Don't ask me why, but I'm watching it for the umpteenth time on TV tonight.
An amazingly appropriate soundtrack: no memorable hummable tunes, but it's a great piece of film music in my opinion.
Can you think of any comparable scenario in classical music - operatic or otherwise - where two political enemy states are brought to the brink of all out war, by some "fluke" happenstance?
Should you "draw a blank", then just nominate a composition you feel is most descriptive of military conflict, or warring struggles of any kind: a duel, murder, someone deceived into an unjustifiable attack, etc.
Alberich
Update:---------------------------
WOW: this question has been on for 8 hrs. now, and not one response.
For those who've not seen the film - or a refresher for those who have - here's a You Tube sequence of videos of most of the entire film:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yixhzN6RwR8&feature...
Alberich
Answers & Comments
Verified answer
Hi Alberich,
Well, being the Early Music Head that I am, the first piece that comes to mind is the "Battle Pavane," one of a set of dance tunes composed in 1551 by Tielman Susato.
This piece starts off with a gentle "militaristic" theme, which is thrown back and forth, presumably emulating a battle scene. It builds in intensity, culminating in a wonderful trumpet-like fanfare. As with so much Renaissance music, this is a work without specific instrumentation, and you can double, triple or quadruple the parts, with whatever forces you have at hand.
Back in my student days, I played recorder in this piece - it was a rather large ensemble (there must've been at least 20 of us) but it was mainly recorders and viols - not the most "militaristic" orchestration - in fact, in hindsight, it was a bit TOO genteel, methinks...
In 1981, Bob Margolis arranged the Battle Pavane for wind band - I have to admit that this modern arrangement is more rousing, especially when the final fortissimo fanfare is blasted out by trumpets!
Cheers,
Hafwen.
> WOULD YOU LIKE TO PLAY A GAME?
Ahem. Wagner, Wagner, Wagner. Flight of the Valkyries (something something die Walkure), to be exact. And no, not just because of Apocalypse Now--but that helps. And most of his stuff had to do with saga-laden warfare anyway.
For a duel, point and counterpoint. Any Baroque grounds or fugues or what have you.
Re. enemies brought to the brink of war by fluke: Did anyone do Hamlet as an opera, ever? I'm not as knowledgeable as some posters here on music, but the end of that story is probably the flukiest conflict ever.
What about Shostakovich symphony No. 4 (gives me chills when we play it) also No. 8 or 10? He mocks Stalin and that regime so well.
"Music illuminates a person and provides him with his last hope; even Stalin, a butcher, knew that, and that was why he hated music": Dmitrii Shostakovich
Strong words.
i cannot compare since i didn't see the movie. but how about The 1812 overture?
This is hard...I don't have any suggestions yet, but I'll keep thinking!