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Got home a few minutes ago and I’m watching King Kong (1933) on TCM. There’s a certain magic, a charming naïveté, to this film that’s never been captured by any sequels or remakes. And so many images are still as arresting as they’ve ever been!

I wish we';d get a cell recording from someone sitting more upfront I keep listening to this piece. and I think it might be one of Williams best adventure pieces ever .It's astonishing that at 87 he can still come up with something like this,. It's like he's at the top of his game in the mid 80's again

A recent addition to the canon since this thread was last active:

Please allow me to direct you to my Youtube vlog where I expound in a painstaking 30 minute video how those four notes reveal the entire plot, beat for beat, of The Rise of Skywalker

The Ascension is that thing the mayor did on Buffy. He turned into a giant snake.

He saw fire....

Well the White Walkers in the early seasons were basically an ominous treat that people didn't even believe in. Which worked great. But they haven't done much to flesh them out (no pun intended)

Kinda makes you wonder why Elfman and Whedon even bothered discussing it in an interview though.

My 34 minute 90s style OST for Jackman's Jumanji score Strength training just hasn't been my health priority.

I think this is mostly because JW here seems to play with a harmonic vocabulary that our ears immediately associate with the vernacular of the original trilogy scores

I'm hearing a lot of similarities between the Galaxy's Edge theme and The Adventures of Han. I guess some of these are modern JW adventure music characteristics. The sound seems nice and bright.

May the trilogy be with you for the best price ever. Plus, From Star Wars to Jedi is also available at a new low price. This stunning documentary takes you deep into the fascinating world created for the Star Wars trilogy. Immerse yourself in the mind of George Lucas. From storyboard to creature creation. From character development to the puppeteers who gave them life. Join George Lucas and friends for a delightful look at From Star Wars to Jedi.

my favorite moment is these awesome brass fanfares at 9.16 of the video

Both J.J. Abrams and Rian Johnson have had nothing but praise and kind words regarding working with the Maestro. Vice versa. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lxzUEl0loU8&list=LLM1s7NlGG7cz1UHPf9o53GA&index=61&t=0s&app=desktop https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fIfWfengo3E&list=LLM1s7NlGG7cz1UHPf9o53GA&index=60&t=0s&app=desktop https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5cPvY17ZdFM&list=LLM1s7NlGG7cz1UHPf9o53GA&index=57&t=0s&app=desktop https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=su3oJoKQxQs&list=PLgyxfzuf_Atz3UGha19g6efi9unEXDy44&index=4&app=desktop https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qhKVsa4SbBg&list=LLM1s7NlGG7cz1UHPf9o53GA&index=27&t=0s&app=desktop https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b32Q1nTgHM0&list=LLM1s7NlGG7cz1UHPf9o53GA&index=26&t=0s&app=desktop Can we please get back on the topic of the Maestro’s phenomenal Theme from Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge? Thank you.

I am a bit baffled by the amount of over-analysis about this new trailer music piece I read online. I mean, it's always great to see fans getting excited about new Star Wars music and trying to tie up things in musical terms (especially @Falstaft always insightful analysis). But in all honesty, I don't think this simple piece of music for an advertising item is worth such a torrent of words and thoughts, especially because this isn't composed by JW himself. I can certainly agree that it's a well-executed piece of music that succeeds in doing what a trailer should always do--getting people excited for the film itself. I honestly don't know if anything we're hearing in this piece is foreshadowing JW's actual music score we'll hear in TROS, nor any kind of plot reveal (all the talk about the link to the Dies Irae is fun, but imho a tad too stretched for this purpose).

I still haven't heard this new music in a live setting. I missed this show when it came to Boston. My coworker who went said it was a lot of fun

As part of my JW concert arrangement album project, I just forced myself to listen to and include the POA suite by this accident of an orchestra. I'm just wondering, does the Signature Eidition really require the choir to repeat the lyrics from the first stanza twice? It seems weird that 'in the cauldron boil and bake' was discarded. Can I also add that I'd like to boil and bake this CD now?

Finally sat down and listened to the music in the new videos. Good stuff, reminds me of Adventures of Han at times. They need to just release the entire recording clean on iTunes or whatever. For anyone who hasn't heard it yet and might be confused about the recent bevy of embedded videos, the piece is heard from 6:45-11:30 of this video: I wonder if it's possible for someone to extract that, clean up / boost the audio, and re-upload it youtube in its own video?

I feel Williams could have easily written concert versions for each theme. If he could extend Fawkes and Chamber of Secrets into lengthy concert versions, I don't see why he could haven't done the same for Rose's theme and Luke's Island theme. He could have even turned the Holdo/desperation theme into a nice concert piece.

Recently went through the Starship Troopers soundtrack for the first time in quite a spell and had forgotten how good the soundtrack was in parts.

Now you just need to figure out where in CANADA they delivered it to!

E.T came home!

Most of it rest on Crowe's shoulders. It's a very charismatic performance and presence. Any other actor in that role and the movie could colapse on itself

So you think the working method for TLJ was not so much a choice of Rian Johnson, but the consequence of JW being unhappy with TFA's process? I just find it strange that Williams publicly said he enjoyed doing the rewrites – he could have said nothing on this subject if he really didn't!

Hey, I still really like Titanic: I gave it one of the highest grades I can give a film. But when it cut back to old Rose halfway through the film, it just sapped the tension from the movie, and it took the film a while to recover from it. Now, think of what Gladiator did to me. I didn't see it in ages, so I was practically seeing it for the first time, but - here's the thing - I wasn't planning on watching it. I was about to head out as I passed by the TV where I caught a glimpse of it. Not until it ended did I realize that I unwittingly sat down and watched the whole thing. It ensnared me. I couldn't NOT watch it if I tried. A movie that can do that is getting the full rating in my book. Handily. But than, I like liking movies, as a general philosophy.

Nevermind snow. Where's Ghost??!

Les Misérables by Basil Poledouris Hellboy by Marco Beltrami Brothers Grimm by Dario Marianelli Rosewood by John Williams Amistad by John Williams Lair by John Debney How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World by John Powell Damnation Alley by Jerry Goldsmith Powder by Jerry Goldsmith City Hall by Jerry Goldsmith 13th Warrior by Jerry Goldsmith

The new NK looks like Bran. Wink wink.

If they'd established the Night King's character and motivations earlier, I think it would've made him a stronger villain. Right now he just seems like a vanilla villain.

Is Dorne that place that's basically one set that looks like some winery in spain, or a Naboo reject?

.

Too bad you didn't take me up on my offer

I’m not familiar with the LSO version. My guess would that it’s the exact same JW has performed last year, which I guess would be the same one the LSO played. Especially that JW was supposed to conduct that concert.

This, From Noon Till Three and A Big Hand for the Little Lady complete my own lazy Sunday afternoon on the telly western trilogy.

Yes, I believe so. The cool thing is that the First Order theme is briefly part of the Emperor's theme.

I adore Coming Around Again.

I've been posting on this site since it was THE STAR WARS PREQUEL MUSIC RESOURCE 20 years ago, the old-timers here will tell you, I'm not one to bullshit or make empty claims. Here is one piece of "return" I offer you. Ben Burtt's interview for Vanity Fair. https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2017/12/ben-burtt-star-wars-sound Here's something else I can offer in "return". There are rips of the 7.1 mix of TFA floating around that make it pretty easy to listen to the score as it appears in EP 7, and it's obvious that it's been hacked to pieces. In contrast, based on their own words, the filmmakers of Ep 8 gave JW a temp score and told him to follow it, which he apparently pretty much did. My guess is after all the rewrites he had to do on Ep 7, he just wanted to write the score for Ep 8 once. If JW and MG are such buddies, why has no live-to-picture concert for Rogue One been done? MG is constantly doing these, you would think R1 would be done too. We all know the prequels haven't happened because no sheet music exists that matches the films due to all the heavy music editing (and even pitch shifting in EP 3) done. The reason Ep 7 is possible live is that they did all the orchestration and sheet music in a computer originally (the prequel scores were orchestrated by hand using pencil and paper) and conformed it as they recorded the cues expressly for the purpose of potential live-to-picture concerts. By the way, MG always reserves a day at the end of this recording session blocks to do just that - conform his sheet music to the final versions of the cues recorded for potential live-to-picture concerts. I know for a fact he did this on R1 too. I know I can't convince you that what I say is not "hearsay", but it isn't. I keep a relatively low profile because I like to be able to offer info when I get it without upsetting people I associate with in real life As to qualifying my remarks as big claims? I simply said, despite what everyone said in public at the time (because we know nobody lies to the press when a movie, especially a big expensive movie, comes out) JW didn't actually enjoy rewriting the score to TFA over and over again for JJ, and when Colin Treverow quit EP 9 and JW realized he might be working under the same conditions as he did on Ep 7, he seriously considered not coming back. Is that a big claim? I guess it is, but in the end, he DID come back, so what does it matter? I just thought it was an interesting factoid to share with SW music fans.... So, again, feel free to disregard what I say, I just wanted to assure you, I'm not just making this up... Humbly, elvisjones

"Just stay in your room and make sounds and just send stuff to us. We’ll decide what to do."

If it's any consolation for Williams, there should be far less rewrites for IX simply due to the tighter schedule. JJ doesn't have the luxury of changing each scene half a dozen times throughout post this time around (and making the scoring process a timing/tonal nightmare). 800+ takes for a film score is unheard of in the SW saga. From an artistic perspective, I can completely understand why Williams might not have enjoyed the process for TFA much, even if he publicly said otherwise. Let's not forget that it took many months before we even knew if he'd return for TLJ -- there was a veiled reluctance to come back for whatever reason. Yes, we can all speculate till the cows come home, but it's very clear that Disney have bent over backwards to accommodate Williams since he came onboard in 2013. Now, if they can just bend over backwards to hire Mike Matessino for OT and PT trilogy expansions...

Just watched Lasting Impressions. After every single episode I say that I cannot possibly love The Orville more than I do now. But then the next episode happens and I find myself falling head over heels in love with it past a point that isn't measurable. What a powerful episode this was. So full of heart. The character writing was sensational. The episodes that Seth writes are so personal, and this screams of a very personal experience he has had himself, because no one can get the nuances of a story like that without having lived something similar themselves. And as someone who has experienced something similar to what Gordon did (minus the holograms), I can say just how real and emotional this episode was. Just fantastic storytelling in a wonderful sci-fi setting. I say it every week, but here we go again... I LOVE THE ORVILLE.

The special effects of ID4 held up incredibly well last time i saw it.

Haha suuuuuuuuure Kathleen.

The posts were edited! The assimilation is complete, and now no one beyond this thread in its beginning will know the goddamn difference!

Shostakovitch wrote this when he was only 16 years old. I hear it as an orchestral symphony and hope to one day orchestrate it. It has many features of the mature symphonic composer he would become but these characteristics were already in full display in his youth proving him to be a natural symphonist. Two years later would be his wonderful Symphony No. 1 that put him on the map. Plus this work has a very noticeable debt to his Russian heritage.

Most of them wouldn't figure on any list of mine either -- even though I love to marvel at them. But BEN HUR is the exception -- also has lots to do with production design and mood (and score, of course).

I still don't think it makes sense to have two. It's not like people weren't using the other one just to say what they've been listening to. I certainly used it for that often. I'm exclusively using the original thread in future.

Series based on the art of Ralph McQuarrie. Alternates:

Okay, here we go. I want to do one for each Star Wars movie since I've listened to them so many times. Ep. IV: I love the first minute and a half of "Wookiee Prisoner/Detention Block Ambush." The echoey sound of the pizzicato strings and that timpani solo is not really a type of underscore you hear again in any Star Wars movie. Or maybe I'm just experiencing Stockholm Syndrome from hearing it so many times in Jedi Outcast. Ep. V: The first twenty seconds of "The Training Of A Jedi Knight/The Magic Tree." Those magical pizz strings with the bells playing sounds so mystical and exciting and beautiful at the same time. And then that mischievous version of Yoda's theme on top is great. Ep. VI: The Alliance Assembly theme. It only appears during "Alliance Assembly," but it's such a rich and noble and serious theme. I wish it had appeared more. Ep. I: In "Fighting The Destroyer Droids" (Ultimate Edition), I love the snare solos starting at 1:13 and then the martial motif at 1:28. It feels like a destroyer's theme, but it never shows up again, so I guess we'll never know. Ep. II: Really the entirety of "Zam the Assassin and the Chase Through Coruscant" because we'd never heard SW music like that before and didn't really again until Solo: A Star Wars Story. But more specifically I love the famous electric guitar solo and the percussion solos. The first percussion solo is 2:18 through 2:32, the first electric guitar bit is 3:18 through 3:26, the second percussion solo is 4:21 through 4:55, and both the percussion and guitar get a solo moment together at 5:10 through 5:26 (mostly percussion, but the guitar makes a very distinguishable appearance). Ep. III: The swirling operatic strings at the beginning of "Grievous Speaks To Lord Sidious" and leading into that martial brassy theme and eventually choir. The best part goes from 0:00 to 0:52. So stirring! Ep. VII: This one's harder because when he isn't presenting a main theme, it's mostly underscore without a lot of melody or personality (you can see my opinion of the TFA score peeking through here, doubtless). I love all the brass fanfares in "I Can Fly Anything," like at 0:23. And the trumpet screams at 0:48. And the off-beat trumpet stabs around 1:06. But there's no long segment that's not a theme that really speaks to me. Ep. VIII: I have three for this since it has a lot more personality and fun little one-off moments. My favorite has to be the end of "Main Title and Escape." That whole tragic passage from 6:13 to 6:44 often makes me tear up. The brass writing there is so powerful! My second favorite moment is, of course, the opening of "The Fathiers." It's so bubbly and energetic and is totally original, not based on any previous themes! The first ten seconds are the best part other than the glowing brass rendition of Rose's theme. And my third favorite is from the FYC in "The Master Codebreaker." John Williams goes full old-school scoring when we see the codebreaker, with those sweeping strings playing something that sounds right out of the 40s. Specifically 0:49 through 0:59. So lavish! Anyway, that was a lot, and maybe I'll do another about non-SW scores, but SW is, after all, my first love, so I really wanted to do a moment from each Williams score. My favorite non-SW JW moment is when the Arab swordsman shows up in Raiders of the Lost Ark. The bombastic brass playing a Middle-Eastern-sounding theme and then those brass swoops up are great! 2:22 through 2:28 of "The Basket Game," specifically.

"The Knight Bus" is horrifying, as is "Mischief Managed" I like their take on "A Bridge to the Past," though.