SteveMc

Well, to be fair, there is more clarity than there is anything particularly new.
Still, the string and percussion figure at the start fits in quite nicely with the brass for me.  In general, I feel the percussion is used quite tastefully.
 

Well, to be fair, there is more clarity than there is anything particularly new.
Still, the string and percussion figure at the start fits in quite nicely with the brass for me.  In general, I feel the percussion is used quite tastefully.
 

It is a fine piece for what it is.  The clarity and creativity of the orchestrations excites me a bit, though.  Hope to hear some of that in IX.

*theme plays* 
This is a Galactic Breaking News Update
"Good Evening.  This report is just in.  Emperor Palpatine had dissolved the Imperial Senate.  We go live now to our reporters on the ground in Coruscant."

Along with other events such as his arrangements for Annie Sophie Mutter that span a huge amount of time in his work, his greenlighting of all these specialty releases, and all of this Star Wars music, I get the impression John Williams has entered a more self-reflexive stage of his career in the arena of film scores. With the Star Wars music we've gotten these past few years, it sounds to me like he takes these assignments on with a sense of "Oh, how fun will it be to do more Star Wars!" Like there's more of a distance between himself and what he's doing for these things, if that makes sense.

There are a few passages in there that could make for some excellent themes. 

Uh...what the heck?!? Just saw this on the Entertainment Weekly site!!
 
https://ew.com/movies/2018/11/17/john-williams-new-music-disney-star-wars-theme-parks/
 
 

There's a squirrel in here somewhere.

Oh the trumpet tune.  No ideas there, other than a warmer take on the classic Copland.  I can make no claims as to whether or not its his best score of course, but favorite, yeah, it is here.  For me Horner is like Newman.  There's much overlap between scores, and you can hear recurring ideas getting tried out in different ways.  You sort of pick your favorite package.  Populist, syrupy, maybe, but I have lots of time for this rather tightly composed and no note gone to waste score.  Many fond memories of stoned listening.
 
 

I guess the main revelation for me was seeing just how widely that beginning motif in the horns is used throughout the score. I didn't really pay attention to it before seeing the notes on paper, but it's everywhere.
 
One thing I found peculiar was the voicing of that last  "kiss" chord towards the end of "A New Life" (the loud one here at 2:08). I always thought that it felt incomplete in some way, or at least that it made the music feel that it was still heading somewhere. Well, I think I finally know why. Typically, with tutti orchestral chords, the rule is that the brass, wind and strings fill out the entire pitch range on their own (so, if you were to isolate the brass, you would have the trumpets at the top, and the tuba playing the bass note, with trombones and horns in between - you wouldn't just have the trombones playing, for instance). In this case, Goldsmith had the wind and brass play the full range, but he leaves a big gaping hole in the mid-range of the strings. Basically, the violins play A#4 C#5 F#5, the basses play F#0, and the cellos play F#1. That's it! There's nothing in between F#1 and A#4 - that's over three octaves. The violists aren't even playing anything at that moment, even though they were playing during the crescendo a few seconds prior. What this does I suppose is give the brass and wind more dominance over the chord sound, and it seems to give the chord a more organic feel, than if you just had the entire string section playing as well. I've never seen anything like it - usually you might see just the high strings playing, or just the low strings - but not the high and low with a gaping hole in the middle (though I believe Stravinsky may have done stuff like that...)
 

Way to rep Vermont JWFans, Archer, that's a solid list! 
 
Come to think of it, does that mean JWFans make up half the population of Vermont?

I am waiting for a Lord of the Rings spin-off, The Lord of the Rings - Detective Gandalf. The LotR people would surely come.

Bespin was a visionary!
Btw, I haven't been on the Discord in a long time.  What have I missed?

Poor Bespin was too ahead of his time!!

This point to the end.
 
 
 
Anyone else ever listen to really short snippets of music over and over and experience something like a repeated word losing its meaning, except in this case the music seems to actually gain some mysterious meaning instead? 1:54 to 1:58
 
 

And it works. And gets me every time. It is almost unbearably poignant.
 
The ending of Toy Story 3 makes me skeptical of the existence of this film. Why ruin something so perfect.

Great emotion. It's there.
 

and for those of you like me who want more of Douglas Rain's soothingly damaged voice, here is the Pre-2001 documentary he narrated that is excellent and very influential in the look, feel, and tone of 2001.  Aside from Hal 9000's Douglas Rain narrating this early space age journey through the galaxy, the then state of the art special effects artist for this short film worked on 2001 and Star Trek The Motion Picture.
 
 
I love retro sci-fi and this stuff is the pinnacle of it.

The original Cars is brilliant.  

.

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/stan-lee-marvel-comics-legend-721450

GLADIATOR RETURNS
GLADIATOR FOREVER (directed by Joel Schumacher)

I was listening to John Powell's Prussian Requiem last night. Seemed like the most fitting occasion yesterday. I know know this album by heart.
 
Karol

If a girl played violin like her in high school, I would've taken her to as many Twilight viewings as she wanted in an attempt to earn her love.