A music lover since he was a child, Lluís i Falcó is a specialist in cinematographic music and has written books such as Gregorio García Segura: historia, testimonio y análisis de un músico de cine [Gregorio García Segura: history, testimony and analysis of a film musician] (1994), Els compositors de cinema a Catalunya 1930-1959 [Film composers in Catalonia 1930-1959] (2009), Els compositors de cinema a Catalunya 1960-1989 [Film composers in Catalonia 1960-1989] (2012) and Reyes Abades. Rompiendo moldes [Reyes Abades. Breaking Moulds] (2012). For precisely this book, he won the 2012 Ricardo Muñoz Suay award of the Spanish Academy of Cinematographic Arts and Sciences. We talk to him about the importance of music in films and about studying it, which until very recently was a field with few experts.

Films with live music, which at the beginning were quite usual, are now being recovered.  Was there a music score for the film or did they use any music?

There were all kinds. Films which had an expressly made music score, but only for the première. When a composer composed for 30 musicians, he knew that he would have these musicians in the cinema hired for the première, but if the cinema on the corner did not have 30 musicians, the music score was of no use. Each film could have as many music scores as cinemas in which it was projected. With the passing of the years, repertoires were created. I have a 74 facsimile reprint of one from 1924. It basically consists of atmospheres: love songs, lullabies, mysterious,... People sought, for example, aeroplane music and this made the music more standard. Also, not everyone could buy it.

Music could change the meaning of the images.

Completely. The title of the book by Pepe Nieto, Música para la imagen. La influencia secreta [Music for the Image. The secret influence], already shows this. Indeed, this is a phrase by Coppola who said that film music is the secret influence, which people do not listen to, but which they do feel. Music provokes sensations and feelings; you emphasize one thing or another.

Normally, importance is not given to the soundtrack of the film unless it has a star singing. Do you believe that this has undermined the idea of the soundtrack?

No. They are different ways of working. On the master’s degree, I teach a subject on music for audiovisual and one day we were talking about the importance that the director may or may not give to the music. I said that it was a question of sensitivity and the sensitivity of Spielberg and of Tarantino was contrasted when it comes to choosing music. I maintained that they have the same sensitivity, but different working methods. They are both concerned by the music and the effect that it can have on the spectator. What happens is that Spielberg commissions a tailored suit from John Williams while Tarantino’s is ready to wear. He goes to a vintage shop and buys old music that he likes and puts it in the film, but this doesn’t mean that he is not concerned about the music. That would be telling the musical editor: “Put what you want, I don’t care”. Which method is better? Each type of cinema has its own; I believe that they should be respected. It is a creative thing. I have many friends who are composers; if only everyone chose original music and they all had a lot of work and here you could live just from making film music. But it is a creative matter with which you cannot get involved.

Has the role of the composer in films changed a lot?

Here what has changed is the pay cheque, not the fact of being paid, but of been on the staff. Until a few years ago I still made statistics of how many films were made a year and how many composers they had. I only looked at commercial films. Out of 100 films, there were 95 different composers; only five repeated. The others just made one film. I don’t know whether it’s less professionalism. I haven’t analyzed it. The same happened with the directors; they made a debut feature and then nothing else. Before there were professionals who made 10 films a year.

Now there are also many pop or rock musicians who make soundtracks and who in principle are not composers of soundtracks.

This has always happened, although maybe not so much. Lluís Llach made the first one in the 70s, Borrasca. People from de rock laietà made Tatuage by Bigas Luna with Joan Albert Amargós. There is the film from 54 Three coins in the fountain, like the title of the song. It is sung by Frank Sinatra who doesn’t appear in the credits at all, but everyone knows that it is him. I have a theory, although I have not found it written anywhere, that they added this prologue sequence afterwards to be able to have a song which could be played on the radio with the same title, and to have extra advertising. It was successful, and the music score was published in Spanish. Everyone knows the song from Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. Every year in class, after showing the sequence, I ask whether they recognize the song “Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head” by Burt Bacharach and Hal David, and everyone says yes. When I ask how many have seen the film, there are only two or three. What did they obtain? That the song transcends the film. There is a book which talks about this, The Sounds of Commerce: Marketing Popular Film Music (Film and Culture Series), about the use of songs as a marketing element in films. The same as with Titanic or Bram Stoker’s Dracula. The music trade has changed a lot. Now a song sells a lot more than before with Spotify and YouTube. It is extremely important to have a song which, if it is by someone very famous, guarantees you the presence of the film in a medium in which it would probably not appear.

Do you think that real importance is given to film composers? It’s funny that normally, in award ceremonies, the same are always mentioned; the ones from the Goyas or the Oscars are known but few others.

It would be good if those who won a Goya were well known. I would like to know whether when they gave the Goya to Alfonso de Villalonga, people were happy or said: “Who’s that?” There is not a great deal of music culture in this country either. Film music is something that has been added, the secret influence, and if on top of that you add the lack of music culture. In 86, in the first gala of the Goyas, Emilio Arrieta was nominated, a Zarzuela composer who died in the 19th century. Not even the members of the Academy knew who he was. They nominated him for best music because part of one of his zarzuelas appears in the film The Disputed Vote of Mr. Cayo. This cannot happen. Luckily he didn’t win; imagine being ridiculed at international level. The first gala of the Goyas and they give the award for best original music to a gentleman who died in the 19th century. Imagine how we would have been brought into disrepute.

You combine teaching and research. What motivates you the most as a researcher of film music?

I have great curiosity. I like to find out things, historical research and to discover what happened and what was important, but maybe with the passing of the years people have forgotten. In some cases maybe it was fair that they were forgotten, but in others not so much. Sometimes you see premières of films which were great hits at the time and now no one remembers them. At the time they were successful and, therefore, sociologically it is interesting to ask what happened at that time for them to triumph. Why was The Hairdresser’s Husband more than one year in the cinemas in the 90s? It was not normal. Something must have happened. Now no one remembers. Fame is ephemeral. The problem is when as historians, over the years, we make a selection. We should ask ourselves: Really, what deserves to go down in history? I often ask myself this and I also ask my students. I have a catalogue of American composers from 32. No one knows them, except for Aaron Copeland or Gershwin. People appear and you do not know who they are. I look on Spotify to see if they appear and, if I find them, I listen to them. Then you discover why they didn’t go down in history (ha ha), but others surprise you.

How does film music fit in with university studies?

It has only been included recently. In the University of Barcelona, we have the master’s degree in Music as an Interdisciplinary Art, which has an optional subject on music and image (audiovisual) which I teach. In other places, it has already existed for some years now. There is a batch of people, the generation after mine, of some 40. Graduates like Julio Arce, Teresa Fraile, Joaquín López González and Edu Viñuela who are in the universities of Extremadura, the Complutense, Oviedo or Granada. People like us who write, publish and who organize congresses and stand as one, fortunately. We are all in the music and audiovisuals work commission of the SEdeM (Spanish Musicology Society). We publish books such as Música y medios audiovisuales [Music and audiovisual media], the result of two congresses, one in the Complutense and the other in Cáceres. When I began in 1989 this was unthinkable; it could not exist, there were not enough people to do it. There are also new people of 20 or 30 years old who are innovating. I have focused more on film music, but work is also being carried out on video clips, for example by Edu Viñuela, or television programmes; Jaume Radigales does everything which is audiovisualized opera. A lot of different aspects are covered; it is not just film and, moreover, commercial. 

Last year you created the portal MusicAudiovisual, which can help researchers with their work. How did this idea occur to you?

The origin was an article that I published in 1999. I formed part of the Catalan Association for the Dissemination of Film Music which included publications and articles. Many were informative for fans, music lovers or mythicizers and in some we tried to do something more academic. I decided to write an article on the bibliography of film music. I looked for books and minimum information on this. And I thought: since I’m doing the article, why not also create a catalogue? It was published with 621 books, which is what I had located at that time. For a congress which was held in Granada in July last year, I was asked to present a paper and it occurred to me to present an updated version 2.0 of the catalogue. As there is no point in publishing it in paper format, I did it on line. Since 99, I have had my database in Filemaker and, when I can, I update it. There are 2084 online updates, but I have more off line. I have found books in Japanese, Chinese, Turkish. I knew that the Germans and Italians publish a lot about film, but there are places which surprised me a lot, like India. For example, the quantity of biographies that exist about Lata Mangeshkar, one of the most emblematic singers of Indian film. An extremely high percentage of the voices of many actresses, above all from the 40s and 50s, are in actual fact her. They all use playback. She is “the singer”. A legend. Turkey surprised me, as did a book on Iranian film music. I did it so that it would be useful for anyone interested in film music. Even on a professional level, because there are technical books, books on legislation, on copyright… You can search by subjects. It’s fantastic with my students. They always ask for a bibliography and they can find it there. I put summaries of those that I can; at the moment there are 400. I am doing it gradually; there is a lot of work.

You also have the part about composers and records under construction.

Yes, I have it off line, but it has to be programmed and I don’t know what else. I will probably do the one on records shortly, because I have practically all those for Spanish film. And I will not have problems with Filmoteca Española. Indeed, they bought my doctoral thesis on composers and they have it in a box, pending publication. I did it with Roberto Cueto. It is a biographical film dictionary. I did the classics up to 89 and Roberto Cueto the modern ones, which did not come into my thesis. It has been delivered and it is in a box. We said to them, please, when you publish it, let us know in advance to update it. Above all, the most modern who are still working: Alberto Iglesias, Roque Baños, Fernando Velázquez, Arnau Bataller, Xavier Capellas, Carles Cases,... We must have done it about 10 years ago.

Aren’t there any women?

Very few. Eva Gancedo. Then Ana Satrova, whose real name is Ana Martha Satr Torres. She was Argentinian and she made music for the westerns of her husband Jose María Zabalza. July Murillo made a film and had done television; maybe she is retired, but she worked for many years in TVE. Not many more. I think that Ana Satrova is still alive, but doesn’t compose. Virginia Sánchez has carried out research on her and contacted the family; she told me that she was not well. Vainica Doble also made music for films.

What difficulties do music for audiovisual researchers encounter on carrying out research?

In this country they give money to scientific research; in ours not so much. It is considered that it is not necessary. I can understand that it is more important to cure diseases than to carry out research on a dead composer, I accept that. Obviously, science needs very expensive equipment and laboratories; this is not a complaint but rather an observation of a fact. Not so much now, because there is a lot in PDF and digitized, but for many years we had to travel a great deal to go to the source. I have an ex-student who did her thesis on Disney musicals and she used Skype a lot. She didn’t go to Los Angeles, but she obtained a special permit to be able to consult the Disney music archives for 20 days. Some very specific music scores which they uploaded to a server with a watermark where they put her name to know, if the music scores circulated, that it had been her. She could not go to Los Angeles. Ten or 15 years ago this directly meant not being able to consult material.

I will always remember my first laptop, among other things because it weighed 4 kg. I went to Madrid to carry out research with my thesis supervisor and a fellow student. It was 1991 and we went with a laptop to the Conde Duque library in Madrid. The director came to tell us that we had to ask for special permission to use a device like this and that it could moreover cause envy. We were like Martians coming from another planet. It was very shocking. It wasn’t very normal for us to have a laptop either. It’s changed a lot now. I often tell my students: “Make the most of it. You don’t know what you’ve got”. When I read a history of film or of music, many years ago, I had to believe what it said; I couldn’t check it. Nowadays, you take a book and with Spotify you can search for the music and listen to it. I don’t think they take advantage of this. They have never been in the situation of not having it so they don’t appreciate it. It’s a pity. People have lost the awareness that film is part of the physical heritage, which must be conserved. For young people, it is something which you download, but the origin is celluloid which deteriorates and has to be conserved. Even if it is digitized.

Is there a film music archive here?

Filmoteca de Catalunya has some collections that it bought. I appraised some. But few music scores. They have those of Pepe Nieto who left them there. I believe that the responsibility is not just of the Filmoteca but also of the composers themselves. I have pursued some, and the heirs of composers who have already died, so that their music scores could end up somewhere, preferably the Filmoteca de Catalunya. Sometimes they tell you that they are a souvenir of their father, which I understand. But when the children die, the grandchildren don’t know what to do with this and they throw it out. I don’t know what the best way would be. Maybe some institution which takes hold of the reins and undertakes a campaign to recover the music scores and the records. Five or six years ago, a record label from Madrid wanted to make a CD with the film music of Alfonso Carlos Santisteban. Even he did not have the records; they asked me for them. If the composers themselves aren’t concerned, there is little we can do.

You have also published books on films such as Reyes Abades. Rompiendo moldes. How did this project arise?

Sincerely, it arose out of desperation. At that time I had a contract with the university as an adjunct lecturer: you earn €500 a month and you have to get by as best you can. The publishing world is almost dead, and I used to work with it in a lot doing numerous things. The same has happened with teaching outside the university; I trained secondary school teachers, but now they do more ICT or computing courses in the classroom, but not about contents. I wrote to my contacts asking whether anyone had an assignment and Alejandro Pachón proposed a book to me about Reyes Abades. He asked me whether I dared and I said yes. I had given classes on the history of special effects, above all make up, in the Cazcarra school. But he frightened me when he said: “Remember that Reyes is a little special. They once started a book about him and he stopped it”. We agreed to meet. I travelled to Torrejón where he was living. It’s true that at first sight Reyes impressed you. He was very curt. But he agreed. I began to work and to carry out research. To accompany him. I spent hours talking with him in his Torrejón workshop. With Reyes, we mutually adopted each other. We almost became brothers.

This helps the work of the biographer.

I don’t know whether or not it helps; I always try to be objective. What Reyes didn’t like was mythicization. He wasn’t at all a mythicizer. Neither am I. Out of all the records that I have, only one is signed and that’s because I bought it second hand and it was already signed. And I know plenty of composers, but I don’t want them signed; I’m not interested. And neither was he. All that about Reyes Abades, so many Goyas, the magic of film. He said: “I won a Goya, so what? The next day I have to go to work and to do it well. The Goya isn’t of any use to me”. We got on very well. And I think, and he also thought, and so did the people who knew him, that the book is him. It is a biography about him, but I believe that it reflects him very well as a person and also as a professional.

They also gave you an award, but on the next day you had to work, as Reyes said.

I don’t even know where it is. As I am restructuring the space of the studio I have them in boxes. Until recently they were on a shelf arranged in an offhand manner. And I don’t have any diplomas framed; they are in a box in case I have to make photocopies, which is what they are useful for.

And did the award help on a professional level?

No, I put it on my CV which looks good. I always say that it was only of use to let me know Reyes and his family. The rest: I wrote a book with which I am satisfied. I always joke that they gave me an award in hard cash because the plaque is aluminium.