Incanus

Crystal Spell is the Call of the Crystal on the OST (aka the concert arrangement) and it's original cue title is The Thirteen Visitors if I remember correctly.
 
A nice programme of the classics with a couple of nice surprises thrown in.

Recent pickups
 

Got to splurge a little and fill some gaps in the collection. 
 

I'd give the DE of the second a go before firming your opinion. They may just not be your thing, but the first score is the least refined and balanced of the three, with a lot of action/chaos music. #2 has a lot more variety in its sound.
 
Although I'm on your side with how bombastic his music can be. I struggle to listen to Solo in large quantities - great score but very loud and busy.
 
But to your first point, I echo the 'yes'. Most live action films would dream of scores of this quality and thematic depth - they completely outgrow a kids' animation series. And I've stated before but in my personal view, Powell has a talent with underscore types of cues where they are never boring or static even for dull dialogue scenes; something I think he does better sometimes even than (angry villagers incoming) Williams.

This is such a fantastic release. I hadn't gotten to hear much of the original album, but when I did I remember it being really really good. Now that I have a CD for the car, I'll be able to keep listening to it on long drives. It sounds amazing, I'll definitely be revisiting this one more frequently now.
 
Also, love the Jeremy Subharmonics detail. I was confused about that cue as I was watching the film (saw it for the first time recently) then when I came here it all made sense 🙂
 
I wouldn't have even thought of that  

Nils Jacob Holt Hanssen reviews the release:

https://celluloidtunes.no/sneakers-expanded-edition-james-horner/

25 years! Happy belated birthday to JWFAN and my warmest thanks to @Ricard for creating this place and all the great people here for making it this wonderful, vibrant community. 

25 years! Happy belated birthday to JWFAN and my warmest thanks to @Ricard for creating this place and all the great people here for making it this wonderful, vibrant community. 

25 years! Happy belated birthday to JWFAN and my warmest thanks to @Ricard for creating this place and all the great people here for making it this wonderful, vibrant community. 

25 years! Happy belated birthday to JWFAN and my warmest thanks to @Ricard for creating this place and all the great people here for making it this wonderful, vibrant community. 

JWFan was born 25 years ago today! 
 
Hard to imagine back then that the site would still be up and running two and a half decades later, let alone that the Maestro would still be active after having composed nearly thirty more film scores and a similar number of concert works, as well as conducting over 200 concerts including Vienna, Berlin, Milan and Japan!
 
Dozens of his film scores have received perfect releases during all this time, providing fans with the confidence that many more will come in the future, while maintaining and further enhancing the collective appreciation and admiration for the music we all love and which will remain with us for the rest of our lives.
 
The analysis and discussion of his work has reached such level of comprehensiveness and detail, that our forums have become an essential reference for fans and scholars, while fomenting the creation of fascinating projects that expand and deepen the study of the Maestro’s oeuvre and contribute to increasing its appreciation by future generations who, without doubt, will continue to ensure that his name is in the place it deserves in the history of music and cinema.
 
Thank you, Mr. Williams, and thanks to all those who have contributed during this time to make the site such a wonderful place. Here’s to 25 more!
 
PS. The following quoted post, written for this thread 10 years ago, provides a short summary of the origins of the site:
 
 
 

The Suite from Memoirs of a Geisha is a concert work based on John Williams’ 2005 film score of the same name. The piece is written for a symphony orchestra and a cello soloist. Williams wrote it specifically with the famed cellist Yo-Yo Ma in mind, who had also performed on the original soundtrack of the film. The suite is in classic Williams tradition a significant reworking and reimagining of the thematic material found in the score presented in six movements. Each movement is a self-contained development of a single theme or a few musical ideas where the composer showcases the cello as the main solo instrument but significant solos are assigned to violin, oboe and flute.

The suite premiered in the autumn of 2008 with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Yo-Yo Ma as the soloist and John Williams himself conducting. It was recorded live at the event and has been since released on Sony Masterworks label (the old Sony Classical) on two different occasions, first as a part of the Yo-Yo Ma: 30 Years Outside the Box (a 90 CD collection!!!) and then in 2010 on a John Williams compilation album The Music of America John Williams.

The suite utilizes for the most part a standard Western symphony orchestra but is enhanced by Japanese flavoured instrumentation, most prominently the percussion. However in these pieces Williams has recorchestrated the music for the standard symphony orchestra, filling now the roles of Japanese ethnic instruments, so colourfully used in the film score, with the sounds of the traditional symphonic ones. He succeeds exceedingly well in mimicing the timbral aspects and sounds of koto, shakuhachi, shamisen and erhu with the strings and woodwinds. The brass section seems to be comprised of mainly French horns as it was in the soundtrack recording.

This suite can be said to be a product of a long development period as Williams prepared his music from the film to be performed by orchestra and different ensembles several times before creating the 6-movement piece. He had ample time and reason to revisit and rethink the musical ideas in the intervening 3 years after the film had come out and before the suite was created. After the film’s release in 2005 Williams, who obviously felt a special affinity for this music and film, arranged an exclusive suite from the film score for the “President’s Own” Unites States Marine Chamber Orchestra which performed the selections on the 29th of May in 2006. This suite included nearly unaltered versions of soundtrack counterparts of Sayuri’s theme, Going to School, Chairman’s Waltz and Sayuri’s Theme and End Credits but arranged for a chamber orchestra. During the same year Williams also composed duets for piano and cello that developed his thematic material further, Sayuri’s theme and Going to School receiving considerable expansion and embellisment. He recorded these two pieces with Yo-Yo Ma (third selection being a solo cello piece A Dream Discarded) and those were made available in iTunes along with a special 10-minute interview. It was this version of the Sayuri’s theme Williams performed with Yo-Yo Ma at Late Night with Jay Leno during the pre-Oscar PR efforts to promote his score in the early 2006. Later he orchestrated this version for symphony orchestra and it was performed in several concerts and finally became part of the Suite from Memoirs of a Geisha for Cello and Orchestra.

As mentioned above the Suite is divided to six movements. It does not follow any particular classical formula but in his typical fashion Williams has arranged the material so that the programme creates variety, contrast and a dramatic arc for the work.

1st Movement: Sayuri’s theme
Here Williams weaves together his two themes for the main character. He mirrors in his music the dual role of the character, the young girl and the woman, the innocence and the maturity, the true person and the outward facade.
The piece opens with the cello intoning Chiyo’s theme, a fragile, lyrical melody that glides along with the rest of the string section to Sayuri’s actual theme. The cello carries the strong and mature central theme forward over flowing string figures, music opening slowly into a grand lyrical statement of the material
Chiyo’s theme returns on flute passed on to oboe, the cello commenting on the statements, snatching the melody, developing it but yet again singing out Sayuri’s theme. Here Williams pushes the melody further, opening it into a more emotional statement than any heard in the film. Yo-Yo Ma performs an extended solo cadenza backed softly by the strings and french horns. Here Williams has written a passage where the cello unites both of the themes, weaving fragments of both into a poignant finale where Chiyo’s theme seems to have the last word.

2nd Movement: Going to School
In the film this movement is a self-contained setpiece and here Williams extends the musical ideas further, adding longer and more demanding cello passages, new accompaniment from the orchestra and a new middle section for the piece. The original soundtrack piece was noted to be a very close cousin to a section from the Last Emperor score composed by David Byrne but this concertized version of Going to School eschews much of the similarities and especially the middle passages with extended cello solos and new orchestral backing with its sparkling percussion and flowing luminous quality sounds fresh and new.

3rd Movement: Chairman’s Waltz
This thematic idea for Sayuri’s love interest, the chairman, is now cast as an amorous duet for violin and cello with an orchestral accompaniment. The rather unadorned violin solo line of the original piece is partly retained but used more as a starting point and now it is decorated with lyrical passages where cello and orchestra act as a counterpoint to the violin. The ending of the piece has now an extensive coda where the violin weaves a rapturous duet with the cello. Williams also gives in to the dramaticism inherent in the waltz and lets it build to a dramatic peak unlike anything heard in the film. This does indeed create a truly ravishing piece of music that even more strongly than before reveals its Slavonic influences. And as the music sheds its outward calm the valse triste becomes valse d’amour even though the piece ends with a mysterious feel, almost musical equivalent of a question mark.

4th Movement: Brush on Silk
Another setpiece from the film receives embellishment in this movement. Williams has reworked the instrumentation in such a fashion that the cello and the rest of the instruments in the orchestra take up the role of the Japanese ethnic equivalents heard in the film. Yo-Yo Ma’s solo could be called athletic, so deftly the cello leaps and bounds, frolicing over a percussive landscape accompanied by solo flute. The use of percussion and escpecially bass (and perhaps taiko) drums add the music a powerful momentum. The piece surges forth in stops and starts, gathering speed and culminating to a frenzied and near triumphant crescendo of full orchestra whirling in a dazzling wild dance. After this high point the flute and the cello obviously triumph over the rest of the orchestral forces and continue their dance together until a sudden percussive rumble brings the piece to a close. Noteworthy in this piece is the use pizzicato by the string section and the soloist in imitating the sounds of koto, the Japanese plucked string instrument.

5th Movement: Chiyo’s Prayer
Williams used many musical ideas to convey fate and destiny in his score. In this movement he presents the most central of those ideas. The piece is a hybrid of new material and a bridging of two separate passages from the score (namely Chiyo’s Prayer and A Dream Discarded) to form a slow and ruminating movement. The piece opens with a beautiful oboe solo, something Williams seems to be able to write with such ease. This musical idea is joined by a swaying string figure, which represented fate and destiny’s path in the film. For a moment the oboe duets with cor anglais and the string motif but then cello steps in, taking its cue from the oboe line but developing the material parallel to it. Finally the cello and the orchestra give away to a solo flute that is accompanied by sharp low rhythmic plucked notes from cello and harp (yet again mimicing koto). A short luminous harp and chimes interlude plays with cello hinting at the swaying destiny motif. From here the piece moves to a long cello solo, presenting a deconstruction of Chiyo’s theme (on the OST called A Dream Discarded or as Williams himself calls it The Handkerchief scene) that feels at the same time extremely moving and inconsolable. Yo-Yo Ma’s skill here is tremendous as is Williams’ writing, to be able to say so much even with so few notes, where even the empty spaces between the notes gain a meaning.

6th Movement: Becoming a Geisha
Despite its name the finale movement does not correspond with the track of the same name on the OST. Instead it is a new take on the musical ideas of the end credits. Chiyo’s theme and Sayuri’s theme go through a series of permutations and are joined by a rhythmic figure from the end credits. This motoric figure passes through all the sections of the orchestra and comes to dominate the proceedings and grows in the course of the piece to thunderous proportions, the percussion rumbling underneath the full orchestra in determined cadences, the french horns rising nobly, the strings whirling in triumph. Twice the music rises to a crescendo but is both times tempered by the appearance of the solo cello that in the end wins and after a short soliloquy accompanied by tapped chimes glides to a silence thus bringing the suite to a calm close. With this piece Williams offers a satisfying conclusion to the suite, which is energetic but lyrical and imparts a suitable sense of finality to the music. Playing against the expectation he ends the suite not in a huge crescendo but in the solo voice of the main character, Sayuri, whom the cello represents throughout the music.

© -Mikko Ojala-

OK I've gone through the entire film and identified everything now, and even noted down timestamps that include miliseconds you can use to identify everything
 

  Start End Length Cue 1 00:00:45.546 00:03:30.749 2:45 American Spy 2 00:03:36.297 00:03:55.440 0:19 American Spy {Continued} 3 00:03:58.209 00:04:25.446 0:27 Bombs Away! 4 00:04:25.446 00:05:20.312 0:55 Bombs Away! {Continued} 5 00:05:42.062 00:08:54.394 3:12 Indy Driver 6 00:09:38.019 00:09:49.147 0:11 Indy Driver {Continued} 7 00:09:49.147 00:13:58.975 4:10 It's A Fake 8 00:13:58.975 00:16:20.899 2:22 Indy Rescues Baz 9 00:16:48.100 00:19:35.706 2:48 Combat Train-ing 10 00:19:35.706 00:21:47.866 2:12 Jump 11 00:27:00.048 00:27:39.320 0:39 [TRACKED] Helena's Tutorial 12 00:28:15.133 00:30:07.211 1:52 [TRACKED] Voller's Interview 13 00:30:07.211 00:30:28.528 0:21 [WILD] Nazis 14 00:32:38.048 00:33:09.324 0:31 I'm Not Selling This, Am I? 15 00:33:09.324 00:37:55.386 4:46 The Archives 16 00:37:55.386 00:40:45.800 2:50 Helena Runs 17 00:43:02.027 00:45:31.271 2:29 Pulse Of The City 18 00:46:35.168 00:48:17.750 1:43 Voller's Interview 19 00:48:17.750 00:49:11.480 0:54 Sallah To The Rescue 20 00:50:36.642 00:52:03.599 1:27 Departures 21 00:52:40.641 00:53:44.616 1:04 It Must Be Destroyed 22 00:53:44.616 00:54:45.183 1:01 To Morocco Again 23 00:56:52.260 00:58:20.268 1:28 Indy Recognizes Professor Schmidt 24 00:58:20.268 00:58:44.861 0:25 Doing Helena's Bidding 25 00:58:44.861 01:00:09.494 1:25 Rossini's Menu 26 01:00:26.661 01:01:31.711 1:05 Rahim Arrives 27 01:01:31.711 01:02:04.321 0:33 You Don't Need Me? 28 01:02:04.321 01:03:49.838 1:46 Streets Of Morocco 29 01:03:54.519 01:08:16.575 4:22 Tuk Tuk Chase 30 01:09:37.906 01:10:59.945 1:22 Airplane Mutiny 31 01:13:12.050 01:14:39.576 1:28 To Athens 32 01:15:11.235 01:16:22.196 1:11 Sunken Ship 33 01:19:26.994 01:20:18.192 0:51 Indy's Regret 34 01:21:39.081 01:22:46.543 1:07 Eels 35 01:22:46.543 01:23:28.220 0:42 [TRACKED] Centipedes 36 01:23:39.751 01:28:37.461 4:58 Water Ballet 37 01:29:24.968 01:30:36.524 1:12 Polybius Cipher 38 01:30:36.524 01:33:25.295 2:49 Helena's Tutorial 39 01:33:25.295 01:34:07.331 0:42 Escaping the Boat 40 01:34:49.198 01:36:19.348 1:30 Melting Wax 41 01:36:19.348 01:36:35.260 0:16 [TRACKED] Archimedes' Tomb 42 01:36:35.260 01:37:18.562 0:43 Melting Wax {Continued} 43 01:39:03.444 01:39:40.383 0:37 Teddy Is Kidnapped 44 01:39:40.383 01:39:54.756 0:14 [TRACKED] To The Airport 45 01:39:54.756 01:40:19.523 0:25 Teddy Is Kidnapped {Continued} 46 01:40:19.523 01:40:53.349 0:34 [WILD] Helena In Action 47 01:40:53.349 01:41:55.358 1:02 Teddy Is Kidnapped {Continued} 48 01:42:17.904 01:43:07.480 0:50 The Crescent 49 01:43:18.681 01:44:27.352 1:09 The Crescent {Continued} 50 01:45:02.178 01:45:14.014 0:12 [TRACKED] Eels 51 01:45:14.014 01:48:18.369 3:04 Centipedes 52 01:48:18.369 01:49:44.231 1:26 Handcuffed 53 01:49:50.236 01:52:27.339 2:37 Archimedes' Tomb 54 01:52:27.339 01:55:07.686 2:40 Confrontation At The Tomb
55 01:55:07.686 01:56:37.322 1:30 To The Airport 56 01:56:37.322 01:58:19.925 1:43 To The Airport Part 2 57 01:58:19.925 02:02:23.931 4:04 Airport Nazis 58 02:02:23.931 02:02:59.486 0:36 [TRACKED] Water Ballet 59 02:03:08.144 02:04:38.263 1:30 [TRACKED] Melting Wax,Centipedes,Water Ballet,Helena's Tutorial 60 02:04:38.263 02:05:17.953 0:40 Through The Portal 61 02:05:32.378 02:06:11.570 0:39 [TRACKED] Ancient Syracuse,Water Ballet 62 02:06:11.570 02:06:42.033 0:30 Planes In Trouble 63 02:06:42.033 02:09:45.853 3:04 Ancient Syracuse 64 02:10:07.981 02:10:22.183 0:14 Ancient Syracuse {Continued} 65 02:10:22.183 02:10:57.526 0:35 [TRACKED] Through The Portal,Ancient Syracuse,Confrontation At The Tomb 66 02:10:57.526 02:11:55.492 0:58 Ancient Syracuse {Continued} 67 02:11:55.492 02:17:40.520 5:45 Centuries Join Hands 68 02:19:23.330 02:20:15.427 0:52 For Who... Whom? 69 02:21:57.172 02:23:23.181 1:26 Finale 70 02:23:23.181 02:25:19.382 1:56 Raiders March 71 02:25:19.382 02:28:44.005 3:25 Helena's Theme 72 02:28:44.005 02:29:18.309 0:34 [WILD] Nazis 73 02:29:18.309 02:30:06.144 0:48 End Credit Part 3 74 02:30:06.144 02:30:55.348 0:49 [TRACKED] To The Airport 75 02:30:55.348 02:34:19.563 3:24 End Credit Part 3 {Continued}  
Updated the Google Doc as well
 
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1gLWlWGQDU2sjQtm83qAu9pgDTlEMSH7smeWw5zZwqHs/
 
And if anybody uses command line ffmpeg this will split the iso score into correctly named tracks for you
 
 

Yes, their Tadlow/Prometheus complete rerecordings are all fantastic.

New podcast episode!
 
https://thelegacyofjohnwilliams.com/2024/01/19/bill-booth-podcast/
 
NEW EPISODE! L.A. STUDIO LEGENDS: BILL BOOTH John Williams has a deep affinity for all brass instruments, but did you know that he studied trombone when he was a teenager? Legendary studio musician BILL BOOTH tells all about playing 1st trombone in the Maestro's orchestra in Los Angeles for more than 30 years, including such scores as HOOK, JURASSIC PARK, INDIANA JONES and the STAR WARS sequel trilogy. Bill reveals the joys and the challenges of being John Williams' principal trombone, reflecting on the special quality of the Maestro’s music and also of his human side. LISTEN tinyurl.com/h3nht9pu Also available on major podcasting platforms   https://www.facebook.com/thelegacyofjohnwilliams/posts/pfbid02G28dK5LePBe7r5J46DfZPcwFqnN2CQoBLv8TmqxtLVbTPTKVi3QFyiqWVW6aTsdtl

Mike posted more information on FSM about the unknown Never Song and Stick With Me singers
 
The songs were sent to many of the singers on the project and to key people in the session singer community going back nearly two years, and no one could ID those voices. (And I was quite paranoid that doing this would result in news about the release leaking out!)
 
The Guild ultimately asserted that our efforts were satisfactory and that we could proceed with the release of the tracks, with the understanding that payment in kind would be made if we ever find out who the voices are, and also that I see that their credits are added to any new printings of the packaging, plus update the metadata.
 
The Guild actually didn't have anything on file for the movie whatsoever, not even the choir list (yet they did on the Home Alone scores, so it's a mystery).
 
https://filmscoremonthly.com/board/posts.cfm?threadID=152698&forumID=1&archive=0

Perhaps we’ll find out more of what the pirate ladies choreographed and if that has anything to do with the music! Coming out next Friday.
 
 

Likes/subscribes/comments welcomed 

 

Love that last cue !
 
 

Peter Banning: What in the hell's the matter with you? When are you gonna stop acting like a child?
Jack: [laughs] I am a child.
Peter Banning: Grow up.

You don't think Moira had anything to do with that "spiced" drink do you? And of course Wendy told him that he is Peter Pan to gradually tip him over the edge. It all makes sense. It is a psychological portrait of a person going to pieces. Like Images.

That was all in Moira's and Wendy's plan, the kids were in on it and enforced the idea of someone at the window so Peter would think something was wrong and would go along with the kidnapping hoax. In a way they planted the seed into Peter's head from which sprang the delusional drug and booze induced rambling adventure he was having in his head while shambling through the streets of London trying to pick up the pieces of his fractured psyche. A clever ruse that's all.

Actually his emerging split personality's feminine side is portrayed by Julia Roberts who he has hots for as she is as you say a yuppie crumpet. Perhaps it is his latent homosexuality that is also emerging. It would also explain his obvious blindness for the affection Tink feels for him and how he desperately tries to spurn her. It all makes sense now. This movie is a masterpiece of social criticism and a plunge to the psychological depths of a yuppie. I never knew you had it in you Mr. Spielberg.

Well this 1st Hook episode was a thoroughly fascinating and engaging one. And it opened a window into the complexities of producing of these expanded/complete soundtrack releases in a very engaging way. I also loved the little asides touching on different releases, actually a lot of Williams and other scores, along the way from 2016 until the release of Hook Ultimate Edition.  This release obviously felt like a culmination of something big to Mike as well. A long and circuitous journey finally complete.
 
As a film score fan I felt deeply grateful after listening to this as hearing about the enormous amount of work and finessing involved in some of these releases made appreciate Mike Matessino's integrity and his work philosophy all the more. No point in doing things if you are not going to do them right.
Yeah that just sounds like cynical repackaging of previous versions with minimum effort to get it out quickly for some extra bucks. Quite a few of the Deutsch soundtrack re-releases unfortunately followed this same philosophy.

Well I have now finished my second full listen of the whole set and it is staggeringly glorious! While Jurassic Park was my introduction to John Williams' music and basically turned me into a fan back in 1993, Hook isn't far behind (Presenting the Hook sequence might be one of my earliest musical memories from movies in general) and the complete score has been my holy grail ever since I figured out that the OST was missing so much of the beautiful music.

I won't reiterate too many of the thoughts so many others have already expressed in this thread about this beautfiul release. But I can't lie. I did shed a tear or two listening to this new presentation all the while grinning from ear-to-ear with delight. It is such a long time wish and now it has been delivered beyond my wildest expectations.

The score most certainly holds a nostalgic place in my heart and aptly this score is so strongly about childhood and nostalgia. But at the same time seems to have it all: The winning thematic melodicism, the athletic (or should I say in this case acrobatic) colourful orchestral writing, the absolutely pitch perfect way Williams captures both the subtext and the straightforward narrative needs of the film while writing superbly engaging and intricate music that in itself paints such vivid pictures and stands on its own as well as functions likea  musical mirror to the movie. In fact the music feels so very much in tune with the movie that it seems to capture the very mood and even lighting of the scenes in its notes. To me it is one of those perfect scores that seems like a world unto itself.
 
The complete score on discs 1 and 2 is such a powerhouse of a fantasy score, now all the more satisfying in its truly complete form, inserts and all. Too many highlights to mention. The 3rd disc was a small revelation as it presents all the songs written for the production that were ultimately dropped. But their history detailed in the excellent liner notes goes a long way explaining the reason for the long lined melodies many of the themes in this score have. In a way the songs on disc 3 do enchance the listening experience of the full score as you really can chart the thematic development through them even better than before. Not all of the songs are winners but pieces like The Low Below  - Pirate Sequence, Stick With Me and Childhood are just as catchy and delightful in their song guise as in the final underscore. The diegetic bonus material is equally wonderful in its piraty feel and makes you once again appreciate how much of Williams' musical effort for this movie went behind-the-scenes, unknown until now. Part and parcel of the film composer's craft but it is wonderful to finally hear all this existing recorded material.
 
This is just about as Ultimate as a film music release can get (we even have  stuff like Take Me Out to the Ball Game!) and a perfect Christmas present! My humble thanks to Mike Matessino, @Jay and @John Takis and everybody at La-La Land Records for producing this.
 
P.S. I couldn't help but chuckle when I thought of the other John Williams "Ultimate edition" having a blue cover, a polar opposite of this one.