Tonight, Chris Collier '03 will finally bring to Dartmouth what is perhaps the most ubiquitous but least-noticed type of orchestra music -- film music.
For the last three terms, Collier has used a Senior Fellowship -- a program which allows a small group of seniors to pursue an independent project rather than take classes -- to study a genre that is not taught at the College and usually ignored outside of the composers that produce it and the filmmakers that use it.
His research will culminate in a concert tonight at 8 p.m. in Spaulding Auditorium. It will include selections from the scores of films including "Ben Hur," "Psycho" and "The Red Violin."
Collier is directing an orchestra made up equally of students and professionals. The Dartmouth caught up with him after his final dress rehearsal last night to talk about film music, Dartmouth and the joys of not taking classes for a year.
The Dartmouth: What interests you about this kind of music?
Chris Collier: I've always been interested in film music. It was one of the first things I can remember listening to -- I was going through my parents' records, and I found "The Empire Strikes Back" recording.
After coming to Dartmouth, I was really into what you might call "art music." I was in Berlin my sophomore spring, and the last concert I saw was film music. It really struck me how inaccurate the Berlin Symphony was playing it -- very square and very German.
There are certain things like "American in Paris" that are very American. There's something about Gershwin's sound that you can't understand unless you've been to New York City. For me it was finding music that I understood culturally and that made sense to me.
I started looking into what was happening in our era. What is our music in the orchestral field? I realized the most output, a lot of where people get heard, is film music. It's interesting why people don't think of John Williams when they think of the composers of our age.
The D: Why do you think that is?
CC: Film music is a completely different genre than classical art music or concert music because it has a completely different purpose -- to support a visual image. It's an aphorism that's not exactly true that film music should be not heard. It should blend so well into the movie that you don't realize what's going on.
The D: So why bring it out in a concert setting?
CC: Because I feel that film music is lost in this blend. It's something that's important, and it's not covered here at Dartmouth at all. The music department doesn't mention it; the film department doesn't mention it and it falls in between the cracks.
The D: What's it been like working on the concert?
CC: It's been an amazing experience to get inside the music. There's something magical about playing it, about getting up and conducting it. It's just been an amazing experience to be able to conduct music that I love.
The D: What's it like doing independent research?
CC: It's wonderful. The beginning of Fall term I was very jealous of people taking classes because you're provided a structure. The teachers have a syllabus of here's what you're supposed to learn in a term, here's how we're going to learn it, here's a test to make sure you're learning it. You have to go to class these days, you have to get up, you have to do this on a daily basis.
For me, it's let's see what new books Amazon has on film music. I should read them. Maybe I want to read this other book. Maybe I want to play a video game.
The hardest part has been figuring out what kind of structure works best for me. That out of the way, having the opportunity to spend all of my free time studying the things that I had been cramming in before between classes is incredible. It's a chance to do the things I always wanted to do.
The D: Is this concert turning out to be everything you hoped?
CC: The concert's fantastic. I'm having so much fun. I love working with the musicians. I love the music.
Chris Collier will give a multimedia lecture on film music in Faulkner recital hall in May. His concert is in Spaulding auditorium tonight at 8 p.m.
