Select a review:

Review of the "Wild Oranges" Score—Film Music Magazine

NPR Interview with Vivek Maddala

"Wild Oranges" Performance with Third Angle--The Oregonian

Review of "The Patsy" Score—Film Music Magazine

"Ace of Hearts" Review Excerpt—DVD Verdict

Excerpt from "The Silent Treatment"—
The Oregonian

Comments on "The Patsy" — Salon.com

Comments on "The Patsy" — National Film Preservation Foundation

Local Composer Scores Silent Film— Gainesville Sun

Excerpt from "The Patsy" Review—San Francisco Examiner

Silent Films Tempt Soundtrack Composer—India-West

Review of "The Patsy" Score

by Mark Northam
Film Music Magazine, June 2004

Vivek Maddala's intricately quirky, light-hearted score for "The Patsy" brings a pleasure to this film that it richly deserves. His use of constantly contrasting musical styles and instruments provides the viewer with a wonderful dramatic musical partner to the picture, sometimes playing along with the picture, other times teasing the viewer with what might be to come, and at other times playing almost opposite the picture. While Maddala often plays the drama of the picture, it's never too heavy and many times brings a lighter feeling to the scenes, which plays perfectly into the comedic line of the film. And just when you think things might be getting really dramatic, along comes the southern harmonica to put a smile on your face as the father of the family in the film does his best country-speak while married to his stuffy wife and bearing up in a 3-piece suit for most of the film.

On a musical level, the score harmonically and melodically is a deep, passionate work that always manages to avoid being dark, and exudes a playful, fun feeling without using any of the many musical or instrumental clichés that seem to dominate comedic film scoring. Maddala's deft and frequent use of twentieth century harmonic techniques is cleverly surrounded with playful, fun motifs that almost poke fun at the film, and indirectly the viewer, but not quite. The result is a wonderfully rich, entertaining, enjoyable score that adds an entirely new dramatic narrative element to the film and enhances it in a musical and dramatic way that viewers and fans of film scores will surely enjoy.