Baroque à la Hitchcock: the music of Dangerous Liaisons (1988)

Cooke, Mervyn

Abstract

George Fenton’s resourceful use of both pastiche and genuine baroque and classical music in the scoring of period-set feature films is nowhere more impressive than in Dangerous Liaisons (1988). Strongly influenced by the films of Alfred Hitchcock, director Stephen Frears suggested that Fenton also write in a manner which emulated Bernard Herrmann’s music to North by Northwest (1959). The result was a fascinating score which unites the instrumental resources (and specialised performers) typical of baroque orchestras, including prominent parts for harpsichord, fortepiano and baroque organ, with highly charged scoring techniques and sonorities more typical of modern thrillers.

Citation

Cooke, M. (2018). Baroque à la Hitchcock: the music of Dangerous Liaisons (1988). In J. Cook, A. Kolassa, & A. Whittaker (Eds.), Recomposing the past: representations of early music on stage and screen. Routledge

• Publication Date: Jan 1, 2018
• Deposit Date: Mar 1, 2018
• Book Title: Recomposing the past: representations of early music on stage and screen
• Chapter Number: 2
• ISBN: 9781138287471
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1122010
• Publisher URL: https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/e/9781351975520/chapters/10.4324%2F9781315268255-3
• Related Public URLs: https://www.routledge.com/Recomposing-the-Past-Representations-of-Early-Music-on-Stage-and-Screen/Cook-Kolassa-Whittaker/p/book/9781138287471