Michael Desplat vs. Alexandre Giacchino

[BLUMENKOHL 1,068]

Here we have two very different composers. And many of the users here have sparred over the superiority of one over the other sporadically throughout the past. It's now time to give this damned debate its own arena.

Don't be shy. Whether you are the likes of Fiery Angel (you know your stuff), or the brain dead Quint (you're a stupid fisherman with long finger nails) or have poor musical taste like Koray or great musical taste like Mark Olivarez, or batshit insane like the OP of this thread....chime in with your conversation points.

Some things to chew on:

Interestingly enough they both have dreary fantasy scores that were recently released, (Let Me In, HP7) so which one is the superior listening experience? Film score? Could Giacchino write for Harry Potter? Could he use Hedwig's theme more? What if Desplat did Star Trek?

Also, can we equate Desplat to Williams (more refined sounding), and Giacchino to Goldsmith (more guttural)?

[Edit] Shit am I in the wrong forum?

[John Crichton 4]

[Edit] Shit am I in the wrong forum?

Yup. Fixed.

[crocodile 7,983]

Desplat at the moment. More range, more interesting voice. Giacchino's not trying all that hard to me. Not that he can't do it.

Karol

[John Crichton 4]

Watching HP 7.0 today was the first time I've ever really heard Desplat. It was good music, I think he was director-handcuffed to keep him from doing anything more impressive. But Giacchino has easily taken a spot among my favorite 3 or 4 composers, when (as I do) you take his VG and TV works into account as well as his film scores. So he'd be very hard pressed not to get my vote.

[Datameister 2,037]

I'll let you know once I've listened to my first Desplat CD.

From what little I've heard, though, I'm not particularly impressed. I heard fairly sophisticated orchestral writing that nevertheless didn't really excite or interest me. Giacchino's work can be simplistic and repetitive at times - and I must admit that I'm not on much of a Giacchino kick at the moment - but he definitely has that visceral punch without compositional laziness.

I'm not really comfortable comparing either of them to Williams or Goldsmith, though. Those two had something REALLY special. (Williams sorta still has it...)

[fommes 153]

Michael Giacchino is the craftsman par excellence, superb in what he does, but he misses the artistic genius of Alexandre Desplat. In other words, Giacchino is to Desplat what Goldsmith is to Williams - slightly the lesser man.

But what do I know. I'm probably part of the insane.

[Andy 4,079]

I agree mostly with Data on this. The whole reason we're in this hobby is because we at one time saw a film where we walked out of the theater either humming the music, or connecting with it in a way that made us want to run to the record store and own a piece of it. That has yet to happen for me with Desplat, and to a lesser degree, Gia. I guess I'd have to pick Gia because at least his Star Trek music was pretty memorable. I haven't heard a Desplat score that makes my earth move. I will say that I haven't spun a Desplat CD from start to finish. But there's a fine line between giving it a chance and forcing yourself to listen. Not all music has to be easy and accessible, but I haven't yet heard a call from Desplat that made me want to answer. But hey, I'm not ruling it out.

[Quintus 5,399]

I don't know anywhere near enough of eithers music to make a fair judgement. I'm a fan of film music for Williams, Goldsmith and Horner reasons and not for these new age punks who think they know it all.

[gkgyver 1,645]

I don't know anywhere near enough of eithers music to make a fair judgement. I'm a fan of film music for Williams, Goldsmith and Horner reasons and not for these new age punks who think they know it all.

None of us would be here now if Williams, Goldsmith, and probably Horner as well, had not reached out for something more than "doing their job" - apparently, judging by the Deathly Hallows discussion, that is all a composer needs to do nowadays to reach greatness in the ears of the beholder.

Judging by the scores I have heard from both of them, Giacchino seems to be more versatile, while Desplat reaches more the kind of musical voice I like. But since Giacchino writes much less filler music than Desplat, I prefer him.

Both, Desplat and Giacchino may reach the quality of James Horner once in a while, but Williams or Goldsmith? Surely you jest.

[Ollie 1,059]

Giacchino.

[Gruesome Son of a Bitch 6,488]

I expected mediocrity when I read the title of this thread. I was not disappointed.

[ChrisAfonso 186]

Excuse me, but for someone who listens to the music, there's very little filler on the DH album.

[King Mark 3,625]

I'd say Giacchino despite having yet to really impress me for a real movie score

I like some of Desplat scores but they all sound the same after listening to a few and when he tries to score an epic movie...well he can't apparently

[Jacob 0]

From Giacchino I have:

LOST Season 6, UP, Star Trek

From Desplat:

Benjamin Button, Mr. Magorium (co-composed with Aaron Zigman)

Yeah, gonna go with Giacchino.

It would take a lot from Desplat to top season six of LOST.

I'm not really comfortable comparing either of them to Williams or Goldsmith, though. Those two had something REALLY special. (Williams sorta still has it...)

You know, it's interesting, just recently I was comparing Giacchino's career and how it stacked up to Williams' when he was at the same age in his.

I was kinda surprised to see that I probably would've favored Michael over Johnny at that time had they been contemporaries.

Giacchino is 43, has an Oscar, has several soundtracks I highly enjoy -- including some of my favorite ever with LOST.

(I've yet to own many of them on album, nor have I delved much into his Medal of Honor work.)

Williams was 43 in 1975. At that point he had two Oscars and had just scared the entire globe out of the water with Jaws.

But aside from that and Jane Eyre there's not much else pre-Star Wars that really rings my bell.

(Granted there's a lot I'm unfamiliar with, but I'm just working with what I got here.)

I of course acknowledge that Giacchino hasn't written anything on the level of Jaws yet, but as far as quantity of enjoyed work goes I think Mikey would take the cake.

[King Mark 3,625]

I got about 30 Giacchino and 25 Desplat scores in itunes

K.M. Who actually listens to a lot of stuff before making comments or comparing composers to John Williams

[Jacob 0]

Well, I'll be danged. Williams is the only composer I'm even close to being that far along with in my collection.

Jacob -- Who acknowledges his relative ignorance of the body of film music, but shares his opinions anyway

[King Mark 3,625]

I just remind people from time to time I don't play only JW scores in a loop

[gkgyver 1,645]

"Voldemort" is pure filler. "Harry and Ginny" in its entirety, and the second half of "The Will". "The Elder Wand" is a pompous filler, and an action cue like "Captured and Tortured" seems very random as well, given that it's practically the climax of the film.

And I'd have never thought that a plain Remote Control string patch would one day score the opening titles of the grand finale of the Harry Potter series.

Either people really love this, or they aren't completely honest.

But this doesn't belong here ...

[ChrisAfonso 186]

"Voldemort" is pure filler.

Can't comment on that, haven't seen the film yet (And I was referring to the album )

"Harry and Ginny" in its entirety, and the second half of "The Will".

Sorry to disagree, but "Harry and Ginny" is sublime. Minimal means (Few notes in the piano), but to maximum effect. I find the harmonies resulting from the combination of the left/right hand notes very touching. Yes, "The Will" has several stretches of just one minor chord, punctuated by electric bass, but they're connected by several recognizable motifs - even without seeing the film, I can make semantic sense of that piece. There are no superfluous notes in there. Every "Lost" album by Giacchino, on the other hand, has tracks that consist of one chord/snippet repeated verbatim ad nauseum. Those are much more tiring than a soft pianissimo string chord that's sustained for some seconds (As great as most of Lost is).

"The Elder Wand" is a pompous filler, and an action cue like "Captured and Tortured" seems very random as well, given that it's practically the climax of the film.

Here I agree, those tracks are the weakest (musically) on the album. "C&T" sounds like it's supposed to increase the tension, without adding much, and the middle of "The Elder Wand" does indeed sound somewhat MV/RC, and could have benefitted from a more motivic buildup of tension. I like the clashing brass chord at the end, though.

[Koray Savas 2,251]

Giacchino.

[Datameister 2,037]

You know, it's interesting, just recently I was comparing Giacchino's career and how it stacked up to Williams' when he was at the same age in his.

I was kinda surprised to see that I probably would've favored Michael over Johnny at that time had they been contemporaries.

Giacchino is 43, has an Oscar, has several soundtracks I highly enjoy -- including some of my favorite ever with LOST.

(I've yet to own many of them on album, nor have I delved much into his Medal of Honor work.)

Williams was 43 in 1975. At that point he had two Oscars and had just scared the entire globe out of the water with Jaws.

But aside from that and Jane Eyre there's not much else pre-Star Wars that really rings my bell.

(Granted there's a lot I'm unfamiliar with, but I'm just working with what I got here.)

I of course acknowledge that Giacchino hasn't written anything on the level of Jaws yet, but as far as quantity of enjoyed work goes I think Mikey would take the cake.

That really is interesting to think about. Based on what few pre-'75 Williams works I'm familiar with, I agree that Giacchino's work is more fun for me to listen to, but I think part of that is just that the accepted style of scoring was SO different back then. Williams already had so much expertise in the craft of making music by that time, even though he hadn't truly hit his stride quite yet. With Giacchino...I dunno, I'm a little less optimistic about future improvement. Not sure why, but he feels a little bit more...artistically confined to me, and I'm not sure he'll ever move past the fragmented action motifs, claustrophobic soundscapes, and simple piano melodies that can be so effective but so overused. I'm sure his style will morph over time, but I'm not sure how much.

I don't mean to bash him, though. He's still one of my favorite active film (etc.) composers, and I do look forward to hearing what he comes up with in the future, and I love that he's such an enthusiastic film score fan. I just think that his strengths are never going to be the same strengths that Williams had and, to an extent, has.

[Hlao-roo 389]

I prefer Christopher Gordon and Philippe Rombi.

[ChuckM 1]

Desplat has yet to really impress me. I'd place him on the lower end of the list of good recent composers with John Powell just surpassing Giacchino for the top.

[STORM 1]

As anyone heard desplats deathly hallows score?

[fommes 153]

The new Harry Potter score was written by Desplat?

[BloodBoal 7,538]

[Mark Ford 0]

I'm a big Giacchino fan with something like 30 of his scores. For me he's the only current one of the fairly recent crop of new composers that I'm really big on. He writes with such enthusiasm and is decidedly old fashioned to some extent by writing for the orchestra in a style not exactly welcome these days by the film industry in general. I have a number of Desplat scores and love the delicate beauty of his writing, but I find a lot of it starts sounding alike after a while. Could be he is writing too many scores one after the other where repetition is sometimes a result of the need for expediency. It's not an uncommon phenomenon.

Both guys are great, but I just prefer Giacchino personally and I think his range has yet too be fully seen. I mean he has been writing for around 15 years now and just now did his first horror score for LET ME IN. It'll be interesting watching his growth as a composer.

[SF1_freeze 131]

Well both have one thing in common, they dissapointed with their biggest jobs in their whole career to date:

Giacchino with one of the worst themes i have ever heard as a film main theme(Star Trek theme) but he at least writes themes. And Mr. Unmemorable Desplat with scoring Deathly Hallows Part1 in an average and largely boring way (probably restrained by Yates but he can still prove that he is more than average in DH part2)

Giacchino cause he delivered greatly with the Lost music which i like very much

[fommes 153]

No, both very much delivered.

[David Coscina 3]

I prefer Christopher Gordon and Philippe Rombi.

Something tells me a Gordon Harry Potter wouldn't have divided film score fans as much. THere are a number of high profile films that I would have loved to hear Gordon's interpretation on. He commented to me during an interview that he would have loved to score Lord of the Rings. That said, he had nothing but nice things to say about Shore so it wasn't a value judgement, just a wish for himself as a composer.

It's funny because most of Giacchino's music strikes me in the same manner that Desplat's strikes others- it's technically very good but I find it not feeling largely. There are some exceptions of course like "Parting Sorrow" from Let Me In but ever since he graduated from Alias and his vid game scores, I haven't felt as connected to his music.

I find a lot of feeling in Desplat's music because of his chord choices. Obviously it's subjective and I'm sure Giacchino's melodies and harmonies strike a chord in a lot of his supporters which is why we have this variety in music tastes and preferences. Of course, we all have the common love of John Williams' music so that's a nice unifying thing..

[Hlao-roo 389]

I'd just like to see Rombi prove that in composing chops he's more Delerue than he is Portman. (In a sense he has, but I mean more in terms of versatility.)

[Kevin 22]

Giacchino simply because many of his scores have warmth and emotion in them (Ratatouille, Up (although heavily overrated, the Medal of Honor series). Many Desplat scores I feel are TOO intelligent or you notice how cold the scores feel (my examples of this are Cheri, Benjamin Button, The Queen, etc).

[Gruesome Son of a Bitch 6,488]

Well both have one thing in common, they dissapointed with their biggest jobs in their whole career to date:

Giacchino with one of the worst themes i have ever heard as a film main theme(Star Trek theme) but he at least writes themes. And Mr. Unmemorable Desplat with scoring Deathly Hallows Part1 in an average and largely boring way (probably restrained by Yates but he can still prove that he is more than average in DH part2)

I agree. There are fanbases for those two on these boards so I try not to upset them. The Star Trek score is pure shit. The main theme is offensively bad. Thankfully, I've shielded my ears from it for many months now for fear of my head exploding.

Harry Potter 7 = zzzzz.

[Datameister 2,037]

The Star Trek score is pure shit. The main theme is offensively bad.

Yet another demonstration of the variety of tastes on this board. The first time I heard Giacchino's Trek theme, I immediately knew it was going to be my favorite theme to come out of the cinema in recent times. (This was a few measures into the opening logo, the first time I saw the film.) I certainly hear room for improvement in the score as a whole - even within Giacchino's style and abilities - but it's a fun score for me if I'm in the right mood.

That being said, the main theme was definitely overused in the film. On the one hand, that had the positive effect of me already knowing how to play it on piano before I'd even gotten home to my piano, but anything will get annoying if overused. Heck, I'm glad some of the Imperial March statements were cut from ESB. (Though I'm glad to have 'em on CD!)

[David Coscina 3]

Giacchino simply because many of his scores have warmth and emotion in them (Ratatouille, Up (although heavily overrated, the Medal of Honor series). Many Desplat scores I feel are TOO intelligent or you notice how cold the scores feel (my examples of this are Cheri, Benjamin Button, The Queen, etc).

Funny. I find Benjamin Button one of the most emotive scores I've heard in years and I've still not seen the film....interesting. And I absolutely abhor Giacchino's Trek theme, It makes me want to pull my teeth out. So, as the saying goes, different strokes for different folks.

[John Crichton 4]

Medal of Honor overrated? Pah! If anything it's hugely underrated by people that won't accept video game scores can be just as good as film scores.

[Datameister 2,037]

Seeing as how I'm one of the posters who's made negative comments about that in the past, I'd like to say that I do believe that video game scores can be just as good as film scores. I'm just waiting for a video game composer to finally prove me right.

[crocodile 7,983]

Howard Shore's Soul of the Ultimate Nation would be a good (and, for me, the only) example.

Karol

[Taikomochi 1,136]

Giacchino simply because many of his scores have warmth and emotion in them (Ratatouille, Up (although heavily overrated, the Medal of Honor series). Many Desplat scores I feel are TOO intelligent or you notice how cold the scores feel (my examples of this are Cheri, Benjamin Button, The Queen, etc).

I agree. I don't find the Queen cold, but Benjamin Button is shocking disinteresting to me. I think another composer could have done a much better job with this film.

Medal of Honor overrated? Pah! If anything it's hugely underrated by people that won't accept video game scores can be just as good as film scores.

I like certain video game scores such as Halo, Dark Void, or Secret Weapons Over Normandy, but I HATE the Medal of Honor scores. They bore the bejeezus out of me.

[Henry B 50]

Seeing as how I'm one of the posters who's made negative comments about that in the past, I'd like to say that I do believe that video game scores can be just as good as film scores. I'm just waiting for a video game composer to finally prove me right.

Mark Griskey, James Hannigan...

[John Crichton 4]

Seeing as how I'm one of the posters who's made negative comments about that in the past, I'd like to say that I do believe that video game scores can be just as good as film scores. I'm just waiting for a video game composer to finally prove me right.

Mark Griskey, James Hannigan...

Nobuo Uematsu, Koji Kondo, Jeremy Soule...oh, and Michael Giacchino!

[Koray Savas 2,251]

When people call Star Trek pure shit and abhorrently bad, and The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button cold, and Medal Of Honor boring... Jesus I don't know what to say. I'm gonna say goodbye to this thread now before I read anymore stupid posts.

[publicist 4,643]

Funny. I find Benjamin Button one of the most emotive scores I've heard in years and I've still not seen the film....interesting. And I absolutely abhor Giacchino's Trek theme, It makes me want to pull my teeth out. So, as the saying goes, different strokes for different folks.

I like both to differing degrees. But i shudder to think what some folks here would substitute as fitting and/or emotional touching music if they only could. It would be either terribly obvious or so closely modelled after stuff they like that i'm thankful it is like it is. Only mentioning those Potter videogame scores which are a compendium of hoary clichés - but see the big applause they get.

[BloodBoal 7,538]

[Charlie Brigden 7]

Giacchino in the third round with a Sho-ryu-ken.

[King Mark 3,625]

Seeing as how I'm one of the posters who's made negative comments about that in the past, I'd like to say that I do believe that video game scores can be just as good as film scores. I'm just waiting for a video game composer to finally prove me right.

I can't help posting a link to one of my threads about Final Fantasy music (hey, you got to keep your threads alive ! ) . I suggest you listen to Opening - Bombing Mission (follow the link below the first image) or Fulfilled Desire (video at the end of the first post) to help you change your mind. Keep me informed !

Could someone suggest me a Medal Of Honor soundtrack to start with Giacchino video games music ?

You can quote individual cues by Uematsu that are as good as film scores, but not any given FF score overall as a lot of cues are filler (skip,skip,skip).Actually my favorite FF score is FF 13 and Uematsu didn't compose it. And when there's a Final Fantasy orchestral concert they always play the same cues, which are as I said very good for the most part

[BloodBoal 7,538]

[King Mark 3,625]

that's true.

I listen to a lot more videogame scores than I used to. Especially from other Japanese RPG's I've played. I think I like Motoi Sakuraba (Infinite Undiscovery ,Star Ocean, Tales of Vesperia, Eternal Sonata) better than Uematsu overall

[SF1_freeze 131]

Seeing as how I'm one of the posters who's made negative comments about that in the past, I'd like to say that I do believe that video game scores can be just as good as film scores. I'm just waiting for a video game composer to finally prove me right.

I can't help posting a link to one of my threads about Final Fantasy music (hey, you got to keep your threads alive ! ) . I suggest you listen to Opening - Bombing Mission (follow the link below the first image) or Fulfilled Desire (video at the end of the first post) to help you change your mind. Keep me informed !

Could someone suggest me a Medal Of Honor soundtrack to start with Giacchino video games music ?

I absolutely love the Fulfilled Desire track since you first posted it. Thanks again for having made me aware of that with your Final Fantasy thread...what a gorgeous piece of music . By the way is this all computerized or recorded with real orchestra/instruments because it sounds like real?

[BloodBoal 7,538]