As a lover of film music for just about all my life, here are some film music selections from Christmas movies!
First, from 1984’s A Christmas Carol, the one starring George C. Scott:
Next, a suite from the 1951 version of A Christmas Carol, the one starring Alastair Sim as Scrooge. Which I have never actually seen, even though the wide-spread consensus is that Sim’s Scrooge is definitive to the point of being iconic. I don’t know about that, but the music is certainly damned good, and it should be: it’s written by Richard Addinsell, that fine English composer who is best known for another piece of music he wrote for film, the amazing Rachmaninoff-pastiche Warsaw Concerto, written for the film Suicide Squadron.
Moving into more contemporary times, but staying in the London area, we have this compilation of the three major love themes from Love Actually. This movie has sustained something of a backlash in recent years, but I will hear none of that. NONE, you hear?
Much has also been said of the Robert Zemeckis adaptation of The Polar Express, which I do in fact enjoy a great deal, even if the animation of the eyes isn’t quite…up to par, I suppose. Alan Silvestri turned in a wonderfully evocative and sweeping score for this one. Silvestri is one of those composers who probably doesn’t rank at the fore, but a second rate hack, he ain’t.
Finally, here’s one that I haven’t had the best relationship with over the years. I think my “I love John Williams” bona fides are well-established by now, but in all honesty, I have never much liked his score to Home Alone. However, I’ve given some selections from it a fresh listen this year and I do find myself warming to it, a bit. I still think he explored moods like this more effectively in films like Hook and the Harry Potter films (the ones he scored, obviously). But I do find myself appreciating his Home Alone music more than I used to. I’m still not a fan of the movie itself, but the music is good. I’ve come to hear it as Williams in “Carl Stalling” mode: he’s basically scoring a cartoon, live-action though it may be, which is loaded with gonzo action.
