Close Up Radio Spotlights Film Music Historian Larry Timm

Upland, CA – In filmmaking, there comes a time when the directors and actors can convey only so much on screen. Music steps in to say what neither pictures nor words can.

Larry Timm has dedicated his career to the intersection of music and film as both a studio musician for numerous Hollywood film soundtracks as well as a film music historian.

Timm is the author of The Soul of Cinema: An Appreciation of Film Music, the first film music appreciation textbook ever written. The Soul of Cinema traces the evolution of film music from 1895 to the present, covering many of the representative film scores, composers, styles and trends, and explains how producers and directors relate to the composer and the musical score to tell their story.

The Soul of Cinema featuring interviews with film composers, music editors, orchestrators, film music agents, studio musicians, music copyists, music contractors.

“Film composers have done some of the finest symphonic writing of the 20th century,” says Timm. “The Mozarts of our day are working in cinema. John Williams is a living Beethoven.”

Timm himself is a veteran Hollywood studio musician and whose oboe and English horn solos can be heard on over 300 television and motion picture scores. In fact, Timm is the oboe player on the iconic “Love Theme From the Godfather.”

A Professor Emeritus at California State University in Fullerton, Timm’s career in music and music education has spanned nearly five decades. As an educator, he teaches classes of over 700 students each semester, introducing them to the world of film music.

The Soul of Cinema: An Appreciation of Film Music is available at Titan Shops