It’s movie night! Join us on 22nd March for the Gala Concert at the at the new London Soundtrack Festival at the Royal Festival Hall.
Who doesn’t love a movie? At the cinema with popcorn and drink in hand, reclined in your plane seat – headphones on, or cosied up on sofa at home. Whatever your venue and film of choice there’s an almost endless supply of something new or old to watch; comedy, sci-fi, fantasy, horror, rom-com, thriller, western, drama, children’s movies – take your pick. It’s a marvellous way to spend an hour or two, watching your favourite characters on the screen and listening to the marvellous music that’s been written to accompany them. Can you imagine any film, TV show or documentary, without music? Even silent movies had music.
Music is an absolutely essential element of the films and TV programmes we watch, even the online games we play these days, so with that in mind Tommy Pearson, a former BBC and Classic FM broadcaster who produces high-end film music concerts and hosts film music concerts with major orchestras, decided it was time to create a brand new major music festival in London which premieres this month: The London Soundtrack Festival (LSF).
“We are so excited to present this brand new festival celebrating film, TV and game music and the incredible artists who create it. Nothing like this has been staged in London before and it’s about time. London is the beating heart of this music, arguably the most important and certainly the busiest city for commercial music sessions in the world. Our famous recording studios, like Abbey Road and Air Studios, are continually booked up by composers from around the world, all desperate to use these incredible facilities and, of course, our musicians.”
And lucky us – not only do we get to sing in this new festival but we’re actually performing in its Gala Concert on 22nd March with the London Philharmonic Orchestra. This very special LSF concert is celebrating the career of their Inspiration Award recipient, Academy Award-winning composer Howard Shore, and features music from his Oscar-winning scores for The Lord of the Rings together with music from his over 40-year-long collaboration with director David Cronenberg. It also features music by the festival’s other featured artists, including Harry Gregson-Williams, Hildur Guðnadóttir, Stephen Barton and Anne Dudley, all of which will be brought to the stage by special guest presenters.
One of the pieces from the Gala programme we’re especially keen to hear – and be part of – is a brand new composition by Iain Farrington, not only because he’s an amazing musician but also because for more than eight years Iain was our rehearsal accompanist, so we know him well and are very happy to be reunited.
Iain has a very busy and diverse career as a pianist, organist, composer and arranger whose arrangements and compositions can be seen and heard in a wide range of events and concerts from concert halls and BBC Proms to an Olympic opening ceremony and a Coronation! Among many other recent projects, Iain has composed, arranged and adapted the full orchestral score of Planet Earth III Live, written the music for the Horrible Histories Movie, and has been asked to compose this special piece for the LSF Gala Concert.
We asked Iain about this new commission, Quiz Biz, how he goes about creating something completely new – even if it has snippets of other people’s music in it – and also how he juggles such a busy and varied career.
“I’m completely freelance in my work and I’m lucky to have a great balance of working from home when composing and arranging, and then travelling as a performer. I’ve been writing music for as long as I can remember. The great thing about being a pianist as a composer is that the instrument allows you to create harmony, rhythm and texture as well as the tunes. I compose music for all kinds of things, and when I arrange pieces, that often involves quite a lot of composing. Sometimes I write a whole new piece based on fragments of other people’s work, for example in the two pieces I recently wrote for the Proms. One was a five movement orchestral piece called ‘Earth Symphony’ which was for the Earth Prom in 2022, and the other was ‘Extra Time’ which I composed for the Last Night of the 2024 Proms – and in which I briefly popped up in the orchestra as a linesman! I enjoy writing concert music related to films or television programmes, as well as film music.
To create this new piece, Quiz Biz, Tommy and I got together and made a list of all the quiz shows which we thought had good tunes. We also had to define what a quiz show was, and went with knowledge based games such as Mastermind or Who Wants to be a Millionaire. After that, I set about researching the different quiz show themes, working out which tunes might go together, and how I could fit them into a completely new piece of music. We found about eighteen suitable shows and I’ve used the themes from eleven. A lot of the music I write has a jazz flavour which is rhythmic, colourful, lively and exuberant, which works well with these quiz show themes. I also thought it would be fun to focus on the time limit element of quizzes, so you’ll hear the clock ticking away in the background as the pressure builds.
Although this is only a short piece, I’ve managed to pop in a few bars for the LPC as you’re in this concert – you’re such a great bunch of people full of interesting characters and such enthusiastic musicians. I was delighted to get the chance to do that and to work with you again.”
Sarah Leffler, soprano in the LPC, has always had a passion for movie music:
“I love film music, I’ve loved it since I was very young and I find myself listening to it almost every day while I’m working. I actually wanted to be a film composer when I was growing up so to be in the concert is like being in a dream for me. I find film music incredibly emotive and chose to do it at university. I was so excited, until I got there and realised it wasn’t as easy as I thought and I couldn’t really do it – composing film music was not for me. It was only in the midst of this great disappointment that I realised that what I truly loved was actually listening to film music, which is a very different thing. So I changed to music psychology and studied the impact of music on emotions; as we all know, music can inspire powerful emotional changes in people and for me, film music is the ultimate example of this. The music makes the film – the melodies are as well known as the actors.
I listen to film music every day and I discovered from university that it’s the best kind of music to listen to when studying – it’s engaging and emotive enough to inspire you to work but calm enough to help you focus on the task at hand. I use film music to motivate myself so I play particular things to create certain moods, also it doesn’t necessarily have tunes you know so you’re not distracted by singing along to it. I have a huge playlist on Spotify that I just play my film music on – currently it’s around six hours long and I add to it all the time. At the end of last year when I checked my Spotify Wrapped I discovered that my top two artists were Hans Zimmer and John Williams. Sorry Howard Shore, but I really do love your music too.
One of my favourite film music pieces is called Walking Through by David Newman from Ice Age, I listen to that every day. The reason I love this piece is because of the playful conversation between the wind section and the strings, with a walking melody that mimics the actions of Manny and Sid walking through the ice caves in the film. It takes me back to my childhood and genuinely makes me laugh out loud when I hear it!
Cornfield Chase by Hans Zimmer from the film Interstellar is another favourite, it has a wonderful organ solo and is full of emotion and apprehension and anticipation. Howard Shore’s The Shire is so iconic, play that to anyone and they’ll know it’s from The Lord of the Rings; it inspires a vivid visual memory of the Shire and Hobbit holes. Film tunes can also recapture the essence of a story or character which is what makes some melodies from movies as iconic as the movie itself for example Hedwig’s Theme in Harry Potter, the music from Wallace and Gromit, and that two note opening from Jaws.
Just a short melody can inspire genuine joy, wonder or terror in a generation. That’s what I love about film music, it has this overwhelming capacity to create wonderful imagery and convey emotion at every level. All orchestral music can convey a story but none more so than film music.”
Come and hear us
Saturday 22nd March 2025
7.30pm, Royal Festival Hall
Ben Palmer conductor
Lior vocalist
London Philharmonic Orchestra
London Philharmonic Choir
Anna Meredith Nautilus
Natalie Holt Music from Loki
Stephen Barton Picard Suite
Anne Dudley American History X
Harry Gregson-Williams Suite from Gladiator II
Hildur Guðnadóttir Excerpts from Tár
Iain Farrington Quiz Biz
Howard Shore The Fly Suite; Main title from Dead Ringers; Main title from Ed Wood; The Aviator Suite; I Roderyn (The Noble Wood) from The Hobbit; Main theme from M. Butterfly; The Prophecy from The Fellowship of the Ring; The Lighting of the Beacons from Lord of the Rings
