And it has come to pass in the year two thousand ten, dear spacefans, that we reach another numeric waypoint in our journey together. For our 900th program special, we bring you music that fulfills what one of our artists calls "the quest for the acoustics of emotion beyond any cultural or geographic limits."
On this transmission of Hearts of Space, we consider the mainstream of popular film music today: a muscular, melodic ambient fusion of classical, electronic, and ethnic "world music."
Our story starts in the 19th century with DEBUSSY, who broke through the conventions of classical orchestration with impressionistic sound paintings like "The Engulfed Cathedral." We have an electronic version by Japanese musician TOMITA from 1974.
Then, almost 100 years ago in Paris, 1913, Russian composer IGOR STRAVINSKY's music for the ballet The Rite of Spring famously caused a riot at its premiere. It was too early for electronic instruments, but his scandalous combination of the symphony orchestra with primal dissonances and intense "pagan" rhythms set the stage for what has become the music of epic movies today.
The pivotal figure in the development of this style of film score was Greek composer VANGELIS. Beginning with CHARIOTS OF FIRE in 1981, he extended "pagan classical" into "symphonic electronica" — merging synthesizers, rock and ethnic rhythms, and Greek folk melodies. And from there, spacefans, you can draw a straight line to JAMES HORNER'S music for AVATAR.
On this 900th transmission of HEARTS of SPACE...a program called CINEMATRONIC.
Music is by VANGELIS, ADIEMUS, HANS ZIMMER & LISA GERRARD, AUSTRALIS, KARL JENKINS, JAMES HORNER, IMMERSION THEORY, CONSTANCE DEMBY, PAUL AVGERINOS, LIQUID MIND, and FRANK VAN BOGAERT.
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