Karl wonders:

>Is (film music) it marketing, or the evolution of the form of expression
>or, what I believe, coming from my perspective, an evolution born out of
>desire to capture market share.

Thirty years ago I purchased a number of sound track recordings of greater
or lessor value.  Over time I found them to be more or less valueless as
music.  In most cases the music consisted of summary themes in more or less
chronological order of the film scenario.  In other cases the music was
ordered in an attempt to make it track in a symphonic-like suite.  The
approach selected was more or less driven by the "artistic potential" of
the score.  For example, "The Man With The Golden Arm" fell into a the
artistic potential category, however, its interest was driven primarily by
the clevor interweaving of jazz forms into the score.

Most film sound track releases in recent times have been driven by the
producers' need to appeal to the popular market in an attempt to cross
promote the film with radio play of the theme music rather than exclusively
to complement the visual action.

By and large, over several decades, any attempt to create something
of structured "classical" music out of most film scores has not created
much musical value.  Such an outcome would be only an accident due to the
primary nature of film music which is to support the dramatic screen action
and other promotion schemes described above.

Bernard Gregoire
Hingham, MA