Film Music Revisited

This evening Turner Classic Movies is showing The Heiress, directed by Willie Wyler, starring Olivia de Havilland and Montgomery Clift, with the musical score by Aaron Copland. I wish I had learned enough about music -- wish I hadn't run away from Laura Bach (her real name) and Becky King, piano teachers, when I was a spoiled little brat (as opposed to the big spoiled brat I am now) -- so I knew and could talk intelligently about keys and scales and arpeggios and diminished chords and stuff. And "bitonality" (the characteristic of the music of Bernard Herrmann, I read, as used in, among other movies, North by Northwest). I sort of remembered that Copland was the composer for The Heiress but I knew he was after two minutes of listening. (I've never seen this 1949 film and happen to be taping the rest of it at this moment so I can watch The Colbert Report). But I don't know how to describe intelligently what I am hearing to pedants, who will be listening to my show (it's comin', folks, it's comin', soon's I can figure out all this iPod stuff). But I listened to an Adventures in Good Music show in which Karl Haas featured film music, and I was not a bit intimidated at the prospect of having a show along the lines of this one episode by the master of the genre of music shows. And who knew enough about music that he could play piano. No, what I will have to bring to such a show is my enthusiasm and love and listening ear, however untrained, and my willingness to learn and share what I've learned with others and perhaps open up a new world to them.