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Hi everyone, I just attended an open rehearsal of tomorrow's Boston Pops concert (with the maestro himself conducting!). It's going to feature the world premiere of "The Adventures of Han," as well as Pops premieres of "Rebellion is Reborn" and the new "Han Solo & the Princess" arrangement. I've got a lot to say about the new Solo piece, which I'm sure we'll all be poring over soon enough. But I thought I'd just share this much -- you're going to love it. It's complex, substantial, and memorable. There's some impossibly virtuosic trumpet writing in the middle that is especially impressive, very much in the vein of "Rey's Journey" from TLJ, only even more elaborate. In fact, the whole piece feels like a hybrid of straight-forward character themes (themes--yes, there's two) and action set-piece. I noticed some welcome shades of the ostinatos from "I Can Fly Anything" and the little recurring octatonic motif from "The Battle of Crait." If it's using this thematic material, I imagine Powell's score should be a real barn-burner!

I really can't abide by that sort of precious, ritualized approach to listening. I find the altered level of perception while dividing one's attention between music and another task (provided that it's not too cognitively demanding) can create its own unique frisson. Good music should be listened to however the hell you want to listen to it. If you want to work out to Mahler 3 (as I did the other day), go ahead! Why not? Perhaps the apparent mishmash between the two could provide an arresting sensual counterpoint. Could you possibly be more vague? Musical analysis of any variety only affords you an additional perceptual layer, further enriching the listening experience. Would that it were so simple! Depends entirely on the type of music, and more specifically, the role studio production played in the composition process.

Listen to good music again and again. Truly good music will only get better with repeated listens. Don't listen to music all the time, you'll go numb. Don't listen to good music while doing other things. Listen to it when you can really listen to it. Don't listen to dark music on sunny days and don't listen to cheery music on rainy days. Heighten the experience by matching music to the weather. It'll take you to another level. Listen to pre-17th century music from time to time, there's something magical there. Fuhget about sound quality, sometimes the best recordings really are the older recordings with the terrible fidelity. The rainier the weather, the older the music you need to listen to. Save the pop, electronic, and new-fangled stuff for when you want to listen to music and do other stuff (work, exercise, etc.) "Turn-down" music at home is awesome before bed. Find something relaxing, set a low volume, turn off the screens and enjoy. For the ultimate listening experience: wait till night, preferably a little before you get tired. Grab your best headphones, turn out the lights, close your eyes, lie down and listen to one album of your choice. No rewind, no fast forward, just listen. A glass of red wine before hand heightens the experience. Don't get too analytical listening to the music. You'll ruin music for yourself. Quietly humming along to music (especially the basses/lower end instruments) heightens your "feel" for the music. Never listen to music before having a serious listening session. Let the silence drive you mad with anticipation. Nothing tastes as good as water after being in the desert, and no music sounds as good as what you listen to after abstaining. Decently performed live music > amazingly performed recording. Angry music will make you angry, dark music will make you dark, and optimistic music will make you optimistic. Own a musical instrument of some kind, and fiddle around with it from time to time. Older music is better for the soul: there is an optimism, even in its darkest moments, that propels you in your life. Newer music is too real for its own good. Take your streaming playlists, shuffle mode, etc. and flush them down the internet toilet. Make a deliberate choice about what music you listen to and why, however broad or specific your goal, don't let some playlist make that choice for you. Don't carry around more than a dozen albums. One album listened to intensely for a week is better than 12 albums hopping from album to album and with half your attention. If you really need to work and listen to music, loop a single track until you're done. That way you don't lose the zone. Do not let music become your proxy for feeling emotions. Real experiences > music. Good speakers will always beat the best headphones. Music hits different when it’s propagating through the room. There’s music you can listen to with other people, and there’s music that will deflate and go flaccid when someone else is in the room with you. Don’t be a computer with the rules, bend and break to your heart’s content but if you take nothing else away: temper your musical consumption and you will enjoy the fewer moments of deliberate music listening a lot more. If you want to heighten your experience of music, a cup of coffee or strong tea about 15 minutes before will do the trick. Let the music flow, don’t keep pressing the rewind button on your favorite part…trust me on this. While listening to something you’ve listened to a million times, scan the spectrum. Pay attention to just the low end. Or the mids. Or the highs. See if you hear something you never noticed before. Music + sex only work if you can keep physical rhythm. But even so, eventually the music and the rhythm you want will be mismatched. Like shower sex, best to avoid it. More glamorous than it sounds.

Some of these are spot on, some are off, some are inspired, some are rubbish, some are repetitious while others contradictory. All are interesting. A good effort Guv'ner. But perhaps better titled "How I live my musical life." And rules? Where music takes me doesn't need "rules"! Carry on.

Pity we never got a Master And Commander sequel.

Saw the film this morning. Loved it! It's rather light compared to ROGUE ONE and LAST JEDI; very much in the spirit of FORCE AWAKENS, which is a plus for me. Edenreich nails Harrison Ford brilliantly! However, it has a very industrial, tangential feel for much of the story. The following is not really a spoiler, the way I've phrased it, but put it in spoiler nonetheless: Several more things I'd like to say, but I'd like to let it "sit" a bit before I construct the arguments. I absolutely ADORED the score. It was pretty much as I expected -- Powell's DRAGON action style (especially the percussive action bits, and the way the orchestra weaves around that) but with plenty of Williams trademarks -- the brass triplets, string flourishes, a glorious FUGUE, a swelling romantic theme. This is everything that ROGUE ONE was not in terms of music. I'm not sure I heard what Williams' Solo theme was, but if it is what I think it was, it wasn't particularly striking. Very much in his contemporary style, with a few notes jotted casually around the same line. No longlined, developped theme as we're used to from the old days. A cross between Leia and Rey's theme, perhaps. But since I'm not sure I'm talking about the correct theme, I'll wait untill I've heard it on album. The Force theme is absent, from what I could hear, but that may be because there's very little in terms of Jedi and mythological stuff here -- it's more of a straightforward action movie that happens to take place in the STAR WARS universe. Other old themes do appear -- the main theme, Imperial March, "Here They Come!" and other bits and pieces.

I thought there was a lack of hype, too, but only because Kasey hadn't logged on in like 12 hours.

The seventh one sounds pretty eye-rolling.

(cups breasts) I'm right here!

Here is an article of some easter eggs and references in Solo: A Star Wars Story. Minor-mild spoilers. http://www.digitalspy.com/movies/star-wars/feature/a857393/solo-a-star-wars-story-easter-eggs-references/ A quick summary.

As someone who hasn't seen any of the animated shows, it was a HUGE surprise to see Darth Maul's return in the film this morning. I literally scratched my head in the auditorium, and wondered how they would account for that towards the end. Then there was no explanation, at which point I remembered this was only the first of several SOLO films. In either case, I'm curious to see how they'll account for that. But man -- seeing Darth Maul with the careful statement of Williams' "Duel of the Fates" was bonechilling, to say the least!

Yeah, better get the cassette release.

Of course you don't like it. You are the most reliable member here, regarding the evaluation of movies and scores, except this kind of (overly) emotional movies. Spielberg is not as differentiated as Kubrick, Tarantino or Cronenberg, but his depiction of the Germans is still fair and not only black and white (excluding IJ).

While many of Blume's dicta are frankly bromidic, reading like excerpts from a muso edition of Joan Crawford's My Way of Life, a few of the less dogmatic rules are spot on. Humming along as a method of ear training and strengthening audiation, listening to good music over and over, exploring music of the pre-Common Practice era, and most of all--just listening to less music. We're now saturated with music left, right and center, to the point where it's sapped of all meaning and significance, and become objectified in the Marxian-Adornian sense of commodity fetishism. For that reason I can't stand background music in stores, DVD menus, phone muzak, adverts and royalty-free music in Youtube vlogs. It's truly soul destroying.

It's a season finale. There is nothing.

You know, knowing Maul, if there is a time inconsistency, he probably ended up surviving the Rebels fiasco. A few more parts and he's good. This basically.

I am trying to imagine an actual human being typing these words that you just posted.

Fucking speak for yourselves you cynical assbag blowhards, I can't sleep waiting for this thing.

Album Version: Score by John Powell Movie Version: Score by John Williams

The Phantom Menace OST album is very very good... until you see the film or otherwise hear the rest of the music recorded for it, and realize how many highlights he neglected to include on the OST album. Only then does it suffer. As its own piece of music in a bubble, it's pretty dang great.

Inwouldntranslate it like this: Ok, just watched Jurassic world fallen kingdom. IMPRESSIVE-AWESOME. very different from the first one, incredible photography, the music has blown me away. I recommend it very very very much. I have been the whole movie with my eyes wide open. Go see it. Seriously. I would be more hyped, but I don't want to see much info so I don't get spoiled. The trailers already tell tool much

And where are we if we can't trust the word of the great kajalnapalm

Honestly, I do not have much to say about Deserts, episode or soundtrack. Deserts always puts me to sleep. Not very exciting. Lions vs. Giraffes has a strange electric flare of chase music too it. Feels weird, but somehow works. Wild Horses is by far the best track out of Deserts. It befits the strange fight for the right to mate between wild horses. It's pretty good. Mountains -best score episode Roof of the World 0:53 is not enough for this track. A beautiful and inspiring twist on the main theme. Absolutely breathtaking. It gets me every time. Peaks of North America Quite nice, exciting. One of my favourite tracks. The Ibex A startling scene at the insane life of these cliffside antelope. The music is very lively and ambitious. The Himalayas Some amazing deep strings bounce and thump throughout this one. It is awesome! More on the way...

The poster for the film was the best thing...er second best thing () about the film.

I watched and enjoyed it a lot. It was years before I was on JWFan though.

Obviously not, yes. It was made to suit its purpose, so yes it had that sound, but it came across as very familiar.

Same. I finally get TLJ on rent today, so it will be the first time since December, third time overall. You may ask, "why didn't Jerry buy it?", to which the answer is I'm getting the probably eventual boxset after IX.

Yahoo Serious.

Ethereally captivating film, I love it. The vanishing sequence itself is weirdly unsettling; it basically instructed David Lynch in how to film eerie uncanniness in his more spooky Twin Peaks: The Return sequences. But there's all the dreamy burgeoning womanhood content in there too, which nails the feel of the period. It's also one of those films where the imagery and music feel intrinsically linked and woven into the fabric of the picture. I may check out this show, but I can't see how it can possibly better the film, or accurately capture any of those qualities quite as effectively.

I like Spielberg as the chronicler of American history.

Even more Americana? Greaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat....

I saw TLJ a second time like 2 weeks later, and that was too much for me. I rewatched it since on Blu-ray (well, streaming from my Blu-ray), but it was with the score only track. For me to really enjoy a movie, I need time to forget it. I rewatched E.T. for the first time in like 10-12 years over the summer, and that was just about right.

I'll be seeing it either Friday or Saturday. Pumped.

Don't call yourself a nobody.

I want BloodBoal back.

"Alas poor Morpheus, I knew him."

now with double the Jeff Goldblum

My Avengers 3 OST arrived in the mail sometime this weekend, left out to get soaked in the rain until we came home on Sunday. I had managed to forget that it's horribly cut down from the version that's been availalbe online for weeks so was briefly surprised when I turned it over and saw 23 tracks and no "disc 1" / "disc 2" indicates, before going "oh yea..."

Put it on youtube, then just paste the URL into a post here. Nothing more complicated than that.

1. I am German. 2. Neither War Horse nor Saving Private Ryan, let alone Schindler's List, depict the nazis as evil villains. The perspective of Spielberg's movies is merely very subjective. 3. Even if it was the case, it wouldn't bother me, because I honestly don't identify with the nazis, when I'm watching these movies. 4. I just wanted to say that War Horse is a great and underrated movie.

Yeah. Mam knows I like Game of Thrones and I like film music so she bought me the tickets for Xmas.

The Lost Boys is another Goonies. Basically on insta repeat for loads of kids back in the day. Years ago I even edited two soundtrack cues together and shared them to YouTube.

Perhaps Holdo should've told Poe, but I think what they were trying to go for was the fact that Poe isn't a hero, he is a hot-headed flyboy, it wasn't a message of blind obedience, it should've been trust in the admiral's plan and they make a point of this by having Poe act out in desperation!

Had to include CE3K again, it feels as if it belongs with E.T. Currently on order: Jaws (Intrada) Damnation Alley Warriors of Virtue (composer promo) Home Alone (25th) Twister (LLL) Superman Returns (LLL) Lair (LLL) So what does the mini collectible poster look like?

#jaredharrisforulyssesgrant

I thought it was supposed to be a tease for the Kenobi spin-off. They technically already did the "resurrected Darth Maul fights Obi-Wan" in Rebels (recently too) but nobody likes or cares about that show.

Looks like he's about to drop a couple of logs

Finally bought the Waterworld OST, for just £4 including shipping. Oh, and I received this in the post today: