Sound of Cinema

Matthew Sweet with Philip Lane on the film music career of William Alwyn, composer of over 80 scores including "The Magic Box", "The History of Mr Polly", "The Swiss Family Robinson" and "The Crimson Pirate". Matthew discusses Alwyn's contribution to British film with Philip Lane, and finds out more about Philip's tireless work to track these sometimes lost scores down and bring them before the pu...

Matthew Sweet goes on a treasure hunt with a selection of film music inspired by classic stories of secret maps and lost booty in the week of the release of "Gold" with music by Daniel Pemberton. The programme includes music from "Treasure Island", "Pirates of the Caribbean", "The Deep", "Raiders of the Lost Ark", "King Solomon's Mines", "Jason and the Argonauts", "The Good, The Bad and the Ugly"...

Matthew Sweet with music for films with a pacifist theme in the week that has seen the launch of Mel Gibson's new film "Hacksaw Ridge" with music by Rupert Gregson-Williams. The programme features music from "Gandhi", "The Day The Earth Stood Still", "Doctor Who and the Daleks", ""Starship Troopers", "Howl's Moving Castle", "La Grande Illusion", "King and Country", "Paths of Glory", "The Victors",...

Matthew Sweet features music by Mica Levi for the new film 'Jackie' in a focus on film music for the pivotal year 1963. The year in which JF Kennedy was assassinated, and when in the film world Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor gave us "Cleopatra". The programme features scores from 'It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad, World', 'Charade', 'The Leopard', '55 Days at Peking', 'The Great Escape', 'The VIPs',...

Matthew Sweet looks at the 21st-century film musical in the week of the launch of Damien Chazelle's "La La Land" with music by Justin Hurwitz - who had a huge success with "Whiplash" a couple of years ago. From the 1970s and 1980s, the film musical declined in popularity, but re-appeared with renewed vigour - darker, and with an edge - at the start of the new century, in films such as "Chicago" an...

Matthew Sweet looks at the influence of Schoenberg on film music - not least in the scores of Leonard Rosenman, Miklos Rozsa, Scott Bradley, Jerry Goldsmith, David Shire, Ernest Gold, Johnny Mandel, Humphrey Searle, Benjamin Frankel and Elisabeth Lutyens. Although Schoenberg never wrote a score to accompany an actual film he was very interested in the medium and lived his final years in Hollywood...

Matthew Sweet and Neil Brand with the second of two programmes charting scores in which composers brought new ideas to the world of film music. In today's programme they look at scores from the late 60s to the present and feature music by John Barry; Michel Legrand; John Williams; Jerry Goldsmith; John Carpenter; Danny Elfman; Thomas Newman; Hans Zimmer and Johann Johannsson.

Matthew Sweet and Neil Brand look back on the Golden Age of the cinema in the first of two programmes charting scores in which composers rethought the nature of film music. In today's programme music by Camille Saint-Saëns; Eric Satie; Max Steiner; Kerry Mills and Hugh Martin; Dmitri Tiomkin; Leith Stevens; Bernard Herrmann and Ennio Morricone.

Matthew Sweet with film music inspired by the magic and romance of the ballet in the week that sees the launch of the Klaus Badelt score for "Ballerina". The programme includes music from "Black Swan", "Mao's Last Dancer", "The Red Shoes", "The Intelligence Men", "Exposed", "The Bandwagon", "Black Tights" and the Classic Score of the Week is "On Your Toes".

Matthew Sweet with music for films that explore ideas of heredity and genetics in the week of the launch of the Irish-British thriller "I Am Not A Serial Killer". In Billy O'Brien's new film, based on Dan Wells's novel, a fifteen year boy, a diagnosed social-path, lives in fear that he is fated to become a serial-killer. The music for the film is by Adrian Johnston who has given us scores for "Bec...

Matthew Sweet explores music for films reflecting the depictions of indigenous peoples in the week that has seen the launch of Disney's "Moana". In particular he focuses on Native Americans on the screen. Drawing on music from Peter Pan to the present, Matthew looks at how stereo-typical portrayals have gradually given way to more rounded representations. The programme includes music from the film...

Matthew Sweet introduces a selection of film music inspired by the role of women during times of war in the week of the launch of "Allied" with a new score by Alan Silvestri. The programme draws from films about historic women at the sharp end of battle, including music by Nina Humphreys for "Boudica"; Eric Serra and Mischa Spoliansky's music for films about Joan of Arc; and Craig Armstrong/AR Rah...

Matthew Sweet with music and conversation with one of Hollywood's most successful and prolific composers, James Newton Howard, whose latest score is for the JK Rowling inspired film "Fantastic Beasts, And Where To Find Them", which was released on Friday. James talks about his working relationship with the director M Night Shyamalan and films such as "The Village"; his work for Disney and films su...

Matthew Sweet with film music on the pleasures and pains of parenthood in the week of Derek Cianfrance's new film "The Light Between Oceans" with music by Alexandre Desplat. The programme also features music from "East of Eden", "Big Fish", "Bicycle Thieves", "Two Women", "Room", "The Royal Tenenbaums", "The Parent Trap", "What Maisie Knew", "Kramer vs. Kramer", "Mrs Doubtfire", "Losing Isaiah" an...

Matthew Sweet with a selection of music outlining a brief history of Black British cinema, from the work of Paul Robeson in the 1930s to recent films such as "Belle" and "Twelve Years A Slave". The American actor and singer Paul Robeson made a terrific impact on the UK when he arrived here in the 1930s, performing Jerome Kern's "Showboat" at Drury Lane and appearing in British films of the period...

Matthew Sweet marks the 70th birthday this weekend of Howard Shore, in conversation with the composer, with a look back on his many scores for films to date, which include titles like "The Fly"; "Silence of The Lambs"; "The Aviator"; "Hugo" and "The Lord Of The Rings". Howard talks about his working methods; his collaborations with directors David Cronenberg and Martin Scorsese; about writing musi...

Matthew Sweet with film music about people leading double lives in the week that has seen the release of the thriller, "The Girl on the Train" with music by Danny Elfman. The programme also features music from "Total Recall", "The Life of Pi", "The Double Life of Veronique", "Albert Nobbs", "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty", "As You Like It", and from films inspired by Robert Louis Stevenson's nov...

Matthew Sweet looks at music featured in the films of Stanley Kubrick with Richard Daniels of the Kubrick Archives live from Radio 3 Sound Frontiers at London's Southbank Centre.

Matthew Sweet is live at London's South Bank Centre celebrating film music from the year 1946 - when the Hays Code determined the coulds and the could nots; when Noir was at its height; when UK cinema going was at its peak. The films and music featured in the programme include Alfred Hitchcock's "Notorious" with a score by Roy Webb, Miklos Rozsa's "The Killers", Max Steiner and "The Big Sleep", Di...

Matthew Sweet introduces film music inspired by gangsters in the week of the launch of Brad Furman's new film "The Infiltrator". As well as Chris Hajian's music from "The Infiltrator", the programme also features music from "The Godfather", "Once Upon a Time in America", "The Roaring Twenties", "Road to Perdition", "The Untouchables", "The Long Good Friday", "The Krays", "Bugsy Malone" and selecti...

Matthew Sweet meets the award winning film composer Dario Marianelli, creator of scores for films such as Atonement, Pride and Prejudice, The Brothers Grimm and Anna Karenina, in the week of the launch of his latest score, for Travis Knight's fantasy film "Kubo and the Two Strings".

200 years ago this year, a group of English literati, holidaying in Switzerland, which included the poet Lord Byron and his physician Dr John Polidori, Mary Shelley, her step-sister Claire Clairemont, and her husband Percy Bysshe Shelley, decided to pass the summer evenings entertaining each other with the telling of supernatural stories. The seeds were sown for one of the most enduring of all hor...

Matthew Sweet introduces music written for movies associated with the great British cinematographer, Douglas Slocombe, who died earlier this year at the age of 103. The catalogue of his films includes some of the greats of the last 75 years - Matthew reflects on his career and pays tribute with music from "Close Encounters of the Third Kind"; "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom"; "The Lavender H...

Matthew Sweet with film music inspired by the works Roald Dahl including John Williams's new score for Steven Spielberg's new big screen version of The BFG. The programme also features music from "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory", "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory", "The Witches", "James and the Giant Peach", "36 Hours", "The Night Digger", "You Only Live Twice", "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang" a...

Matthew Sweet with music for films mapping female power and male anxiety - in the week that has seen the launch of the remake of Ghostbusters starring Kristen Wiig, Kate McKinnon and Melissa McCarthy. The programme features scores by James Bernard, David Arnold, Angelo Badalamenti, Brian Tyler, Jerry Goldsmith, Patrick Doyle, James Newton Howard and Theodore Shapiro. The Classic Score of the Week...