What instrument inspires you? You don’t have to play one, but most folks have a particular instrument whose tone or expression just brings out something that other instruments might not. And there are often movies that include works of instruments that are well worth passing along. I’m always looking for more music films, so…share!
For me it’s cello, which is why I loved the movie
‘All the Mornings of the World’, Tous Les Matins due le Monde, a synopsis here:
Ironically, the instrument in Tout Les Matins du Monde is not a cello - it’s a viol (viola da gamba). Which is not to say that it isn’t a beautiful movie filled with beautiful music - the soundtrack with Jordi Savall playing is well worth having. But it’s not a cello.
There are a lot of movies featuring cello players (mostly women, funnily enough) - The Witches of Eastwick, Electric Dreams, Ghostbusters (yes, really), Truly, Madly, Deeply - the last one is probably your best bet for some properly moving cello music.
As you may have guessed I’m a cello fan as well, but I’m going to go full opera here and recommend Meeting Venus with Glenn Close, which not only has some wonderful singing in it but also is an excellent satire of some of the behind-the-scene politics of the opera world.
Ack! For some reason, I have thought that a viola and a cello were different words for the same instrument, by which I mean the one played between the knees; it just has been too long since I’ve seen the movie and I forgot it’s the one played NOT between the knees . >.< /facepalm
Thank you for the heads-up! And thanks for all the recommendations; need more, too!
Well, tuba, of course. There are plenty of movies in which a tuba is played: Mr. Deeds Goes to Town, LA Story, Brassed Off, A Very Long Engagement . . . Robert Wagner plays an anachronistic sousaphone most unconvincingly in The Stars and Stripes Forever.
I have two - the hurdy-gurdy, as featured in a tavern in The Duellists. Two lasses are playing the less-common lute-formed hurdy. And the guqin, the chinese zither featured in the first duel in Hero.
Viola da gamba (“viol”). Played between the legs or on the lap. Fretted. Featured in Tous les matins du monde. Viola. Not fretted. Belongs to violin family. Played under chin. Violoncello (“cello”). Played between the legs. Not fretted.
Since we’re having a teaching moment here, the old “between the legs” instruments are the “viola da gamba” family (literally, “viola of the leg”, a “viola” in this instance just meaning a bowed instrument). Confusingly, the cello does not come from this family; it, and the modern violin and viola, are from the “viola da braccio” (viola of the arm) family. The two instrumental families co-existed at the same time in Renaissance Europe, but evolved their variations separately. The bass version of the viola da gamba is the violone which, like most members of the gamba family, typically has six strings. The braccio family usually has four strings (as its modern versions still do). [Fun Fact: the German name for the modern viola is Bratsche, from the Italian braccio.)
Do not ask me about the viola d’amore (yet another instrument)or the baryton or I may start to weep.
Back on topic: not a moving instrumental appearance but certainly a memorable one, Dudley Moore’s Unfaithfully Yours features what I can only describe as a comedy violin duel with Armand Assante* . It’s not an otherwise great film but a very funny scene. And Moore was an accomplished musician in his own right, especially on the piano.
*Using Vittorio Monti’s famous *Czardas *- you won’t know the name but you’ll recognize the music, especially the section at about 2’30")
My piano movie would be “Once”. I didn’t actually like the movie as much as the critics did but the parts I liked the most were the music, particularly piano.
August Rush was a good (albeit really sappy) movie with some tremendous acoustic guitar scenes. Keri Russell plays a concert cellist too, so add this movie to Gyrate’s list.
You missed The Soloist with Ray Charles and Ironman … or something like that.
My instrument is the clarinet, partly because I played it as a kid, and partly because I love its plaintive wailing. I can’t think of any good movie examples though. Mozart’s Clarinet Concerto appeared in Out of Africa, and I’m sure there has been a biopic about Benny Goodman. Other than that I’ve got nothing.
Wasn’t there a cellist in Short Cuts? Yes, the lovely Lori Singer (Julliard-trained cellist, as it happens), who was also a cellist in *Fame *(the series).
Oddly, Lori Singer appeared in the US remake The Man With One Red Shoe, in which Tom Hanks, Carrie Fisher and Jim Belushi all portrayed orchestral musicians and she didn’t.
I Googled “female cellist movies” and came up with a Korean film called Cello. Seriously, is there a TV Tropes page somewhere about female cellists? This is getting ridiculous.
[On checking] Yes there is, although their film section needs filling out.
