Well, Philip Glass may never win an Oscar, but neither have some of my favorite film composers. A.R. Rahman won last night for his score to Slumdog Millionaire. In fairness to him, I haven't seen the film. Musically however, listening to the score alone, I don't find much interesting about it.
Composers like Thomas Newman and Danny Elfman have never won either. Ennio Morricone had to wait for a "Lifetime Achievement Award" because his scores were never "good enough to win"…awards are silly, but there has been a change in recent years which leans toward political correctness and not on a celebration of musical achievement. The idea that Gustavo Santoallala (Brokeback Mountain, Babel) has won two Oscars and now A.R. Rahman has won two…both having twice as many as composing giants Bernard Herrmann and Jerry Goldsmith is ridiculous. Alexandre Desplat deserved to win last night for his wonderful music to Benjamin Button.
The silver lining for Glass fans was during the introductory video for the documentary section, the underscore was Philip Glass' Metamorphosis No.2. If nothing else, perhaps it's a nod to Glass' cinematic contribution in the field of documentaries.
Glass and Book of Longing in Austin Texas
5 thoughts on “Oscar Treat / BOL in Texas”
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I caught that! It was one of the highlights for me but really wasn’t enough to soften the blow caused by some really poor Academy choices.
And as for the Slumdog Millionaire the movie, you really aren’t missing much.
I’m not a huge Slumdog fan either, although I did like some technical aspects about it, better than the story itself, such as the use of music, the shooting style, etc.
I cannot believe the fantastic score for Stephen Daldry’s “The Reader” was not even nominated. It is one of the finest film soudntracks I have heard in a while. I totally recommend it. About as good as PG’s “The Hours”, also directed by Daldry.
Regarding the use of PG’s music for that introductory video, was his music used under his or anyone’s permission?
The Oscars are political. Phil should definitely have won for ‘Kundun’ but that was the year of ‘Titanic’–that he did not win for ‘The Hours’ convinced me the Oscars are fixed.
I’m sure that Philip will win an Oscar one day. It’s just a matter of time. And of timing as well.
Talking about Metamorphosis II (which is my favorite composition), I just found on iTunes a different version by Jacques Burtin and Michel Michalakakos. The title of the CD is Méditation Kora & Alto. I really liked it.
Of course, if you want another different and very interesting version, there is also the version of Daniel Bernard Roumain released in 2007 on the CD Etudes 4 Violin & Electronix.