Your favorite movie soundtracks from period dramas!

[BlueBowman]

A recent thread discussion got me thinking about my favorite movie soundtracks from period dramas...which made me realize that most of my favorites are from the 1990s.

The Braveheart soundtrack is gorgeous. I can hear that simple main melody and instantly be transported to the highlands of Scotland during the rebellion. (Historical accuracy does not count in this thread. Yes, I know the movie is abysmally inaccurate.)

The Last of the Mohicans. That violin...oh, that violin. Gets me every time I hear it. I love that entire soundtrack. That movie was shot in the Blueridge Mountains near where I live. I had a geography professor in college who was in the movie. He also served as consultant. Pretty cool hearing his insights. Double D Lewis is also in it. Enough said.

The Lord of the Rings is pretty great. There's a wonderful breakdown on YouTube of how they blended to story with the music seamlessly (I can't find it, or I would post a link for everyone). Gladiator is another really nice score.

The English Patient (1996) is one that always got me. When he walks out of the cave with her lifeless body. Just wonderful music.

Legends of the Fall. If you can make it through without dry eyes you have a stone heart!  ;)

I know I'm simply forgetting so many. Movies or TV, what are some of your favorite scores? I'd love to discover something new. Extra points for period dramas. I'm thinking of scores that really elevate the movie or show to another level.

[Silence Dogood]

I like all the ones you mentioned.  I'd really love to see that video on the LOTR music and how it all happened, if you can ever locate it.  It's probably somewhere in the extended DVD set collection I have anyway, but I've never managed to wade through all the hours of footage.  What I did see what pretty fascinating though. 

A few of my faves that I'll mention now (might add more later if the thread takes off):

Patrick Doyle's soundtrack to Sense and Sesibility from 1995.  Just brilliant!

Samuel Sim's soundtrack to Emma from 2009.  So good. 

The 2015 Disney Cinderalla soundtrack is wonderful as well. 

I routinely work with these albums playing. 

[BlueBowman]

Patrick Doyle's soundtrack to Sense and Sesibility from 1995.  Just brilliant!

Ah, that's a good one I had forgotten about! Nice pull. Patrick Doyle is a titan in composition.

I'll have to check out Emma and Cinderella.

Silence, I believe it was this video, but I'm not certain: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XLj6zkmwsYU

I don't have time to watch the entire thing at the moment, but what I remember is the music doesn't only build and build (as you would expect), but it is first a quiet and simple melody (a seed) in the beginning of the movie, while Frodo is still in the shire. That melody then takes root and changes/varies ultimately culminating when the fellowship is formed. And the pay off is even better because that earlier variation on the theme is still with us, I thought it was so cool the way the score was written. Written with real purpose. Not unusual from a great score composer, but interesting to see things broken down. Again, I hope that's the right video above.

[William2]

I love film score music. Many of the great 20th century serious composers wrote for film. And I have a list of favorite composers. A film addict, I'm particularly drawn to composers of the film classic era. And I also like more recent composers like John Barry. For guitarist wanting to look at some arrangements for guitar, I recommend a book by Laurindo Almeida called Contemporary Moods for Classical Guitar. Here is a score by Richard Addinsell called the Warsaw Concerto from a 1941 film called Dangerous Moonlight performed by my favorite pianist Valentina Lisitsa and the BBC orchestra live at the Proms.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ob_mJbKAfWA

[Silence Dogood]

And I also like more recent composers like John Barry.

Out of Africa's soundtrack is absolutely brilliant. 

[Silence Dogood]

A recent thread discussion got me thinking about my favorite movie soundtracks from period dramas...which made me realize that most of my favorites are from the 1990s.

The Braveheart soundtrack is gorgeous. I can hear that simple main melody and instantly be transported to the highlands of Scotland during the rebellion. (Historical accuracy does not count in this thread. Yes, I know the movie is abysmally inaccurate.)

The Last of the Mohicans. That violin...oh, that violin. Gets me every time I hear it. I love that entire soundtrack. That movie was shot in the Blueridge Mountains near where I live. I had a geography professor in college who was in the movie. He also served as consultant. Pretty cool hearing his insights. Double D Lewis is also in it. Enough said.

The Lord of the Rings is pretty great. There's a wonderful breakdown on YouTube of how they blended to story with the music seamlessly (I can't find it, or I would post a link for everyone). Gladiator is another really nice score.

The English Patient (1996) is one that always got me. When he walks out of the cave with her lifeless body. Just wonderful music.

Legends of the Fall. If you can make it through without dry eyes you have a stone heart!  ;)

I know I'm simply forgetting so many. Movies or TV, what are some of your favorite scores? I'd love to discover something new. Extra points for period dramas. I'm thinking of scores that really elevate the movie or show to another level.

Since the discussion of "castle music" seems to have spurred on the idea of this thread, here is something you might enjoy from CS Lewis's 1945 novel THAT HIDEOUS STRENGTH.  I was thinking of this yesterday after pondering the thread.  Lewis shows himself to be a wordsmith of the first order here:

"And Dimble, who had been sitting with his face drawn, and rather white, between the white faces of the two women, and his eyes on the table, raised his head, and great syllables of words that sounded like castles came out of his mouth. Jane felt her heart leap and quiver at them. Everything else in the room seemed to have been intensely quiet; even the bird, and the bear, and the cat, were still, staring at the speaker. The voice did not sound like Dimble's own: it was as if the words spoke themselves through him from some strong place at a distance—or as if they were not words at all but present operations of God, the planets, and the Pendragon. For this was the language spoken before the Fall and beyond the Moon and the meanings were not given to the syllables by chance, or skill, or long tradition, but truly inherent in them as the shape of the great Sun is inherent in the little waterdrop. This was Language herself, as she first sprang at Maleldil's bidding out of the molten quicksilver of the first star called Mercury on Earth, but Viritrilbia in Deep Heaven."

[teh]

The soundtrack for "The Outlaw Josey Wales" written by Jerry Fielding was set following the Civil War and directed by and starring Clint Eastwood as well as John Vernon, Sam Bottoms, Chief Dan George and Bill McKinney is right up there. The music and the movie are both timeless.

While many are technically not period pieces, any soundtrack written by John Williams has to be included: Jaws, Star Wars, Superman, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Schindler's List, Jurassic Park, Home Alone and ET to name just a few. Don't forget to include the soundtracks from To Kill a Mockingbird, The Natural, Forrest Gump, October Sky and music selected by John Hughes for his movies.

[B0WIE]

I'm not sure if Westerns are period dramas but Ennio Morricone is my favorite composer and it's not even close. Though he's most well known for the Clint Eastwood trilogy, I feel one of his best works is the Once Upon a Time in the West soundtrack. It manages to keep your interest throughout an incredibly long and slow moving film, never allowing the viewer to feel impatient. That whole film is a form of art that cannot be made anymore as studios just won't take the risk.

[BlueBowman]

I'm not sure if Westerns are period dramas but Ennio Morricone is my favorite composer and it's not even close.

How I could I forget Ennio?! One of the absolute greats. I just put on Ecstasy of Gold. Killer.

A little known movie and great soundtrack, The Legend of 1900, is well worth everyone's time. Bowie, you may already know about it, being a fan of Ennio, but it's one of my favorite movies. The score is top notch, and well worth a listen. But the two go so well together. Highly recommended.

Though he's most well known for the Clint Eastwood trilogy, I feel one of his best works is the Once Upon a Time in the West soundtrack. It manages to keep your interest throughout an incredibly long and slow moving film, never allowing the viewer to feel impatient. That whole film is a form of art that cannot be made anymore as studios just won't take the risk.

I think superhero movies ruined slow pacing for us!

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For some reason, I always get Ennio and Mancini confused, so I'll throw out Henry Mancini has another great. I enjoy playing both the theme from Love Story and Pink Panther on guitar.

[BlueBowman]

I love film score music. Many of the great 20th century serious composers wrote for film. And I have a list of favorite composers. A film addict, I'm particularly drawn to composers of the film classic era. And I also like more recent composers like John Barry. For guitarist wanting to look at some arrangements for guitar, I recommend a book by Laurindo Almeida called Contemporary Moods for Classical Guitar. Here is a score by Richard Addinsell called the Warsaw Concerto from a 1941 film called Dangerous Moonlight performed by my favorite pianist Valentina Lisitsa and the BBC orchestra live at the Proms.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ob_mJbKAfWA

Thanks, William. I'll check it out!

While many are technically not period pieces, any soundtrack written by John Williams has to be included: Jaws, Star Wars, Superman, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Schindler's List, Jurassic Park, Home Alone and ET to name just a few. Don't forget to include the soundtracks from To Kill a Mockingbird, The Natural, Forrest Gump, October Sky and music selected by John Hughes for his movies.

Good stuff here. The music for Schindler's List fit the movie so well. Itzhak Perlman FTW. The main Jaws theme might be the most pitch perfect composition ever. How do you decide what to write for a giant shark attacking humans? Brilliant.

These great composers working on movies, it makes me wonder what Mozart and some of the other legends of classical would be doing if they were alive today. Broadway? Movies?

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One of my favorite composers is Chopin. It's probably obvious from most of my suggestions that I love sad music. Two great uses of Chopin in movies: the nocturnes in The Pianist and The Deer Hunter.

The nocturne in The Deer Hunter is being played by the actual actor in the scene, just before they go off to war (foreshadowing). A powerful scene: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MRYjGSwdWws

[Silence Dogood]

Silence, I believe it was this video, but I'm not certain: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XLj6zkmwsYU

I don't have time to watch the entire thing at the moment, but what I remember is the music doesn't only build and build (as you would expect), but it is first a quiet and simple melody (a seed) in the beginning of the movie, while Frodo is still in the shire. That melody then takes root and changes/varies ultimately culminating when the fellowship is formed. And the pay off is even better because that earlier variation on the theme is still with us, I thought it was so cool the way the score was written. Written with real purpose. Not unusual from a great score composer, but interesting to see things broken down. Again, I hope that's the right video above.

That's pretty awesome how the guy breaks it all down. I'd never seen that before.  (I only wish I understand music half as much as that guy does.)

I find it fascinating how these modern composers match the music to certain scenes in films and how they weave the "main theme" of the score throughout.  Sometimes the main theme is so beautiful, and it can often be something short but very memorable.   

An example that comes to mind is the main theme from the film Super 8.  A truly beautiful piece that tugs at the heart every time I hear it.

I have no idea how people "write" music like this--how they just invent it like someone does a story or a drawing.  Music has never worked that way in my life.  Sometimes a melody will jump out at me and land on the fretboard, but never could I sit down and intentionally "write" music like that.  This is mostly due to the fact that I never learned how to read music, know nothing of theory, etc.  I just play guitar and mandolin.  My grandmother was a classically-trained pianist.  When she would see me sit down and "just play" guitar, she could never understand how I did it.  Her teachers never let her make stuff up, etc.  She had to "play the Masters." She honestly could not understand someone not knowing music but being able to play it.

[BlueBowman]

I have no idea how people "write" music like this--how they just invent it like someone does a story or a drawing.  Music has never worked that way in my life.  Sometimes a melody will jump out at me and land on the fretboard, but never could I sit down and intentionally "write" music like that.  This is mostly due to the fact that I never learned how to read music, know nothing of theory, etc.  I just play guitar and mandolin.  My grandmother was a classically-trained pianist.  When she would see me sit down and "just play" guitar, she could never understand how I did it.  Her teachers never let her make stuff up, etc.  She had to "play the Masters." She honestly could not understand someone not knowing music but being able to play it.

I've wondered the same thing. Do they have a huge backlog of various musical ideas composed prior to the film, then  search through the catalog looking for things to fit? Or, do they compose in the moment with the intent of the music being used for a X film? It's probably the latter mostly. I've seen composers watching edited clips of the movie to get ideas for the writing. It's an impressive skill!

Much less impressive from my own life: when I lived in Nashville a decade or so ago, I was asked to write the music for an indie film project. The project never went anywhere, but I'll tell you the only direction I got: "write music for these five emotions." That was all I was told!

[jpmist]

This will almost qualify, but when has that ever stopped me. My favorite period dramas are the 1930s era of gritty film noir stuff. Two not so recent series that had some fine background music was HBO's 2020 "Perry Mason". Here's a public link to my Proton cloud drive that has about 23 minutes of mournful trumpet 30's jazz I "borrowed" off on Spotify at the time. (Start around minute 9:30 or so)

https://drive.proton.me/urls/NP132ZZ3P0#6RSAYnBd9j4Q

The second was the theme music from "Monsieur Spade", an AMC series where Sam Spade retires to France and marries a rich widow then tries to keep out of trouble. More beautiful trumpet noir if you're into that

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=teas1byt09U