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A film music Christmas

A film music Christmas

Despite what my dad says, Home Alone is one of the essential Christmas movies. Macaulay Culkin was born to play Kevin McCallister (if, perhaps, for little else), who in the original kid-boobytraps-house-to-outwit-criminals tale is the perfect blend of precocious and likable. The movie fires on every facet: deftly delivering comedy both physical and character-driven, conjuring the best of suburban Christmastime, an utterly charming and believable cast, integrating an authentic pain and sadness, and a family love that pays off cathartically in the end.

The music that makes fools

An informal litmus test for my favorite pieces and moments of music is whether the music bypasses my inhibitions, and liberates me to act like an utter fool while enjoying it. A representative picture of this would be of me driving in my car, suddenly compelled to turn the music up to a deafening volume, crank up the air conditioning to the wind tunnel setting (for a physical rush that matches the emotional), and beat upon my steering wheel in rhythm with the song like a violent primate. Picture me doing this while singing along with abandon at my voice’s loudest register, eyes closed in euphoric bliss (but not enough to endanger myself or other drivers).

These are a few of my favorite themes

A college music professor once commented to me—in a somewhat disparaging tone—that film music is essentially just “themes and variations.” While this is a bit of an overreaching generalization, by and large he was right.

I’ve belabored the fact that I love film music for its narrative quality. I’ve also lamented the aimlessness of much classical concert music. Tied closely to these ideas is my love of strong themes and their intelligent development in film music.

Three guilty pleasures

Three guilty pleasures

There are some who would qualify film music itself as a guilty pleasure. Let’s assume for the moment—and forever afterward—that these people are wrong. Film music is the finest, noblest, most versatile, most marvelous “genre” of music there is, and the wise listener who sows his life with seeds of film scores will reap a harvest of delight.