marching tunes as John Wayne leads the
column of cavalry off to wherever I find to be very effective.  Also, I
think the use of the Western standard "Bury Me Not On the Lone Prairie"
as used in Stagecoach is brilliant.  The music I am referring to is
not original film score, nor I am I referring to those scores in their
entirety, but he had a brilliant sense of when and where to use those
traditional tunes.

Another very effective use of traditional western music in film is the
Fourth of July picnic/dance scene in George Stevens' Shane which uses
"Good-bye Old Paint".

I would certainly agree with Steve that John Ford is one of our greatest
(if not the greatest) film directors.

Mike Cole