Henry B

I completely disagree with everything you've said, and I seriously wonder if you've actually been through a college music program, or have any knowledge of one. The goal of most college music programs is to create well-rounded musicians. Harmonic analysis is the focus of two or three semesters of theory, yes, but that comprises only a small part of a music degree. There's history, ear training, writing, conducting, pedagogy and above all performance. Most music degrees are chiefly about equipping students to find work in professional ensembles or in teaching positions. Some tracks like history and composition prepare students for further studies in grad school. Experience is certainly built into the curriculum. Music education students are required to do a semester of student teaching to earn their degrees. I had to put on an entire recital of my own compositions for my degree. I was able to have a piece performed by the university orchestra. For performance students, a half-recital junior year and a full recital senior year is required. History students have to write a thesis. You get the idea. But no matter your concentration, you will undoubtedly come out of college with a deeper understanding of what music is, where it comes from and how to perform it. Of course a school can't completely let imaginations soar because there would be no structure to such a program. Students are taught all the major forms and historical trends because knowledge enriches. You seem to think that genius develops best in a vacuum. That runs completely against everything we know. Nearly every prodigious composer was also a respected performer and teacher. Some were also conductors, critics, historians, and so on. They were all educated in the musical traditions of their time, and would have been afforded far less freedom than music students today. If you simply turn a person loose in the work world to gain experience, with no training and guidance, the result is usually disastrous. And colleges dismiss musical prodigies for being too individualistic? I'm convinced you just made that up on the spot. Most students I knew, especially piano and string students, began their studies at a very early age. Actually, I was unusual because I didn't start taking piano lessons until age 10. Most gifted and well developed students come into college eager to expand their experience and understanding, not to shut themselves away and ignore the history of music. You say harmonic analysis leads to works like Inception. Do you even know what harmonic analysis is? Most undergrad programs cover music of the late Baroque and Classical periods, counterpoint in the style of J.S. Bach. Do you know who Bach is? Yeah... he doesn't really sound like Hans Zimmer. By the way, Zimmer got his start in pop music and never went through a conservatory program. He didn't care much for the formal training that you seem so eager to trash. There's only one possible cause I can find for all these claims, which is that many of today's blander composers have formal training. For example, Brian Tyler went to UCLA and Harvard. But drawing a straight line between the overproduced, creatively bankrupt music most of us dislike and college music programs is completely wrong. You're ignoring everything the studio system does to composers. Look, college music professors hate this stuff most of all. My composition professor didn't like the idea of me trying to make it as a Hollywood composer because he felt that it stifled creativity and even human decency. You hate today's conformity, but everything you say makes it obvious that you just want yesterday's conformity back. You're about twenty years out of date here. Some game music continues to be looped, but many games call for all the same standalone forms that film does. Many feel that game music is actually outpacing film music at the moment in terms of creativity and expression. I bet you don't really know any game composers. Maybe you've heard of Mario and Pac-man and assume that game music is a bunch of robotic beeps. If you're interesting in actually getting up to speed on this stuff, check out: Nobuo Uematasu Jeremy Soule Mark Griskey Inon Zur Peter Land Jared Emerson-Johnson James Hannigan Christopher Lennertz Stephen Rippy Garry Schyman Jack Wall Just for starters.

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You can draw the slur more broadly than with a tie. Or use tenuto marks on the notes instead of a slur.

Yeah, plenty of Bond songs have been written by the artist, not the score composer. This elitism is complete nonsense, and insulting to so-called pop musicians. As if the line between composition and songwriting is absolute.

Adele sounds great, and so does the orchestra. But the lyrics are awful! The repetitions of the word "Skyfall" are really tiresome, and I can't figure out what the song is about. "This is the end," "You can have my number, but not my heart," "We'll stand together" ... It doesn't sound thought through.

Despite the music, it's a much better trailer. Day-Lewis's performance looks quite a bit more credible.

People like you suck. Really. Eff off. Props. As if this guy would come down as hard on male performers for their weight issues. He's seeing Adele more as a sex object than as a singer. Disgusting.

That's just her hair.

Yeah, maybe this guy has a family to feed and was thinking of them. Jesus. You can't expect everybody to be fanatically loyal to every production they participate in. Accusing them of being callow and greedy is uncalled for. Reminds me of how Alec Guinness hated Star Wars, yet delivered a fine performance and even coached the other actors behind the scenes. That's what being professional is.

I think this shot is perfect. So what if it doesn't match Gollum's revised appearance? The dark, greenish colors and rubbery skin fit perfectly with the aesthetic of Moria. It harkens to old fashioned monster designs. It's sort of what we might have thought Gollum would look like. When we see him in Two Towers, the pale and leathery appearance is a welcome surprise, and necessary as Gollum becomes more humanized. The "outdated" design serves the purpose of this scene. In other words, continuity is not the most important aspect of a movie. Not for me, anyway. There's so much discussion of canon, special effects and internal consistency and almost nothing about the style of these upcoming films. The pacing, the drama, the humor, the message; in short, what will you take away from this? What is the ultimate point of these Hobbit films at all? Well, we can't really know without seeing them, but I can tell you that the point is not the shape of Radagast's hat or the degree of beard on each dwarf. I'm surprised nobody's put forth the (terrible) idea of replacing this shot with a similar one of Martin Freeman, by the way.

As did I. I never expected anything less, which is why I was really looking forward to seeing Radagast in The Hobbit. I envisioned him as someone akin to Gandalf and Saruman, tall with great staffs and a horse. He would just have a different personality. "I'm looking for a great warrior." "Mmm. Warrior? Wars not make one great."

Don't forget that it's been ten years since Lord of the Rings and CGI has improved immensely. They can afford to use it for more elements without it looking horrible. I would think that with the enormous budget and expertise there will be nothing so bad in this trilogy as the "Legolas riding the troll" shot.

Lots of silly stuff. I like the self-referential humor with Gollum. It looks like this is going to be a whimsical adventure, not a heavy, melancholy-laden perversion of the original story.

He looks like Yoda.

The very first shot of the trailer has characters from Lord of the Rings flashing back. That's as prequel-like as it can get.

But Lincoln's death is a major part of his legacy. I think most American moviegoers expect to see it depicted. Surely they won't include one of those "years later, so and so went on to..." montages. It's common knowledge. Yet, witholding any mention of Lincoln's death would seem a strange omission.

Well, this shouldn't come as any surprise. Remember that remixed "Requiem for a Dream" that the Two Towers trailer made famous? So famous that people got upset that it wasn't on Howard Shore's soundtrack? Times have not changed.

You should write sfz under every note if that's what you want. However, think carefully about whether you really want a sfz attack on every note or if accent or marcato marks under a f or ff dynamic would be adequate.

Yep. http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history-archaeology/Ask-an-Expert-What-Did-Abraham-Lincolns-Voice-Sound-Like.html

Great joke, Boal.

Sofia Vergara IS a sex object. Hubba Hubba! Every once in a while Claire gets some good scenes too. The last episode we saw was when the kids catch her and Phil having sex. The next scene is her wearing nothing but panties and a tshirt trying to put jeans on. And this is a family show! There was another recent one we saw when she walks into a room in a robe with panties and a bra showing underneath, when Dylan sees her through Haley's laptop. Hottest scene she's ever had (I generally don't find her attractive at all, since she lost weight and got so boney and vein-y after season 1. Yuck. I like some meat on those bones!) Jay, maybe the point Alex suggested is that the continual sexualization of women in TV shows deprives them of the same richness of characterization male actors get to experience. If you're just thinking about whether you'd bang them, you're not really seeing them as full characters, or indeed, human beings. Then again, Alex seems to have the same attitude. I'm so confused...

Yes, and his motivations for emancipation were certainly mixed. Although he hated slavery, he didn't believe that blacks were truly equal to whites, and advocated that they be relocated to their supposed native countries after abolition. Most portrayals of Lincoln, and this one I suspect, portray him as a godly figure completely immune to the racism of the day.

The Lincoln stereotype is a baritone, but the real Lincoln was known to be a tenor.

Ehhh, I think it's too earlier to make a judgment about this score. It sounds like a simple theme, but we haven't heard any of the development. The "bonding" theme from War Horse would sound pretty much the same if played in a plaintive piano solo style.

$6 in the theater, Jay? Most theaters around here charge about $10, or more for a 3D film.