Music
John Ford chose his friend, Hollywood composer Victor Young, to compose the score for the film. For The Quiet Man, Young sprinkled the soundtrack with many Irish airs such as “The Rakes of Mallow” and “The Wild Colonial Boy”. One piece of music, chosen by John Ford himself, is most prominent, the melody “The Isle of Innisfree”, written not by Young, but by the Irish policeman/songwriter Richard Farrelly (Dick Farrelly), who wrote it on a bus journey from County Meath to Dublin. The melody of “The Isle of Innisfree” which is first heard over the opening credit sequence with Ashford Castle in the background becomes the principal musical theme of The Quiet Man. The melody is reprised at least eleven times throughout the film.
The upbeat melody comedically hummed by Michaeleen Oge Flynn and later played on the accordion is "The Rakes of Mallow".
Read more about this topic: The Quiet Man
Famous quotes containing the word music:
“Have you ever been up in your plane at night, alone, somewhere, 20,000 feet above the ocean?... Did you ever hear music up there?... It’s the music a man’s spirit sings to his heart, when the earth’s far away and there isn’t any more fear. It’s the high, fine, beautiful sound of an earth-bound creature who grew wings and flew up high and looked straight into the face of the future. And caught, just for an instant, the unbelievable vision of a free man in a free world.”
—Dalton Trumbo (1905–1976)
“Truly fertile Music, the only kind that will move us, that we shall truly appreciate, will be a Music conducive to Dream, which banishes all reason and analysis. One must not wish first to understand and then to feel. Art does not tolerate Reason.”
—Albert Camus (1913–1960)
“Good-by, my book! Like mortal eyes, imagined ones must close some day. Onegin from his knees will rise—but his creator strolls away. And yet the ear cannot right now part with the music and allow the tale to fade; the chords of fate itself continue to vibrate; and no obstruction for the sage exists where I have put The End: the shadows of my world extend beyond the skyline of the page, blue as tomorrow’s morning haze—nor does this terminate the phrase.”
—Vladimir Nabokov (1899–1977)