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So we're officially getting 2 Williams scores this year (and the Kobe short). Awesome!

12. Carrying the Documents and The Trip

Can't wait for this. Hopefully he does something "jazzy" again. I really appreciated Williams's smaller works more and more over the years. He's so good at character based real story dramas.

Ron Howard Reshot ‘Nearly All’ Of Solo For ‘Twice The Budget’

Rogue One was an enjoyable yet forgettable movie. Even with its flaws, TFA was better in my opinion. Sure, the Rogue One end battle was way better anything Abrams puted in TFA in terms of action. Yet, I didn't care about any character on Rogue One and the first act felt pretty bizarre and… boring. I think it lacked some coherence between the scenes. Every scene felt detached from the next one. Perhaps I didn't like the editing.

Hopefully there'll be a big Asteroid Field style set piece cue for this during the scene where Hanks and Co. pull an all nighter getting their court files together.

I think if I have one specific hope for improvement on TFA, it would just be less brooding dark side material. I don't want more droning choir for Snoke's scenes, or more low muted brass chords for Kylo's turmoil. It'd be cool for the film and score to get a little more aggressive in its evil. I like that shot toward the end of the trailer of Rey being tortured, screaming her head off....I try not to imagine specifics too much because for all I know they could do that with the sound dramatically cut out and some sound-designy rumblings, but it is Star Wars. You'd think that'd be a perfect opportunity for John Williams to give 110%. It'd be nice for the score to get a little more eclectic too. TFA probably feels the least like a wild stylistic collage of the seven. I like the idea of so many characters running around different locations potentially lending itself to more musical variety this time. I don't really mind if it's scatter-brained so long as it's entertaining.

Ultimately, Williams will score the movie that Spielberg has made. I doubt that The Post will have the same solemn tone as Lincoln, but we don't really know anything about this movie beyond unofficial set photos. But it also might not really fit with the jazzy vibe you're hoping for. EDIT: Of course right after I post this I see this: http://www.slashfilm.com/the-post-first-look/ (posted in spoiler tag more because of size than fear of spoiling a true story)

I'm personally hoping for something along the lines of Catch Me if You Can meets Spotlight (Howard Shore).

The coolest part of getting these two scores back to back in quick succession is that they're polar opposites. It'll be quite nice to have these two listening experiences from the same composer.

I don't think I noticed Ryder's jacket once. Whenever I see her in anything I'm generally just trying to catch a glimpse of her mysterious epic boobs.

I agree with you completely

I agree with toothless!

The idea to use the Maori choir for Moria was Jackson's; The Rohan theme that we got was the result of Peter Jackson wanting something more hummable than Shore's early ideas; The idea to give Smaug a Far-Eastern flavor was Jackson's, although I believe the specific choice of Gamelan was Shore's; It was Jackson who gave Howard the direction to write a theme for Laketown that was out of "17th Century Cornwall." It's all in the documentaries. That's of course not to take anything away from Howard Shore. It is his music, but as they say - its a collaborative effort.

13. Scherzo for Paper Clips

After seeing it again fairly recently I'd describe it as "frustratingly close to really good" but not a terrible movie by any means. This is something of a turnaround for me. I had a very negative reaction to the film when I first saw it.

I thought Rogue One was pretty forgettable

Don't worry. Any problems with this film will be fixed in Post.

It's about time somebody wrote one! Long overdue!

They're what raised my awareness to film music, and I really like the films, so I naturally agree. If anything, Howard Shore only got better at weaving a large number of leitmotives in a relatively short composition. Only Return of the King reaches the density of the Hobbit scores. And its got some wild musical colors: just about everything from Gamelan to bagpipes. It also occupies both the underscore, the digetic and source music and even a lot of sound effects: from the diegetic horn call in Battle of the Five Armies to the bowed waterphones of Mirkwood. And I also love that Shore got to explore his Dwarven material in this trilogy. It was glorious in 2001 and it was glorious and 2012.

Yeah, I was worried about Rogue One because of the absolute mess the production was but I really enjoyed the film and codlin't care less who directed what. There may have been a better or worse version of Rogue One out there at some point but I'm entirely satisfied by what we got!

I find it incredibly amusing that on the forum titled John Williams Fans, there is so much criticism being pointed at the man who is quite possibly Williams' closest associate in the last decade or two. In a way, its perfectly natural for us to be unable to fully separate the impression of the film from the impression of the music, because the music was composed for the film. As Howard Shore would have said it, its like Opera. Which is what I like love about it! It gets even darker in Battle of the Five Armies. Its a trully bleak film, and it concludes on a tragic note with Thorin's demise, especially in the Extended Edition. Sure. Its a much more dramatic ending, and it transformes the Hobbit into something more than a children's book, which is why I accept (and very much enjoy) the darker, more adult and grandiose vision of the films. The Hobbit book does have those elements in there, and Tolkien had the intention to go back and rewrite it, to bring the more foreboding elements of his Middle Earth writing forward. You start reading (or watching) what feels like an episodic adventure, but by the finale, all those episodic parts pay off: The blades from the Troll-hoard, the Goblins vengefullness, the Eagles, Beorn, the Silvan Elves, etc... But if that is the case, why isn't the actual film mix like that? It much more resembles the previous installments. And yes, the New Zealand Symphony has their own sound, and as he so often does, Shore wrote to their strengths. There's some fantastic growling low brass in there, which fits the forces of evil in these films like a glove. And than Pipe Organ in the Town Hall almost makes you wish they'd used in for Sauron in the Lord of the Rings, too. Curiously enough, its the only Middle Earth not to feature a boy choir!

Since it's an Oriental poster, there's still the possibility that they're just mixing everything together and the images really do not make any sense within the movie's narrative.

How a one-note poster complains about a two-note motif is beyond me.

I hope that everyone loves it and Williams makes an OST filled with rainbows and smiles and we can all listen together and be happy.

Like an exciting scene where an office intern trips over while carrying a pile of documents?

Who says I haven't? I've demanded Main Title for The Papers involves a two hundred piece choir singing the weather forecast in yesterday's Washington Post, translated into Sanskrit.

Recently, the question of how much of the CoS score was done by William Ross came up, and I said I'd do an analysis basen on what we have. Well here it is! There are also a lot of misconceptions thrown around about how much of the score is just retreading the first one, I hope my final numbers can put an end to that. Any thoughts and corrections on calculating errors, typos and unnoticed references are most welcome! I'm using the leaked PS and CoS sessions, so the main analysis will only take into account the final intended version of every cue so far known to be recorded for the movie, no unused/not recorded music from leaked sheets and no tracked cues. I will assume satisfactory knowledge of the movies and all major themes at least. I've also decided to have a look at the OST and recommend the best cues not on it, and also to break down the major tracked cues appearing in the cue list, just for completion's sake - look for the Appendix at the end of this post. The Analysis My custom terminology OM - Old Material, used in PS, similar tempo, similar orchestration - will reference PS session cues, slates and timecodes if relevant, won't if unnecessary (I don't have to point out where Nimbus 2000 is in Hedwig's Theme) AM - Adapted Material, themes/specific cues used in PS or other movies, but adapted/orchestration and tempo changed significantly enough (like Nimbus 2000 in Cakes for Crabbe and Goyle, for example) NM - New Material, thematic and melodic material first heard in CoS From Reel 3 onwards, I'll be using contractions for frequently reappearing themes with long and tedious names : 3NL - 3-Note Loop (original Philosopher's Stone motif here repurposed as a generic danger/mystery theme) HWWO - Harry's Wondrous World Opening N2 - Nimbus 2000 Reel 1 Reel 1 Old Material: 05:52 Adapted Material: 03:19 New Material: 06:07 Complete: 15:18 Reel 2 Reel 2 Old Material: 5:56 Adapted Material: 3:22 New Material: 8:40 Complete: 17:58 Reel 3 Reel 3 Old Material: 2:49 Adapted Material: 3:51 New Material: 5:43 Complete: 12:23 Here I must also stop to say the movie must have been criminally overspotted, because a lot of good and new bits have been left out. Normally, lots of bits and pieces go missing, because the picture gets trimmed after the recording takes place, so the music goes with them, but here most scenes are intact and the music is taken out from under them, for example the beginning of Transformation Class (I guess they wanted the 3NL to be more sudden and dramatic in its appearance?) or the Whomping Willow and some Spiders material (probably tension and "jumpscare" reasons). This could potentially be forgiven had most of Reel 8 not been tracked - a lot of important action score, mysteries and big revelations to never see the light of day because JW had to spend his time writing minutes of unrecorded music, and writing and recording several more minutes that were not used. Kind of like The Arena vs. The Battle of Geonosis all over again! Reel 4 Reel 4 Old Material: 3:40 Adapted Material: 1:54 New Material: 8:46 Complete: 14:20 Reel 5 Reel 5 Old Material: 2:05 Adapted Material: 4:57 New Material: 7:20 Complete: 14:22 Reel 6 Reel 6 Old Material: 2:40 Adapted Material: 1:27 New Material: 3:31 Complete: 7:38 Reel 7 Reel 7 Old Material: 4:56 Adapted Material: 1:54 New Material: 9:58 Complete: 16:48 Reel 8 Reel 8 Old Material: 00:00 Adapted Material: 2:16 New Material: 9:35 Complete: 11:51 Reel 9 Reel 9 Old Material: 4:13 Adapted Material: 3:24 New Material: 4:14 Complete: 11:51 Conclusions Standout NM cues: All Dobby material, Magical Household, all Lockhart material, all Flying Car material, all Fawkes material, Writing on the Wall, Transformation Class, Petrified Colin, Dueling Club, The Spiders Pt.2, Ginny Gets Snatched, Reel 8 Standout OM cues: Escape from the Dursleys, Letters from Hogwarts, Harry meets Lucius, Introducing Colin / Mail, Flying Pixies, Dumbledore and Harry, Reunion of Friends Total Numbers: Complete: 2:02:29 Old Material: 32:11 (26.27%) Adapted Material: 26:24 (21.55%) New Material: 63:54 (52.17%) Discrepancies between the final numbers and the cue list numbers can come down to podium changes, or the fact that I couldn't be bothered to count the seconds of silence on the beginning of every sessions track or in the middle of some cues. The final percentages would not be impacted in any significant way. So on an expanded 2-disc release, counting with 78 min. max per disc, there would be at least 36:40 left for bonus material, probably a few minutes more, since the aforementioned silences and properly joined tracks would make the score shorter than my estimate. I believe we have no idea how many alternates exist/were recorded/were even written, if not many, this could probably house the Children's Suite (24:11 if we count Harry's Wondrous World as the finale, 18:50 if we don't). We'll 100% get HWW as the HP1 Credits, so on HP2 it'll either be the Credits or the Suite (and thus the CD2) finale, if the suite or even the HWW is on there, of course. Appendices Appendix A Reel 10 (Additional material, I don't consider these part of the score) Appendix B The tracked cues - what do they consist of? (An editing guide) Appendix C A complete intended score editing guide This includes every single sessions cue (even ones removed from the movie) and tracked cues. Note: this is simply a guide to my preferred way of listening to the score, not an attempt at a complete film edit recreation with all edited out bits and pieces tracked down; that exceeds even my patiance and tolerance levels, it's work for another year - and probably another user. (A Remixed and Restored trilogy á la Jurassic Park based on the Black Friday John Williams Harry Potter Collection, perhaps? :P) I consider two types of edits: hard and soft. A hard edit means two cues were written to be joined/overlapped, but recorded separately. Listening to them separate worsens the listening experience because you get a buildup to an unsatisfying climax, a few seconds of silence, then a sudden out-of-nowhere climax and continuation. Temple of Doom, for example, is filled with these types of transitions. A soft edit just means one cue is winding down/a note is held, while the other starts or winds up without there being a gap between these. Not joining these cues does not necessarily worsen the listening experience. Hard edits I always recreate, this means I had to split a few tracked cues in half in Reel 8 to avoid overstuffed, non-focused 15 minute tracks. Soft ones I'm more liberal with - if it makes sense musically and thematically as one track, I'll even join cues separated by seconds of silence in the movie. Since there are way more soft edits than hard ones, I'll only indicate hard edits (+ and +h instead of +s and +h). The final track names are my own creations, sometimes I'd reference the edit I've listened to for years, sometimes an original session name since I like it better, sometimes it's completely made up. Appendix D So what is on the OST? Personal comments incoming, feel free to ignore them if you happen to like inexplicably random and non-chronological presentations! OST Old Material: 22:26 (31.83%) Adapted Material: 6:44 (9.55%) New Material: 41:19 (58.62%) Complete: 70:29 Appendix E Which unreleased cues can I look forward to most in a future expansion if I don't touch bootlegs and session leaks? (Personal favourites, recommendations) Yes, I've got way too much free time.

The Posting Scene

Five new tracks that I found worthy for my Halloween playlist from the Varese horror box: Maniac - On the Beach/Hookers Heartbeat Scream - The Cue From Hell; Trouble in Woodsboro Mephisto's Waltz - Main Title; The Library Tonight the playlist gets put away until August or September. Boo hoo!

As long as it's not Lincoln 2.0. (great score sure), and something more different, I'll be pleased. A Catch Me If You Can type score could be great.

A troll is a user with usually a lower number of posts who pops in occasionally to make random, off the wall, incendiary posts just to start or continue a fight without adding anything useful to the conversation. They sometimes but seldom stick around long enough to become constructive members of online society. The line between noob and troll is initially defined by their anger, and over time, noobs just become posters. Trolls remain trolls because they don't earn or gain respect or legitimacy.

It's going to be like the first ten minutes of The Last Crusade, stretched out into 2 hours of wink-wink, nudge-nudge, remember this from Star Wars? Remember when Han said that in Empire? Let's explain every meaningless detail about Han's character just because we can! You just know RLM hit the nail on the head about exactly what this film is going to be, regardless of the director.

My spouse and I both really liked Rogue One (and we're on opposite ends of the Star Wars fandom spectrum - I'm a huge fan and she's essentially a non-fan). She cried for the last ten minutes of it because she liked the new characters so much, and didn't realize what was coming for them until after they landed on the tropical planet. I have low hopes for SOOLOO. I'd tend to believe this unsourced report. The reshoots went on for a very long time, and were lengthy enough that Michael K Williams' character got completely replaced by Paul Bettany due to scheduling conflicts.

I meant Conrad Pope's contribution. And I was being a bit facetious myself. I like the films, and not because I ignore their shortcoming, but rather in spite of them. I like the aggrandising of The Hobbit, because it: a) turns into something that I can enjoy more as an adult; b) makes it blend better with The Lord of the Rings. It fades into Fellowship of the Ring quite seemlessly. I think there aren't so much fabrications that arise from this being a prequel. I think most of the major changes have to do with Thorin. Like I said earlier, Thorin in the novel doesn't really accomplish anything, so having him kill Azog and even let him at least have a go at killing Smaug - was a good idea, thematically. I may not like the execution of some of it, but on the whole I like the choice. I am of the opinion that the only film that got the short end of the stick in the process of turning this into a trilogy was An Unexpected Journey. The other two - I like preety much as they currently are. Don't want no fan-edits.

From today's 'Newletter' received by e-mail: Our history of releasing great soundtracks from Stephen King inspired novels dates back to our early days. We are pleased to bring you the Stephen King Soundtrack Collection (Limited to 1500). Four scores on eight CDs. Nicholas Pike's score to the 1997 mini-series The Shining makes its debut here on 3 CDs. James Newton Howard's score to Dreamcatcher gets the deluxe treatment. The Stand has 2 CDs worth of great music by W.G. Snuffy Walden and finishing out the collection is Firestarter with music by Tangerine Dream. More info will follow in the coming week. Available to order November 10th.

For the record I love all three Hobbit scores. None of them are as good as The Lord of the Rings but considering the absolute dreck that's related under the guise of "film music" at the moment they're masterpieces.

I suppose you think that was clever?

Fingers crossed for an avant-garde score!

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Holy crap, they must have REALLY not approved of what was done before! That's... costly.

I hope there'll be a song. "The Star Wars Stomp" feat. Adele

Another new Wintory score coming out from Varese Sarabande on 3rd of November: Tooth and Tail

I think you could be onto something here...

Rey the Phoenix.

You fail English? That's unpossible.