Musical Inspirations: David Bowie, Steven Spielberg, John Williams, and a New Zealand musician through a Japanese POW movie

A few days ago, I mentioned in a previous post about the song sung by the younger brother of the British officer portrayed by David Bowie in the movie "Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence." It was called "Ride, Ride, Ride." Spielberg and John Williams were presumably inspired by this and created the soundtrack for "Empire of the Sun."

By the way, I recently searched for information about the song "Ride, ride, ride" that the boy sings in "Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence" and found a brief biography of the composer Stephen McCurdy. It provided some insights into the background of the composition. During the filming of the sequences featuring Jack, played by Bowie, and his younger brother, the filming arrangements were being handled by a film producer who happened to be associated with McCurdy when the shooting was done in Auckland, New Zealand. It was through this connection that McCurdy wrote the melody for the scenes where Jack's brother sings, using the lyrics from the original novel.

It's a very simple yet beautiful melody. Ryuichi Sakamoto, who co-starred with Bowie as a Japanese military officer, created his own arrangement to include it in the soundtrack of "Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence." Today I looked at the sheet music for the piano performance from the same soundtrack and played the piece arranged by Ryuichi. It showed that he added a straightforward harmonic progression to this melody. The basic idea is to harmonize each melodic note with a harmony three intervals below. However, he incorporates parallel and closely related key modulations in certain parts, which is characteristic of his harmonic style. I think it's a harmonization that fully utilizes the beauty of McCurdy's melody.