Michael Giacchino's LOST (2004-2010) - live concert tour in 2024

[BLUMENKOHL 1,068]

This cue is not on the disc, but the theme is well represented on the Season 5 CD (Track 9 Le Fleur). I think it makes up for it.

Karol

That's like being OK with not including the last minute of the Attack of the Clones credits...because well...TPM and ESB already covered two of those themes, and the love theme was already in Across the Stars.

[Jay 37,351]

Wow, I missed that the first (only) time watching the episode but yea, that should have made the cut on the first season 6 OST, especially in place of the two bonus tracks that ended up being on the next CD anyway.

I'm still hopefully that Varese releases a "More Music From" type CD of additional cues from all 6 seasons. Each season features some great cues that should have been released. Would be nice if they did like Robert Kraft did for the Elfman Burton box and and asked fans for their direct input, but that will NEVER happen, ESPECIALLY because it's Varese

[crocodile 8,006]

I am perfectly satisfied with these discs as they are. It was more than I expected.

Karol

[Jay 37,351]

That doesn't mean you wouldn't also enjoy another CD release just as much

[crocodile 8,006]

That's probably true.

Karol

[Sweetmeats 2]

I'm still hopeful we'll get a recording of the live symphony.

[Datameister 2,042]

The concert Giacchino did at UCLA last year was absolutely top-notch. The content couldn't have been identical to the symphony thing they did in Hawaii, since it included music from season 6, and it stayed more true to the sound of the original music.

It would be great to have a good recording of either or both. I'd be more likely to pay for the Hawaii one, since I wasn't there for that, but the one at UCLA was just fantastic. Totally felt like I was sitting in on recording sessions for the show, since a fair number of the performers and instruments had actually been used in the recording sessions. And the arrangements themselves were very, very good. They more or less kept the original instrumentation, but restructured things for a coherent concert listening experience, and there were new variations, too.

I would definitely pay for the Up encore they did, too. As far as I can tell, that was a new arrangement, too, and it was lovely. Got a LOT of applause.

[Jay 37,351]

Smuggle in a recording device next time!

[Datameister 2,042]

Tempting. They were pretty strict about that stuff, though - probably more because they were screening the second-to-last episode than because of the concert itself. Although I could be remembering the security being tighter than it was. It's easy to get confused, because as I recall, they had a whole Oceanic Airlines theme going on, with fake metal detectors and whatnot outside the building, and our tickets looked like airline tickets. That was so awesome. I still can't believe we got in. Things were looking pretty dire for a while. Haha, and now I'm remembering that we had to stash our backpacks in the bushes outside because we didn't realize they weren't allowing any bags inside, and didn't have anywhere else to put them before the event began.

Awwww...memories...graduation is just around the corner, so I'm a little nostalgic right now.

But not much.

[Incanus 5,714]

I would not mind hearing a full symphony orchestra renditions of major themes from Lost with new development and elaboration.

[Brónach 1,302]

The Úbeda suite was amazing, but not so much new development that I can remember.

I want Giacchino to stop restraining his music in his work for film.

[Jay 37,351]

So apparently on LostPedia they've renamed the Oceanix Six theme to the "Home Theme". What do people think of this change?

[Incanus 5,714]

So apparently on LostPedia they've renamed the Oceanix Six theme to the "Home Theme". What do people think of this change?

At first the theme represents the O6 and their mutual experiences and bond they share but in the end it becomes sort of a reunion and bond theme for the whole Losties group. I guess it involves the thought of home but more importantly the bond these people share. You could also think that they are in the last episode finally going "home", moving on but that is a wider interpretation.

[Jay 37,351]

Hmm I dunno, some of the appearances don't have much to do with home thoughts

http://lostpedia.wikia.com/wiki/There%27s_No_Place_Like_Home_%28composition%29#Full_list_of_appearances

But then again, a lot of the themes have a few appearances that don't make strict lietmotivic sense... kinda like a Williams score in that way!

[Incanus 5,714]

Hmm I dunno, some of the appearances don't have much to do with home thoughts

http://lostpedia.wikia.com/wiki/There%27s_No_Place_Like_Home_%28composition%29#Full_list_of_appearances

But then again, a lot of the themes have a few appearances that don't make strict lietmotivic sense... kinda like a Williams score in that way!

Yeah I agree that it is a bit odd name for the theme as home is not the main thing it underscores but more the people and their relations with each other. Oceanic 6 or something along those lines would be perhaps more correct.

[Jay 37,351]

I'm planning on writing my own analysis soon where I give every theme my own name regardless of what various websites are using

[Datameister 2,042]

I still prefer the O6 moniker, since it was really pretty much exclusively associated with them until the finale. "Home theme" would be more appropriate to the theme introduced in the S1 finale, the one that receives its most glorious treatment in "Parting Words" and makes some appearances later in the series as well. That one is associated purely with the idea of going home.

But whatever...I gave up on editing those articles a while back. People were kind of taking it in a different direction, and I didn't care enough to do anything about it, haha. Besides, this stuff is always difficult to name and categorize and whatnot because Giacchino really wasn't strictly leitmotivic with his themes for this show. I mean, a lot of the major themes have pretty clear meanings, but there are plenty of musical ideas that are a lot harder to categorize. As you said, Jay, it's actually a little bit like a Williams score. Sometimes themes get used because they feel right, not because he sat down beforehand and decided which themes would always represent what.

[Jay 37,351]

See, I actually don't think the "Parting Words" theme should be called the "Home theme" either

It's more of a "getting off the island" theme, initially underscoring the efforts to get off on the raft, then when the groups merged (cause the raft failed).... then it turned up again seasons later when the freighter represented another way off the island... and reached its climax when Jack saw the plane fly overhead, him succeeding in getting his friends off the island. Of course then it turned up in Moving On so I dunno lol.

[Datameister 2,042]

Wait, that theme didn't crop up in the finale, did it? I can't check right now, but I'm 99% sure it didn't. But in any case, getting off the Island and going home are the same thing, so I'm not really seeing the distinction here. Not that I would personally prefer to call it the "home theme", but I think this one fits the bill way better than the O6 theme.

[Koray Savas 2,251]

Well it was played by Drive Shaft in the finale

[Datameister 2,042]

I don't remember them playing any Giacchino themes...

[Koray Savas 2,251]

They were playing Parting Words!

[Datameister 2,042]

Hmmm, I really don't remember that. I guess I'll just have to see it when I get to that episode in however many months.

EDIT: Er, okay, it was on the soundtrack, too...whoops. All I really remembered in the episode was the piano intro that Faraday plays, though. I knew it went into stuff with the whole band after that, but I don't think I ever made the connection that it was "Parting Words." Maybe you only hear a bit of it in the episode?

Ah, whatever. I've probably just blocked a lot of memories of that finale. Which is unfortunate, as it was actually quite good until shortly before the end...

[Koray Savas 2,251]

You do only hear the piano intro, mostly, and then some guitar riff stuff. I mentioned that I never realized it was the same piece as the soundtrack back when I finished the series. So you're not wrong in that regard. But it's still there in spirit!

Honestly though, I do remember Parting Words being somewhere in the finale.

[Datameister 2,042]

Okay, I feel a little better, then.

I suppose it's possible the theme was used somewhere in the finale...I've only seen that episode twice, and although I paid about as much attention to the music as I usually do, it wasn't like I was keeping a running count or anything. And this was a year ago, so my memory's even more fuzzy.

[Incanus 5,714]

The Parting Words theme was used twice in the finale. First in Hole Shabang as the plane makes it off the run way and they fly to safety and then again the Moving On (quoting subtly the rising string line just after Hurley's theme in the church scene).

[Datameister 2,042]

Interesting...I'll have to listen for that when I get there.

[crocodile 8,006]

The tense action packed version is cool indeed. And yes, it appears in the Moving On as well. You might mistake it for Hurley's theme, which of course is a variation on that theme. But the moment when Christian goes to open the door you have a definite statement.

And let's not forget about the Daniel Faraday/Drive Shaft concert version.

Karol

[LongTallJodie 59]

Giacchino could rename it himself and I'd still call it the Oceanic 6 theme. It's so drilled into my head at this point that nothing will shake it loose.

Not that I give a crap about that Wiki anymore anyway. I hate what they did to the music topics. It's a jumbled mess now.

[BLUMENKOHL 1,068]

Going back through and listening to all the soundtracks, it's very interesting to note that the first season soundtrack is perhaps the most sparse in terms of orchestration, and its mood and tone are ultimately very different from what is to come (it's a gradual progression, and yet distinct enough to notice). The best I can describe the first season musically is "neutral." It's very much like the original Medal of Honor and how it ultimately evolved into a more emotionally obvious Airborne. The first sounded very innocent and virgin. The latter sounded fateful.

You really don't get a feel for what the tone for the show is until the last minute or so of "Oceanic 815" around 4:30-5:15. I feel like those 45 seconds laid down the tone for the music to come, just as that scene laid the foundations for the remainder of the show.

[Jay 37,351]

I'd say the end of Parting Words is as emotional as anything in the next few seasons.

[Datameister 2,042]

That sequence still stands as one of the finest in the entire show for me. Possibly all of television history. And musically, Giacchino never surpassed it, though there are certainly plenty of moments in the show that came close for me.

[Datameister 2,042]

Dude. I think Giacchino did something ingenious with Hurley's first theme, the quirky one introduced in the episode "Numbers." That episode is all about the numbers, right? Well, I was watching it today, and I suddenly wondered if the numbers were hidden in that theme somehow. Sure enough, if you take the first four numbers - 4 8 15 16 - and turn them into musical intervals, you get...something that sounds nothing like Hurley's theme. But...if you fiddle with the octaves and make the second note flat....sure enough, you get Hurley's theme! I highly doubt this was coincidental. Surely Giacchino sat down with the numbers in mind, realized that they didn't sound particularly quirky or mysterious or even thematic without any modification, and made those few little tweaks to create a great theme with a clever secret that's taken me years to notice. Has anyone else realized this? I can't find any mention of it on the 'net...

[BLUMENKOHL 1,068]

[Datameister 2,042]

I'm not quite sure how to interpret that. Stop me when I'm close...

1. You're mad that I made this AMAZING discovery before you did.

2. You think I'm WAY overanalyzing this and it's just a coincidence.

3. Your mind cannot POSSIBLY comprehend what I just said and has thus detonated.

4. You agree with my analysis, but thing it was SUPER lame of Giacchino to pull this sort of thing with his music.

5. This has been common knowledge on the Internet for AGES, and you can't believe I didn't know.

Am I hot? Cold? Hovering just above absolute zero?

[BLUMENKOHL 1,068]

2 with a dash of 3!

[Datameister 2,042]

Seriously, the chances of this being a coincidence are slim. If it were just some random episode or some random character, sure...it could MAYBE be a coincidence. A happy accident. But this episode is called "Numbers." It introduces the numbers. It's all about Hurley's quest to find out what the numbers mean, and about what events caused him to become so obsessed with them. And when does this theme first show up? The first time the numbers are introduced. And it continues to drop in whenever Hurley does anything related to the numbers. Clearly, the numbers were an important part of this episode. So it's already clear that Giacchino could conceivably have tried to approach the new thematic material with the numbers in mind.

Now, let's say you're sitting down at the piano with these numbers. First thing you do is just play 'em straight. 4 8 15 16, and maybe 23 42. If you're in C, you end up with F C C D D B, all ascending, often with leaps of an octave or greater. Not very musical, but you aren't giving up that easy. To keep things simple, you decide that four notes would be enough...and four is the first number, anyhow. So now you've got F C C D, with an octave leap between the two Cs. This is a figure that could be useful, but the big leaps make it rather impractical as a memorable, reusable theme. So you fiddle with the octaves to bring the notes into the same neighborhood without actually changing what the notes are. One of your permutations puts all the notes in the same octave, with the initial F being the highest note. Now it's seeming a little more practical, but it's missing something. Maybe it's that repeated C. So you start fiddling with those, and you realize that by introducing a single accidental (making the first C into a Cb, aka B), you can arrive at a decent little theme. Throw in some uneasy but not-too-serious chords and the right orchestration choices, and you've got Hurley's theme.

All it takes is two simple tweaks - bring the notes into the same octave, and make one of 'em a half-step lower. Considering what this theme seems to represent, particularly in this episode, I'd say the chances of it being an accident are virtually nil.

[Jay 37,351]

[Datameister 2,042]

I'm telling you, it's totally there. I'm not grasping at straws. I had my "hey, wouldn't that be cool" thought, and it only took, like, five more seconds to figure out whether there was a connection. Either Giacchino did this intentionally, or Jacob's influence extends far beyond the confines of the show.

[Incanus 5,714]

Joe, your analysis is simply mind blowing.

[Datameister 2,042]

Evidently, as I've blown two already!

[Jacob 0]

Meister of Data thou art, truly.

[BLUMENKOHL 1,068]

HOLY SCRAMBLED EGGS BATMAN!

This post number is 693!

Which! WHICH! WHICH if you divide by the last two digits the year John Williams was born (1932) times the last two digits of the first year John Williams and Spielberg first worked together (1974), gives you .29

WHICH IS THE YEAR JERRY GOLDSMITH WAS BORN IN! (1929)

This cannot be accident!

Johnny and Jerry must have collaborated on Sugarland Express!

BUT THAT'S NOT ALL!

THE PRIME FACTORIZATION OF 693, which to this point seemed like an arbitrary number is (3^2)×7×11, which if you multiply the last two parts is 77! THE YEAR STAR WARS CAME OUT!

But what about the (3^2)?! 3^2 = 9

NINE! 9! NEUN!

THAT WAS THE ORIGINAL NUMBER OF STAR WARS MOVIES LUCAS PLANNED TO MAKE. 9 STAR WARS movies!

WHICH MEANS, LUCAS DECIDED NOT TO MAKE THE LAST THREE.....

BECAUSE JERRY GOLDSMITH DIED. AND HE WAS MEANT TO SCORE THEM, TO MAKE UP FOR THE FACT THAT JERRY DID NOT GET CREDIT ON SUGARLAND EXPRESS.

[Jay 37,351]

[BLUMENKOHL 1,068]

The scary part is, that bit of number shifting yielded more fun than I originally thought (I never expected the prime factorization to work out so nicely!). And because of that for a moment I was like...whoa...that's creepy.

But you have to remind yourself...that when you're dealing with numbers (Lost or otherwise), you're likely to very easily find "unlikely" connections if you're actively looking for them. Just probability.

[Datameister 2,042]

You spent way too much time on that, Blume.

EDIT: And I'm definitely aware that it's possible to finagle any sequence of numbers to fit just about any idea. But it takes way longer to explain how to go from 4 8 15 16 to Hurley's theme than it takes to actually get there. The necessary modifications are easy, minor, and exactly the sort of thing you'd expect a composer to try in these circumstances. When you consider what the theme represents, the odds of it being a coincidence are minuscule.

Fellow musicians, try it out on the piano. All you have to do is bring the notes into the same octave and make one of 'em flat.

[BLUMENKOHL 1,068]

You still could be right!

I was just illustrating why I'm not sure you are.

[Datameister 2,042]

If you weren't being facetious, I would point out the many differences between your scenario and mine.

[Datameister 2,042]

I'm up to "Exodus" now in my re-watching of the show, and my goodness, it would be nice to have a complete release of the music heard in that season finale, a la "Through the Looking Glass." I mean, they gave us the most important cues, which I appreciate, but there's a lot of good stuff in there.

[Brónach 1,302]

I once composed a theme using the numbers. It was nothing like Hurley's theme, though