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Mulan


Pieter Boelen

Mulan (Jerry Goldsmith)  

42 members have voted

  1. 1. How do you rate this score?

    • 5 stars
      13
    • 4,5 stars
      11
    • 4 stars
      7
    • 3,5 stars
      2
    • 3 stars
      3
    • 2,5 stars
      1
    • 2 stars
      0
    • 1,5 stars
      1
    • 1 stars
      2
    • I'm not familiar with this score
      2


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Every few days I will post a thread on a random score from my collection that we can discuss and rate. I made a playlist on my computer with one track of each score I've got, so by using the random play option, I'll be able to post a truly random score each time. Hopefully this will allow us to discuss some scores that would otherwise never be discussed. Also we can record the rating so that we can create a full list of the ratings given to scores by JWFan.com.

Today's score is Mulan by Jerry Goldsmith. Are you familiar with it? What do you like about it? What don't you like about it? How do do you think it works in the film? What are your favourite tracks?

Mulan_Spanish_Soundtrack_Cover.jpg

So far JWFan has rated:

See Soundtrack Ratings by JWFan.com.

This web page contains the ratings from all my previous polls as well as those of Blumenkohl's.

Final ratings are converted to a 1-10 rating for both rating systems so that they can be compared.

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5 stars from me. One of my definite favourite Goldsmith scores.

The beautiful music is beautiful, the action music is very impressive and the Chinese atmosphere makes it special.

Of course the original soundtrack is severely lacking, but thankfully there's greatly expanded promo's floating around.

As for the cover, I wanted to post something that is a bit original.

I've seen the English one too often.

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The score is overrated in my opinion, the soft and action bits seem like they are coming from somewhere else. 3 stars.

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4.5 from me - wish there was more material.

I must say that I love listening to scores in the Chinese style and idiom, especially when "Western" composers put their take on it. I guess this is evident in that one of my favorite themes/cues used in any film is Short Rounds theme, whereby JW tries his hand at a simple Chinese-inspired melody that is used brilliantly throughout the score and film.

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4.5, a very solid score that was just as deserving as any previous Disney one that won an Oscar. To hell with the songs, it's the actual score that counts.The original CD release is poor, thankfully I was able to locate the actual "For Your Consideration" Promo.

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4 stars. And although they're not by Goldsmith, I actually like most of the songs (Matchmaker in particular). I still find it interesting that Goldsmith used song material in the suite.

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I love the instrumental arrangement of Matthew Wilder's "Honor to Us All" for the main titles.

Honor to Us All has to be one of the most catchiest tunes I've ever heard. The last time I had to actually sit through Mulan while watching it with my neice, I had the song stuck in my head for days afterwards. It's one of those songs that is just well-written, orchestrated, and performed.

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I love the instrumental arrangement of Matthew Wilder's "Honor to Us All" for the main titles.

Honor to Us All has to be one of the most catchiest tunes I've ever heard. The last time I had to actually sit through Mulan while watching it with my neice, I had the song stuck in my head for days afterwards. It's one of those songs that is just well-written, orchestrated, and performed.

It is ridiculously catchy. Goldsmith wrote some good stuff, too, of course, but "Honor to Us All" always sticks out in my mind when I think about this film/score.

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I love the instrumental arrangement of Matthew Wilder's "Honor to Us All" for the main titles.

Honor to Us All has to be one of the most catchiest tunes I've ever heard. The last time I had to actually sit through Mulan while watching it with my neice, I had the song stuck in my head for days afterwards. It's one of those songs that is just well-written, orchestrated, and performed.

It is ridiculously catchy. Goldsmith wrote some good stuff, too, of course, but "Honor to Us All" always sticks out in my mind when I think about this film/score.

I agree - I guess it follows through with what I mention earlier up in this thread about Chinese music in general. There must be something strangely hypnotic about using the pentatonic scale, and I actually remember reading something about Claude Debussy and how upon hearing Balinese Gamelan music for the first time, he was struck by the sheer simplicity in form and effect of using that scale, since he himself was trained in the Western tradition. He was so impressed that he even started using such conventions in his own music, if I recall correctly.

But then again, I'm no musicologist so what do I know!

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Goldsmith had an uncanny ability to evoke Asian melodies quite authentically. His Tora Tora Tora has got one of my favorite Japanese themes of all time. It's amazing how he really got the essence of the cultural musical attributes in that and other similar scores. I really like Memoirs of a Geisha but to me, it sounds like a mishmash of Tan Dun and Takemitsu, The latter is fine but the former is Chinese and there is a world of difference between the musics between cultures. Believe me, any Chinese or Japanese person will tell you so.

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The best thing is the action music, short as it is. That heroic fanfare for Mulan as a warrior was this big 'he's still got it' moment for me when first seeing the film.

I found the songs beyond terrible...with Goldsmith's 'sensitive girl' theme not far behind. Those Disney stereotypes really must have gotten these composers/songwriters desperate.

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The songs are fantastic. The score is phenomenal. I remember when I saw the movie in the theater When the attack on the mountain started, I felt Jerry deserved the Oscar.

I was in tears when he lost the Oscar to an inferior score (Shakespeare in Love). And then I was inconsolable when John Williams lost to Life is Beautiful five minutes later.

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Score's terrific, varied, very listenable. I'm a bit pissed off that it's attached to a weak movie with the least impressive collection of songs in any Disney animated flick (that I'm familiar with). I don't think the score is quite the classic that others make it out to be, though.

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