March 8, 2010

  • Giacchino Wins Oscar

    The 2009 Oscar Ceremony is still being reviewed everywhere, but I wanted to take a moment to congratulate Michael Giacchino on his first Oscar for Up.  I am still not sure why stars who can barely pronounce the titles of the films are sent out to mispronounce the names of the composers.  At least they did it with conviction--something they tell young radio announcers honing their skills at college classical music stations.

    I'm not sure why contemporary dance is necessary to accompany music for film when they scores are chosen because of how they work in a film.  Surely it is now possible to perform a score segment live to picture during this telecast and let the music speak for itself which each of the nominated scores could easily have done.

    I have been watching Giacchino's rise to Hollywood luck, because really that is what it takes sometimes, that must just be one wonderful ride for him.  In 2004, long before anyone even knew who Michael Giacchino was, I had a chance to write a review of his video game score for Secret Weapons Over Normandy for Film Score Monthly (I think it was January of that year).  Back then my first reaction was, "video game music, good grief what next."  But then I popped in the music from this La La Land release and was totally enthralled.  Giacchino had been writing for video games for a while so this was not necessarily his first or even best score necessaruly.  It was filled with plenty of martial Americana and my review commented on some of the similarities with his approach being similar to that of John Williams' military music.

    At the time, Giacchino had taken over Pixar's The Incredibles.  Film music fans were quite frustrated that John Barry had been taken off the project.  From my 2004 review, [Giacchino's] break may be around the corner with next fall’s Pixar release of “The Incredibles.”...There is no doubt that here is a composer that can continue the tradition of Hollywood scoring that many have come to love through other Lucas and Spielberg films.  How prophetic that statement seems now 6 years later with one score after another continuing to impress fans even when the films themselves seem lackluster. 

    The hope now is that he can break out of animated films more and work in some more serious fare that can further expand his musical horizons.  Hmmm..didn't we think the same over thirty years ago for another composer whose style is part of Giacchino's musical material?  Here's to more wonderful music making and a new year of potential great music from all the composers out there!