Incanus 5,715 Posted June 24, 2016 Share Posted June 24, 2016 1 hour ago, TheWhiteRider said: I've been a fan for more than three decades now. I guess I'm just not worried about squeezing every bit of enjoyment, artificially, if necessary, out of what is likely his last stretch of works. His masterpieces aren't going anywhere. I know he's getting old, but it's not as if these are the last chances to experience his music. Yes, eventually the charm of "new" Williams music will no longer be something we have. But it's just a personal hangup I have: it feels like I'm doing him a disservice if I try to sugarcoat how I react to a score just because it's this sunset period. Oh well! Let JWFan have its first euphoric moments of sampling a new John Williams score. Things even out eventually. crumbs 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bilbo 3,709 Posted June 24, 2016 Share Posted June 24, 2016 9 hours ago, Tom said: well, it is a British story about an orphan who unexpectedly enters a magical world. As for the shopworn critiques, sure, the man is 84, anything he writes is going to resemble in some way music from the 1000 hours he has already written. I will say this, there is a classical vibe here that I do not hear in HP, HA, or even WH. Wasn't a criticism! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom 4,660 Posted June 24, 2016 Share Posted June 24, 2016 I suppose I am reacting to those who get upset when a new album is called a masterpiece. Clearly words have different senses. When a work comes out and is said to be a masterpiece, all that is meant is that it is Williams in top form, not that the work is a literal masterpiece. Context matters: much like in sports when someone says "LeBron sucks" or "Favre sucks." no reasonable person could hold such a view if the terms were interpreted literally. They are clearly just trying to convey these people are overrated. Go Cavs. Jilal and Will 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jilal 569 Posted June 24, 2016 Share Posted June 24, 2016 10 minutes ago, Tom said: I suppose I am reacting to those who get upset when a new album is called a masterpiece. Clearly words have different senses. When a work comes out and is said to be a masterpiece, all that is meant is that it is Williams in top form, not that the work is a literal masterpiece. Context matters: much like in sports when someone says "LeBron sucks" or "Favre sucks." no reasonable person could hold such a view if the terms were interpreted literally. They are clearly just trying to convey these people are overrated. Go Cavs. Go Tom! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
publicist 4,643 Posted June 24, 2016 Share Posted June 24, 2016 11 minutes ago, Tom said: I suppose I am reacting to those who get upset when a new album is called a masterpiece. Clearly words have different senses. When a work comes out and is said to be a masterpiece, all that is meant is that it is Williams in top form, not that the work is a literal masterpiece. Context matters: much like in sports when someone says "LeBron sucks" or "Favre sucks." no reasonable person could hold such a view if the terms were interpreted literally. They are clearly just trying to convey these people are overrated. Wrong analogy. Calling it #shopworn', #derivative, #unoriginal etc. is just stating a fact, even if the choice of words may color it opinionated (tough shit). It may be brilliantly composed, enjoyable and so on, but the basic fact remains, as well as the fact that the more pedantic fans always have a pavlovian/allergic reaction to the mere mention that this is a road more than well-travelled by Williams. KK and Dixon Hill 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Romão 2,274 Posted June 24, 2016 Share Posted June 24, 2016 I like what I hear, but it's still to early to tell (it would've still been too early even I had the full cd in my hands). I wasn't expecting a tremendous stylistic change from Williams and I don't think the project was prone to that anyway, at all. But more Williams music is always a good thing. Always Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pieter Boelen 740 Posted June 24, 2016 Share Posted June 24, 2016 Listening to some of those samples now. No complaints so far. EDIT: Apart from the music cutting off after 30 seconds, of course! Will 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jacck 23 Posted June 24, 2016 Share Posted June 24, 2016 3 hours ago, publicist said: Wrong analogy. Calling it #shopworn', #derivative, #unoriginal etc. is just stating a fact, even if the choice of words may color it opinionated (tough shit). It may be brilliantly composed, enjoyable and so on, but the basic fact remains, as well as the fact that the more pedantic fans always have a pavlovian/allergic reaction to the mere mention that this is a road more than well-travelled by Williams. Yes, but that misses that you come across as entitled when you complain that one man's work sounds a bit like some of his others, as if you expect him to magically shape-shift into an entirely different being (whose music you would likely enjoy even less.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dixon Hill 4,234 Posted June 24, 2016 Share Posted June 24, 2016 Once again someone has missed the point of such criticisms. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Disco Stu 15,495 Posted June 24, 2016 Share Posted June 24, 2016 13 hours ago, TheWhiteRider said: I don't think they're the kind of thing that Williams would like to hear about himself. I largely agree with you although I also don't think that Williams would appreciate people forming opinions and making criticisms of his work based on hearing 30 second samples. Even if your assumptions about the score are proven correct upon hearing the OST in full, it's just not fair to make sweeping statements about the soundtrack based on samples! This goes for people declaring it a masterpiece as well though. We haven't even heard 15% of the music at this point! Joni Wiljami 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Once 605 Posted June 24, 2016 Share Posted June 24, 2016 I think it's hard to judge it due to the shitty quality of the samples. That is a bigger problem for me than the length of the samples. Bilbo 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jay 37,367 Posted June 24, 2016 Share Posted June 24, 2016 Yes I am not listening to them any more, will wait for the whole OST to be available. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
King Mark 3,631 Posted June 24, 2016 Share Posted June 24, 2016 I'm very optimistic from what I'm hearing but I'm definately not calling it a masterpiece before I hear the whole c.d. Plus you can bet this score has tons of unreleased music Bilbo 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jay 37,367 Posted June 24, 2016 Share Posted June 24, 2016 Yes the OST might be only about half of all that was recorded Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
King Mark 3,631 Posted June 24, 2016 Share Posted June 24, 2016 I fear THIS score will be an unreleased music holy grail, more than any other in recent years TFA wasn't too bad, we got all the highlights (including the music in the academy promo) and the remaining unreleased music isn't too significant Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jay 37,367 Posted June 24, 2016 Share Posted June 24, 2016 I dunno. Depends on how many of the film's 117 minutes had no score recorded for them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alex 2,835 Posted June 24, 2016 Share Posted June 24, 2016 Hopefully the unreleased stuff is just boring underscore Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
King Mark 3,631 Posted June 24, 2016 Share Posted June 24, 2016 it's just my feeling, but this is the type of Williams score where every cue is important it sounds like Hook, E.T and Harry Potter, and those have all been complete score holy grails Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JacksonElmore 69 Posted June 24, 2016 Share Posted June 24, 2016 am i the only one who really likes the "giant country" sample?? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jay 37,367 Posted June 24, 2016 Share Posted June 24, 2016 I like all the samples. JacksonElmore 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post ocelot 508 Posted June 24, 2016 Popular Post Share Posted June 24, 2016 Overture "theme" - Tchaikovsky Ballet through and through, love it. Frolic - Offenbach haha, I keep wanting it to go into the Can-Can Sophie and the BFG Trumpet ending of sample - Prokofiev, those weird harmonic changes are very Cinderella There's quite a nice slab of Walton, Korngold and Vaughan-Williams too. Fabulous woodwind writing throughout and hopefully the whole album will be fabulous. LOVE To Giant Country!!! I love how he can draw from so many composers to imbue his film work yet not actually copy. If only we all had that talent! Will, TownerFan and JacksonElmore 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JacksonElmore 69 Posted June 24, 2016 Share Posted June 24, 2016 12 minutes ago, ocelot said: LOVE To Giant Country!!! Yeah it's my favorite of all of them. Surprised no one else has really mentioned it Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Loert 2,511 Posted June 24, 2016 Popular Post Share Posted June 24, 2016 Man, the Overture makes me feel just like a kid again! I've said before that the "kiddish" style is my weak point with Williams, but the main theme in this one really resonates with me for some reason. I can't help but feel like I'm floating through some fantastical forest filled with flickering fireflies and chirping birds and insects, before lifting up above the treetops and into the clouds...and I mean that in the best possible, least clichéd way. Those flutes at 0:15 - that's such a Williams thing to do! A prime display of his extraordinary confidence in the music he writes. I keep grinning at that bit. Ah, can't wait to dig into the full score - I have a really good feeling about this one! Oh, and I can't wait to play the full version "Frolic" to my Dad...he absolutely LOVES this kind of stuff. crumbs, Marcus, JacksonElmore and 2 others 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pieter Boelen 740 Posted June 24, 2016 Share Posted June 24, 2016 1 hour ago, JacksonElmore said: Yeah it's my favorite of all of them. Surprised no one else has really mentioned it On a superficial listen to the samples (inbetween doing other stuff), that one definitely make me look up what track was playing. That's always a promising sign. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Marcus 390 Posted June 24, 2016 Popular Post Share Posted June 24, 2016 To me, what's so striking about these samples, is precisely their freshness: Already, there are textures, colors and combinations we haven't quite heard before, and there's a concert musical playfulness to them that suggests Williams really had fun with this score. It sounds vibrant, vitalized, and full of virtuosic vigor! TownerFan, Will, Jilal and 1 other 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post The Psycho Pianist 216 Posted June 25, 2016 Popular Post Share Posted June 25, 2016 Anyone else hear a little "Beauty and the Beast" in "Sophie and the BFG?" Lovely orchestration all around though, my favourite Williams material (and indeed the stuff that got me into film music) was his whimsical stuff from Hook, Home Alone and Harry Potter; so even from these previews this sounds fantastic. JacksonElmore, Jilal and crumbs 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Jilal 569 Posted June 25, 2016 Popular Post Share Posted June 25, 2016 I'm hearing a lot of The BFG in these samples. It sure sounds like Williams self-plagiarized that score. Anyone else with me on that? Marcus, karelm, Cerebral Cortex and 4 others 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post karelm 2,913 Posted June 25, 2016 Popular Post Share Posted June 25, 2016 38 minutes ago, Jilal said: I'm hearing a lot of The BFG in these samples. It sure sounds like Williams self-plagiarized that score. Anyone else with me on that? Why is it that the smartest person on this forum is 17 years old? Jilal, Marcus, Loert and 1 other 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Will 2,215 Posted June 25, 2016 Share Posted June 25, 2016 4 hours ago, loert said: I can't help but feel like I'm floating through some fantastical forest filled with flickering fireflies and chirping birds and insects, before lifting up above the treetops and into the clouds...and I mean that in the best possible, least clichéd way. That's a great analogy. It's an extraordinary cue, my favorite based on the samples (that may change when we hear full cues). To me the "soaring" part of it sounds like a bird or some other creature is flying high above the ground and gracefully swaying back and forth. When I first heard "Overture" in the Cannes video (obviously not knowing it was the overture) I figured it must be for some sort of flying scene. After listening to the sample I actually had to stand up and walk around because I was so overwhelmed by the cue (kinda like Williams after watching Schindler's List, but the emotion for me was joy as opposed to sadness). Loert and JacksonElmore 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JacksonElmore 69 Posted June 25, 2016 Share Posted June 25, 2016 10 hours ago, Will said: kinda like Williams after watching Schindler's List ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Tom 4,660 Posted June 25, 2016 Popular Post Share Posted June 25, 2016 34 minutes ago, JacksonElmore said: ? We need a better poster to respond to this, but unfortunately, they are all dead. Cerebral Cortex, Will, Bilbo and 2 others 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thx99 1,740 Posted June 25, 2016 Share Posted June 25, 2016 17 hours ago, ocelot said: Frolic - Offenbach haha, I keep wanting it to go into the Can-Can Exactly what I thought upon first listening to it!! Definitely an Offenbach/Gaîté Parisienne feel to it, which I love!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gurkensalat 340 Posted June 25, 2016 Share Posted June 25, 2016 17 hours ago, JacksonElmore said: Yeah it's my favorite of all of them. Surprised no one else has really mentioned it Well, I did! ?? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post TownerFan 4,983 Posted June 25, 2016 Popular Post Share Posted June 25, 2016 18 hours ago, ocelot said: Overture "theme" - Tchaikovsky Ballet through and through, love it. Frolic - Offenbach haha, I keep wanting it to go into the Can-Can Sophie and the BFG Trumpet ending of sample - Prokofiev, those weird harmonic changes are very Cinderella There's quite a nice slab of Walton, Korngold and Vaughan-Williams too. Fabulous woodwind writing throughout and hopefully the whole album will be fabulous. LOVE To Giant Country!!! I love how he can draw from so many composers to imbue his film work yet not actually copy. If only we all had that talent! That's what I meant when I wrote before that Williams' music doesn't sound like film music anymore, but it's more akin to the classical repertoire he's so fond of (including the music of the Hollywood Golden Age greats). I'm sorry if my comment sounded like a despise of all current film music, that's not what I meant. Of course there's good, even great film music written nowadays by other composers and I'm confident there will be in the future. However, Williams is really the last of the breed who mastered the art of symphonic writing applied to film and in this sense I think we can agree he has no equals right now. But I don't want necessarily to put him on a pedestal to worship him and saying everything he touches morphs into pure gold. I happen to like almost everything he does, but, hey, it's just me. I think it's healthy to have opinionated people here, including those who thinks Williams' current output isn't good or at the same level of other things he did and maybe find excitement or satisfaction in other kinds of film music. I'll wait to listen to the full album before proclaiming any kind of judgement, but these 30 seconds morsels surely sound exciting to my ears exactly because it's another example of that artistry I said before, i.e. the perfection of musical accompaniment based on symphonic models. ocelot, Will, crumbs and 1 other 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
King Mark 3,631 Posted June 25, 2016 Share Posted June 25, 2016 So far my favorite bit is on the Spielberg video and not in the samples Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Will 2,215 Posted June 25, 2016 Share Posted June 25, 2016 3 hours ago, JacksonElmore said: ? You don't remember the story? After Spielberg screened Schindler's List for Williams for the first time, Williams was so overwhelmed he had to go walk outside for a few minutes, which is what I was referring to. Then, of course, he came back, and told Spielberg that he thought the director needed a better composer for the film. And Spielberg replied with the famous (well, famous in film score circles) line: "I know, but they're all dead." JacksonElmore and ocelot 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post crumbs 14,317 Posted June 25, 2016 Popular Post Share Posted June 25, 2016 I've never heard that anecdote before! Will, JacksonElmore, Cerebral Cortex and 1 other 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joni Wiljami 1,206 Posted June 25, 2016 Share Posted June 25, 2016 Me neither! Great story, why its been kept secret... Will and JacksonElmore 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ocelot 508 Posted June 25, 2016 Share Posted June 25, 2016 The Schindler's List story? It's never been secret. I've known it for years. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kerry Frey 1 Posted June 25, 2016 Share Posted June 25, 2016 New to the forum and have a question. Is there a button I'm missing at the German site to play the samples automatically - or does everyone have to click on each individual song as I am? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ocelot 508 Posted June 25, 2016 Share Posted June 25, 2016 1 minute ago, Kerry Frey said: New to the forum and have a question. Is there a button I'm missing at the German site to play the samples automatically - or does everyone have to click on each individual song as I am? I just clicked on each one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jay 37,367 Posted June 25, 2016 Share Posted June 25, 2016 You have to click on each one. Of course, you can use Download Helper Firefox extension to save them all to your hard drive for easier playback later. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Marian Schedenig 8,193 Posted June 25, 2016 Popular Post Share Posted June 25, 2016 1 hour ago, ocelot said: The Schindler's List story? It's never been secret. I've known it for years. Why didn't you tell us? I sense a conspiracy! ocelot, Bilbo, Joni Wiljami and 1 other 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sandor 797 Posted June 25, 2016 Author Share Posted June 25, 2016 3 hours ago, Kerry Frey said: New to the forum and have a question. Is there a button I'm missing at the German site to play the samples automatically - or does everyone have to click on each individual song as I am? This site plays the same samples automatically: http://www.musicline.de/de/player_flash/0050087329181/0/0/50/product Will 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JacksonElmore 69 Posted June 26, 2016 Share Posted June 26, 2016 6 hours ago, Jay said: You have to click on each one. Of course, you can use Download Helper Firefox extension to save them all to your hard drive for easier playback later. Did you do that? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jay 37,367 Posted June 26, 2016 Share Posted June 26, 2016 5 hours ago, Sandor said: This site plays the same samples automatically: http://www.musicline.de/de/player_flash/0050087329181/0/0/50/product Woah - are they the exact same samples? 1 hour ago, JacksonElmore said: Did you do that? Of course! JacksonElmore 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thx99 1,740 Posted June 26, 2016 Share Posted June 26, 2016 30 minutes ago, Jay said: Woah - are they the exact same samples? Yes. Or at least they were when I checked them earlier today. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alejandro 26 Posted June 26, 2016 Share Posted June 26, 2016 On June 23, 2016 at 7:23 AM, aescalle said: "Witching Hour" begining is a completly rip of the "Fury" theme !!! Yes! I recognized Fury the moment I heard the clip too. aescalle 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Incanus 5,715 Posted June 26, 2016 Share Posted June 26, 2016 Well in all fairness it is a bit of the arpeggio-figure and only those couple of notes, common enough in Williams' other works as well, especially when mystery is concerned, and from a score Williams wrote 38 years ago. Call me a shameless JW apologist if you like but I'll call it a coincidence pure and simple. Not that the similarity escaped me either. I listened to the samples once and now am happily waiting for the album. I don't have much incentive to see the film though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alejandro 26 Posted June 26, 2016 Share Posted June 26, 2016 I love when I hear snippets from other scores. I'm sure it was a coincidence though. Like Heartbeeps in Catch Me or Accidental in Indy III. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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