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What Is The Last Score You Listened To? (older scores)


Ollie

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5 hours ago, Bofur01 said:

Yesterday:

 

John Powell - How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World

John Powell - How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World (again)

 

This morning:

 

John Powell - How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World (again)

Welcome to my world the past month or so.

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19 hours ago, Kasey Kockroach said:

Welcome to my world the past month or so.

 

Yep, me too.

 

Even a friend I was travelling with a couple of days ago commented that I was listening to it a lot. It's just one of those scores that comes along once in a while where the film and composer are a perfect match and the composer isn't just going through the motions.

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1 hour ago, Jurassic Shark said:

I don't know why they collaborated on the score.

 

Collaborated? Wallfisch just helped orchestrate and conduct. And Liebeck was the soloist.

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Wallfisch's stuff, at least his more traditional/romantic stuff, sounds a lot like a lesser Marianelli. Makes sense, having worked as his orchestrator for some time and all.

 

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6 hours ago, Richard Penna said:

 

Yep, me too.

 

Even a friend I was travelling with a couple of days ago commented that I was listening to it a lot. It's just one of those scores that comes along once in a while where the film and composer are a perfect match and the composer isn't just going through the motions.

I keep thinking "okay, this is the hundredth time I've listened, maybe now this track will stop giving me goosebumps and chills and tears....nope, still tearing me up."

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4 minutes ago, Jurassic Shark said:

Without narration, I hope.

Of course!

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33 minutes ago, Jurassic Shark said:

 

Is that really good, though?

Yes it is. While it might be at times typically so full-throatedly Rózsa it can be difficult to to digest in one sitting thanks to the sheer orchestral onslaught, it contains some truly excellent music, especially the two love themes. I recommend the the excellent Tadlow re-recording.

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Return to Oz by David Shire

 

Sinbad - Legend of the Seven Seas by Harry Gregson-Williams


How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World by John Powell

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On 3/1/2019 at 7:07 AM, Jurassic Shark said:

Image result for movie legends the music of john barry

 

One of Nic Raine's better works. It just shows that he's good when given sufficient time (unlike most of his Silva Screen recordings...)

 

Raine is working with the RSO, which doesn't need as much rehearsal time. As much as I love Silva's re-recording work, the Prague ensemble Fitzpatrick uses for Conan, El Cid, et al seem to require a lot of prep and rehearsal time.

 

--

 

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire -- Patrick Doyle

 

I find myself revisiting this album, even though the film is the worst in the eight film series IMO. It's still a robust and attractive Doyle score (especially "Golden Egg", "The Black Lake" and "The Maze"), but feels slightly off. It doesn't quite feel like a Potter score, and Doyle's arrangement of "Hedwig's Theme" feel tacked on. I wish Mike Newell had been more cognizant of the material Williams left and requested Doyle incorporate more of his thematic material.

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3 hours ago, Matt C said:

Raine is working with the RSO, which doesn't need as much rehearsal time. As much as I love Silva's re-recording work, the Prague ensemble Fitzpatrick uses for Conan, El Cid, et al seem to require a lot of prep and rehearsal time.

 

The thing is that the British orchestras are unionized, partly to ensure sufficient rehearsal time for recordings. I guess Silva Screen took advantage of Prague not having those restrictions.

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1 hour ago, dougie said:

Rehearsals? Who needs 'em?

Not the pros that's for sure!

 

The Rocketeer by James Horner: Among my very favourite Horner compositions. It simply soars!

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5 minutes ago, dougie said:

 

Manly musicians don't need no reHERsals!

If you can't sight read get off the recording stage is an age old adage in those circles I believe.

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The Last Airbender by James Newton Howard: Pretty terrific although they need to release an expanded version of this with the full chorus included.

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8 hours ago, Matt C said:

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire -- Patrick Doyle

 

I find myself revisiting this album, even though the film is the worst in the eight film series IMO. It's still a robust and attractive Doyle score (especially "Golden Egg", "The Black Lake" and "The Maze"), but feels slightly off. It doesn't quite feel like a Potter score, and Doyle's arrangement of "Hedwig's Theme" feel tacked on. I wish Mike Newell had been more cognizant of the material Williams left and requested Doyle incorporate more of his thematic material.

 

Agreed - the film is an attempt by Newell to make (quote) "a workable film" by focusing on the central plot and, and omitting a lot of sub-plot and bits which actually explain to non-readers what the hell is going on. I'm not sure it's the worst film, but it has a lot of director-oriented problems.

 

I've long felt that Doyle's score, while a fine score in itself, feels less Potter-like than some of the others. Hooper's are a very mixed bag in terms of memorability, but the good bits really feel like they belong more in the Potter world. This franchise feels that it's one of the earlier mega high profile franchises where the first composer sets up the musical world, and by film 3 that world has been abandoned. But it feels like thats inevitable - what composer wants an assignment where the first thing they're told is they have to use the previous composer's themes rather than their own?

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2 hours ago, Richard Penna said:

 

I've long felt that Doyle's score, while a fine score in itself, feels less Potter-like than some of the others. Hooper's are a very mixed bag in terms of memorability, but the good bits really feel like they belong more in the Potter world. This franchise feels that it's one of the earlier mega high profile franchises where the first composer sets up the musical world, and by film 3 that world has been abandoned. But it feels like thats inevitable - what composer wants an assignment where the first thing they're told is they have to use the previous composer's themes rather than their own?

 

John Powell rose to the challenge magnificently with Solo, as did Christopher Young with Spider-Man 3. Those scores were their own distinctive voice but also tonally felt in sync with the franchises they were coming into. They didn’t just toss in the main theme because they were asked to, but also other thematic material without sacrificing their own motifs and musical narrative.

 

Hooper and Desplat did a much better job maintaining a sound closer to the Potter world Williams established. Doyle’s Goblet score feels like a more action packed score for Cinderella or Murder on the Orient Express.

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American Beauty by Thomas Newman: Quintessential quirky Newman which has become his much imitated trademark mix of lyrical melodies and strange instrumental atmospheres. While not my absolute personal favourite, it does have a unique flavour to it that I return to from time to time.

 

The Good German by Thomas Newman: From the complete other end of Newman's spectrum, a deliberate throwback score imitating the dramatic gestures of the film noir genre of the Golden Age. Shows how the composer can with wonderful finesse handle such stylistic pastiche while still injecting it with his own musical sensibilities and quirks. Alfred Newman would be proud.

 

Yo-Yo Ma Plays the Music of John Williams: A wonderful compilation of Williams' cello centered concert compositions which makes me want a film score centric cello collaboration album from the Maestro and Yo-Yo Ma (like he did with Morricone).

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The Village by James Newton Howard: Such a beautiful and atmospheric piece with yet again very strong musical concepts driving the score. Hilary Hahn's violin solos are while not tremendously virtuoso deft and emotional and portray both the strength and fragility of the main character and the emotional and romantic underpinnings of the story in a beautiful way.

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Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith (Expanded edit) by John Williams: This is rather excellent in its expanded form, full of dramatic fire. I wish Mike Matessino was given the Prequels to expand already by Disney!

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20 hours ago, Incanus said:

The Village by James Newton Howard: Such a beautiful and atmospheric piece with yet again very strong musical concepts driving the score. Hilary Hahn's violin solos are while not tremendously virtuoso deft and emotional and portray both the strength and fragility of the main character and the emotional and romantic underpinnings of the story in a beautiful way.

 

What do you think about Signs? It's my favourite JNH score.

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20 hours ago, Incanus said:

The Village by James Newton Howard: Such a beautiful and atmospheric piece with yet again very strong musical concepts driving the score. Hilary Hahn's violin solos are while not tremendously virtuoso deft and emotional and portray both the strength and fragility of the main character and the emotional and romantic underpinnings of the story in a beautiful way.

 

You know, I revisited this recently and it hasn't aged as well for me. It's lovely, but in a very surface-level kind of way. Something about those easy arpeggio-figures and accessible chords kind of bore me, or leave me wanting. Maybe because the sound has been often imitated since as well. I prefer the vastly more substantial and trance-like Snow Falling On Cedars.

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41 minutes ago, Jurassic Shark said:

 

What do you think about Signs? It's my favourite JNH score.

I have already praised it in this thread a few times. One of his best and actually his scores for the Shyamalan films are all fantastic apart from the last one, After Earth.

Regardless of the quality of the films themselves, these two had a great working collaboration. 

16 minutes ago, KK said:

 

You know, this one hasn't aged as well for me lately. It's lovely, but in a very surface-level kind of way. Something about those easy arpeggio-figures and accessible chords don't always hit me anymore. Maybe because the sound has been often imitated since as well. I prefer the vastly more substantial and trance-like Snow Falling On Cedars.

I don't think it is all surface level though. It might be pretty on the surface level but it is actually a very clever score as it delves rather into what these characters are feeling their world is like even though it might sound like your typical atmospheric horror scoring. There is a great balance between the lyrical romantic elements and the frightening horror ideas in the music. The music is almost written from the perspective of the main characters and the threat they feel from the mythical beasts hemming them in into their small world of the village. At the same time it is of course part of the sleight of hand in making the audience think there are really these creatures threatening this community until the typical Shyamalan revelation and JNH does all this with very effective conceptual ideas. E.g. I think the tribal almost ritualistic plodding march and savagely blaring horns that induce panic not only in the characters but in the listener as well that represent this part unknown threat is a neat and effective conceptual musical idea.

 

But I sort of agree that Snow Falling on Cedars is on the whole a better exercise in this kind of atmosphere and style but it is a very different story with different requirements and I feel more eclectic compared to The Village which has a very unified construction to its sound and thematic ideas. Also these ostinati and arpeggio-motifs are now a staple of modern film scoring which might indeed make The Village sound all too familiar. It is akin to hearing Thomas Newman's bag of tricks or Desplat's sound world ad nauseam in modern film scores.

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You make good points of course. As film music, I'm sure it does its job very well. I've actually never seen the film, so I can't speak much to its narrative function. But it boasts great novelty for its time, to be sure. I think part of it is also how, as you say, it's become such a common trope in modern film music. I've also never enjoyed the harsh tribal/action material much.

 

I can still enjoy The Village in doses. But musically, I don't find much need to return it.

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