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Adapting Wagner for the Screen
The musical approach of Richard Wagner (1813-1881) has been the most significant influence on film scoring from the silent era to the present. This exhibition room highlights some of the ways in which particular methods - including the use of recognizable leitmotifs for different characters and ideas - and operas have inspired filmmakers worldwide. Some are direct adaptations (like this excerpt from the Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau Stiftung restoration of the first part Fritz Lang's 1924 epic Die Nibelungen), while others reflect upon the complex histories and associations of Wagner's still haunting works.
The Ring Cycle and Wagner's Leitmotifs
The opening chords of Das Rheingold, the beginning of Wagner's Ring Cycle, in Nosferatu, the Vampyre (Werner Herzog, 1979)
Tristan and Isolde (Wagner)
The opening of Tristan and Isolde (1859) is the single most influential piece of Romantic music on later composition, marking the transition between tonal harmony and dissonance, and ineluctably fusing the themes of love and death. It carries strong associations with it and has been a powerful influence on ambitious filmmakers of all periods (as in this excerpt from the opening to Lars von Trier's Melancholia, 2011).
Sergei Eisenstein and Total Synchronization
Partially inspired by Wagnerian models, Sergei Eisenstein demonstrates the benefits of total synchronization and vertical montage in the "Battle on the Ice" sequence of Alexander Nevsky (1938).
Godard's Sound Montage
Jean-Luc Godard took the montage approach of Sergei Eisenstein in a very different direction, developing new forms of horizontal montage across sequences, sometimes with nonsynchronous image and sound, as in this rigorous and surprising extract from First Name Carmen (1983).
Requiem - Ligeti (Star Gate Sequence)
Stanley Kubrick is the filmmaker most associated with the cinematic use of modernist music by composers such as György Ligeti, whose work gained international renown when it was used in the Stargate sequence of 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968). This room explores Kubrick's singular and deeply influential use of music by 20th century composers from Central Europe.
Krzysztof Penderecki's The Awakening of Jacob (1974)
Krzysztof Penderecki's The Awakening of Jacob (1974) in The Shining (Stanley Kubrick, 1980)
Béla Bartók's Hedge Maze
Hungarian modernist Béla Bartók's Music for Strings, Percussion, and Celesta (1936) accompanies writer's block, the hedge maze, and the discovery of Room 237 in The Shining (Stanley Kubrick, 1980).
Krzysztof Penderecki and the Modernist Labyrinth
The Shining (Stanley Kubrick, 1980)
Akira Kurosawa and Tōru Takemitsu
Autodidact Tōru Takemitsu (1930-1996) was both the preeminent Japanese composer and the most prominent and influential creator of Japanese film scores. Like every other aspect of Akira Kurosawa's film Ran (1985), Takemitu's score was an attempt to fuse Western and traditionally Japanese epic forms. As was often the case for Kurosawa, Sergei Eisenstein's approach to audiovisual montage was a key reference point.
Teshigahara, Sōgetsu, and the Japanese Avant-Garde
One of Takemitsu's most rich and enduring collaborations was with Hiroshi Teshigahara. This extract from Hokusai (Teshigahara, 1953) is one of their earliest collaborations.
Masahiro Shinoda and Tōru Takemitsu
Masahiro Shinoda collaborated with Tōru Takemitsu both on films produced by the Japanese studios and on independent productions like the iconic Art Theater Guild film Double Suicide (1969).
Film Music
Scroll to explore the exhibition
Film Music
- Room 1: Richard Wagner and Film Scores
- Room 2: Approaches to Music and Montage
- Room 3: Stanley Kubrick and Central European Modernism
- Room 4: Tōru Takemitsu and Japanese Film Music
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Room 1: Richard Wagner and Film Scores
-
Room 2: Approaches to Music and Montage
-
Room 3: Stanley Kubrick and Central European Modernism
-
Room 4: Tōru Takemitsu and Japanese Film Music
-
Hans-Jürgen Syberberg
-
John Boorman
-
Pere Portabella
-
Lynne Ramsay
Film Music
Room 1: Richard Wagner and Film Scores
Adapting Wagner for the Screen
The musical approach of Richard Wagner (1813-1881) has been the most significant influence on film scoring from the silent era to the present. This exhibition room highlights some of the ways in which particular methods - including the use of recognizable leitmotifs for different characters and ideas - and operas have inspired filmmakers worldwide. Some are direct adaptations (like this excerpt from the Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau Stiftung restoration of the first part Fritz Lang's 1924 epic Die Nibelungen), while others reflect upon the complex histories and associations of Wagner's still haunting works.
The Ring Cycle and Wagner's Leitmotifs
The opening chords of Das Rheingold, the beginning of Wagner's Ring Cycle, in Nosferatu, the Vampyre (Werner Herzog, 1979)
Tristan and Isolde (Wagner)
The opening of Tristan and Isolde (1859) is the single most influential piece of Romantic music on later composition, marking the transition between tonal harmony and dissonance, and ineluctably fusing the themes of love and death. It carries strong associations with it and has been a powerful influence on ambitious filmmakers of all periods (as in this excerpt from the opening to Lars von Trier's Melancholia, 2011).
Room 2: Approaches to Music and Montage
Sergei Eisenstein and Total Synchronization
Partially inspired by Wagnerian models, Sergei Eisenstein demonstrates the benefits of total synchronization and vertical montage in the "Battle on the Ice" sequence of Alexander Nevsky (1938).
Godard's Sound Montage
Jean-Luc Godard took the montage approach of Sergei Eisenstein in a very different direction, developing new forms of horizontal montage across sequences, sometimes with nonsynchronous image and sound, as in this rigorous and surprising extract from First Name Carmen (1983).
Room 3: Stanley Kubrick and Central European Modernism
Requiem - Ligeti (Star Gate Sequence)
Stanley Kubrick is the filmmaker most associated with the cinematic use of modernist music by composers such as György Ligeti, whose work gained international renown when it was used in the Stargate sequence of 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968). This room explores Kubrick's singular and deeply influential use of music by 20th century composers from Central Europe.
Krzysztof Penderecki's The Awakening of Jacob (1974)
Krzysztof Penderecki's The Awakening of Jacob (1974) in The Shining (Stanley Kubrick, 1980)
Béla Bartók's Hedge Maze
Hungarian modernist Béla Bartók's Music for Strings, Percussion, and Celesta (1936) accompanies writer's block, the hedge maze, and the discovery of Room 237 in The Shining (Stanley Kubrick, 1980).
Room 4: Tōru Takemitsu and Japanese Film Music
Akira Kurosawa and Tōru Takemitsu
Autodidact Tōru Takemitsu (1930-1996) was both the preeminent Japanese composer and the most prominent and influential creator of Japanese film scores. Like every other aspect of Akira Kurosawa's film Ran (1985), Takemitu's score was an attempt to fuse Western and traditionally Japanese epic forms. As was often the case for Kurosawa, Sergei Eisenstein's approach to audiovisual montage was a key reference point.
Teshigahara, Sōgetsu, and the Japanese Avant-Garde
One of Takemitsu's most rich and enduring collaborations was with Hiroshi Teshigahara. This extract from Hokusai (Teshigahara, 1953) is one of their earliest collaborations.
Masahiro Shinoda and Tōru Takemitsu
Masahiro Shinoda collaborated with Tōru Takemitsu both on films produced by the Japanese studios and on independent productions like the iconic Art Theater Guild film Double Suicide (1969).
-
Hans-Jürgen Syberberg
-
John Boorman
-
Pere Portabella
-
Lynne Ramsay
