I was listening to the radio on the way to work today, and happened across NPR which was in the middle of their morning classical program. The piece they were playing sounded very familiar, and I was almost certain it was used in The Right Stuff. But the more I listened to it the more it seemed it wasn’t quite right. Some of the notes were just wrong. At the end of the piece they announce it as Jupiter from Holst’s Planets Suite. (Luckily it only lasted five minutes from when I tuned in.)
I get to work and check it out, and it turns out the piece from The Right Stuff is pretty widely acknowledged as a rip-off of the Holst piece. That the director used Jupiter as a temp track while editing and refused to buy the rights and forced the theme compose to make a soundalike.
So… do you know of other examples of this, where a movie theme steals from old classics? To be clear here, I’m not asking about use of classical music in a movie or about a modern composer ripping off himself, although those are both interesting.
Also, are there classical pieces that aren’t directly copied, but that seem to be very influential to movie themes? For example, something that you would swear was a John Williams or James Horner piece but is actually from the 19th century.
Many people point out the similarity between Holst’s Mars, the Bringer of War and the Imperial March (Darth Vader’s theme) from The Empire Strikes Back.
Holst must be a pretty popular guy with the film composers.
Mars, Bringer of War’s influence shows up almost as frequently as O Fortuna’s. I also noticed Mars when watching Gladiator, for example. It also shows up in the Diablo 2: Lord of Destruction score, but then that’s not a movie theme.
I’ve always thought Vader’s March actually bore a much more striking resemblance to one of the main themes in Prokofiev’s Romeo & Juliet. Similarly, the music for the Battle in the Mutara Nebula in Star Trek II (by Horner) seems liberally cribbed from The Battle on the Ice from Prokofiev’s Alexander Nevsky.
Interesting. The title reminded me of The Right Stuff even before reading the OP, but I was thinking of Bill Conti’s other rip-off: Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto. I haven’t seen the movie in a while, but if my memory is correct, the matchup comes about 5 and a half minutes into the concerto’s first movement. Check it out.
Oh, the original score for Metropolis, which is included in the Kino restoration, also contains a snippet from Berlioz’s Symphonie Fantastique. It happens when the protagonist Fredor is inside the cathedral and the statues (of the seven deadly sins, IIRC) comes alive. I can’t remember just exactly which portion of the symphony was used, but given the situation, it’s probably from either the 4th (“March to the Scaffold”) or 5th movement (“Dream of a Witches’ Sabbath”).
The early version of the film is shown to the director with a temporary soundtrack, using the type of music expected to go with the action. Classical music is often used, as it is dramatic, emotional, and available. Evidently Holst and O Fortuna are popular for temp tracks.
Then, the director (who has already fallen in love with the music on the temp track) calls in the composer and says, “write something JUST LIKE that! Just make it sound like Holst!” …Or Tchaikovsky, or whichever musical genius has written the music in question.
The composer, who after all is working for a living, duly produces something that sounds almost but not quite like Prokifiev, Holst, et al.
Creative efforts rarely exist in a vacuum. Film composers like John Williams, James Horner, et al. owe much to early 20th century composers such as Holst, Igor Stravinsky, and Carl Orff, as well as “crossovers” like Prokofiev, since those guys are the ones who are studied in music colleges. Film composers probably have that music in their heads when they write. So, in a sense, most of it is inspiration. Only the intended medium (film vs. concert hall) is different.
Best example I can think of now is the slow theme from Brahms’ Academic Festival Overture, which you’d swear was used in all those low-budget 70’s college flicks, but to knowledge, wasn’t.
Actually, this theme is called “Gaudeamus Igitur” and is an old German student song (by that great composer “Anon.”) and has been traditionally used by universities as an unofficial anthem and drinking song.
So, both Brahms and the movie composers are borrowing from someone else.