Datameister

Actually, I find Anakin's theme's complexity to be its one fault. An ever-so-slightly simpler theme might have been more suitable, though it's a beautiful theme nonetheless. Good point...me too. I guess it all depends on how we define complexity. The Imperial March is not so much complex as it is harmonically unconventional.

I have a "The Well of Souls" that runs 5:32...is that the full length one? If so, I'd be happy to send it to you, Jerry. Just send me a PM.

Just a few... * Mark Mancina's overture for The Haunted Mansion--the complete version from the film, not the truncated and grievously remixed version on the "Haunted Hits" album. * Anything Indiana Jones or Star Wars, with RotLA and ROTS getting the most attention, respectively. (That's not to say I prefer ROTS over all the other SW scores...it just happens to come up a lot in shuffle.) * "The Egg Travels" from James Newton Howard's Dinosaur. Absolutely incredible cue once you get past the forty seconds of bassoon and quiet percussion. Conducting that piece is a chill-inducing experience, especially if at the 2:25 mark you edit into that (in)famous passage from Drop Zone's "Too Many Notes - Not Enough Rests" with a little bit of that Dm add#4 chord from the end of "Padme's Visit" to help the transition. I will defend that particular Zimmer passage to the death, since it's from one of his early and more original scores. It's just too fun for me to ignore. So shoot me already.

Then the film should have been beaten until it conformed to the music! Kidding. You're right.

Excellent point. The chord progression of that thing is by no means conventional, and the melody isn't particularly simple.

Well, no one's perfect. It's actually a perfectly reasonable thing to want. So says the man whose avatar is Jerry Goldsmith. No, in all seriousness, I can understand him deciding against using that theme. I was just trying to say that it's a good theme--as is Courage's original Star Trek main theme, as well as Horner's work for TWOK.

Well, no one's perfect.

No! A film composers first job is to serve the film, not to pay homage to a composer that was involved with a previous film? Not even Horner did that for his Trek score, why should Davis? Point taken--though I'd say Horner's attempt at TWOK was an excellent one, with a lot more merit than Davis' JPIII. Anyway, you are right, to a certain degree. I guess it's not so much a matter of needing to pay tribute to the other composer as it is a matter of connecting better to the audience. In my opinion, scores like POA and TWOK and TLW can be very, very good, but they would benefit enormously from a little more thematic continuity. Whether or not the original composer is doing the writing is kind of irrelevant--it's just generally a good idea to have some thematic continuity.

In all fairness, Stefan, isn't it a little different to decide against using your own themes than to pick up after a world-renowned composer and ignore his work? Damo, keep in mind that most of us are listening to the OST release of JPIII, an album that used very little music from the previous films. While there may have been some unreleased cues that copy Williams note for note, much of the music isn't like that. I disagree about the original Jurassic Park. The pacing of the film and the quality of the music are more frightening to me than The Lost World. Cues like "High Wire Stunts" and "T-Rex Finale" are extraordinarily well-written, and while they may not be traditional horror movie music, they convey a lot of fear and chaos to me. I like the score to TLW, but it doesn't inspire as much trepidation in me. Ironically, the same thing happened for me with the first Harry Potter movie and the fourth. Many people (mostly not on this forum) said that Doyle's GOF score was much darker than any of the previous Potter scores, but I disagree completely. HP:SS had a lot of bright, celesta-heavy music, yes, but it also had rather frightening cues like the one from the scene in the Forbidden Forest. The big statements of Hedwig's theme with horn and choir sound anything but cheerful to me, and Williams' themes for Voldemort are top-notch. Doyle's GOF just seems cheesy, generic, and not very dark at all by comparison.

Yeah, that's the one! Cool stuff.

I'd like that a lot. He'd do a fantastic job, I'm sure. That man has such an unbelievably good feel for pacing and mood. I have to say, I'm thoroughly impressed with the recording that was put together for the Indiana Jones Adventure at Disneyland in California. The arrangement is very well done--fits the ride perfectly, with some sections fitting the ride even better than they fit those parts of the films--and the performance itself is impressive, too, although some parts of it seem comparitively tame when you listen to the brash sound of the early-80s LSO. That Ark theme statement when you first see the bridge over the lava pit, though...man! "Tame" is hardly the right word for that. On a side note, it's really interesting to compare the random string pizzicatos from "In the Idol's Temple" with the same passage in the bug room from the ride. The original recording feels more like the large spiders that pad their way across Indy's jacket, while the Disneyland re-recording sounds more like lots of hard-shelled, fast-moving beetles. I think it has to do with the fact that the original recording wasn't mic-ed as well; one of the violins is seated too close, and his/her pluckings are more audible than everyone else's. For some reason, that less uniform sound makes me think of spiders. What the heck... By the way, does anyone know how that passage was originally notated? I'd imagine it was just a black bar with something like pizz. ad libitum written over it...anyone happen to know for sure? Sorry, I'm done obsessing now. You may return to your scheduled programming.

CE3K's "Wild Signals" is pretty bizarre and unlike anything else I've heard Williams write, with the exception of some parts of "Threepio's Bedtime Story."

Since when was Philip Glass a household name? Ironically, source cues like those seem very Williams-like to me. I know they don't fit the popular idea of his music, but he's written a number of source cues that have that sort of sound. I'm not too fond of them, actually...they sound just a little too esoteric. I haven't heard any of The Sugarland Express except the theme (courtesy of the "Spielberg/Williams Collaboration" album), and I don't think I'd ever have guessed it was Williams' work. The fact that he uses harmonica is definitely a big part of it, but a lot of the composition itself doesn't scream "Williams!" at me. The exception is some of the string writing in the middle. I like that piece, I must admit.

I like that passage, muehlopwer.

The expanded RotLA release is worth it, if for no other reason than the weird, panicky music in "Desert Chase" for the scene when Belloq is getting in the truck. Back to ESB...well, I don't own anything but the SE, but I'm not a huge fan of soundtracks that are edited down to improve the flow. I prefer the way the OT SEs were released--more or less complete, with the cues in film order and mostly unedited. Besides, do I remember correctly that the only cues that have substantially better sound quality in the anthology release are ones from ROTJ?

That's the thing about using recordings from different time periods, recording studios, ensembles, and/or conductors...you end up with very noticeable edits. That's an interesting idea, TheGreatEye...I think I remember someone on this board trying that, but I can't remember who, unfortunately.

"Jabba's Baroque Recital" comes to mind. What an odd little gem...sort of. "Dennis Steals the Embryo" is often cited as an un-Williams-esque cue--and I mostly agree with that, although some of the horn writing reminds me of certain chords in RotLA.

No worries; that happened a long time ago.

Right now, it's so tempting to reply sarcastically and/or write some very not nice things about a few members of this board...but no. Just no. Whatever. Anyway, Heady206, welcome to JWfan. If you're patient, you'll find a lot of valuable and interesting information here. I've got to tell you, though, your question is too broad. Do you want to know more about his personal life? His compositional techniques? Which films he's written music for? Perhaps you want reviews of his soundtracks, or you just want some free downloads. In any of these cases, you're sure to find at least a little bit of information already online. If you have a specific question, go ahead and ask; someone will probably know the answer and be happy to tell you. But as the kind folks of JWfan have just demonstrated for you, it's rather difficult to start a new thread here and not have at least one member respond negatively, so choose your battles and try not to take offense at all the pointless bickering. There's enough of that in these parts to make Tarkin puke.

I think I may swoon. The love here is overwhelming. Anyway, if I'm thinking of the same percussion feature you are, Damo, I don't particularly enjoy it. I've heard (and played) worse, but it's really just a basic ostinato being played over and over again with minor changes. A lot of that score generally comes off as annoying to me. "Slalom on Mt. Humol," "Bug Tunnel and Death Trap," "Nocturnal Activities," and "The Mine Car Chase" contain some very fun music, but most of the remainder of the score bothers me. The extent to which I prefer RotLA is pretty incredible. If you really want to hear an incredible Williams percussion feature, try the one in ANH's "Land of the Sandpeople." HP:SS has another great one in "The Chess Game." Both of these make imaginative use of large percussion sections; they're made all the better by the rest of the orchestra contributing accents, string tremolos, and so on.

Since I've made many--no, most of my friends through music activities, they all know me as their resident John Williams fanatic. Well, that's my title when I'm not assuming that of "local Disneyland freak." B)

If copyright issues can be worked out and if I have enough time at some point, I'd love to do some free arranging. "The Egg Travels" would be a particular joy to arrange...maybe I can do that over the summer. The only definite snag I'm seeing is the fact that I can't create PDFs of my music; I own Finale 2006, but I don't have Adobe Acrobat. Best of luck to you and your ensemble.

At first, I felt the same way when I heard the generic drum beats in the middle of the ROTS theatrical trailer. It felt like it was removing me from the genre, but it grew on me over time.

Well, it certainly brightened up my day. How 'bout you guys?

I like movies plenty--more than I often admit to myself, actually--but film scores are a bigger passion of mine. These days, I experience movies through their music. At any given point in a movie, I try to be thinking about the score at least a little bit. Sometimes, listening to the music takes up 70 or 80% of my brainpower; I start transcribing in my head, working out the piano fingerings, deciding if the bass line would be more appropriately played in simple octaves or as part of chordal figures in the left hand, etc. The movie itself may be disappointing (and these days, they often are), but an enjoyable score will keep me happy...usually. Take TPM for example. It was not a great movie. But it had a complex, intelligent, fun score. If it had been scored with cheap synths and trite melodies, my opinion of the whole film would be dragged down. My enjoyment of the score has quite a large bearing on my enjoyment of the movie.