jangoisbaddest

Hello! I'm planning a scifi film concert, and the ensemble has only purchased the 5-movement bare-bones star wars suite and phantom menace suite in past years. Now I would love to include movements from his other suites (namely, The Asteroid Field from "Music from the Star Wars Saga" and "Jedi Steps/Finale" from Force Awakens), but the budget is awfully tight and it appears you cannot buy or even rent a single movement from one of these suites...you have to buy the whole thing or not at all. I completely understand Williams' desire not to have his work arranged, but this just seems ridiculous to me. I'm sure plenty of orchestras have wanted to program more of his stuff but haven't, simply because they don't have the funds to "waste" on four other cues that they're not going to play. Anyway, aside from whining and moaning, I was also hoping I'd be able to find someone on this forum who is (or knows someone who is) a part of an ensemble willing to share or rent parts from any of the pieces mentioned above. Thanks!

Hey all! I've recently been put in charge of a film music concert for next season. There are two big showpieces that I'm considering. One is Jerry Goldsmith's Star Trek: Motion Picture score, which I've finally found over at Themes and Variations. The other is Hook. The problem with Hook is: I can only find the wimpy Calvin Custer arrangement or Hal Leonard's Flight to Neverland, which is fantastic but like five minutes long. What I really want to rent is this: If anyone knows how to get me in touch with someone willing to rent this out to us, I would be forever grateful. Thanks! Brian

Just listened to the whole OST. Love it. Definitely some heavy Copeland influence. In fact, the motif for the first track is note-for-note stolen from Appalachian Spring! But also, of course, heavy influence from A Lincoln Portrait. Still, it has a Williams twist to it (in particular, I heard some of his JFK score in here). Some great bluegrass stuff, too! Can't wait to see the movie!

This. You're already extending a story that's short and sweet into a simultaneous exploration of Middle Earth's backstory...you don't also need a completely new villain that adds nothing. I actually would have loved The Hobbit if he wasn't in there at all...or at least if he and his band was killed at the end. I mean, it's not like the score wasn't good, or the performances.

That was definitely an interesting read, but I can't say I agree 100%, either. A franchise can always be rebooted in a fresh and interesting way. A perfect example of this is Casino Royale, which took us away from campy and overblown to gritty and somewhat more realistic. It was just about a tough-as-nails, imperfect guy doing his best not to get killed by his job, but it was still James Bond. Quantum aside, I am ecstatic about the new Bond movies. The issue with Star Trek is that a reboot was promised and not delivered. I had hopes that there would be new directions after the first film. "Star Trek" was good only because it had the underpinnings of a first act - we need to see how all of the characters get together, why continuity is no longer an issue, etc. So it was fine that it didn't have a very interesting story. And it expressly stated in its script, "whatever our destinies may have been, they have been forever altered." Great! I'm on board! Let's explore strange NEW worlds! Now here comes Into Darkness, and it says "hey, let's re-hash as much as we possibly can and continue to bank on nostalgia above all else. Let's completely ignore what we said last film and instead try to shoehorn those destinies back in the same direction." This doesn't mean Star Trek as a franchise is dead, it means that Into Darkness screwed up in exactly the same way that Quantum of Solace did: it failed to deliver on the promise that it's predecessor made and plopped itself back into its old habits. I'll continue to watch Star Trek (and Bond) movies until I'm old and grey, as long as there is a reason for me to. That's the thing about this article: it fails to realize that there are only so many stories, so many characters, so many notes on a scale...coming up with something new is not really coming up with something new anymore. It's just synthesizing something in a new way. That's exactly what franchises are trying to do, same as every other movie in Hollywood. It's just that some are failing and some are succeeding.

You know, listening to the OST for season 3, I'm starting to realize that I really don't like this score nearly as well as I did back in season 1. It's just so...formulaic. He's so confined in his thinking that you end up with the same score as last season, with almost the same instrumentation, the same feel, no real development of the themes he's written. I feel like either the spectacular budget should make more room for this guy or he should learn how to be more creative. That said, I adore the "Kingslayer" track...maybe because it's my favorite scene in the whole damn show so far, but I do think he did a good job with that one because at least he came up with something new (and I thought it was pretty effective). I do find it odd that the season didn't end last episode, but I suppose that's probably because the producers wanted to make a promise that "no, not ALL of the characters are going to die. Look, the Mother of Dragons is doing great!" LOL I wonder how many viewers they lost because of the Red Wedding. Edit: maybe that was a bit harsh. Mhysa and Dracarys were good tracks, too, as were the scenes they accompanied...though her scenes are starting to feel same-old already, much like the "I don't trust Gollum" dynamic in LOTR.

I'm not a huge fan of the BSG stuff either but the Human Target and Cape stuff I can't seem to stop listening to! That's what I say about his BSG scores, the only thing in his output I'm familiar with. I find the overall take on it (percussion and various forms of ethnic wood wailings) bland and uninteresting. But in between there are fantastic standout tracks that make it all worthwhile, and me very interested to hear more by him. Wow, I am suprised that more people aren't into the BSG scores. Although maybe I shouldn't be, because it took a while for it to pick up some traction. I mean, give him a break. It was his first major project out of school. Once he got going, some of his stuff was astonishing and just got better and better as it went along. Pick up the Season 4 soundtrack and you see what I mean. To me, these cues beat some of the stuff Zimmer and Silvestri have done lately, and are reasonably different in their own way: Pretty much, yeah. You can start to hear the Japanese sounds sneak into the Galactica 4 soundtrack, too, because he was working on both at the same time. The thing I love about SOCOM 4, though, is that there are like five or six very disparate styles mixed into one score...and it works pretty damn well. Yup, Human Target actually broke the record for largest ensemble ever assembled for a television episode. EDIT: Listening to DaVinci's Demons soundtrack. Pretty great. Check out a fine example of source music: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ABqqyjgsWVs

Oh, I thought he wrote it and The National only performed it. Huh, that's kind of ironic...how the best part of the score is not Djawadi...and also

Well, yes and no.

TV Show: DaVinci's Demons. I'm an enormous Bear McCreary fan and tend to play games/watch shows solely because he's doing the music (much like Williams). The main character theme is a musical palindrome! Also there's a lot of period instrumentation and such. Pretty neat. Movie: The Avengers (yes, I know I'm a little behind on my new movie quota ). Really love how a couple of the themes from Captain America: The First Avenger managed to spill over into the score, though I am surprised and a bit disappointed that The Hulk didn't get one. Fun score, but nothing earth-shattering.