Christopher Gunning
Christopher Gunning 1944-2023
The first feature film I composed, Goodbye Gemini (aka Twinsanity) was unbelievably hard and stressful. The producer, Joseph Shaftel, would call me night or day to insist that “this will be the greatest godamn score ever” and that didn’t help my self confidence at all. Several times I felt like giving up and running away to the seaside where nobody could find me. In particular there was a ritual murder sequence, and for days on end I couldn’t get past the midway point. I grew increasingly desperate and consulted some friends as to how they thought the music should develop. In the end, John Scott, one of my very best friends and an extremely gifted composer, helped me finish the section by FORCING me to write instead of dither interminably. Touch wood, I haven’t had any major composing blocks recently, but the memory of that film still lingers…
One of the nicest British film scores of recent years was that of the poignant drama, When the Whales Came, composed by Christopher Gunning. The composer has worked in British film and television music since 1971 and brought his gift of melody and thematic interplay to a number of fine scores. Interviewed recently, Gunning describes his background and his approach to scoring When the Whales Came.
One of the best horror movie scores of the 1970s was for Hammer Film’s 1971 thriller, Hands of the Ripper. The film was a poignant story of a young woman possessed by the unwholesome spirit of her father – Jack the Ripper. The picture benefitted from a literate script, excellent direction, convincing performances, and fine production values. Among the latter elements was its music. Christopher Gunning’s score was an outstanding example of the use of thematic interaction and the contrast between very lyrical, romantic melodies and harsher, more dramatic and dissonant motifs to create complementary senses of compassion and horror.
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Christopher Gunning was born in Cheltenham and has been a pupil of Rubbra, Richard Rodney Bennett, James Gibb - whose piano recordings have been reissued on Lyrita recently - and Brian Trowell. In addition to the works here he has a string quartet and concertos for clarinet and for piano to his name.
The case of Christopher Gunning has been well and truly taken up by Chandos. Last year we had two of his six symphonies and the oboe concerto. Now the genre that brought him to wide attention is tackled. It's mostly suave music for television. We start with the Poirot Variants for sax and orchestra. This is a combination he has tackled before in On Hungerford Bridge on ASV. A smooth fantasy touches on train rhythms, Buenos Aires dance-halls and a worldly romantic lassitude
After considerable success with his scores for Karaoke and Cold Lazarus, Middlemarch and Yorkshire Glory, Christopher Gunning has turned to the Bill Nicholson film Firelight. Firelight is another tortured, period love story this time featuring fêted young ingénue and Bardot successor Sophie Marceau.Gunning is one of the strongest composers in his field and I fervently want him to be taken up by Hollywood in a big way. His romantic music for the two Potter TV movies Karaoke and Cold Lazarus was a perfect match for the dark hopeless/hopeful tone of those films
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