What music inspired John Barry
Matt S
Oh Cult Voodoo ShopPosts: 6,610MI6 Agent
It's clear that John Williams' took from Holst and Stravinsky and Jerry Goldsmith took from Copland. John Barry was inspired by both romantic era classical music (his tonalities and lush arrangements) and jazz (swinging brass), but I've never heard anything before Barry that sounds quite like his music. Is there any specific music that would have been a clear inspiration towards Barry's sound?
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I'll look for a few links and get back to you.
Shostakovich's 4th symphony https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CP-OJTOJHZU (it's in C minor, the second saddest of all keys).
Artie Shaw's "Nightmare" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=22z-JJSd9mA may ring a few bells.
Gil Evans https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zToiCuOJNVk (this is called "Barry's Tune"
Here's some Stan Kenton https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YefLht-j7-c and I think the influence is clear from about 40 seconds in.
I am not familiar with Desert Island Discs, but I had a listen to the John Barry broadcast and it was a fantastic listen. I now can really understand where his classical influences came from, even though I have more than half of his picks on CD. From the first notes of both Shostakovich's 4th and 5th Symphonies, I can hear the Barry sound, but somehow I never connected them before with Barry. I don't think I've heard Sibelius's 5th Symphony, but now I want to listen to that because of how much Barry took from it.
And thank you for sharing the Stan Kenton album, which demonstrates Barry's Bond brass sound perfectly.
Many Bond films will have heard a segment from Ian Fleming's appearance on Desert Island Discs, which was included on the Ultimate Edition DVD and subsequent Blu-Ray releases of From Russia With Love.