Film Composer Georges Delerue (SHOOT THE PIANO PLAYER)

Geroges Delerue emerged from the Nouvelle Vague filmmakers as a fresh voice in film music, avoiding the heavily orchestrated Hollywood style for a more delicate and intimate scoring rooted in Baroque music, with highly melodic themes of the highest quality (not just "tunes"), often using staccato (that is, each note of a phrase is clearly separated), ostinato (repeated figures), and instrumentation often using wind instruments neglected in Hollywood orchestrations (flutes, etc.). Additionally, along with Ennio Morricone and Bernard Herrmann, he was one of the few to insist on his own orchestrations (typically Hollywood composers notate their music in short score and farm out the actual orchestrations to others while they work on another score). However, orchestration is not an addition to composition but another aspect of it and the best composers understand this. Bernard Herrmann (of many Hitchocck films) was especially vocal about this issue.

Delerue started in France but migrated to Hollywood and was nominated for several Oscars before winning for A LITTLE ROMANCE (ironically, the main theme was adapted from Vivaldi). SHOOT THE PIANO PLAYER was one of his earliest scores and in some ways not representative of his style. But the main piano theme is quite infectious.

My first exposure to Delerue's music was in the film LE MEPRIS (directed by Jean-Luc Godard). From then on I was a Delerue enthusiast, quickly accumulating more than 100 soundtracks from his films. I finally wrote him a letter (in French) and he graciously responded from California, where he was then living and scoring films. (See attachments.)

To hear the music from LE MEPRIS (CONTEMPT), go here

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aUs4awmb3-o

Or go to my user profile to hear the music. Note the use of an extended five-note ostinato (Italian="obstinate") figure in the piece, while the upper strings play the main theme, an adagio of pensive beauty. Apparently Ameican director Martin Scorsese was also enamoured of this music, since he used it in his film, CASINO, a rare tribute.