With the 2011 Academy Awards right around the corner, we felt it would be only appropriate to check in with a former Oscar winner to help bolster the excitement.
Polish composer Jan A.P. Kaczmarek was the recipient of an Academy Award in 2005, as a first-time nominee for his elegant work on FINDING NEVERLAND. Although he has not since been nominated for an Oscar (much to the shame of the Academy), his recent work yet flourishes with the grace and unceasing creativity that earned him that coveted prize.
Read on, as we spend some time with Mr. Kaczmarek and discuss his most recent project, GET LOW, which was released to DVD this week.
One of the things that really stands out for me about many of your scores is that you do not spend a lot of time creating a setting as you do building an emotional aura around the characters. Do you ever find yourself becoming a part of the film?
Oh, I am definitely a part of the films. I just take certain elements of it and simply connect with them. And then I write very emotional-based themes as I would feel as those characters.
Do you ever find yourself being a sort of musical psychologist, getting inside the heads of the characters to appropriately convey those various emotions?
Oh yes, definitely. It is all psychotherapy for me. I need to observe my patients and latch onto their energy and draw strength from their deficiencies.
Is any of the music in your films a reflection of your personality? Many times, the music takes on a very personal tone.
Well, the music always affects you. You cannot escape it. It always follows you. Each of us has many facets to our personalities, and sometimes, certain things manifest themselves more often than others. Sometimes I go with how I am feeling, but whenever possible, I like to start by writing a melody. I truly believe in the power of melody. And I am also very fond of blending symphonic music with electronic instruments. With GET LOW, it really gave me the opportunity to play with the ambience, in addition to borrowing elements from traditional American bluegrass.
Yes, I was actually very surprised to hear this amalgam of styles of music on the GET LOW score. It really pulled it away from any sort of one-dimensional predictability. There’s really a lot going on in that music.
It was absolutely a fabulous adventure for me, as I was heading into new territory; I’ve actually never heard another composer do what I had been planning to do. And I was really pleased with the way it turned out.
The score contains a lot of subtle sound effects that when you are really paying attention; connect you to a sense of story.
Yes, I really wanted to incorporate sound effects that reflected what was going on in the story. I was also looking for sounds that gave a sort of musical inclination that place you in an environment that you’ve never visited before.
I really felt that the combination of all those sounds bore a sense of rustic spirituality, as though your soul was being cleansed in the process.
You’re right. I’m very happy that you noticed that. Although it obviously takes place in the American south, it puts on a spiritual journey that you might not have expected to embark on. There’s a little bit of a mystery in there.
PAGE 1, 2
Comments