I’ve been deep into the Piano Sonata by Charles T. Griffes the last few weeks preparing for an upcoming release of programmed piano music. There’s a harmonic progression, or really a chromatic voice leading strategy that Griffes uses throughout the piece that really reminds me of a similar Jerry Goldsmith gesture used in a number of scores. It is all over the Star Trek: The Motion Picture soundtrack.
Then, this morning I was looking at Griffes’ 3 Tone-Pictures, and in “The Vale of Dreams” section, there is something that sounds very much like the main theme from Basic Instinct.
As I often do when finding these similarities in the works of composers, I wonder if there is a direct influence or just a common thread of exploration yielding similar results. I like to imagine that maybe the Griffes piece was one of those touchstone pieces for Goldsmith, something that lived under his fingers when he sat down. I have no where near the musical athleticism required to play the Sonata, but even at the meager attempts I make to feel all these things on the instrument when I’m programming them, it feels cool. It feels like a pianist’s piano piece.
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