John Corigliano's score to haunting score for The Red Violin captures the intricate, mercurial quality of the film itself, as it traces the travels of a haunted violin from 17th century Italy. The extremely unique story of The Red Violin perhaps propelled it to moderate success, but the score was not left unnoticed for it ultimately won a single Academy Award for its score.
In the case of The Red Violin, the narrative follows the life of a famed violin from its birth in 1681 to its restoration and sale in 1997. Following the various ups and downs, the audience stays with the violin like a constant beacon of light to the flaky and ever changing ownership of the violin. Girard definitely comprehended the magnificent scale of the film and truly tried to understand that the score for the film was going to be of significant importance.
He sought the services of opera, concert house, and classical writer John Corigliano to provide a convincing aural personality for the violin. This is really essential, especially so in a movie that finds an ethereal violin at its crux. Corigliano, who was then based in New York was extremely distinguished with an array of modern compositions in his kitty but his film score repertoire was very limited and The Red Violin was only the composer's third film score.…show more content… He creates a musical soul for the violin and adapts it to the various time periods of the film, eventually developing into his modern techniques for the 1990's sequence. The transformation of the music as the film progresses not only seems magnificent but also is a very effective tool to remind the audience of the time and setting. I learned how much of an influence a score can make not only thematically and to set mood, but also to inform very subtly some unique characteristics of time and
