Loert

Oh believe me, I've read all the wikipedia pages and I'm still confused!

Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975). Watched it for the second time. The first time I saw it was around 7 years ago, when I understood very little of the story, though the film did leave an impression on me (particularly the haunting ascent music). So I was hoping to understand some more this time round...with little luck. There's a subtle discontinuity about the whole film that makes it very dream-like. The sudden shifts in location, the deep sense that something is not right...from that point of view it's very well done. But other than that I still struggle to make heads or tails of it. Maybe that's the point. I feel like I need to visit a Freud or a Jung and ask them what the film means.

Maybe they were just really tired...

If you mean "theme" as in a melody that is re-used throughout the score, I don't think I could ever give a favourite, however the first theme that came to mind was the A.I. Theme, which I really adore. But I also really love the Slave Children's Crusade theme (its rendition in the ToD end credits is perhaps my favourite section in any JW score). If you mean "theme" as in a title theme/track, I would probably go for either The Towering Inferno titles, or The 1941 March.

FIX IT NAAAUUUUGHHHHH!!!!

...and then they told me they didn't have any more turtlenecks in stock...

I have the high ground!

I ugly-cried at the ending when I first saw it. One of my favourite films of all time. The score is really good. I find it slightly ironic that the most famous theme from the movie was written not by Ennio Morricone, but by his son. At least, that's what I've heard, the reality might be different.

And here is what it sounds like.

On the topic of cello concertos, here's one of my favourites...written by John Williams' composition teacher!

Timestamp?

I haven't listened to all Jerry Goldsmith, though a while ago I did go through a bunch of 15 minute suites of his scores on Youtube. But I'm still not that familiar with his Star Trek work, for example (in fact I'm listening to it now ) That said, my favourite so far is Total Recall. Someone who doesn't know anything about music might dismiss it as a silly action score, and in a way it is silly, but on closer inspection it reveals amazing artistry. And it's an enjoyable listen from start to finish. It's so hard to choose with Goldsmith, though, because all of his works are so diverse. With Williams, even though he has also written in different genres, I feel that you can always pick out a single internal language in his soundtrack work. With Goldsmith it's not so obvious, and he's better at being more chameleon-like. But then I've listened to far more Williams than Goldsmith, so that might just be a bias of mine. EDIT: Just finished listening to The Enterprise for the first time. As if I needed any more confirmation that Goldsmith is a genius! Brilliant track, almost a perfect encapsulation of epic/heroic musical tropes of that time (not in a bad way). Lots of Debussy influences.

Got to see him once at the Southbank Centre performing Chopin's Preludes. A formidable force of piano playing. RIP

Here is something I've been working on. It was originally intended as an exercise to get back into composing after at least a year of not doing anything. But I decided to publish it in the end. The idea was to pretend that I was writing a track for an Elder Scrolls game. I hope you like it! (Btw the fact that I used the same inspiration as @TheAvengerButton above is purely coincidental! We obviously just share similar tastes. )

What I would give to be in that room now...

Dum....dum..dum......

Takes a while to get used to the instrumentation but ultimately it's quite charming!

It should've been written out to me. On a more serious note, does a recording of the initial run-up exist anywhere?

It's impressive how full it sounds for a string quartet.

Beautiful Here's to many more years of the JWFAN community!

OK, if we're talking about the composer as a person, then I can't say there's anyone in the film music world I used to "like" but now "dislike". But I have certainly fallen out with some people's output. I think the big one for me is Hans Zimmer. He was my entry-point into film music ("Up is Down" from POTC 3 was one of my first loves). But I'm not such a huge fan of his latest work. I was listening to Dune the other day, and aside from the opening track which I found quite exhilirating, the rest left me cold. But because of his 90s/00s output I'm (still) convinced he is a musical genius.

Trigger warning:

Maybe JW is an alien? All his best music seems to be written with aliens in mind...

It would have to be the finale of CE3K for me (and that's not because of the subject matter). EDIT: But if you want something shorter, I would go with "Welcome to Jurassic Park".