{"id":715,"date":"2006-07-21T23:44:14","date_gmt":"2006-07-21T22:44:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/?p=715"},"modified":"2023-08-05T12:48:17","modified_gmt":"2023-08-05T11:48:17","slug":"the-music-of-the-wicker-man","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/2006\/07\/21\/the-music-of-the-wicker-man\/","title":{"rendered":"The music of The Wicker Man"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"wicker_man.jpg\"Left: The scarce first edition of the Hamlyn novelisation. From the Coulthart library.<\/em><\/p>\n

I realised some years ago that all my favourite films have great soundtracks, almost without exception. Something about the blend of drama and well-chosen music really excites me, so it’s no surprise that The Wicker Man<\/em> would appeal, having as it does a wonderful folk soundtrack. Nice to see from the discussion that follows how influential this soundtrack has been although I’m surprised they didn’t mention the multiple cover versions of Willow’s Song<\/em>. Once again Hollywood has seen fit to gift us with a completely redundant cover version of their own; the less said about the imminent remake, the better.<\/p>\n

\n

‘It was a way into a magical world’<\/strong>
\nThe Wicker Man is the unlikely inspiration to a new generation of British folk musicians. So we put the film’s musical fans in a room with its director to discuss its enduring appeal. By Will Hodgkinson.<\/em><\/p>\n

Will Hodgkinson
\nFriday July 21, 2006
\nThe Guardian<\/em><\/p>\n

ONE OF THE unlikeliest motivating factors in the current wave of new British folk music is a horror movie from three decades ago. The Wicker Man<\/em>, the story of an upright Christian police officer investigating the disappearance of young girl on the Scottish island of Summerisle, and stumbling across a pagan cult, is hardly a masterpiece. But it has endured as a cult classic because it is unique, fascinating and evocative. Its folk-based soundtrack and use of ancient rituals and mythology have made it the focal point for a new generation of British musicians. So, as the gods of creation poured golden light into a sacred hall (a meeting room at the Guardian<\/em>) on a summer afternoon, we assembled a handful of Wicker Man<\/em>-obsessed musicians to discuss the film’s influence with its director, Robin Hardy… (more<\/a>)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Left: The scarce first edition of the Hamlyn novelisation. From the Coulthart library. I realised some years ago that all my favourite films have great soundtracks, almost without exception. Something about the blend of drama and well-chosen music really excites me, so it’s no surprise that The Wicker Man would appeal, having as it does … Continue reading “The music of The Wicker Man”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[7,22,3,31],"tags":[4276,2821,2830,769,195,5180],"class_list":["post-715","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-film","category-horror","category-music","category-religion","tag-christopher-lee","tag-johnny-trunk","tag-paul-giovanni","tag-peter-shaffer","tag-the-wicker-man","tag-wicker-man"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pq7rV-bx","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/715","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=715"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/715\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=715"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=715"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=715"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}