Please Note: This program has a rescheduled date (originally March 22, 2020).
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Since the beginning of the talkies, film directors have turned to classical music for their soundtracks. Whether it’s Beethoven, Mozart, Rachmaninoff, Richard Strauss, Mascagni, Puccini, or Bach, opuses of almost every famous composer have added emotional depth to hundreds of films.
With fascinating clips, witty commentary, and piano demonstrations, concert pianist and movie fanatic Rachel Franklin delves into the magic of some of the greatest film music ever composed (even when it was unintentional).
British-born Franklin is a popular speaker and performer in the mid-Atlantic region who has appeared on more than two dozen broadcasts about music for NPR’s “Performance Today.”
SESSION TOPIC
The Myth of Beethoven
Why Beethoven—and why so much of him? Dive into Beethoven’s very busy side-gig, providing the soundtrack of hundreds of films. His musical brand is so embedded in Western culture that most of the time we don’t even notice he’s secretly driving our movie experience. What cultural signals does it send us when a director uses a well-known Beethoven work, and is the composer’s sublime inspiration simply being used as a substitute for the lack of it on screen?
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Other Connections
View a video clip featuring Rachel Franklin as she talks about classical music in film.
