Classic music in movies

[Sebastian]

And I mean classic as in "Hi! I've been dead for over 75 years and using my music in your own movie won't infringe on any copyright law because that's the law!", say Beethoven or Mozart.

I have pretty much zero experience in classic music and was wondering if peeps here could give me tips or point me in the right direction of where to find classic tunes that could fit well in a Giallo-type of horror movie.

I'd appreciate it!

[Henry Krinkle]

Classical music is a huge world. There's as much variation in classical music as there is in pretty much the rest of the music world. The kind of music you choose will be entirely dependent on the tone you're trying to set for the scene.

Even in a giallo piece, you're going to want tracks that alternately build and release tension - so the door's pretty much wide open. My knowledge of classical music is embarrassingly thin so I don't really have any great advice, however a good starting point is to get a bunch of classical compilations - either the cheep ones you get in discount stores played by nobodies, or torrents. If you go through a few of those, names of composers you like will start to pop out at you and you can start to find what you're after.

It's a huge task to fine what you're after though. You've got to remember classical music spans over a thousand years so there's quite a bit of it, and it's still going.

A good starting point is 18th century though - that's the age of Mozart, Beethoven et all. More info here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classical_period_%28music%29

Worth looking though wiki - a lot of the composer pages have entire pieces for you to listen to.

Hope that helps

[Pandorag]

Look up Carl Orff, Johann Sebastian Bach for Cantatas: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cjDYLl9d4BE this one is well known but Orff wrote other ones too. Cantatas have voices in them. It's very dramatic!

Look up Wagner (Ride of the Walkyries) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Wagner

Look up classic music webcast http://classicalwebcast.com/onepage.html

Don't kid yourself, you'll have to listen to a lot and take notes. Violins and pianos are very dramatics, there are some great duets too, very emotional. You can also find a compilation http://www.amazon.com/Best-Millennium-Top-Classical-Hits/dp/B00004GOZA from some of the greatest, or really dig deep for less known work. You could also look around your neighborhood for an association or other. I know some school offers adult class to learn about classic music and operas, like you would learn about wine.

EDIT: Usually most public libraries offer a lot of choice of CDs, at least in my town. I'm sure you can find some help there. I'm sure you can even go to a music school and ask around.

[beckmen]

Don't forget about http://freeplaymusic.com/ either. Might not have exactly what you're looking for, but you never know...tons of stuff there, too.

[Sebastian]

Good suggestions! I'll go with Krinkle's recommendation to get a compilation record as it requires less work on my hand! (for now!)

Have you guys noticed how 18th century classical music sound more modern than say, early 20th century soundtracks?

Ok that was a dumb one.

[Hudson]

Kubrick mastered the art, that's all I'll say.  I'm not an expert on the subject though.  Wish I was.  You gotta watch the copyright on the recording though, since recordings can be copywritten.

[SM]

The music being public domain is the reason there's zillions of classical albums recorded by every orchestra.  The people performing/ producing don't have to pay for licensing.

However if you wanted to use said new recordings in a film soundtrack, you'd have to pay.  One solution is re-recording them yourself.

[The Companyman]

Look up Wagner (Ride of the Walkyries) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Wagner

This just makes me want to field strip my M4, over and over and over again...