Video essays on film music, classical music, and music in art and literature
Listening In is a series of video essays on music.
The initial idea for the channel was to explore topics at the cross-section between popular culture and twentieth century, or contemporary music – and so I was drawn to things like Kubrick’s use of Krystoff Penderecki’s music in The Shining, the influence that Karlheinz Stockhausen had on The Beatles, as well as the use of György Ligeti’s choral and orchestral works in 2001: A Space Odyssey.
I've now made 60 videos covering music from a wide spectrum of styles and genres and have gained nearly 230,000 subscribers and over 10 million views. Film music has become the staple of the channel, but I've also looked at Stravinsky’s storytelling in Petrushka, Radiohead’s orchestration and harmony in Pyramid Song and George Orwell’s use of musical language and imagery in Nineteen Eighty-Four.
See below for a selection of videos, and click here to subscribe.
How Radiohead Wrote the Perfect Bond Theme
For the 24th installment in the James Bond franchise, Sam Smith provided 'Writing's On The Wall' for the opening sequence, but they were not the first choice to provide a new song for the film. Radiohead were initally approached to write a theme song, and what they delivered was, in my opinion, one of the greatest Bond themes ever written. Let's dive in.
What's the Sound of Colour? Kandinsky and Music
In this essay, I look at the work of Russian artist Wassily Kandinsky and how his paintings were influenced by music. Kandinsky had synesthesia, which meant that when he heard sounds, he saw colour and when he saw colour, he heard music.
Interstellar - How Hans Zimmer Creates the Sound of Space
Hans Zimmer’s score for Interstellar dispensed with a lot of the musical language that had been so commonplace in his scores before this film. Driven by the desire to create a sound-world that he hadn't yet explored, Zimmer created music full of soft, introspective sounds: sustained organ melodies and chords, hushed orchestral textures and transparent, widely-spaced harmony.
The Music of George Orwell's 1984
George Orwell’s dystopian novel 1984 is best known for its most famous ideas - Newspeak, Big Brother and Room 101 - but not much has been written about the musical imagery and metaphor that permeates the novel. In this essay, I explore how IngSoc, the ruling party in Oceania, uses music to control and oppress the people.
The Lord of the Rings - How Howard Shore Makes Us Care
Howard Shore's scores for The Lord of the Rings contain some of the greatest music ever written for film. His music acts as a reflection of the cultures of Middle-earth, it outlines the emotional landscape of the story and also acts as a narrator in itself, commenting on and supporting the narrative over eleven hours of film. And at the centre of this, Shore had to write music to accompany the journey of two hobbits, taking them from the Shire, all the way to the fires of Mordor, and back again.
Radiohead: Pyramid Song - Analysis
‘Pyramid Song’, written by Thom Yorke with contributions from Jonny Greenwood and Philip Selway, is one of Radiohead's most enduringly popular songs. In this essay, I analyse the harmony, rhythm and form of the song and suggest that the hypnotic feeling you get whilst listening to it comes about as a result of the music’s complex substructure.