Sound of My Music
Notion - Musical Identity
Human memory is bizarre and confounding. At least mine is. Strangest details stay organically preserved as though the gray matter cultivated them. I was a young kid and my sister a teenager when my mother very matter-of-factly revealed to her who was the killer in the novel she was reading at that time. Five or six years later, when I picked up the same novel and that character's name appeared matter-of-factly on page 30 or so, I yelled out to my mother that she had ruined the novel for me. That name stuck with me for all those years even though it was a She-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named name in my house.
So it isn't surprising for me that a conversation between my father and his friend, about a movie uncle had really liked and recommended to my father, stayed vaguely distinct with me for years along. Uncle had described Meet Joe Black as an absolutely marvelous movie starring an honorable Sir Anthony Hopkins and a dapper Brad Pitt. Again, I must have been quite young even then and maybe it was uncle's flair for storytelling or his command over English that kept all of it locked in my mind. But I came across Meet Joe Black on Star Movies while surfing the TV channels (those were the days, weren't they!) and it was almost toward the end of the movie that the memory came rushing back to me.
Now, there are romantic movies and then there are romantic movies - as in there are the Notting Hills, the Sleepless in Seattles and even An Affair To Remembers. And then there is - not are - Meet Joe Black. I can't put it in words so let's keep it at that but besides being a story of a transcendental romance, this movie for me is an identity marker. Class, for me, from then on became Sir Anthony Hopkins' portrayal of Bill Parish. Elegance and beauty was Claire Forlani. Marcia Gay Harden was a name and face I looked for in other movies and series and boy am I glad I have seen almost all of her performances! But more than any and all of this, the sound of my music from then on became Thomas Newman.
I believe that every musical person has a sound of his or her music; not a genre or a favorite piece of music, but a sound that quintessentially resonates with his or her core. Just as a human personality cannot be encompassed in a single word, a person's musical identity cannot be represented by a song or a tune. It can perhaps only be described as a sound of their music. And quite boldly and audaciously I would like to claim that Thomas Newman's musical marvels strike a chord with the chords of my soul. For very many years, the only Hollywood musical composer I knew was James Horner. But it was the plastic bag scene from American Beauty that prompted me to search for the musical track in it. It was called Any Other Name - by Thomas Newman. And then I was baffled by the results of the internet searches for the name Thomas Newman. By then I had already fallen in love with movies like Meet Joe Black, Little Women and had been deeply intrigued by the likes of American Beauty, Revolutionary Road and the series Six Feet Under. And all these names just lined up one after the other under a certain Thomas Newman. Since that day, it doesn't surprise me that I gushed over the background score of both the Marigold Hotel movies or the title track of Aaron Sorkin's The Newsoom or musically enjoyed Skyfall the most amongst all of Daniel Craig's Bond movies. Newman's musical spectrum ranges as widely as human emotions do. But more than his range, it's my personal identification with his work that raptures me. I think all of my emotions can be covered by Thomas Newman's work if music were used to express emotions. I obviously still enjoy others' music and get moved by it too. This is not about picking favorites, but more about finding yourself in music. Just like Finding Nemo or Finding Dory! (yep, it's his work!)
And as always, of course it's difficult for me to pick a favorite from his repertoire as is the case with picking one out of the many of any performer. But even more so here for it would be like asking me what is my favorite emotion. But because it's a Saturday and I specifically went out to see the fireworks outside my apartment at Navy Pier, I choose That Next Place. The movie ends with this piece in the background, subtlety in dialogues, scenes and acting, and fireworks filling the starry skies of New York. Now I am a firm believer that life's moments can be made more beautiful if one can hear a background score (if not actually but within at least). And so there I was - with the Navy Pier's fireworks rising very rhythmically on the crescendo of this track in my ears and ending sparklingly and plentifully - as fireworks always do - on the decrescendo of Newman's orchestral wonder.
"Stay open, who knows?Lightning could strike" - Bill Parish
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