WITHOUT music to invoke atmosphere, heighten emotion, add perspective, create tension, and establish setting, movies such as Star Wars, Jaws, Indiana Jones, Pirates of the Caribbean, and Gladiator just wouldn’t punch with the same poignancy.

The movies can’t live without the music, but can the music live without the movies?

If you were lucky enough to be sat in the shadow and structure of Brecon Cathedral this week to watch the London Film Music Orchestra, fiddle, blow, bang, hammer, and sing their way through selected themes from Hollywood classics, the answer would have to be a resounding yes!

Epic tunes need an epic setting and the majesty of Brecon Cathedral lends itself perfectly to classical arrangements about love, loss, sharks, Jedis, sons of Krypton, nazi-fighting archeologists, and drunken pirates.

Formed in 2014, the London Film Music Orchestra has one purpose, to breathe new life into the music of film and television.

You may not know your Mahler’s 5th from your Wanger’s Ring Cycle, but chances are you could whistle the theme from Jaws or Star Wars at the drop of a hat.

So why shouldn’t you be able to attend a concert where you can imagine you’re flying on a bike with E.T. in a basket, riding shotgun with Hans Solo in the Millennium Falcon, or simply sailing the Black Pearl through the high seas and guzzling rum without a care in the world?

That’s exactly what the ladies and gents of the London Film Orchestra thought and why they’re on a mission to bring the work of prolific film composers John Williams and Hans Zimmer, not so much to the masses, that’s already been done. But to smaller audiences across the UK and Europe who are keen to hear the work of the two maestros busted from the screens and out on the streets, or at least in cathedrals and other grandiose environments.

Seeing old and familiar tunes in a softly lit setting which carries the weight of history and wonder, transforms compositions that you’ve known for years and casts them in a new light as they transcend the limitations of plot, action, and dialogue to become something new and different.

All of a sudden Man of Steel isn’t about an alien who fell to earth and who grew up to wear a cape and shoot laser beams from his eyes, but a piece of music about hope and the eternal flame of the human spirit. E.T. is less about a cute-looking space creature and more about the infinite wonder and acceptance of a child’s mind.

Jurassic Park isn’t about dinosaurs, it’s a piece of music as elusive and mercurial as sunlight flickering on the water. Pirates of the Caribbean is pure swagger, Inception is less about mind control but more evocative of the tragedy and beauty of time. Interstellar is not so much the stuff science fiction is made of but a wordless hymn to the mystery of the human condition. And Sherlock Holmes is the sound of a mind losing itself but in a very euphoric kind of way.

Admittedly, you can’t hear Star Wars and not think of Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader waving lightsabers about and saying very quotable things. Likewise, the theme from Harry Potter struggles to escape the shackles placed upon it by hordes of wand-waving child wizards. Indiana Jones, as always, is the sound of reckless individualism and Gladiator is as mean and moody as Russell Crowe on a three-day bender.

It’s difficult not to be overcome by the sorrow and loss of the haunting violins in Schindlers’ List and even without the visuals, Jaws is filled with waves of dread and suggests a predatory and malevolent horror that awaits at the end of all things.

Still, none of it works without the talent and virtuoso of the assembled musicians, the dedication and discipline of their concert master, and the soaring soprano delivering her soulful sermons from high in the cathedral’s pulpit.

There’s a magic to movies and there’s a magic to the music that helps make them. That much was evident at Brecon Cathedral this week as the London Film Orchestra cast its subtle and seductive spell on the congregation.

Of course, the last word must go to the people who make the magic happen.

A spokesperson for the London Film Orchestra explained, “We have all thoroughly enjoyed being here and always love playing Wales, the reception just always has a different appreciative element to it that makes Wales really stand out for us.”