EAST LANSING, Mich. -- Oscar-winning composer John Corigliano hosted a public discussion April 22 about the connection between music and film as part of his weeklong residency at Michigan State University.
Corigliano is considered one of today's most acclaimed and successful composers of contemporary concert music, having received a Pulitzer Prize of Music, an Academy Award and multiple Grammys for his score or "The Red Violin."
A room full of telecommunication students and faculty listened to Corigliano's animated account of writing the score for the "The Red Violin" and the cult-classic "Altered States." He explained the "Altered States" score began with a meeting of minds with the movie's director. As part of the creative process, the team marked each spot in the movie that, for full effect, needed music. But it was a challenge, Corigliano said, because of the movie's chaotic, psychedelic scenes.
"Usually in movies, directors want you to be very conventional, but the director of ‘Altered States' picked me to be unconventional and to write music that sounded like no other music," Corigliano said.
"Altered States" had several eight-to nine-minute scenes with no dialogue, so only sound effects and his music carried the scenes, he said. To illustrate his point, Corigliano showed scenes with and without the score to demonstrate how music creates an emotional response to a film and ultimately defines its overall effect.
In addition to the April 22 studio session, while on campus Corigliano conducted rehearsals, seminars and studio sessions with faculty and students in the College of Music and local high school students.
Corigliano also helped prepare the MSU Symphony Orchestra, University Chorale, State Singers and the Wind Symphony for a final concert, which featured five songs he composed. They performed "Circus Maximus," "Pied Piper Fantasy," "Fern Hill," "DC Fanfare" and "The Red Violin Caprices."
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