Leaderboard

“Parade of the Ewoks” is a pretty idiosyncratic reaction to the Ewoks when you think about it. I always think of Home Alone, the main title and “Star of Bethlehem” in particular. The score has this haunted quality that brings out hidden dimensions in the movie. Makes sense with Kevin’s situation as lonely and threatening as it is, and there is some token religious imagery, but the movie doesn’t exactly scream out for the sort of menacing and spiritual treatment Williams gives it along with the expected sentiment and slapstick.

I thought you meant Kiss From a Rose Seal.

He said he would have been happy to come back at any time and I believe him. Yates said there was a scheduling conflict preventing him from doing the last one and I believe that too, but also he clearly wasn’t going out of his way to wrangle in Williams. And he wasn’t obligated to prioritize that either but it didn’t make it less disappointing. In the end Williams dropped the mic with one of his best scores ever and he dominates the franchise. The new Star Wars plus BFG have enough great new stuff with rehashing of old ground to make me feel like I’ve pretty much got whatever I missed out on and the HP box set provided all the closure I needed. I grin evilly every time a SW fan gripes that the new music sounds like Harry Potter and even Episode IX feels like karmic payback I really shouldn’t be getting from all the years of hoping he’d do Deathly Hallows.

Any fluff news piece will always bring up Williams' uncanny ability to craft fitting musical signatures for a character or film as a whole. Usually they'll go on to play Hedwig's Theme, Star Wars, Superman, you know how these news stories go. Usually these examples are of course great demonstrations of Williams' skill, but as well-crafted as, say, Superman is, it's not a large stretch to say that's the appropriate approach: a super optimistic hero in a fun lighthearted film needs heroic music. It's an instinct a lot of composers can, and have, explored before and after Williams' take. But what are the times where it's not as obvious, but it just _works_? For myself, I'll offer the theme for Nixon. As a character theme, I marvel at this more than any other Williams theme in his catalogue. How the _fuck_, do you take _Richard_, _Nixon_, of all people, and represent him with a melody? Seriously, how do you sit down as a composer and even say that to yourself in the morning? Well, Williams did it. It's broad, it's noble, it's good ol' Americana on the prairie, it's ominous, dangerous, all at the same time. It's _conflicted_. And as such, it goes straight to the heart of Richard Nixon, certainly how he's portrayed in the film. Wow. So what are instances for you where Williams was able to capture a character or idea, when the approach or solution didn't seem like foregone or obvious? And to potentially spice things up: are are there any instances where you feel he could have tackled a character or idea differently? For example, watching Raiders of the Lost Ark, it's obvious Williams wrote the Raiders March to encapsulate the experience the film was supposed to give you, not to encapsulate Indy himself, as the character is rather gritty and down to earth. Would you have wanted him to try matching that, writing something darker, more understated, almost noirish? I know the answer here for most is no--it's certainly mine--but I'm just offering a concrete example to give ideas. Looking forward to reading y'all's responses, I have a feeling I'll gain some new appreciation for some of his work after this.

4 years today... I was really glad that I decided to attend this concert back in 2013. I would have preferred an entire concert dedicated to his music and some of the music editing choices being better thought out...but at least I had a chance to see the man in flesh. Karol

Remembering Munich gets me so pumped up.

I would imagine. Like I just don’t know who watches Home Alone and then writes this. In a way maybe it’s not necessarily that he “nailed” it because it is kind of incongruous listening to that while looking at that goofy poster. The theme itself works great in the film, though, but often with these fuller album pieces it’s like he’s really following his own muse and finding his inspiration in the music itself, and the movie is just lucky enough to be elevated by association.

By the way, several things have come to the surface that would amend information in the original post. The CAROUSEL sessions were held in late 1955, from what I know, which means it must have been during one of JW's trips to LA during his New York stay. Also, the Barbara Ruick story is something to behold. Perhaps the only "juicy" or controversial element in JW's life. By the time Barbara announced her divorce from Robert Horton around February 16, 1956 (right after the CAROUSEL premiere), she'd already had an extra-marital affair with Williams for a long time. In fact, she was most likely pregnant with their child, Jennifer, when she announced their divorce -- as she was born October the same year (according to information I came across). Even if she had separated from Horton a few months before. Disregarding their initial high school flirt, Williams and Ruick had most likely had an affair since JW's last period in the air force in the latter half of 1954, when he was stationed at March Airforce Base in California and performed with Ruick on several occasions. After the divorce formalities, they quickly married on April 17th, 1956 (after having eloped to Mexico!).

.

Most releases Mike does were from first gen. The interviews I did with him for the main page might help.

I had no idea people preferred Olympic Spirit to the 1984 Theme. To celebrate the thus-far victory for the Seoul Olympics Theme, I took the liberty of inviting some special guests to JWFan to commemorate!

For me, it’s how he developed all the themes over the course of 6 seasons that sell it, more so than the highlights throughout. MOH and Speed Racer would be my follow-ups though, I agree with you there. Swap Incredibles out for Ratatouille, though.

https://www.ardmediathek.de/ard/player/Y3JpZDovL2Rhc2Vyc3RlLmRlL21vcmdlbm1hZ2F6aW4vMjlmZGFhMjItZjQ0My00ZjI4LWJiYWUtNThlNmE0NTAyNzFk/livemusik-anne-sophie-mutter

Has this been shared here before? From Billboard, July 15th 1957:

Too much in the film score fan community, I see people judging scores based on what I call their easy listening value. This goes for semi-professional reviewers too, who continuously judge the quality of a score based on whether it appeals to their listening taste. But doesn't this defy the purpose of a film score? Their primary function is to serve the film, but if they're good to listen to on their own, then that's a bonus I guess, and the composer picks what he feels would make a decent concept album (no this is not an OST vs C&C debate). Like for example I remember in the late 90s and early 2000s, Goldsmith was getting some heat for writing "forgettable, generic" scores for films like US Marshals, Hollow Man and Along Came a Spider. Okay, sure they're not exactly creative works of divine magnificence, but they're functional and suitable to their films. He never failed at hitting the right buttons in his late-career scores. But they weren't necessarily album showstoppers, so people dismissed them and judged them as being lower quality scores because they just weren't all that nice to listen to - no big themes, relying more on texture and atmosphere, etc. Plus, you can't deny the anger and frustration that permeates this board whenever Williams releases a new score, and people complain about how samey and generic it is compared to his past glories - but leaving the listenability of the album aside, was his music not right for the film? Should it not simply be judged based on how it functions and performs in context? Then you have swathes of Zimmer scores that are routinely blasted for being unlistenable on their own, but maybe they weren't meant to be anyway? People listen to an album and are like "this score's terrible!" But is it really? Maybe the music just isn't suitable for separate listening? How was it in the film? Did it work better there? So that leads me to ask what is it people are even looking for in film music? Do they want films with good scores or are they just seeking some kind of musical catharsis on album as a separate listening experience and film scores just happen to give them that kick? Should film score fans take a deep breath and reassess how to judge the quality of a score - based more on how it serves the film and less how often how much it gives them eargasms?

http://jameshorner-filmmusic.com/important-james-horner-missing-pieces-and-a-book/ Four years ago today James was lost. We are looking for some testimony from those in the industry, those who aren't but came to know him anyway, and will be utilizing as much as we can for our project.

Hedwig's Theme is a case where he nailed it but he ends up repeating it way too much in the first act, similar to a pop song where a perfectly good hook is repeated over and over again.

Aliens Wolf Totem An American Tail Star Trek III: The Search for Spock Karol

Call of the Champions > Summon the Heroes >> Olympic Fanfare and Theme > The Olympic Spirit, but I love them all and listen to them quite regularly. I don't really think Remembering Munich belongs here though...

Imagine a little JW head bouncing over the syllables of Ye-rou-sha-la-im Chel Za-hav

Oh God Deepnest was scary as fuck when I fell into it too! The trek back to retrieve my lost geo after I died was anxiety inducing. Great sound design in there.

HP1 was remastered by creating a fresh new high res transfer from the original 1st gen analog audio tapes that ran through the machines at the recording studio in 2001. HP2 and HP3 were not, because the existing digital archives were already high res and 5.1 (HP1's 2001 digital master was only 44.1 kHz)

For me John Williams didn't even make the best Olympic theme music anyway. Elbow and the BBC did in 2012.

My CD is still stuck in LA... and I WANT TO LISTEN TO THE CD NNNNOOOOWWWW. DO YOU UNDERSTAND?

Agreed. Still, there's something almost profound in seeing another species perform a John Williams theme. ...Think if we put the seal in front of Williams' house and have it sing, Williams would come out and shake its flipper?

Same here, very disappointing.

That's a figure of speech, right?

Dollar signs. Money!

Given the way Yates and Rowling went about things after PoA, I wouldn’t be surprised if he decided to wash his hands of that franchise. In any case, he’d already delivered the musical goods; three separate composers after him couldn’t dislodge JW as the musical face of HP. (And he got himself the ultimate deluxe score treatment, which is a privilege I don’t see being repeated for Hooper, Doyle, or Desplat any time soon.)

Like I've said before, I judge film scores primarily as music. What makes great music, at least for me, is not something synonymous with "listenability." Certainly if a score works well or very well in a movie that is a good thing. But, if that is all it does, then it is solely a work of craft. A great film score must be both an expression of the composer's artistic, musical voice and his scoring craft.

Yes Luciano, at last!

Who cares about today? What matters is it worked in 1989.

I didn't think it was especially soapy. The human drama is fascinating because of the institutional structure that it occurs within.

What's wrong with recycling though? Especially with film music where the director might be asking for it?

Stock Answer #543: if it's released on an album separately from the movie, it should be judged as pure music. The reality is of course that soundtrack fans by and large (that form the nucleus of the soundtrack label's customers) are Asperger kids hooked on movie synch points and pure musical qualities are - often enough - a distant consideration. As for the Williams aside, it's perfectly OK to diss a score like BFG for its endless recycling. To applaud a veteran film composer for well-flowing albums or the professional sheen of his 50th variation of the same material is a bit like awarding your local supermarket for stocking food every day.

Great ,if they dropped Han Solo and the Princess it's the track I wanted the most

A very in-depth interview

It seems MM hit CTRL+V one time too many.

Some people say it comes out on the 22nd of March. Other that it's June. Haven't seen anything on Amazon yet... Violin Concerto 'eleven Eleven' - I. Grave; Animato Violin Concerto 'eleven Eleven' - Ii. Spietato Violin Concerto 'eleven Eleven' - Iii. Fantasma Violin Concerto 'eleven Eleven' - Iv. Giacoso; Lacrimae Piano Quartet - I. Ein Ding Piano Quartet - Ii. Kinderspott Piano Quartet - Iii. Duett Fur Vier Piano Quartet - Iv. Ruhig Piano Quartet - V. Die Wolfsjungen Karol

You will do them both and in chronological order and you’ll hurry the damn hell up with both of them!!

I have it! Finely after 1,5 month I can now listen to the complete score from some of my favorite scores.

Carrier owl.

Maybe they are ignoring your emails because you've been critical about some of their releases!

It's here!!! @rough cut, MusicBox packaged it excellently, two layers of bubblewrap all around and a snugly fitting cardboard box. Feels great to hold it, looks gorgeous, the middle black bit of PS is absolutely destroyed, exactly half the teeth have broken off and one of the corners that holds the jewel case tray could break off any second. The other jewel cases seem cheaper, too, I see what people meant. Disc seems fine, will rip it as soon as possible. If I remember this and handle it carefully, it won't come loose and rattle around. Update: rips just fine, I guess will play just fine too. Whew. The outer booklet feels massive! Crazy what difference a little thickness and a more wide rectangular shape instead of the usual square makes in how your mind perceives its size.

They’re finally here!

Yeah. I live there. I usually have my smaller orders shipped directly to Karachi. But larger bulk orders I usually around Black Friday get shipped to my aunts house in NY. Since it's holiday season in December, she brings them along when visiting us. This time MV made sure my LLL BF stuff got delivered urgently before Xmas. Here's all the stuff. Needless to say I save greatly on shipping and zero duties and customs. LoL.

Perfect condition!

I pay two family memberships: mine (for me and my husband) and one for my nephew and niece (so they can gain a better taste in music than my brother. HA!).