soundtracks

Alfred Hitchock was one of the greatest filmmakers of the 20th century, but he also had a dark side. A deeper reading of his films reveals some of Hitch’s hidden obsessions, including: murder, sex, and love. Throughout his career, Hitchcock was aided by the unseen hand of his wife, Alma Reville, who often served as the director’s sounding board and sometime editor.

Leo Tolstoy’s novel “Anna Karenina” continues to be a source of inspiration for filmmakers, having been adapted over a dozen times in different forms by directors all over the world. Joe Wright’s feature film boldly breaks from tradition, confining most of the plot on a single soundstage.

Steven Spielberg and composer John Williams’s long and fruitful collaboration continues with “Lincoln.”  The prolific Williams draws upon folk styles to create an impression of America’s 16th president.

For more than 50 years, John Williams' music has taken us to galaxies far, far away through adventures here on earth, made us feel giddy joy and occasionally scared us to death.

This month, KPAC is celebrating thirty years of broadcasting. Our hosts are having some fun sharing "30 lists" - artists, music, movies, and recordings you might enjoy, that help shape the sound of your classical oasis.

As the curator of Texas Public Radio’s film series, Cinema Tuesdays, I spend a lot of my free time enjoying movies, and their soundtracks.  Soundtracks make up a small but important section of our library at KPAC. Because we connect to movies on such a personal level, film scores often come with built-in emotional attachment. Below is a list of some of my favorites. While this is by no means a ‘best of’ list, these are the records I enjoy spinning most often on my CD player and iPod. I created a Spotify list, linked below, so you can listen to all of the tracks in a playlist, and in the article, each track is linked to Amazon when available so you can download a song or album for yourself. Have fun listening!

Click here to listen to the list on Spotify.

Probably my favorite movie I’ve seen so far this year, “The Tree of Life” approaches for me a kind of magical or spiritual experience. It was recently released on Blu-ray/DVD.