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Beowulf

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Posts posted by Beowulf

  1. Emulating John Williams' style is no bad thing. And personally, I would love to have played this in High School Concert Band.

    Who knows, it might even get some youngsters interested in JW by proxy ;)

    I agree, it's no bad thing to emulate another composer's style. In the past, if I've been under a time-crunch I've flat-out stolen from Williams and others for tunes I was working on for our group...always because of the tight deadline, and only for small local performances where we play it once and "put it away." I've also been told in the past of some of my own original works that "your music sounds like John Williams!" My response is always "great!" There's worse people out there to be compared to! (ha) So yes, I agree that emulating his style isn't bad. And I also agree that this is a nice work for high school bands...if I were still teaching high school band then I'd potentially schedule this one on an end-of-the-year concert and also play it at graduation.

    I think my problem with this sort of thing isn't that he "emulated a style" (although this goes way past emulation). My problem is that he slapped his name on it, got it published, and earns money from it. That, to me, is downright dishonest. If he'd written it as an "homage" to Williams' work then that would be one thing, but this is passed off as his own creation.

    We can talk about how film composers steal from things all the time - and not that it makes it "OK" that it's the film world, but it's especially not something that you typically find in the world of published concert music. Yes, composers borrow and steal all the time, but they typically borrow and steal little snippets and ideas, not entire pieces of music that have been rewritten (poorly). Steve is a great writer, it just stumps me that he'd release something like this.

    But eh, I'm not gonna lose any sleep over it, just put it out there for discussion.

    I suppose I was a bit flippant with my remarks, but I can appreciate what you're saying from a professional point of view (especially in the areas of publishing and licensing). I was probably thinking more from an educational perspective and of the exposure of Williams' to musicians who are playing the piece. Then again, judging by when I was a kid and first starting out in Concert Band, Williams' medleys at some point throughout the concert season increasingly became a standard, so direct awareness of JW is more likely than not. And let's face it, I would say that nowadays, most of the general populace has been exposed to the music of JW whether they know it or not.

    Speaking of which, I'm sure I've heard a dodgy rip-off of the prolouge from 'Hook' in a trailer somewhere - my google-fu has failed me but I distinctly remember hearing it and being quite outraged at the time.

  2. Have you heard Williams very slow rendition of Goldsmith's ST:TMP theme?

    Indeed I have and it's always puzzled me as to why he conduted [conducts?] it at such a slow pace.

    But then again, maybe it's that old chestnut of us having heard the "original" version so many times that we have just gotten used to it.

    It has most definitely happened so many times to me with Classical music, where the first recording I hear of a piece instantly becomes imprinted on my brain so that any other tempi sounds wrong in my head (two good examples being the first movement "march" from Shostakovich's 7th Symphony, which I heard first as quite fast, and Debussy's Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune, which I first heard as being agonizingly slow - hearing either of these pieces played any other way just sounds wrong to me).

    Weird.

  3. Uhm.....OK

    Pointless? Perhaps, yes.

    Interesting? I guess so - especially here.

    Did I listen to the whole thing before getting bored? No.

    Since I'm so fond of and familiar with this track, this is like some big long tease. But I suppose it is interesting in a sort of academic way. It sounds like so many themes used on TV programs (and some movies) to relay the great unknown of infinite space or something (some parts sound to me like equal parts Star Trek: Generations or Sunshine even). The 'Journey to the Island' fanfare definitely sounds strange slowed down to such a degree and reminds me of Vangelis' Blade Runner.

    It also strikes me as something that would be played at an anti-rave or something.

  4. this one even samples unreleased HP music from 0:40 onwards

    I didn't even notice that the first time I heard it.

    The guy's got skills to be able to visually edit and mix together elements from the whole soundtrack of a film like he does.

  5. The very first time I think I've ever heard JW'smusic sampled - I can make out a few cues, but the context makes it difficult to isolate them in their original form. Still an interesting video.

    Check out the guy's other samples, especially 'Alice' from Disney's "Alice in Wonderland", which is sampled to great affect.

  6. Oy...I don't even own Hook

    Pardon my impertinence, but how can you not own a copy of Hook??

    It boggles my mind.

    But his most blatant lift is the first frantic 25 seconds of Stealing the Enterprise from Star Trek III

    Ripped from a section of Khachaturian or Prokofiev's work. I can't remember which one, now.

    I think you are referring to a segment from Prokofiev's 'Romeo And Juliet' (I vaguely remember it being one of the the fight scenes or some other such frantic and energetic moments from the ballet).

  7. Oh and Nick, yes I noticed her too. The hottie on the right ;)

    I don't know which hottie you were looking at, the one I assumed he was talking about was always on the left, next to a dude.

    Nah she is defo on the right. Are you sure you're not being drawn towards some random handsome dude who also plays violin? If so, don't be ashamed about it. :blink:

    Some individuals are attracted to males.

    Some individuals are attracted to females.

    ;)

    Now that everyone is amazed with such simple logic, let's move on.

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