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Cliff Eidelman.


Kevin

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Pity his career has gone down the toilet. His scores for Star Trek VI, Christopher Columbus: The Discovery, Madaglene, Triumph of the Spirit, and Free Willy 3 show how gifted a composer he was.

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I just discovered Christopher Columbus: The Discovery and indeed that seems to be a pretty good score.

Haven't listened to much outside the main theme yet, but it does sound promising.

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Yeah it's a shame he never took the next step after Star Trek VI.

Check out "Christopher Columbus: The Discovery"

That was pretty much his last really big and meaningful effort, and it's damn good.

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Yeah it's a shame he never took the next step after Star Trek VI.

Check out "Christopher Columbus: The Discovery"

That was pretty much his last really big and meaningful effort, and it's damn good.

(Cough)StarTrekVI:TheUndiscoveredCountry(cough)

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  • 8 years later...

This may have already been posted in the Star Trek Discovery thread, but I wouldn't know because I'm avoiding the spoilers there.

https://io9.gizmodo.com/listen-to-this-short-album-of-unused-star-trek-discove-1819950947

Haven't listened to it yet either, but I'm massively surprised this is even a thing!

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Many composers submitted materials for this project and I think Cliff Eidelman's effort was very impressive and I would have loved to hear it on the show. I only saw the first hour since I don't have CBS all access so don't know what became of the story line but I think many of us assumed it would be in the vein of a modern version of the other Star Trek story (Gene Roddenberry's vision). 

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7 hours ago, The Doctor said:

Not as bad as the theme they went with, but pretty lackluster. Does every composer suck now?

They are on par with every ST writer of the last 10 years.  So, to answer your question, "yes, they do."  

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18 hours ago, The Doctor said:

Not as bad as the theme they went with, but pretty lackluster. Does every composer suck now?

 

The brief for the theme must have sucked.

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  • 5 years later...
26 minutes ago, Marian Schedenig said:

I should give me CD of that a metaphorical spin again, I have no recollection of the score at all.

Given the subject matter it's naturally fairly intense at times, but well worth a spin. I have a feeling I recalled this having not especially great sound so if he's had the opportunity to improve that, then great.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Finally got round to the remastered Triumph of the Spirit and it really is quite the improvement - who knows why the original sounded so terrible, but I'm glad he was able to go back to the original tapes and produce a vastly improved release of a very fine score. Having not listened to it in a while, the rather strident Main Title feels a bit over the top but it soon becomes a lot darker and haunting, with some very fine choral writing, notably The Slaughter and Death March which are both as chilling as you might suppose, although there are some more  hopeful moments as in Mercy on to (unto?) Us. It does all feel a bit more like what one might expect the score to a Hollywood score for a film about the Holocaust to sound like, with a considerably more grandiose approach compared to the understatement of Schindler's List. Still, as a standalone piece of music, a superb score and, were it not for the subject matter, would likely be mentioned in the same breath as Star Trek VI as one of Eidelman's finest works.

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40 minutes ago, Tom Guernsey said:

Finally got round to the remastered Triumph of the Spirit

First time I hear about this score. I saw the trailer and it seems very interesting! Have you seen the film?

By the way, which is the remastered soundtrack?

I see here 2 releases in 1989:

https://www.soundtrackcollector.com/title/2732/Triumph+Of+The+Spirit

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17 minutes ago, filmmusic said:

By the way, which is the remastered soundtrack?

I see here 2 releases in 1989:

https://www.soundtrackcollector.com/title/2732/Triumph+Of+The+Spirit

 

The remaster has only been released digitally. I posted more details in this FSM thread:

https://www.filmscoremonthly.com/board/posts.cfm?threadID=151059&forumID=1&archive=0

 

Only $7.49 for CD quality lossless download from Qobuz!

 

Yavar

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27 minutes ago, filmmusic said:

First time I hear about this score. I saw the trailer and it seems very interesting! Have you seen the film?

By the way, which is the remastered soundtrack?

I see here 2 releases in 1989:

https://www.soundtrackcollector.com/title/2732/Triumph+Of+The+Spirit

I've not seen the film but it seems to be moderately well regarded. I just enjoyed the music as a standalone listening experience (as with most scores to be fair!). The two releases listed there are just the original US (Varese) and European (Colosseum) releases. The new release, as Yavar said, is digital only and is on Tempest Music so make sure you pick that version when buying!

 

Qobuz: https://www.qobuz.com/gb-en/album/triumph-of-the-spirit-original-motion-picture-soundtrack-cliff-eidelman/eqwty7oe7p8mc (inexplicably £8.99 in the UK, versus $7.49 in the US, although still a pretty decent price!).

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I'm just listening to it at spotify!

Quite good score (I'm on track 14).

I cannot detect a theme though at first listen..

Is there a main theme a la Schindler's List?

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  • 2 months later...

Eidelman's LEAP OF FAITH was released today, on Paramount Music. I've loved the cue on his SELECTED FILM MUSIC promo compilation forever, and it's great to finally have a whole soundtrack; a nice and tidy 24 minutes worth. Beautiful score, although the film looks like a proper cheeseball.

 

http://filmmusicreporter.com/2023/07/13/cliff-eidelmans-leap-of-faith-score-to-be-released/

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1 hour ago, Thor said:

Eidelman's LEAP OF FAITH was released today, on Paramount Music. I've loved the cue on his SELECTED FILM MUSIC promo compilation forever, and it's great to finally have a whole soundtrack; a nice and tidy 24 minutes worth. Beautiful score, although the film looks like a proper cheeseball.

 

http://filmmusicreporter.com/2023/07/13/cliff-eidelmans-leap-of-faith-score-to-be-released/

Just listened to it.

Nothing extraordinary, but nice! :up:

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I will make it my life's mission to recommend a score to you that you find extraordinary! ;)

 

On 22/04/2023 at 6:20 PM, Jurassic Shark said:

Give us MacGyver!

 

Were you perhaps thinking of Randy Edelman here, JS? I can understand the confusion -- Cliff Eidelman, Randy Edelman, Stephen Endelman.....

 

Incidentally, the best MACGYVER score wasn't written by Edelman (not sure how much he did beyond the theme anyway; wasn't most of it done by Dennis McCarthy?), but by Ken Harrison, for the TV film THE LOST TREASURE OF ATLANTIS from 1994. Wish that got a release some day. But a MACGYVER boxed set would be nice anyway. I know that Norwegians and Germans would be particularly thrilled, as he was/is bigger here than he ever was in the US.

 

Sorry for the off-topicness. Back to Eidelman and the premiere release of LEAP OF FAITH!

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6 minutes ago, Thor said:

I will make it my life's mission to recommend a score to you that you find extraordinary! ;)

Haha. I think I have listened to all the extraordinaries!

Maybe I have grown too old to be impressed any more.

I am still impressed by films/soundtracks I know from the past, but nothing new...

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I think there's plenty more for you to discover. We just need super specific parameters to work with. For example, I think I've gleaned that you prefer traditional orchestral scores that subscribe to a neo-romantic tonal language. An extension of the very tradition Cliff Eidelman represents, in fact. So it's just a matter of specifying. For example, are you familiar with the scores for Japanese Taiga dramas? I feel fairly confident that you would enjoy something like Yoko Kanno's score for ONNA JOSHU NAOTORA and Yugo Kanno's score for GUNSHI KANBEE. 

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7 minutes ago, Thor said:

For example, are you familiar with the scores for Japanese Taiga dramas? I feel fairly confident that would enjoy something like Yoko Kanno's score for ONNA JOSHU NAOTORA and Yugo Kanno's score for GUNSHI KANBEE. 

No. What is a taiga drama?

I enjoy Yoko Kanno's score for the first story of the anime MEMORIES.

I'm currently listening to this. Is it representative of the style you mention?

It's quite good.

 

edit: Oh, found it at spotify:

 

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3 minutes ago, filmmusic said:

No. What is a taiga drama?

 

I'm no expert, and I'm too lazy to google at the moment, but it's this annual Japanese TV drama, set in historical times, that encompasses generations of storytelling.

 

3 minutes ago, filmmusic said:

I'm currently listening to this. Is it representative of the style you mention?

 

Sure, and even more spectacular cues than that.

 

Sorry again for the off-topicness.

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5 hours ago, Thor said:

Eidelman's LEAP OF FAITH was released today, on Paramount Music. I've loved the cue on his SELECTED FILM MUSIC promo compilation forever, and it's great to finally have a whole soundtrack; a nice and tidy 24 minutes worth. Beautiful score, although the film looks like a proper cheeseball.

 

http://filmmusicreporter.com/2023/07/13/cliff-eidelmans-leap-of-faith-score-to-be-released/


STOP THE PRESSES! We found a COMPLETE SCORE RELEASE (expanded 10 minutes longer than the old composer promo, even, because it includes cues recorded for but not used in the film) that Thor approves of! 😜 

 

Great news all around!
 

Yavar

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1 hour ago, Thor said:

Amazing to think that Eidelman is now 58 years old. He looks much younger.

 

He didn't have much Hollywood wear and tear to wear him down…

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  • 9 months later...

I listened to Magdalene yesterday, and I found it a great score, although there are a couple of obvious "influences" from Mozart's Requiem.

Check it out if you haven't yet.

 

Magdalene_MAF7029D.jpg

 

Pity that he has disappeared from the film music world!

(Although to tell you the truth, I've only listened to 3 scores in total by him)

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