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What instruments would like to hear more of in film music?


Sharkissimo

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Thread is self-explanatory.

 

I nominate the whirly tube / AKA the corrugaphone. Essentially it's a corrugated plastic tube that can be spun over head, with different sizes corresponding to different fundamental pitches. If I had to describe it, I'd compare it to an eerie wind or a bunch of Arab women ululating across a valley.

 

 

 

Hard pressed to find any examples in the current canon. 02:00 in The Letter from Capricorn One might be one, but it could also be water chimes (used elsewhere in the score), the phased ARP Solina from earlier in the cue or a vibratone (another neglected instrument).

 

 

 

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I don't know enough film music to be able to answer truthfully but I fear that woodwind in general are becoming neglected these days.

 

19 minutes ago, Sharkus Malarkus said:

I nominate the whirly tube / AKA the corrugaphone.

 

Isn't that the instrument you hear at the beginning of The Temple of Doom?

 

 

Sounds a bit like it.

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I'm sure we've discussed this before (briefly) and you brought the recorder up, @Sharkus Malarkus.

 

Here you go:

 

On 7-8-2015 at 11:54 PM, Sharkus Malarkus said:

Nice to see a contrabass flute turn up in a film score. Wish they were written for more often. Same goes for the recorder family, which has unfortunately been misaligned as children's instruments (maybe our collective memory of out-of-tune school ensembles?).

Edit: I think it's just a contrabass clarinet. :(

 

 

 

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4 minutes ago, Jilal said:

I'm sure we've discussed this before and you brought the recorder up, @Sharkus Malarkus.

 

Shhh. Don't be a Jay.

 

Edit: Ah, glad to see it wasn't an entire thread (again) :lol:

 

4 minutes ago, loert said:

I don't know enough film music to be able to answer truthfully but I fear that woodwind in general are becoming neglected these days.

 

 

Isn't that the instrument you hear at the beginning of The Temple of Doom?

 

 

Sounds a bit like it.

 

I thought so too, but in the score it's a synth. Could be a sample?

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4 minutes ago, Sharkus Malarkus said:

I thought so too, but in the score it's a synth. Could be a sample?

 

I couldn't find it in the score? I've always assumed R7 Pt1 starts with the big "clang" you hear in the track at 0:07 (but with altered instrumentation). Where in the score are you looking at?

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38 minutes ago, Stefancos said:

Bbbhhhrrraaaaaaahhhmmmm!

 

One of the greatest things the Internet has ever given us.  I bet they played this video on a loop at Guantanamo.

 

 

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3 hours ago, loert said:

 

I couldn't find it in the score? I've always assumed R7 Pt1 starts with the big "clang" you hear in the track at 0:07 (but with altered instrumentation). Where in the score are you looking at?

 

Just checked--must have been confusing it with another cue. It definitely could be corrugaphones--Shelley Manne and Emil Richards are mentioned in the sketch for percussion sweetener, so I wouldn't be surprised if they had some in their collections.

 

2 hours ago, Disco Stu said:

 

One of the greatest things the Internet has ever given us.  I bet they played this video on a loop at Guantanamo.

 

 

 

You know what would be perfect for that? The tromboon.

 

 

 

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2 hours ago, TheWhiteRider said:

Bring back vibraphones, harp harmonics, bass flutes, bass clarinets, natural horns, and baroque construction strings.

 

Baroque reeds and flutes as well, and lutes and theorbos.

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23 minutes ago, Will said:

 

I do like that AOTC moment! 

 

It can be used in so many more ways than that style

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9 hours ago, loert said:

I don't know enough film music to be able to answer truthfully but I fear that woodwind in general are becoming neglected these days.

 

 

Isn't that the instrument you hear at the beginning of The Temple of Doom?

 

 

Sounds a bit like it.

 

Isn't it used at the beginning of

"Star Trek II"?

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Slide whistle, kazoo and devil chaser!

 

5 string kantele and concert kantele, nyckelharpa, hardanger violin and the whole taiko drum family, not just the big booming ones every composer is forced to use these days.

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1 minute ago, Stefancos said:

Jingling Johnny!

Is that some kind of euphemism for something lewd or a real instrument?

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3 hours ago, Stefancos said:

You vikings really are savages, arent you!

 

 

Never in our most barbarous dreams did we invent such a racket maker!

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30 minutes ago, crocodile said:

I would love to hear more writing for woodwinds in lower registers.

 

I very much enjoy a well written part for flute in the low register. 

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17 hours ago, Thor said:

Woodwinds. I can never get enough woodwinds.

 

And synths, of course (especially retro synths), but that's a given.

Can remember a certain infamous composer asking where all the "voodvinds" had gone from film music having abandoned them himself long before... With his minions following suit! 

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8 hours ago, Richard said:

 

Isn't it used at the beginning of

"Star Trek II"?

 

You're right! I thought it was just the Jupiter 8 (electronic ocarinas), but I checked and it's doubled by two plastic pipes! Like a lot of thins James must've have got this from visiting Jerry's sessions.

 

horner.jpg

 

 

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Off-topic, but did you know that Horner mortgaged his estate in order to finance the recording of one of his very first (B-film) scores with the LSO? It turned out to be the perfect set of "demos" to send out to various directors in Hollywood, eventually leading him to score Star Trek II.

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19 minutes ago, Jilal said:

Off-topic, but did you know that Horner mortgaged his estate in order to finance the recording of one of his very first (B-film) scores with the LSO? It turned out to be the perfect set of "demos" to send out to various directors in Hollywood, eventually leading him to score Star Trek II.

 

Which score?

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The fujara, a Slovakian overtone flute, is woefully neglected. Maurice Jarre included it in Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome and Zimmer wrote for it memorably in Gladiator, but aside from that I can't recall any other appearances.

 

 

 

I also believe it's part of the evolving drone that accompanies Commodus's theme on the soprano recorders. Almost imperceivable. It's slowly scaling the overtone series on D, overlaid with Lisa Gerard bowing her hammered dulcimer and hammering away on her yangqin.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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