Music for the movies

Synopsis On today’s date in 1964, the musical Anyone Can Whistle opened at Broadway’s Majestic Theater. The book was by Arthur Laurents, with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim. The show told the story of a town that's gone bankrupt because its only industry manufactured so ...  Show more

Synopsis On today’s date in 2003, a new orchestral work by American composer Elliott Carter had its premiere in Boston. Carter was then 94 — he would live to be a month shy of 104, and, even more remarkable, he was composing new works almost to the end of his days. When you live ...  Show more

Hear new music for silent film by composer David Cieri with his music for Carl Th. Dreyer’s 1928 silent film La Passion de Jeanne d’Arc. Joan of Arc is said to have heard voices – strange, unearthly voices. So Cieri’s score, by turns visceral and transcendent, includes Sardinian ...  Show more

From 'Jaws' to 'Genevieve', 'Gone with the Wind' and 'Bond', every brilliant movie has to have a great theme tune. But who were the composers who wrote these iconic pieces of music? In this episode, Joanna and Stephen dive into the greatest film scores ever written. 

The mighty Kong has traveled a long way since we first saw him batting away aeroplanes atop the Empire State Building to the melodramatic strains of the great Max Steiner.CGI now rules when it comes to Monster Movies, just as Marcel Delgado's model of the giant ape did the New Yo ...  Show more

There was a time when movie soundtracks were the lifeblood of the recorded music industry…the lp record, which was introduced in June 1948, was developed at least partially at the behest of movie studios and Broadway show producers looking a better listening experience. The fir ...  Show more