What do Die Hard, Dead Poets Society and Ace Ventura: Pet Detective all have in common? They all feature music from Beethoven's popular Symphony No. 9! It's questions like that you may get answered on KPR's Film Music Friday at 7:06 p.m.
Film Music Friday celebrates the use of classical music in movies, as well as classic symphonic scores created especially for motion pictures. Whether is J.S. Bach's Toccata and Fugue from Monty Python and the Meaning of Life or Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture from Caddyshack or Bellini's "Casta Diva" from The Bridges of Madison County, classical music and opera has provided the background for movies since the age of silent film. With the advent of sound, pioneering composers like Max Steiner and Erich Korngold created memorable scores for films like King Kong and The Adventures of Robin Hood.
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Oscar-winning composer Alex North wrote for all kinds of films, and on tonight's Film Music Friday, we'll hear some of his work on A Streetcar Named Desire, Cleopatra, Spartacus and The Bad Seed, plus North's rejected score for 2001: A Space Oddysey. -
This week's Film Music Friday is a DISASTER! Actually, it's about the music for classic (and some not-so-classic) disaster movies, including Titanic, The Towering Inferno, When Worlds Collide, Twister and lots more. -
Danny Elfman was a rock musician and ardent film fan but eventually found himself composing music for feature films. This week on Film Music Friday we'll listen to some of his classic scores for such films as Batman, Edward Scissorhands and Midnight Run. -
Film Music Friday is out west this week, with some classic themes from Western films, including The Big Country, Stagecoach, The Searchers, The Magnificent Seven and more. -
Over the years, many film composers have re-purposed their movie work into music for the concert hall. On this Film Music Friday, we'll hear examples of how film scores are performed by symphony orchestras, with music from Star Wars, Things to Come, Scott of the Antarctic, Psycho and more. -
This week on Film Music Friday we remember actor Gene Hackman, who passed away in February. We'll hear music from many of Hackman's films, including The French Connection, Hoosiers, Mississippi Burning, Bite the Bullet and more. -
This week's Film Music Friday features music for heroes - super and otherwise - with themes drawn from The Avengers, 633 Squadron, Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, The Shadow and more. -
This week's Film Music Friday looks at sword-and-sandal movies, those historical, mythological, or biblical epics mostly set in the Greco-Roman antiquity or the Middle Ages. We'll hear music from 300, Spartacus, Ben-Hur, Jason and the Argonauts, Red Sonja and more. -
For Valentine's Day, this week's Film Music Friday features some romantic themes from movies like Love Actually, Cinema Paradiso, Casablanca, The Piano, Much Ado About Nothing and more. -
This week's Film Music Friday explores music for Kings, Queens and Presidents, with excerpts from The Adventures of Robin Hood, Juarez, Air Force One, Henry V, JFK and more.
