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This is what I've got so far. Of course some of the new themes will be wrongly named and identified because I haven't seen the film yet. But I'm still listening, and will update as I go. Fantastic Beasts Main Theme 1:51 - Newt and Jacob Pack for Paris 3:24 - Nagini 0:07 - Travelling to Hogwarts 0:15 - Your Story is Our Story 0:22 - Leta's Confession 0:00 - Visions of War 3:40 - Wands into the Earth 3:55 - Restoring Your Name 0:00 - Fantastic Beasts Theme (Solo Piano) Love Theme 2:42 - Nagini 1:25 - Newt Tracks Tina 1:03 - Capturing the Zouwu 0:00 - Salamander Eyes 2:45 - Spread the Word Jacob's Theme 1:35 - Newt and Jacob Pack for Paris Queenie and Jacob's Love Theme 0:12 - Queenie Searches for Jacob Obscurus Theme 0:00 - Irma and the Obscurus 2:59 - Restoring Your Name Grindelwald's Theme 1:09 - The Thestral Chase 0:00 - Blood Pact 2:25 - Your Story is Our Story 1:01 - Spread the Word 1:13 - Wands into the Earth 2:12 - Restoring Your Name Ominous Choir motif 0:19 - The Thestral Chase 1:53 - Blood Pact 2:58 - Leta's Flashback 2:06 - Salamander Eyes 0:11 - Matagots 0:06 - Wands into the Earth Newt's Ostinato Motif 0:00 - Newt and Jacob Pack for Paris 0:00 - Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald Newt's Adventure Theme 0:03 - Capturing the Zouwu 1:15 - Matagots 2:04 - Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald Leta's Theme 0:11 - Leta's Flashback 1:45 - Leta's Confession 0:00 - Leta's Theme (Solo Piano) Dumbledore's Theme 0:48 - Dumbledore 1:30 - Restoring Your Name 0:00 - Dumbledore's Theme (Solo Piano) Fantastic Beasts Fanfare 7:12 - The Thestral Chase Nagini's Theme 1:00 - Nagini 0:21 - Visions of War 6:02 - Restoring Your Name Hedwig's Theme 0:07 - The Thestral Chase

I received John Howe's A Middle-earth Traveller last week and one of the images stood immediately out as someone familiar. I believe that a certain director was with or without his knowing modelling for Tom Bombadil! The whole book is rather excellent with sketches and paintings new and old for John Howe fans to enjoy. A great companion to Alan Lee's The Lord of the Rings Sketchbook.

Just as long as it's new settings of the themes, I'll be happy. The copy & paste repetitions of earlier film cues and concert pieces at the end of ROTS robbed it of an identity of its own.

That scratching noise you can hear, is the sound of the bottom of the barrel, being scraped. For fuck's sake, they're getting so desperate.

Williams' initial cue for the love scene was simply [7M3] The Love Scene, which he decided to put on the OST album in full, but he retitled it to "Night Journeys" (D2T5). Later, he recorded an entire new cue (IE,not just Inserts like usual), called [7M3 Revised] The Love Scene. He ALSO decided to put that on the OST album, where he called it "The Love Scene" (D2T6), though he dropped the first half of the cue there, only releasing the final 2 minutes of it. For the Deluxe Edition, we finally get the whole cue without the beginning missing as "The Love Scene (Extended)" (D1T26). The film itself uses portions of EACH cue for the scene, so that's what "Night Journeys (Film Version)" (D1T13) is. Of special note is that the film does NOT use the choir you can hear in the OST track, and the choir wasn't available on the stereo masters Mike used to rebuild disc 1, so you really want to make sure to listen to the Disc 2 version to hear Williams' full intentions including the choir. The only real confusion comes from Williams' choice to put two version of the same cue on the OST LP. If he hadn't, the bonus track could have been called "Night Journeys (Alternate)". But because the end of this cue was in its own track on the LP the release of the full cue had to be called "The Love Scene (Extended Version)".

Odd right? I think it was meant to be Newt's main theme. While his hero theme is supposed to be used for the action bits. The same arrangement for the theme as the end credits was used to memorable effect when Fantastic Beasts won it's oscar. It is a magnificent theme I feel.

Not understanding peoples reservations about the score. I think it's great. Full of gothic themes and orchestration. All of the big themes return multiple times and in new and fresh ways. His new themes are gorgeous and melodic and well used throughout. His use of Choir continues to be the best of any composer working today. Were people expecting an hour score of JNH action fantasy? Judging by the score, the film has little action, and what action it has is clearly not frantic and bombastic, instead it is very emotional and dramatic action.

Not really, because of the absence of the third (D# = Eb). I personally hear it just for what it is, i.e., Db-A-B-A-Gb. Trying to give a name to it may only have the aim to describe its harmonic function: with respect to that, by simplifying I would call it mostly a Gb min chord, because of its main melodic lines (the A descending to Ab and Gb descending to F). When I mentioned the presence of notes common with the chord B7 = Cb7 I was just trying to describe in words what "sounds peculiar" about that chord, as also @Ludwig did. I mean that the B natural does not sound just as a random added note, but it has some relation with the rest of the chord and, since the B is in the bass, its role as a building block of B7 partially comes out. That's also why I do not hear it as a Amaj9 chord as you suggest, because the 9th (B) is too close to the bass to sound as a ninth, Also, it does not behave functionally as a 9th (it would have to descend). The "Gb min + something" interpretation is also prominent, in my opinion, because the three notes of Gb minor (Gb, Bbb = A, and Db) are in key positions within the chord: the Gb is in the melody, the Db is in the bass (so they both stand out), and the A is in the middle register but, very importantly, doubled in octave, which in my opinion weakens the B7 effect in favour of Gb minor (according to the "rules", you don't double a 7th). So, that feeling is quite strong: if I had, say, to write a lead sheet for a beginner who can only read major and minor chords, and so I would have to decide what note to omit, I would write there Gb min / Db, rather than Cb7 / Db. That said, I believe what Williams wrote is the kind of chord that comes out naturally "at the piano". I can easily see him putting his hands on the keyboard to harmonize that first bar, placing the thumb of the left hand so as to press down A and B together, and saying "That's it, baby". As in the case of that famous Rite of Spring chord (Fb major in the left hand + Eb7 in the right hand), it's difficult to describe in words all the harmonic nuances of piano-originated complex chord. That's why jazz can be so intriguing

Lehman's catalog of Star Wars themes marks the chord as a Cb7/Db, which I agree with: In Roman numerals, this would make the chord a bVIIb7. But I wouldn't say that's the whole story. As @Score suggests, there is an affinity with a Gb minor chord - the kind of minor-subdominant-to-tonic motion we get in the first few bars of Leia's theme. And in Luke and Leia, the notes that the Cb7, or what @Score equally well calls a B7 chord, has in common with a Gb minor chord are Gb and Bbb (written as A-natural). The Gb is of course always in the melody when the Cb7 chord shows up. But interestingly, at least in the first large section of the piece, which is in Db major, Williams chooses to write the A-natural as the first note above the Db bass pedal and usually played by the cellos. In other words, it's a very prominent note. And since it resolves to Ab, there is a kind of quasi outer-voice effect of scale degrees 4-3 in the melody and b6-5 in the bass (above the pedal), so the progression is written so as to mimic a minor subdominant. But the inner voices (once the chord becomes complete) spell out a different chord, so the interpretation is somewhat mixed: it is written as a bVIIb7 but simultaneously has intimations of a subdominant borrowed from the minor mode. The minor-subdominant quality of course alludes to the tradition of the b6 scale degree (especially in subdominant chords) as representing love and longing (Williams himself used this, as I say in Leia's theme but also in Marion's theme). And to me, the use of a b7 scale degree in the chord not only meshes well with the piece's chromatic tonal language but also places a distinctive harmonic stamp on the theme's opening, taking it a step beyond the usual meaning of love and longing, and adding a strong feeling of something out of the ordinary, like Luke and Leia's touching realization that they are in fact each other's siblings.

Copland’s Sonata for Violin and Piano is moving me quite deeply tonight. A beautiful, bittersweet, at times playful, work. One of his very best compositions in my opinion.

He adapted his main theme beautifully throughout. These are the moments they happen from what I remember from first listen. I'm sure I'll find even more as I listen on. 1:51 3:24 0:07 0:15 0:22 3:40 3:55

Memoirs of a Geisha First ever try, with virtually no context or preconceptions. I struggle to think of any specific highlight... because it's all highlights. I adore this. Ethnic textures are right up my alley, and this explores a whole bunch of different flavours while still feeling unified. I didn't have to think too hard or concentrate on it, but images still came to me - and based on some google images browsing, I'm liking my visions a bit more than the (admittedly quite pretty) movie. 1:40 of Confluence is when the "like" barrier broke and my feelings for this album turned into absolute love at first listen. I'm not planning to "ruin" it with watching the film at this time, so neither can I lament it not being extended - any particular unreleased highlights?

I don't agree that the new themes are much to scream about as represented here. Would have liked more of Dumbledore's, but again that might be a limitation of the film. The "ominous choral" motif as you pinpointed is the main new idea that stood out, actually, which I found effective but didn't quite feel like it tied the soundtrack together on a musical level. But I hope it and the other new stuff makes some sort of dramatic sense. I think one thing about the first score is that along with the lengthier tracks for JNH to show off and isolated bursts of brand new melodic energy like "The Erumpent" which this lacks, it had that extra "1920s jazz" element to distinguish itself as something interesting apart from the previous 8 Potter scores. It worked stylistically and dramatically and that was something I really enjoyed that made it a little more than "just" a solid fantasy score. It was a fun musical hook I felt this series could claim, the "Newt Scamander Goes to..." concept. But only "Newt and Tina Pack for Paris" really has anything like that and since it's such a clear highlight, I would have liked to hear more of him in that style, riffing around with old and new themes. So will just have to see the film to see if maybe there's some unreleased stuff in that vein, or if JNH missed some opportunities, or if the film just doesn't really allow for it much. As it is, first few tracks and last few tracks stand out, the piano solos are nice, and the scattered new renditions of the first film's themes are quite good.

The more you love, the more you care, not hate. You feel the need to point out what you believe to be wrong, yes, but you are able to still find joy in what is before you. Do you love Star Wars, or are you simply obsessed?

Will delight fans of the first one and it shares its strengths and weaknesses, too. There are lively and charming moments when it really comes alive - the whimsical 'Newt and Jacob pack for Paris' in the first half, for example, where there is a musical flow beyond hitting scene transitions, but in between there is the dead weight of atmospherical filler, laborious busyness and ominous chords - often sans themes, though there are many to choose from - that do not amount to much. JNH clearly *could* but the score feels strangely skittish, with a baker's dozen of old and new themes that are not utilized and varied enough and too often have to take a backseat for the expected in-your-face grandness (huge brass chords, shouting chorus) that only from time to time honors the big promises with a memorable thematic leap or sustained set piece (mostly located in the pen-ultimate cues). Still, there is for fans of such blockbuster-y bliss a good amount of delectable material (if you have some editorial skills). Much of it has appeared in the composer's recent and older scores already - and it's probably partly the movie's fault that there's just not much wiggle room in overlong CGI scenes connected by what counts as 'character stuff' these days. At some point the franchise will have amassed enough material for one great score to emerge, though it is ludicrous how much time and effort have been wasted at this point (why does a composer have to preview dozens of themes and variations which are then only used to muted effect or fleetingly?)

This is getting out of hand; now there are two of them!

Crap, mine's getting delivered today, but the Post Office has been shafting me with my mail keys so I can't open my mail!

Screaming choirs does not church music make.

As in "Springtime for Hitler"?

about that: I've written that it's a mixolydian V, dressed as a quartal chord.

I think the problem people are having in giving this chord a label is, as @Score implies, that it doesn't seem to match up with how they hear it. So calling it Cb7 (or B7) probably feels wrong because it sounds to them more like a Gb minor. Let's be clear then that any chord symbol we give it isn't the end of the analysis but the beginning. Calling it Cb7 doesn't mean it can't have hints of subdominant to it. But I think it goes too far to say that the chord is a Gb minor when Wiiliams writes it as Cb7 (or the equivalent when the theme is in other keys) each time it appears. I also think part of the problem is that a bVIIb7 in a major mode is extremely uncommon, so our ears aren't primed to hear it as such when the chord isn't complete and the notes emphasized are scale degrees 4 and b6, which are more typical of subdominant chords borrowed from minor and are heard regularly in film. It's a bit like Luke's theme (the SW main theme), where the second chord of the theme sounds like a dominant chord but isn't V7. It's actually a four-note quartal chord (chord built in 4ths rather than 3rds) but has scale degree 4 in the melody against degree 5 in the bass, so masquerades as a dominant. But it wouldn't be right to give it a label of V7. In any case, my point is that a chord symbol only tells you what notes are to be grouped together, not necessarily (and certainly not in this case) the nuances of its harmonic function, which can only be obtained through its context, something chord symbols don't do.

Supreme Leader, the collapse of the franchise has begun. An extremely odd decision. Hold off on all spinoffs only to announce this TV show? I'm really confused with their planning.

I'm on my first listen through and already absolutely loving it! Adore the little French flavour he adds in here and wonderful reprisals of his two best themes from the first film

It does not have a specific harmonic function that can be codified according to standard namings, so I would say, indeed, that it's an added note to the Gb minor chord. Saying that it is the perfect fourth of the chord does not add information, as it does not behave in the way fourths generally behave. The particular effect is due to the fact that the B, together with A and Gb = F#, suggests a B7 chord without the third, so the ear is somehow undecided. However, I interpret the main harmonic line simply as Gb minor resolving to Db major, with the melodic resolution of Gb to F being anticipated with respect to the harmonic motion. The B is "colour" in the bass register.

Broughton don’t manipulate like the Williams clown, he tells it like it is, dawg! (Also, holy smokes, Bellevue Carol!)

The album will actually be a recording of the live performance complete with audience coughing, explosive sneezing and clapping after every false ending.

I prefer the OST LP version, with the choir

One thing I noticed

Gustav Holst: St. Paul's Suite: III. Intermezzo Yes, yes. If you're anybody who's anybody you've probably heard the St. Paul's Suite before. However, while the most recognizable melody is rooted in the finale, I find the Intermezzo very intriguing. I love the pizzicato underscore for the sweeping strings. Heard this on the radio today and decided to bring it forward.

This is absolutely serious. Most Starwars fans i know (me included) think mostly the same like Mattris and are extremely dissapointed after TLJ. But there is this also vocal other side of the fandom who seem to wear their pink Mickey Mouse glasses and consider everything Disney-Lucasfilm does pure gold... to each their own i guess The facts of Starwars in decline speak for themselves!

Mattris is absolutely right in most of his points. What you just posted is not only insulting, it's exactly the thing you criticise. It seems you got no arguments left, you lost the discussion against the excellent points Mattris brought up and now you are like a whiny kid who can't accept that.

What do you expect from a Star Wars Pearl Clutcher™

The Fury (LLL) Scott of the Antarctic Mission: Impossible LotR: FotR CR

On the boat.

It might be religioso, but it speaks to the core themes of the emotional battle in Revenge of the Sith. It never struck me as 'church music', maybe because it felt right for the scenes those operatic choral sections were written for. They were certainly the strongest voices in the film. There wasn't anything in the OT that ever demanded Williams to write something with a larger scale in mind, not to mention the Williams of 1999-2005 was different to the Williams of 1977-1983. I haven't perceived Revenge of the Sith's score as being 'epic' or 'big', rather it is music that fits the screen so to say.

I clearly liked Diego Luna more than you guys...

Stop sucking Yates' dick, Chen, Chamber of Secrets had some great visuals.

I'm working on a theme list and tracker. There are at least 7 returning themes so far and 5 new ones.

There’s loads of moments featuring returning themes! It’s nit just one or two it seems they’re all back!

Rowling is an author, not a screenwriter, that’s the conclusion I made after the first one.

Good not great. Highlights are pretty limited to the variations on the first score’s themes, some of which are exciting. But I dunno that this really distinguishes itself...noticed some greater choral emphasis, makes for good typically JNH-y atmosphere and in general there’s obviously a uniformly strong sound. I can wait until after seeing the film to give it another spin, reserving certain judgments on it til then. Seems more “solid” than special, though. The first one - while imperfect - made me wonder more if these scores could lean toward the latter, and I’m less intrigued by the overall potential after this one. I do hope he completes the set regardless, he’s definitely started something and there’s still room to take it somewhere.

Here is Prokofiev's complete Nevsky. http://www.musicsalesclassical.com/composer/work/35001 I understand Korngold is much more complicated because film music back then wasn't preserved. It was often tossed so would have to be reconstructed by extant copies. Miklos Rosza's Ben Hur for example was reconstructed. Only the suite which was published is preserved, the rest was remade.

I wouldn't be too optimistic with regards to quantity. And not because I'm expecting another The Last Jedi, but because the third film in a trilogy tends to offer less opportunities for entirely new themes. If we look back to both Return of the Jedi and Revenge of the Sith, both don't boast too many new thematic elements. In fact, two of the latter's "themes" are pieces from The Phantom Menace revisited by Williams. The third film is as much a conclusion of the previous two films, as it is its own film, and as a result there tend not to be a lot of new narrative elements. I think so far we know of two new characters or so. So there's less for the composer to latch unto. Likewise, the composer himself may be more interested in paying off the existing thematic ideas than he is in introducing new ones. Of course, depending on how Williams chooses to pay off those existing themes, such a lack of abundance of new themes might not turn out to be a problem. Williams isn't a composer that likes having too many leitmotivic ideas floating around, anyway.

I just played the theme with a full B7 chord at that point. Doesn't this version pop up somewhere in the score? Or is this what @Nick Parkermeant? edit: oh yes it does, at bar 27.

My first thought was if the "stupid" in "stupid Tarantino flick" could have had a different meaning. Like "silly" or something. Would definitely not be so quick to judge Ennio's character. Remembering those "John Williams has never seen a Star Wars movie" articles that made him sound all bitter and dismissive of his career lol.

'Tintin 2' could start filming next year, says Peter Jackson.

10 new arrangements for violin and orchestra. We know of Across the Stars, Dracula and Cinderella Liberty. John keeps that pencil of his moving pretty fast these days and he is 86. Bless him.

Update from Mike Matessino: http://filmscoremonthly.com/board/posts.cfm?threadID=132079&forumID=1&archive=0

For who is interested in another read about this amazing concert. Here is my version: https://soundtrackworld.com/2018/11/a-celebration-of-john-williams-london/

I agree, Avatar is one of his finest, and considering the amound of work put in this. I think no one would be able to tackle what he did, not even williams even if I dont see him working with cameron and past 2020. James Newton Howard would be the perfect choice.