No Movie Soundtracks Without Beethoven? | Part 2 of the film project A World Without Beethoven?

How great an influence did Beethoven have on film music? With his Symphony No. 6, the “Pastoral,” Beethoven consciously created images in the mind. What would be called “program music” was born. With the advent of sound film, the concept of using sound to conjure up associations of moods and landscapes in the listener took hold of Hollywood. Beethoven’s “Pastoral” Symphony even became film music itself: Walt Disney used it for the 1940 film “Fantasia”.

The film composers of the 20th and 21st centuries tread in Beethoven’s footsteps. The most famous: John Williams. He has written the soundtracks for all the “Star Wars” films, for “E.T.: The Extraterrestrial”, the first three “Harry Potter” films, “Jaws”, the four “Indiana Jones” films, “Jurassic Park”, and other blockbusters. Sarah Willis, French hornist of the Berlin Philharmonic, met John Williams at the Tanglewood Music Festival in Massachusetts to talk with him about Beethoven’s influence on film music. Sarah Willis demonstrates on her French horn how closely the theme from “Jaws” recalls Beethoven’s Symphony No. 7.

“No Movie Soundtracks Without Beethoven?” is one of the focuses of the Deutsche Welle documentary film project “A World Without Beethoven?”. In it, the question is posed of how the world might look if Beethoven and his work had never existed – a thought experiment as fascinating as it is provocative. The other focuses of the series are: “No Rock Riffs Without Beethoven?”, “No Jazz Without Beethoven?”, “No Concert Business Without Beethoven?”, “No Political Music Without Beethoven?”, “No Concept Albums Without Beethoven?”, and “No Precise Tempo Without Beethoven?”.

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