Images [Original Soundtrack] cover

Images [Original Soundtrack]

Released

The clattering soundscape in this scene from Robert Altman’s Images (1972) is post-tonal film music at its most vivid and immediate. There are many atonal horror-movie-music cliches; Williams’s and Yamash’ta’s Oscar-nominated score eschews them and is genuinely frightening. Leaving screeching strings and plodding basses behind, they populate the scene with sparse noises that are continually surprising and unfamiliar. Everything is working together here: the musical choices, the whiplash switch from conversation to hallucination, and the dizzying long-distance shots. The music is not a backdrop here, but a part of the main character Cathryn’s psychological landscape made physical through sound.

Sean Wood

Recommended by

Suggestions
Landfall cover

Landfall

Angélica Negrón
Jascha Heifetz plays Beethoven (Sonatas & Concerto) cover

Jascha Heifetz plays Beethoven (Sonatas & Concerto)

Ludwig van Beethoven, Jascha Heifetz
Poulenc: Dialogues des Carmelites cover

Poulenc: Dialogues des Carmelites

Kent Nagano, Orchestre De L'Opéra National De Lyon
Stravinsky: Symphony of Psalms cover

Stravinsky: Symphony of Psalms

Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, Pierre Boulez
Stravinsky: The Rite of Spring; Stokowski: Bach Transcriptions cover

Stravinsky: The Rite of Spring; Stokowski: Bach Transcriptions

Philadelphia Orchestra, Yannick Nézet-Séguin
Woman in the Dunes cover

Woman in the Dunes

Toru Takemitsu
Brahms: Violin Concerto in D Major, Op. 77 cover

Brahms: Violin Concerto in D Major, Op. 77

Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Jascha Heifetz, Fritz Reiner
Williams: Violin Concerto No. 2 & Selected Film Themes cover

Williams: Violin Concerto No. 2 & Selected Film Themes

Boston Symphony Orchestra, Anne-Sophie Mutter