Music
Music plays a very important role in this film, especially classical piano music resulting from Dirkie's father being a concert pianist. Classical piano music is used several times in the film's soundtrack: particularly compositions by Franz Liszt and Frédéric Chopin, to the point that Liszt's Liebestraum no. 3 in A-flat major (S./G. 541, R. 211, no. 3) and Chopin's Polonaise no. 6 in A-flat major, op. 53 ("Polonaise héroïque") almost become de facto themes for the film.
Some of the climactic portions of the Liebestraum form a sweeping sonic backdrop to early scenes in the desert (before the crash landing), showing a lunch stop in the empty desert and then taking off and resuming the flight.
There is a striking and emotionally intense scene in which Dirkie's father is practising the Polonaise at home and his worry about Dirkie causes him to have a sudden emotional breakdown, in which he interrupts his playing by hitting the piano's keyboard angrily with his fists and producing loud crashing discords.
In addition, the very opening scene of the actual story (after the differing introductions to the two versions of the film) shows Dirkie and his father playing Chopsticks together on the piano as a duet.
Other than classical pieces, original music for the film was composed by Art Heatley and Sam Sklair with a faux African musical cue by William Loose. One German web site also credits Gilbert Gibson as another composer for the film. However, the DVD credits only Sklair for original music.
The Australian Jazz singer Edwin Duff (B 3 June 1928) is credited in the end titles as singing the main (and original) theme of the movie; however, this music is not on the versions of Dirkie remaining such as the DVD. The original Dirkie includes an original theme sung by this singer (whose style is similar to Matt Monro).
Read more about this topic: Lost In The Desert
Famous quotes containing the word music:
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