Intrada Soundtrack Forum

The Subject is Film Music Waltzes! (outside of musicals, please)

Don't just name waltzes, name the ones you REALLY, REALLY LIKE.



I'm very partial to Goldsmith's "The Dress Waltz" from LEGEND and much enjoy the twin waltzes of THE BOYS FROM BRAZIL.

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DavidinBerkeley

"Ask [the director] where the camera comes from and I'll tell him where the music comes from" (David Raksin)

I have loved many waltzes within original scores of the past. But this thread makes me a bit sad to consider how the nature of modern films (and audiences) might make this lovely form obsolete even for period pictures in future. That will be a loss, since multiple film composers of the past have created waltzes so rich with both grace and dramatic power in movies.

First, I too would have identified THE BOYS FROM BRAZIL and the waltz material within THE BLUE MAX and THE BIG COUNTRY; let me add the Moross' Annemarie waltz within the final cue on THE CARDINAL's CD. But I also stand up for Herrmann's "Memory Waltz" from THE SNOWS OF KILIMANJARO, and OBSESSION's "Valse Lente" -- especially its reprise for that uniquely poignant and powerful end title.

But many scores by the magnificent Alfred Newman feature waltzes that are not just stirring but achingly beautiful. Among my favorites are the "Terrace Waltz" treatment of the main theme from DRAGONWYCK; "Date With Peter" from THE DIARY OF ANNE FRANK; and ANASTASIA's "Valse," "Who Am I -- The Troika," "The Tivoli -- The Sleeping Princess," and "Anastasia Waltz."

I don't know for sure whether some of that ANASTASIA material might not be Newman originals -- like the various source waltzes early in the 1946 RAZOR'S EDGE -- but if not, then skillful selection and his gifts as a conductor sure "put them across" for me.

And hey -- I don't have the CD, Doug, but doesn't Barry have another nice 3/4 track in the first half of KING RAT?

Georges Delerue wrote a lot of waltzes, my favorite being La Valse de François T., composed and performed live with full orchestra for a French TV special entirely devoted to François Truffaut's life and career back in 1982. A lenghty TV show with Delerue and Truffaut being interviewed. I was pleasantly surprised to discover it on Nonesuch's Truffaut album, with a passionate performance by the London Sinfonietta, note perfect.

Maurice Jarre also fancied 3/4 writing: some of his Georges Franju scores have odd little waltzes, sometime with broken time signatures, a trademark of this great composer. The main theme from Ryan's Daughter is also a waltz.

The Valse crépusculaire from Providence by Miklos Rozsa is also a favorite of mine.

And for a few years now Alexandre Desplat has been contributing steadily to the 3/4 history. The Birth Waltz is splendid, so is the River Waltz from The Painted Veil. And the Dinner waltz from Lust, Caution has "French music" written all over the manuscript! Odd but refreshing for a film set in China!

There's a waltz-like arrangement of the main theme from The Great Train Robbery (Rotten Row). And what about the waltz from Papillon ? I may be wrong but it feels like Goldsmith only slightly altered the tempo for his concert medley to give the theme a more, dancing, waltz-like arrangement. And speaking of Jerry, the main theme from Kick the Can in Twilight Zone the Movie is also in 3/4 time. And it's such a gorgeous score! I get teary eyed every time I listen to the CD!

I also love the jazz waltz theme from In Like Flint: so elegant and infectious.

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Mediocrity knows nothing higher than itself, but talent instantly recognizes genius
- Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

I like the waltz Max Steiner wrote for Jezebel.

That was a critical scene - Bette Davis in a red dress at the ball - especially since the movie was in black & white. So the music had to support an image of color. And who would know waltzes better than Steiner.

Having said that, his waltz surely doesn't sound like what a waltz in the antebellum South would have actually sounded like.

Thanks for mentioning PAPILLON, Gordon. What a masterpiece!
--Doug

Jerry Goldsmith's 'The Dress Waltz' from Legend? What a cue! Combined with Ridley Scott's sumptuous images, this really makes for sequence to remember. The waltz was a perfect choice of musical/dance form for the scene – which was, as the Silva Screen liner notes point out, a replacement for a sex scene between Darkness and Princess Lili in Hjortsberg's original screenplay. What better way to evoke seduction than with a hypnotic waltz building to a devastating crescendo?

And how criminal that for years all the U.S. audiences got to hear was Tangerine Dream's plinky plonky nonsense. (Don't flame me – I love their work on movies like Near Dark, but I think they had a tough act to follow here in a very short space of time.)

I wrote an essay on this cue at Uni, where I compared it with other waltzes – including Jezebel, as it happens.

Waltz To The Death by Danny Elfman featured in Batman.

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http://www.ccci.org/wij/index.html

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DavidinBerkeley

"Ask [the director] where the camera comes from and I'll tell him where the music comes from" (David Raksin)

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DavidinBerkeley

"Ask [the director] where the camera comes from and I'll tell him where the music comes from" (David Raksin)

_________________
Mediocrity knows nothing higher than itself, but talent instantly recognizes genius
- Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Alfred Newman wrote some wonderful waltzes for "Anastasia". The one based on the main theme is one of my favorites!