As this is my first time rescoring a film, I wanted to look at a famous example of this practice – namely, Giorgio Moroder’s 1984 rescoring of the classic German film ‘Metropolis’, originally released in 1927:

I watched Metropolis a few years ago when I was 15, and couldn’t quite remember the original soundtrack so I looked it up on YouTube and had a quick listen:

The original score is composed entirely of orchestral instruments (not at all surprising for the period), and I found it a little jarring as I don’t feel that the timbres of those instruments necessarily match the dystopian aesthetic. Obviously there wouldn’t have been synthesisers available to use when the film was originally scored, and I’m sure at the time the music would have seemed less disjointed from the film however I think I conceptually agree with Moroder in the thinking that the aesthetic feel of the film definitely seems to suit electronic music over classical, orchestral music.

Moroder’s rescore also came with a new restoration and edit of the film, as the original had been cut considerably at the time of its release, against director Fritz Lang’s will. It features many famous singers of the time, including Freddie Mercury, Bonnie Tyler and Adam Ant. It’s vastly different from what I was expecting before watching it – I was expecting to hear a sort of ambient slow soundscape, with a few bits of synthesised foley here and there. However, having heard Moroder’s other work plenty of times in the past, I should’ve known better. Of course, there are parts of it which do follow my original expectations, such as the sequence around the 2:00 minute mark which has a good amount of metallic-sounding foley. I really like the bell-like sound that ticks with the clock around the 2:45 mark, it’s a nice addition that helps create a certain industrial aesthetic.

However, there are definitely parts of the rescore that I have a problem with. Moroder puts a lot of emphasis on synthesised pop songs that don’t seem to add anything useful to the film at all. I really didn’t enjoy hearing the vocals on these songs as I feel as though having lyrics somewhat takes away from the actual film being shown, and it’s definitely these moments that make the rescore feel a bit dated and disjointed from the film in my opinion. I think perhaps the problem is that Moroder’s score is too intrusive. In my opinion, the score would have been much stronger if he had stuck to instrumental tracks as the vocals make the film seem too separate from the score – the score should always serve the film, and not the other way round.

A lesson to be learnt from this is to keep my piece relevant to what is being shown on screen. This doesn’t necessarily mean adding sounds for everything that is shown on screen, but it should flow nicely and make sense with what is being shown. It’s also important to make sure the aesthetic of the film matches up with the general sound of the score. It doesn’t have to be period correct for when the film was made (in terms of instruments), however it shouldn’t sound so separate from it that it feels obvious that this a rescore, a separate project from the original film.