Three days after what would have been Basil Poledouris' 80th birthday, Brazil's Rádio MEC devoted an edition of Caderno de Música to his life and work. The broadcast reflects the international reach of music written for images but long since capable of standing apart from them.
Anniversary programs can easily become a roll call of titles. The more interesting opportunity is to hear the distance between those titles: from the ritual power of Conan the Barbarian and the hard surfaces of RoboCop to the warmth of Free Willy and the spacious Americana of Lonesome Dove.
A legacy carried by listeners
That a Brazilian public broadcaster marked the date is its own kind of tribute. Scores travel through films, recordings, concerts, radio, and memory. Each new context changes the frame while preserving the music's emotional directness.
The Rádio MEC program page is in Portuguese and includes the broadcaster's original introduction to the episode.