The Early Music Show - Sound of Cinema: The Harpsichord and Film

Download Sound of Cinema: The Harpsichord and Film

As part of the BBC's Sound of Cinema season, Lucie Skeaping presents a profile of the harpsichord in film scores. #BBCSoundofCinema

Lucie looks back on the pioneering work of Wanda Landowska in stimulating a renewed interest in the instrument in the first third of the 20th Century, and how the distinctive sound of the instrument quickly found a use in the cinema. She considers how the harpsichord has been used in film to suggest a sense of the past; a sense of the present; and how its created a particularly effective colour in the world of horror films.

Featured film scores include: "Wuthering Heights"; "Papillon"; "Restoration"; "Henry V"; "Love Story"; "Rosemary's Baby"; "The Vampire Lovers"; "Pirates of Caribbean"; "The Corpse Bride" and "Amelie".

Published on Sunday, 20th October 2013.

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