The Music of the Night My Dad was a massive fan of the arts — specifically music and poetry. As an early adolescent (in the late 80’s) my family belonged to the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust. I was fortunate to see every Broadway show you can […]

Comptine d’un autre été, l’après midi Comptine d’un autre été, l’après midi (Nursery rhyme from another summer, the afternoon) is a piece of music by composer, Yann Tiersen. As the principle song from Amelie, it’s by far his most popular song at 326 million plays […]

Harry in Winter The fourth installment in the Harry Potter series, Goblet of Fire, marked a significant shift in tone and theme. Composer Patrick Doyle took over from John Williams, bringing a fresh, Celtic-infused soundscape. The standout piece is Harry in Winter, a haunting and […]

The Kiss The Kiss is the up-tempo, and secondary cue from The Last of the Mohicans. Another (nearly identical) version of this cue is entitled Promentory. Both songs are actually a Celtic violin motif entitled “The Gael” by Scottish singer-songwriter Dougie MacLean. The Kiss can […]

The Dark Knight Rises My hometown of Pittsburgh was the shooting location for The Dark Knight Rises. Many movies, TV, and Netflix shows are shot in Pittsburgh — but the 2011 Dark Knight Rises production was BY FAR the coolest one. Our downtown area is mostly […]

The Princess Bride Mark Knopfler wrote the score for The Princess Bride (1987) — not a typical Hollywood hire, which tells you exactly what kind of off-beat film Rob Reiner was making. The main theme, Once Upon a Time…Storybook Love, is built around Knopfler’s signature […]

Brokeback Mountain Suite About 10 years ago, Gustavo Santaolalla performed the Brokeback Mountain Suite for the Latin program, Encuentro en el Estudio. To date, it’s his best performance of the Brokeback Mountain score (and I’ve watched them all). The guitar tone is gorgeous. You’ll notice […]

Wicked Game For my money, the two greatest unrequited love songs are: U2’s With or Without You, and Chris Isaak’s Wicked Game. The former can prompt one to hold a lighter in the air and bellow “…and you give yourself a-way-a”. The latter makes (me) […]

Rush Directed by Ron Howard, Rush is a sports biography film based on the rivalry of Formula One drivers; James Hunt and Niki Lauda during the 1976 Formula 1 season. I love Hans Zimmer’s “driving” and thematic music. I wasn’t going to capture that on […]

Chevaliers De Sangreal Chevaliers De Sangreal (The Da Vinci Code) is a glorious piece by Hans Zimmer. He has this knack for writing film music with a slight pop sensibility. If we think of Gladiator, Inception and Interstellar — the underpinning of the music is […]

Beautiful Lie I highly recommend the extended cut of Batman v Superman on HBO Max. A full 30 minutes has been added to the film which develops the characters and storyline much better. It’s essentially “The Snyder Cut” of the film. Beautiful Lie is the […]

The Theory of Everything The Theory of Everything (2014) is a  biographical romantic drama film set at the University of Cambridge. It details the life of the theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking. The exquisite music, by the late Johann Johannsson, won the Golden Globe for best […]