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John Powell kicks ass


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Finally I can listen to The Prussian Requiem again! I remember the concert at the Royal Festival Hall like it was yesterday. The entire piece was great, but it was the last part, "The Gift" which created a kind of electric atmosphere in the auditorium. In the recording, from about 6:00 in that track you can hear the voices of the tenor and bass become distant; this is because they both turn 180 degrees to face the choir standing and singing wordlessly behind the orchestra. It's one of those moments in music where everything falls into place and you feel that the musicians together go beyond merely "playing the notes" and seem to reach into some transcendental sphere. Gosh I get chills listening to it right now! Anyone who's a fan of English classical music in the style of RVW should certainly give The Prussian Requiem a listening.

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Well, i know nothing of music theory, but this hurts my head quite bad:

 

Powell has a blatant tendency to write his themes with this one particular writing style:

 

Recently in hubris (0:28 - 0-54) :

 

and the of course Chewie's theme (especially during this highlighted part):

 

and then there is a theme from HTTYd 2:

 

i picked only three examples,

but you guys hear the similarity in writing style?

It's hard to find the appropriate term, but it sounds like the notes is "spiralling", hill-y, elongated, swaying...(?).. i give up.

 

Can anybody here shine a light to this? the musical term and such?

 

 

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2 hours ago, PrayodiBA said:

It's hard to find the appropriate term, but it sounds like the notes is "spiralling", hill-y, elongated, swaying...(?).. i give up.

 

Can anybody here shine a light to this? the musical term and such?

 

You're close. The proper term is "Spiralling Hill-y Elongated Swaying Chord Sliding". ;)

 

I can give a rough indication of what is going on. Basically, Powell loves using basic triadic chords and progressions and doesn't shy away from them when he feels it necessary. All those examples have quite rapid chord progressions of such basic chords. The fact that the chord changes are RAPID (i.e. almost every note has a different harmony) contributes to the "spiralling" sensation, whereas the fact that the chords have different lengths gives the swaying sensation and helps emphasise stronger and weaker points in the melody, hence giving a sense of hierarchy. The hill-y aspect comes from the melody's smooth contour (up--->.....down------>, not up down up down etc...) 

 

Those examples actually sound quite folk-ish to me, like a faster version of this:

 

Play it at 2x speed. Not saying that this is folk but perhaps you can hear what I'm getting at.

 

That's a start, anyway...

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4 minutes ago, kaseykockroach said:

Williams uses brass a lot.

 

Percussion too.

5 minutes ago, Fal said:

@Loert He (Williams) really seems to like horns going D Eb Db/E F Eb

 

You are right.

 

 

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4 hours ago, Loert said:

 

You're close. The proper term is "Spiralling Hill-y Elongated Swaying Chord Sliding". ;)

 

I can give a rough indication of what is going on. Basically, Powell loves using basic triadic chords and progressions and doesn't shy away from them when he feels it necessary. All those examples have quite rapid chord progressions of such basic chords. The fact that the chord changes are RAPID (i.e. almost every note has a different harmony) contributes to the "spiralling" sensation, whereas the fact that the chords have different lengths gives the swaying sensation and helps emphasise stronger and weaker points in the melody, hence giving a sense of hierarchy. The hill-y aspect comes from the melody's smooth contour (up--->.....down------>, not up down up down etc...) 

 

Those examples actually sound quite folk-ish to me, like a faster version of this:

 

Play it at 2x speed. Not saying that this is folk but perhaps you can hear what I'm getting at.

 

That's a start, anyway...

Thank you so much for your time! Just what i was looking for, and i will get to learn more based on your answer. 

 

the obvious fact that you are the very expert at this is when you successfully justifed my nonsensical terms with logical explanations, that i could understand. Thank you again!

 

----

The happy feet 2 times faster part actualy reminds me of Arabian-Grand Bazaar music.

As a matter of fact, hearing them again, all of the examples do sound kinda Arabic.

 

4 hours ago, Fal said:

It's pretty much in every score by Powell: Horton etc.

Yeah, hahaha

Well, i guess i have to settle with that being Powell's style, period.

 

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I like that Qi’ra theme. Sounds okay on my computer, but I’ll make an MP3 of it and listen in my car to see how it sounds. Jolly decent of the audience to withhold their applause till the conductor relaxes his arms.

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The analysis on this page could explain why I find Powell's themes so memorable - the 'sliding' nature of them and constant chord changes really seems to excite me. Even though some of them are quite simple in construction, they're still memorable.

 

A lot of other composers also use a wandering style, but I think their use of chords must be different or more static.

 

His action material is occasionally OTT, with too much going on (first HTTYD especially), but his melodies.... sublime.

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I've been trying to figure out a proper way to articulate this, but I'm at a loss, so I'll just throw it out there and see if any conversation ignites from whatever inanity I spew out.

I've always found that there's something particularly distinctive about Powell's handling of flutes. I can't put my finger on what it is, but there's a specific consistent way flutes sound in his scores that often grab my ears. 

I don't know how to describe it. I'm hoping someone who knows how to actually talk about musical terms can elaborate.

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12 hours ago, kaseykockroach said:

I've been trying to figure out a proper way to articulate this, but I'm at a loss, so I'll just throw it out there and see if any conversation ignites from whatever inanity I spew out.

I've always found that there's something particularly distinctive about Powell's handling of flutes. I can't put my finger on what it is, but there's a specific consistent way flutes sound in his scores that often grab my ears. 

I don't know how to describe it. I'm hoping someone who knows how to actually talk about musical terms can elaborate.

 

Can you give an example?

 

Do you mean something like this?

 

 

 

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1 hour ago, Loert said:

 

Can you give an example?

 

Do you mean something like this?

 

 

This track is currently one of my favourites.

 

Karol

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2 hours ago, kaseykockroach said:

Yes, precisely!

 

Maybe you mean the double-tonguing that flautists do when playing fast notes? So like this:

 

 

Only that Powell would usually write for multiple flutes together, like this:

 

 

I think in general Powell treats the flute more as a staccato instrument than a legato instrument. He does legato passages too but his usage of staccato, ballet-style flutes is quite distinct.

 

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q: "from scale 1 - 10, how hard is it to play John Powell's music?"

a:

( This is the only guy who successfully recorded the concert from Malaga, that i could find )

 

Amazing suite from Powell, as always

 

If only Powell could do concert in Asian region :(

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Yeah, that concert was great. I was also quite impressed by the A Prussian Requiem two days before. 

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  • 3 weeks later...
  • 2 weeks later...

 

 

Hmm, the concert must be really behind schedule because the broadcast is like 15 minutes late...

 

Now 45 minutes late... Maybe he messed up the times??

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With the release of American Dreams, i tried to hear Bergensen's previous efforts again

 

And this track :

(mind the audio volume)

 

 

First, it is nice for Powell to have been able to create his own music style, but..

How could anyone other than Powell could well imitate and emulate his style easily, and with sophistication, such as that track..!??

...............

 

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 2 months later...

Just be warned,several of those older Powell scores had weird album presentation where cues had to be split apart. They play together without a gap, but any cues that use choir had to be split into bits to avoid some kind of choir use fee, or something like that.

It's not a bother when you're playing the score all at once, but when you want to listen to particular cues, one has to do some combining work on iTunes. 

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  • 3 weeks later...

So was this mentioned before and I just missed it?

 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Who’s coming to @httydragon in concert in Lucerne? #JohnPowell #soundtrack #howtotrainyourdragon #httyd

A post shared by John Powell (@johnj_powell) on

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