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And some new versions of that theme from the first of these rewatch videos. Williams or not, it's worth noting that the first phrase of this new theme revolves around a Cm<=>Ebm type progression -- that is, the signature harmonic succession of The Emperor's theme, in distinction w/ the Cm<=>Abm of the Imperial March.

What saddens me is not that they are still recording and asking Williams to write new music or do rewrites due to scenes changing until the very last minute. What bothers me is that it won’t prevent the music to be butchered in the editing process.

The government agents from ET cameo in The Rise of Skywalker confirmed?

Tell me they’re preparing a LTP score or something, not that they’re still recording.....

I saw The Song of Names a couple days ago and... it's pretty much perfect. It's going to be really hard for anything (even The Rise of Skywalker) to supplant it as the best score of 2019.

Can't wait to find out what they will be! Posted on LLL's Facebook page about an hour ago...

Lady and the Tramp (2019) by Joseph Trapanese Really enjoyed this one. More than warm and pleasant, I think it has some substance to it that hits the right spot. The orchestrations are lovely, crafted with some care. The enveloping "A Home" is a notable example. And there are some moments of surprising harmonic vitality, like in the opening of "Busting Peg and Bull" A nice listen indeed.

This technology is cool

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I was going to say that they are repeating the programs on the old 7" releases, but that's not the case. If memory serves, The Empire Strikes Back single couple The Imperial March with either Battle on the Snow or Yoda's Theme. Anyway, there was a single release for Return of the Jedi, back in 1983 that included Lapti Nek.

You mean like Dark Phoenix was?

All the microedit nerds, especially of the Harry Potter variety, here are just as embarrassing as the OCD Star Wars purists or whatever the hell we want to call them.

You maniacs! You blew it up! Agh, damn you! Damn you all to hell! Regarding @JTWfan77's recent selection: I can say with complete honesty, that there isn't a score in that haul that I would not be proud to have, in my collection.

Y'all sure know how to keep it positive... It’s like King Mark vibes. ”This cue will probably be unreleased for decades”

It's absolutely one of his greatest works, in my view. You're missing out

The reception was phenomenal. It was quite interesting as a musician to perform while the audience reacts to the on screen action. A lot of fun. The screen was above and behind the orchestra, and only used on the 2nd rehearsal. It’s a well oiled machine for sure. Everything went super smoothly. the film and music tracks were both mixed and sent through speakers. From what I’ve heard, it seemed it was well balanced and the sound quality was good. It was in a big hockey arena. Overall it was a lot of fun, the conductor was great, he was very precise and knew the score incredibly well. I would have liked just one more rehearsal....playing Quidditch only once through before the performance was a little nerve wracking... Hopefully we get to do more in the future.

Gosh what a masterpiece! What an outstanding recording! Leonard Bernstein - On the Town

Yeah the Home Alone OST has an odd presentation. The HP1 OST has the same issue: Hedwig's Theme sure returns a lot in the C&C version, but man oh man in the OST it's almost unnerving.

Since we were going to have snow today (still hasn't happened), I listened to the Home Alone OST. The first track is so unnecessary and weird: music that gets repeated in track 3 and a carol that shouldn't open the narrative at all. C&C next month.

You just admitted that you don't have Alien or The Wind and the Lion! Shame on you!

No, you're not ignorant. There's a fair bit of love, for JAWS2 , on this site, but the general consensus is that it's inferior to JAWS. The C+C is definitely worth getting hold of. As to the film: you really are not missing much. Good score; good cinematography; annoying kids (a few of which get eaten ); Schneider, Gary, and Hamilton sleepwalking all the way through it; lackluster direction, and writing. As Jack Napier once said: "Don't bother".

These days I listened to LLL's E.T. and Home Alone. The first is obviously a gorgeous score, but I never really gave HA that much attention before, and I have to say, I enjoyed it a lot. Plus, winter is on its way, so these Nutcracker-y vibes fit perfectly these days. Then I went on to Intrada's Jaws, which is always a great listen, and I had an epiphany: I somewhat had never realized JW scored Jaws 2 as well. I felt so stupid, so I opened Spotify and gave the OST a listen. My jaw dropped. You can really feel the different approach of a JW that had scored A New Hope and Close Encounters (among others). The fact is, I've never watched Jaws 2 (I surely will now), so that's probably the reason why I've never searched for the soundtrack before. But I'm curious to know: is this score a bit underrated or not that much regarded, or it's just that I'm a bit ignorant?

No, no, the score only version is really on there! :-) What I meant was about TFA’s sound mix.

Yub nub.

According to the weirdos at originaltrilogy.com, at least every change made for the Blu-ray version was redone. Even the shot of the control panel that Obi-Wan uses on the Death Star with alien writing was redone. The real question is who notices this stuff. One notable change apparently is a shot of 3PO in the desert, which has been reverted back to how it originally looked. So this wasn't just slapped together or upscaled from the DVD master. It seems to me like this was a totally new scan done of a pre-Blu-ray version which necessitated redoing the changes? Looks awesome to me from screenshots and apparently George Lucas said it was the best the movies have ever looked.

Stephorse War Mom

Yeah and I ain't yaw kid!

A great classic album! Henry Mancini - Mr. Lucky (1959, RCA Records, LPM-2198) Featuring John Williams (p).

Curiously old-fashioned in parts, though it's exactly that bolder stuff recalling Disney scoring ca. 1960's that makes this a relatively enjoyable (musical) entry in the never-ending assault of CGI reboots of animated classics.

Just in time for the 2020 election: The John Williams / Oliver Stone Boxed Set. The complete scores to Born on the Fourth of July, JFK, and Nixon. All of the Americana music to express the hope and promise of the process, the sinister music for the dirty tricks and unspoken realities of the process, and the edgy modern music to underscore the monster clusterfuck that we all know this election will devolve into. Whaddya think? Too bleak? I don't think we'll get any more JW music than we know about currently. But I will be glad to be wrong.

They can replicate Lucas’s head, but they will never deepfake that neck. The technology will never exist.

I actually like the smaller sound of the orchestra, especially the brass. It really sounds like an homage to classic Western sounds (also paid tribute to with scores such as Red Dead Redemption: )

Best POTC films, in descending order: 1 ...er, that's it.

The credits piece has 3 separate quickly identifiable melodies which show up in other tracks! Except for the big bombastic one, not sure about that showing up right now. More if you count things like the rythm with the 2 piano notes.

As soon as I heard it, I knew the score would be divisive. I don't think it's generic at all, in fact what I like so much about it is how Gorannsson voice is so clearly heard if you're familiar with his Creed scores and Black Panther. Even if you don't actually like it, it is definitely not "generic standard RCP" or whatever made up stuff you wanna say. You can definitely hear his background producing modern hip hop, like with the specific drum machine sound in "Bounty Droid." So are there any other JWFans that like the score so far? I know @Holko and @Nick Parker do, anyone else?

The score was absolutely DREADFUL..... I thought scenes dragged because of it and the lack of any feel of Star Wars in it was heartbreaking. I do not want him to sound like Williams or imitate Williams but there was a harmonic language set up that was pretty much a character as much as any alien or actor or scenery. Everything together becomes Star Wars. This had nothing to do with it. Zero..... Even when he tried to go orchestral it sounded like pop, not even orchestral. I don't have a problem with going more modern or even having scenes with just electronic beats and sounds, but you still have to have a Star Wars feel to the score.... I kept checking my watch because he was making scenes drag for me. I'm happy you guys like it, but I was seriously gutted.

I love that Lucas has one final troll for the fanboys. Beautiful.

This would follow the PT mold, which he followed from VII to VIII. I could see a warrior-type theme for the new allies and a knight theme for the knights--but I also think their role in this will be minimal. I voted for two concert pieces, but the more I think about it, I think it will either only be one or he will go all out and have five.

You'll just have to edit your comment and replace it with a period or some other character.

He was his usual genial self in a conversation with Justin Freer. He related a few nice anecdotes about writing the score, saying that he had written most of it at his holiday home in France. He talked about how he had struggled to come up with something suitable for the Hogwarts brass band music, Mike Newell rejecting his early attempts because they were not quite 'quirky' enough. By chance he was with his family at a restaurant in France when a local brass band came in to entertain the diners - he suddenly realised what he needed to do and asked the waiter for a napkin so that he could scribble down his ideas! He explained that the brass band music therefore has a bit of a French flavour to it. Interestingly, he said that he felt more comfortable writing music for film than for the concert hall, feeling that film music was his métier. It was also his idea that the Bulgarian Durmstrang boys should enter the hall banging staffs on the floor rather than carrying wands and noted that the music he conceived (with the drums punctuating each strike of the floor) ended up in the film exactly as he had written and recorded it. He joked that he did not know anything about Gandalf at the time and knew he had made the right decision because one of his sons told him, "Dad, that's really cool!" He also talked about having some difficulty coming up with one of the waltzes (it might have been the one for Neville, I cannot quite remember) and ended up writing it in a taxi on the way to a meeting with Mike Newell, before singing it to the director to great approval. He also talked about how he approved of all the musical decisions that Mike Newell had made, which is not always the case when he watches back the films he has scored. For example, he had written some music for the scene early in the film when Harry sees the skull in the sky after the Quidditch World Cup. He agreed with the director's decision to drop the cue in question, appreciating that the scene worked better without music.

Fascinating! This bodes well for a Blu-Ray/DVD release of the concert too. (Although I really want the concert from Tanglewood.) Oh heck, I want them both!

I agree with you, but thankfully it wasn't a matter of getting "one or the other." I for one am thrilled that Deutsche Grammophone saw fit to release BOTH in the same year. Hopefully both are big sellers for the label, and they're open to more.

Anyways Williams put a lot of work into this. I don't think any of the performances are better than the OST versions but they should be taken as something completely separate and we should be grateful to have this album it's better than another compilation with the same thing we heard a thousand times like the Dudamel c.d.

It's only because I'm so in love.

The piano concertos are amazing. Number 5 contains some of the most ferocious writing for the piano. I love the jazz influences too - the opening of concerto no. 2 is quite magical (or do I mean 3???). For an amazing but completely un-hummable tune listen to the slow movement of the fifth symphony. The passionate string writing is slightly redolent of JW.