Try to imagine your favourite films without any music. While a tiny few – No Country for Old Men – somehow manage sans score, they’re the exception that proves the rule.
More likely, and in ways it can be easy to underestimate, film scores lend pace to the twists and turns of movies. They raise our hackles at the appropriate moments, alerting us to subtle mood shifts, giving us much-needed relief and inspiring triumphant, soaring joy.
Among the greats are screen composers such as Hans Zimmer (Interstellar, Gladiator, The Lion King), and John Williams (Star Wars, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Home Alone, Jaws).
‘I mean, John Williams, he’s the Mozart of our time,’ says Vanessa Scammell, who will be conducting a live orchestral performance of the celebrated Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 score during a special screening of the film with Queensland Symphony Orchestra in April.
Williams scored the first three movies of the franchise, composing Hedwig’s Theme, the main theme used throughout the franchise, while Alexandre Desplat scored Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Parts 1 & 2. ‘He’s brilliant,’ Scammell says of Williams. ‘And thank goodness his music gets to be heard live in this way.’
Performing live film scores during screenings has become increasingly popular in recent years. Scammell has conducted such scores with the Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide and West Australian Symphony Orchestras, in addition to her acclaimed work as a conductor of ballet, musical theatre, concert repertoire and opera.
‘It’s successful because it bridges a gap,’ she says. ‘We need the classics. We need to hear the Beethovens and the Mahlers because their music is genius and needs to be celebrated. But there’s something so special about watching a film while there are anything up to 70 orchestral players sitting in front of the screen performing the score live. It’s a brilliant concept and in some ways harks back to the era of silent cinema, when scores had to be performed that way.’
The appeal, Scammell says, is cross-generational, and as likely to thrill children as adults. ‘How fantastic is it for the kids to watch these sort of movie scores being performed and maybe go, “Gosh, oh, I think I’d like to play an instrument that sounds like that!”
‘I’m always curious to hear about people’s experiences, especially when they haven’t been to an orchestra before. Sometimes they’ll say things like, “I was watching the violin because they did an incredible solo and it captured the mood so perfectly”. It’s easy to forget when you’re watching a film that there’s an actual orchestra playing a score on the film track.’
Scammell will lead QSO through two live scores during the For Movie Music Lovers series – the James Bond film Skyfall, and the final Harry Potter film – and will also conduct a concert featuring The Music of Hans Zimmer in May.
As part of the 2025 program, live scores for Brief Encounter, The Snowman and Home Alone will also accompany screenings, and audiences can enjoy performances of scores by composers such as Leonard Bernstein, Alan Menken and Howard Shore at the Cinematic: The Oscars event in October.
Each score requires different instrumentation and a different approach, of course, to reflect the musicality and emotions at their heart. ‘James Bond is so exciting because it’s driven by the rhythm section,’ Scammell says. ‘So, you’ve got drums, electric guitar and electric bass, which is very different to Harry Potter, which is more classically composed, but utilises a lot of percussion and really interesting instruments. You hear more soundscapes during the Harry Potter film, which sets the mood for each scene.’
‘And Zimmer is just incredible too. From Pirates of the Caribbean to The Da Vinci Code, the music is wonderfully diverse and how amazing that these composers are being celebrated as our contemporaries.’
Another audience benefit of the live performances involves hearing the end credit music – often a time of noisily flipping chairs and popcorn boxes being shoved in bins – as a crowning highlight of the screening.
‘You’ve got to stay for the credit music for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2,’ Scammell says. ‘It’s spectacular. It contains the big, famous theme, and it’s fiendishly difficult to perform. The orchestra gets to the end of this huge film, and then have to go: Right. Here we go again!’
Queensland Symphony Orchestra’s For Movie Music Lovers series kicks off on 4 April with Skyfall in Concert, with special and family concerts running through to late December 2025. For tickets and more information visit QSO website.
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