Live music ‘Princess Bride’ an orchestrator’s challenge
When the Los Angeles Philharmonic plays the opening notes of the score of “The Princess Bride” at the Hollywood Bowl on Saturday, fans in the amphitheater will be the first in the world to watch the beloved film with live orchestral accompaniment.
And somewhere in the crowd — which will include director Rob Reiner, who will introduce the film — orchestrator Mark Graham will be listening to the musicians play his adaptation of Mark Knopfler’s original score, and to the reaction of the crowd as well.
“I’ve actually seen audiences react, I would say worldwide, to these films with an orchestra playing,” Graham says on a recent video call. “And people seem to really like the shared experience.
“The movies that are done, the ones I’ve done, are generally pretty good movies,” he says. “They’re popular; they stand the test of time.
“I think when people revisit them, get lost in the story, in this kind of new environment, they get kind of swept up in the experience with others. And the thing that’s great to hear is the audience reaction. That’s actually fun. It’s great to get involved in.”
Graham, who was at his home in England’s Lake District when he called, though his permanent residence is in Los Angeles, is well-versed in the world of film and live scores. He says he’s done 25 or so of these scores that adapt the original film music for live orchestral accompaniment.
But “The Princess Bride” is one of the rarer projects where no orchestration whatsoever was available for him to use.
Knopfler, who had great success as the
Cary Elwes and Robin Wright appear in “The Princess Bride,” which will be screened with a live performace of the score by the Los Angeles Philharmonic on Saturday.
leader of the English rock band Dire Straits before getting into scoring films, composed and recorded “The Princess Bride” in the studio on guitars, with Dire Straits keyboardist Guy Fletcher on synthesizers.
Nothing was ever written down for violins and cellos, clarinets and flutes, trumpets and trombones. That’s where Graham, who was hired by Film Concerts Live, came in, breaking Knopfler’s music into segments and then orchestrating them for musicians with the LA Phil to perform live for an audience for the first time ever.
“The score is as great as it was in the movie,” Graham says. “The intent, to me, anyway, was clear of what it was meant to be doing at any particular time. He left me a very clear direction and I didn’t really mess with that. I just kind of made what he had into a full-sounding orchestra.”
Some uncharted territory was explored. Through the score, a broader palette and many more colors are incorporated to let the orchestra deepen the sound. And in some places, new music was written to expand the amount of time the orchestra would play during the film.
“The original score is a synth and it’s recorded,” Graham says. “So the orchestra is a different experience, because it’s a live thing, you know, with all the players playing together.
“I find people in film music, which is kind of where I live, they’re horrified by the addition of brass or woodwinds, which many people think of as old-fashioned or whatever,” he says. “But if you have all those elements playing along in a certain register, in a certain style, that will add enormously to the color of what you’re hearing.
“You won’t necessarily hear them as woodwinds or horns; it will be just beautiful orchestra music. That’s what we try and go for.”
Films for which Graham has reworked scores for live orchestral accompaniment include many that have played at the Hollywood Bowl: the three original “Star Wars” movies as well as “Star Wars: The Force Awakens,” several of the “Harry Potter” films, “Jaws” and “Back to the Future.”
Graham says he believes Knopfler checked out his work on the James Bond movie “Skyfall,” which screened with an orchestra at the Royal Albert Hall in London, before approving “The Princess Bride” project.
“That again, there were large areas which were just synth, and I had to write orchestra,” Graham says. “So it was a not dissimilar process, and they could see that it kind of worked.”
As for “The Princess Bride” itself, Graham is a fan of its enduring charms.
“It’s a combination of things,” he says. “The story’s great; the script is excellent; there’s very charming performances all around.
“And I think there’s a timeless element to it. You know, a lot of what we tend to work on these days tends to be rather designed by committee. That was a definite vision of a story, beautifully told and made. And that’s something very appealing, which I think lasts.”