For those of you who dislike dissonant and atonal music

[B Gray]

Here is the sound track for Planet of the Apes.  When you hear the score with the film it seems entirely appropriate and seamless.  I think it is an excellent sound track and done in 1969 -- pre-digital music software.

I would go so far as to say that without this soundtrack I think the movie (first one) would have been very much less or even a flop.

Track 1

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bj05OuIU3R0

Track 2

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NtC6uxFpV2k

[Gavin Brown]

B - I wouldn't describe this music as atonal. It certainly has atonal, dissonant, and consonant elements. But the best context to judge the music of films is by watching the film and noting how well or poorly the score suits what you see onscreen. I happen to think that the original Apes movies are all terrific, partly because I think they are all great sci-fi films, partly because of the music. The score you have shared is particularly good. I like the music of late 60s and early 70s films especially because you hear a lot of music like this in them - wild - jarring - challenging in places. I recall the movie "The Mechanic," starring Charles Bronson also had a similar jagged tone. Movie music of today does not have this jaggedness, which I miss. Thanks for sharing -

[B Gray]

I do like Sci-Fi in general and have read it all my life but . . . some parts of the script of PoA just hits me as well . . . lets say the music score is several notches above the script in my view.

What ever it is, the visual context seems to change how music is perceived.  Music that otherwise would probably not please a general audience or be accepted well in a concert is accepted within the film as entirely appropriate.

[Gavin Brown]

I think this is key to understanding film music.

What ever it is, the visual context seems to change how music is perceived.  Music that otherwise would probably not please a general audience or be accepted well in a concert is accepted within the film as entirely appropriate.

[Terry Jones]

A classic Jerry Goldsmith soundtrack and one of my favourites of all time.

[Gavin Brown]

Enjoyed the pieces Oliver and Ray posted.

[B Gray]

My ears must be completely warped -- the Clare Fischer clip didn't sound dissonant at all!  ? ?  ? Rhythmically fun yes. 

Raymond Kemp said:

In a nut shell.

Dissonant and atonal music works when used in context and by a composer having the ability to compose something interesting to listen to.

The vast majority of composers struggle to create something interesting to listen to.

It's not rocket science!

Here is a little dissonance

[Brian DeLaney]

I have always loved this score and I think Goldsmith's use of the Shofar was a great touch.

[ModernTones "Never Give Up"]

Hello everyone,...new here,..and my two cents:

I for one do not dislike anything in music of the 20th or now in the 21c. but the Planet of the Apes,...film 1969

composer Jerry Goldsmith, 1929-2007,...is not a good example of dissonant and atonal music being first in film

scores. some of J. G. soundtracks that are even better than planet of apes are:

NOT IN YEAR ORDER:

ALIEN   1979, 

BLUE MAX  1966

BOYS FROM BRAZIL, 1978

INNERSPACE 1987

LOGAN'S RUN 1976

OMEN, 1976,... good Dissonant & Atonal Chords here.

OUTLAND, 1981,  PSYCHO II , 1983,  RAMBO III, 1988

STAR TREK,...Series,...- 1979 TO 2002

TIMELINE, 2003

WARLOCK, 1989.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ HOWEVER in  the soundtrack of George Gershwin, 1898-1937,." Strike Up the Band" 1934 film version of his stage version 1927,...his Overture to

"Strike Up the Band" has complex, sections that are far better in the  1934 film version of SUTBand,... than the planet of apes soundtrack as you saying it was the first in soundtracks.

Where as  of the late 20's, G Gershwin's "An American in Paris" premiere Dec 18, 1928. film version 1951

has the use of Parisian Taxi Horns,..some of Jerry's sounds in POApes, 1969 remind me of Gershwin's. An American

in Paris,  film soundtrack 1951,  stage version 1928.

But it's all to the ear of the composer I guess.

I still think it was Maurice Ravel, 1875-1937,... what a giant of atonal impressions in music that I hear in

todays soundtrack Composers.

We are part of our history of past composers. A hint here and there,..no harm in that,...unless we can be

first rate as being a Composer on our OWN ROAD. 

New here hope to post soon.

Chuck DeLeo

(c) 2013 by cjdeleo hiram ohio 44234

The Moderntones Composer

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[ModernTones "Never Give Up"]

Yes, your right,..I always have loved Fischer's works,..it's hard not to copy him,..but that's the price of a being a composer.

Loving something but not falling in love with it too much.

Chuck

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Raymond Kemp said:

In a nut shell.

Dissonant and atonal music works when used in context and by a composer having the ability to compose something interesting to listen to.

The vast majority of composers struggle to create something interesting to listen to.

It's not rocket science!

Here is a little dissonance

[B Gray]

I posted PofA just because I ran across it recently, not as a treatise on atonal/dissonant music in accepted film and other uses.  I was astonished to run across Mozart opening one of his movements in (I think) the G minor symphony with 11 notes of the 12 used directly and ambiguously with a few bars before he establishes any key. 

I just looked this up and found a wiki to that effect -- how early 12 rows were used:

Tone rows were widely used in 20th-century contemporary music, though one has been identified in a 1742 composition of Johann Sebastian Bach,^[4] and by the late eighteenth century was a well-established technique, found in works such as Mozart's C Major String Quartet, K. 156 (1772), String Quartet in E-flat Major, K. 428, String Quintet in G minor, K. 516 (1790), and the Symphony in G minor, K. 550 (1788).

I had not seen the other referenced earlier works.  I'm not a huge fan of strict 12 row writing but then that's already "old" for today.  I just think various styles of music are tools in our kit or colors on a musical palette.  I think a real student of music ought to try to understand the full range of options. . . and we are all students of music because we can never be finished learning what there is to know (IMHO)