<\/p>
They call it \u2018needle drop\u2019: when directors use pre-existing music and drop the needle on a virtual record for an instant underscore. No need to hire a composer to write a new score, just drop the needle!\u00a0And when film-makers drop their needles and feature classical music in their films<\/a><\/strong>, they release a special power that\u2019s only latently realised when the same music is played in concert halls. These are often then translated into viral memes that travel around the internet and becoming inexplicably linked with the film’s identity in popular culture. <\/p> It\u2019s not only that they use Barber<\/a><\/strong>\u2019s Adagio for Strings (which we named as one of the best works by Barber<\/a><\/strong>), say, for its ability to turn any image on screen into an acme of emotional intensity, as Oliver Stone does at the end of Platoon<\/em>, when Willem Dafoe collapses to the ground and raises his arms to a pitiless heaven. The power of these moments changes the music itself, giving it new resonances and associations.<\/p>Creating moments of emotional intensity<\/h2>