‘Raiders’ comes to life with help of symphony
When Steven Reineke was a kid, he wanted to be in an Indiana Jones movie.
That didn’t work out so well for him — or almost every kid who harbored the same dream. But this weekend, the conductor will get closer to that goal than most of us will ever experience.
Reineke will lead the Houston Symphony as it performs the score to “Raiders of the Lost Ark” while the film plays above the musicians Friday and Saturday evening in Jones Hall.
It’s a bit of dream fulfillment for Reineke, but the performance is also part of the contemporary landscape of symphonies, hosting concerts of the big, sweeping film scores that are often as recognizable as the movies themselves.
“It’s become quite a popular thing for symphony orchestras to do,” says Reineke, the Houston Symphony’s principal pops conductor designate. “And audiences really love them.”
The 45-year-old maestro has conducted a lot of movie music (including all the movies listed above), with orchestras throughout the country.
While Harrison Ford whips his way across the big screen as the titular archaeologist/action hero, Reineke will lead the orchestra through the music that composer John Williams wrote for the iconic 1981 film.
“It’s completely different from leading a normal concert, where the conductor has control over tempo, phrasing and style,” Reineke says. “In many ways, it’s more challenging.”
In addition to all the usual responsibilities of an orchestral conductor — such as cueing musicians, keeping time and balancing the sections of the orchestra — Reineke must keep an eye on the film, to synchronize the music with the action on screen.
Movie presentations with live music have become increasingly common, made possible by recent technological developments. According to Reineke, his task is made possible with the help of a special video monitor, displaying what he calls “streamers” and “punches,” as the film is running.
“Streamers, are lines on the screen that go across the screen, in different colors. They tell me when to start, when to stop, when to slow down, when to speed up,” she says. “Punches are a flashing white circle that might give me specific beats in a segment of music. I have to line up the music to these visual aids.”
The hardest films to work with, he says, are musicals.
“When the singers on the screen open their mouths and start singing, and the conductor has to be right there with the musical underscore. You have to be exactly on the same beat, in exactly the right tempo, so the singing synchronizes perfectly with the orchestra.”
Some conductors also use earphones with a click-track to stay tightly in synch with the movie. But, like a tightrope walker who daringly refuses a safety net, Reineke won’t be using a click-track.
“Sometimes a clicktrack just gets in the way of making real music,” he says. “I find the music is more organic without it. I’m not going to use a click-track for ‘Raiders.’ ”
In tandem with technological advances, there’s also been a shift in attitudes. Once upon a time, film scores were classical music’s red-headed stepchild, widely scorned as unworthy to enter the world of Bach, Beethoven and Brahms. Not any more. “I think it’s something that can now be part of an orchestra’s standard offering,” says Reineke. “Even the top orchestras in the world are doing it. It’s really quite magnificent — if you have a really great film with a really great score.”
When all is going well, the various components that make up the film will come together seamlessly: the moving image on the screen, the film’s spoken dialogue, heard through loudspeakers, and the music, played by the orchestra.
So if the goal of all this reverse-engineering is to put a movie back together just as it was originally made, what’s the point of it all? Why not just show the movie and give the Houston Symphony the night off ?
Reineke believes that there’s a big difference, making all the effort and expense of a live orchestral performance worthwhile.
“It’s a great way to witness an iconic movie because it’s unlike the way people have seen it before,” he says. “Normally, a film soundtrack is buried in the background. But it comes to the foreground with a live, 80-piece symphony orchestra. The audience can really focus on the music.”