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James Newton Howard's Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them


leeallen01

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Yeah it happens all the time. Constantly fighting to get the music I pay for. I bought the autorip album from amazon, so while I wait for the CD to arrive, I can listen to it in mp3 form, but the mp3 hasn't downloaded to my amazon music either haha. Slowly going insane.

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Of course people will post a chronological order of the Fantastic Beasts OST.  Potter is a huge franchise and there are probably many forums where people will will be dedicated to figuring it out, and then it will be crossposted to other forums, etc.

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Just managed to listen to 'A Man And His Beasts' and 'Kawalski Rag.' Truly wonderful pieces. I was wishing and hoping for a couple of suites, and we got it. And my two favourite themes from the score given the suite treatment as well. 

 

That new Main Theme for the Fantastic Beasts series is quickly becoming my favourite theme of the Potter universe. I adore the chilling choir, and he has written a very hummable and fun theme that hopefully people will be humming and excited for in the next film. 

 

This score is exactly what I hoped for.

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A Man And His Beasts is a very good piece.

 

I believe this is one of the two long suites that JNH talks about writing for Yates before filming began. This covers the franchise theme.

 

What about the other long suite that he wrote for Yates - the one I imagine for Newt's material?

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And that's exactly why I never bother with scores until I've heard them in their proper context. I'm pretty sure I wouldn't like the Macusa intro half as much if I didn't know the scene where it belonged.

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2 hours ago, BloodBoal said:

Bilbo Skywalker will do it once he's seen the film.

 

Seeing it in 90 minutes time. I'll attempt a rough chronological run when I get back from it. I have the screenplay too so that should help. I reckon I can make sense of it already but I'll wait until I've seen it first. 

 

Seeing it again tomorrow so I can fine tune it then. I hope. 

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1 hour ago, leeallen01 said:

Just managed to listen to 'A Man And His Beasts' and 'Kawalski Rag.' Truly wonderful pieces. I was wishing and hoping for a couple of suites, and we got it. And my two favourite themes from the score given the suite treatment as well. 

 

That new Main Theme for the Fantastic Beasts series is quickly becoming my favourite theme of the Potter universe. I adore the chilling choir, and he has written a very hummable and fun theme that hopefully people will be humming and excited for in the next film. 

 

My two favorite themes of the score as well!

 

Not my favorites of the franchise, though. I don't think either of them would make my top 5 with Williams, maybe not even 10? I don't know, there are so many strong melodies in those first three scores (plus sentimental attachment). These rank more with JW's secondary melodies from Potter for me, like "Dobby the House-Elf" or POA's medieval tune at the beginning of "Hagrid the Professor," I think that's around where I'd place these if I were to actually try ranking them. Depends on how they're used in the film/sequels too of course, and obviously they'd rank very high taking Johnny out of the equation. ;)

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Guess who I found in the comments section here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=THRCfcIoqkg&list=PLBKadB95sF46S0OjNmQr0GeXMXZ-Byso3&index=17

 

Declan Casey

 

Quote

Tbh, it's not an amazing score. It has me worried that the main conflict isn't as intense as I wanted it to be. It sounds like a score for a sort of boring, childish movie. Moments of intensity last about 30 seconds before it has to upswing and make everything light and cheery and broad and generic again. Ugh. It's a much less interesting score to listen to than Desplat's two Hallow's scores, John William's Azkaban score, and Hooper's Prince score.

 

 

Maybe he wasn't a troll...

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I'll be seeing the film tomorrow afternoon, but I just wanted to offer some quick thoughts after one listen through the OST (deluxe). 

 

Now, I've only listened once, but there seems to be a general lack of thematic cohesion -- "major" themes are only heard once or twice. Perhaps there are a ton of important unreleased cues. :( I suppose there's probably at least 30 minutes of unreleased music. 

 

Also rather surprised of the lack of Hedwig's Theme -- only two appearances on OST, plus at least one more in the film according to those who've seen it. Not that that's necessarily a bad thing, however.

 

That said, though, I am incredibly impressed by this score. It's incredibly exciting.

 

The fantastic "Main Titles" material, which of course I've been listening to to for a while, starts things off on a terrific note -- I'm guessing that with the film that cue will seem "epic" (under the definition I've stated many times here). From the figure of immense weight near its beginning, to the incredibly optimistic ostinato and gorgeous theme at the end. 

 

By the way, for those accusing the "Main Titles" theme of being a steal from "Polar Express," where exactly in that older score are you referring to? At the beginning of this video - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6EsA-uEBis4 - that theme doesn't really sound much like JNH to me, if that's the one you're referring to.

 

Anyway....

 

 

The opening of "Inside the Case" was really the "Holy s---!" moment for me in this score. JNH can really build excitement. The end titles were similarly stunningly good. A little lightly orchestrated at the beginning, but very exciting and fun and powerful -- how end credits for a movie like this should be. And then this is just so good, with that "Main Titles" theme...

 

 

The magically alluring theme -- presumably the "main theme" developed extensively in "A Man and His Beasts" is marvelous as well. It's powerful in its grand statements, contemplative and alluring in its softer ones, and incredibly fun in its jazz statements. 

 

In fact, those jazz statements were really stunningly good. Totally unexpected from a "magical" choir-heavy theme. Yet this theme sounds like it was written as a jazz idea! Amazing variation!

 

"Blind Pig" is really fun too. 

 

All around, this was terrific stuff. Fantasy films are supposed to have whimsy, they're supposed to have excitement, they're supposed to have wonder and awe. JNH's score hits all those bases and more. I can't understate how great it is to hear such optimistic music (in other words, I'm the opposite of Dcasey). 

 

I'm now truly HYPED to see this film. :woop:

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On 18.11.2016 at 8:09 AM, publicist said:

Good news, everyone: the bonus cd has three some really good concert-like reworkings of the themes ('A Man and his Beasts', 'End Titles Part 2' and 'Kowalski Rag') that would have made the original album (one really good album vs. the overlong muddy we got). Also take note how that bad temptrack steal from 'Polar Express' never turns up anywhere in these cues:

 

 

Yup. Just listening and especially A Man and His Beasts should have been on the regular OST. It is a great musical roadmap to some of the themes and makes a bigger impression on me than most of the soundtrack album.

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Yeah I agree. 'A Man and his Beasts' should have been on the main album. And 'Kowalski Rag' too midway through the first half of the album. So the two suites would provide thematic context to the score before it properly kicks in.

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3 hours ago, Incanus said:

Yup. Just listening and especially A Man and His Beasts should have been on the regular OST. It is a great musical roadmap to some of the themes and makes a bigger impression on me than most of the soundtrack album.

 

Some of the themes? It is pretty much one theme right throughout the track?

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10 minutes ago, TheUlyssesian said:

 

Some of the themes? It is pretty much one theme right throughout the track?

That just shows how much I have been listening to this score in the weeks since it appeared in Spotify. Perhaps I'll find enthusiasm to listen to it a few times more in the future.

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@Incanus What helps very much but requires a certain amount of physical application is indeed Williams-style micro-editing which i did mercilessly on this score. Especially the longer cues require chirurgical precision to weed out the ballast. 

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On 11/2/2016 at 4:40 AM, TownerFan said:

I found this part of the article particularly interesting and even revealing about current method (and woes) for film composers:

 

 

Pieces redone 20 or 30 times? I hope it's an exaggeration. I don't envy the position of the composer in these circumstances, where music-making is treated by directors and producers as a disposable tool like a library of sound effects.

 

Jesus. I was just reading through this thread and came upon this interview. Wow. Yeah, that is very revealing. So used to the Spielberg/JW process that I often forgot that's not how most composers get to work. 

 

I'm confused about this, though:

 

Quote

whereas others were redone 20 to 30 times, before eventually being edited back to sound like their original version.

 

Why would they be edited back to the original?

On 11/17/2016 at 11:53 AM, leeallen01 said:

The film wasn't temp scored. JNH wrote and sent very early demos in, which were used for temp during the film's editing process.

 

JNH - "One of the things David wanted when we first talked, was a composer who would come onto the film early, and in his words, be “part of the architecture of the movie.” Someone to provide music early on in demo form, that they could use while the film is being edited, which is a really effective tool to have so you’re not covering the movie by borrowing music from others, while you’re editing the movie."

 

Also JNH said he wants to score all 5 films and that it has been discussed already - 

 

Interviewer: "Now that you have done the first film, are you interested in seeing it through for the next four?"

 

JNH: "David and I have talked about it. I’m certainly doing the next one, he’s asked me to do it. We had a pretty incredible time together on this one, so I will certainly be doing that one. Beyond that, who knows? I would like to think that I would do all of them and that I would be asked back, but who knows what happens that far in advance."

 

Here's the full interview -

http://www.forbes.com/sites/hughmcintyre/2016/11/17/james-newton-howard-talks-scoring-fantastic-beasts-and-entering-the-wizarding-world/#4d8dc1ba26f7 

 

So...

 

All those people complaining about JNH "stealing" from the temp track are wrong? Since the temp track was made up of his music?

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Well, finally finished reading through this thread. Great to hear what others think, and I'm so excited to see the film in just a few hours!

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3 hours ago, Will said:

Why would they be edited back to the original?

 

Perspective shift, I would guess. I find that happens sometimes in artistic pursuits, you try something and think it's not quite right, then work it and rework it and rework it and then weeks, months, years later (or conversely just waking up the next morning) you look back at the first draft and realize your initial instincts were right all along. Turns out you just needed something to compare it to.

 

I've seen directors talk about this in the flimmaking process with actors, where after they put some poor actor through take after take, exploring and looking at the script every which way until they've amassed 15, 20, 30 attempts or more, then they go through all the footage and realize it was never better than the second or third take after all. 

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Decided to post this here too:

 

Just got back from the film. 

 

Wow. What an experience. 

 

No Rogue One trailer unfortunately, but that was about the only bad thing.

 

The opening scene... It was right then that I knew this was going to be an incredible ride. The surround sound blasting out Hedwig's Theme over the WB logo, then this incredible theme over the title, I think (I'm a little confused about the sequence of music to picture here, I thought I remembered that theme over the newspapers but it doesn't make any sense), followed by the jarring sound effects over the mysterious Grindelwald attack, then finally the joyful ostinato and triumphant, gorgeous statement of the main theme over the wide shot of New York and Newt's arrival. Especially for that figure over the title, the music was mixed so loud it was wonderful. 

 

 

The rest of the film did not disappoint either. The 20s character was really cool. It was light hearted, but also dark enough to set up an intriguing conflict that can continue over five (!) films. Some of the action got a little grating, and some of the blasting sound effects made my stomach churn -- but of course that also meant that I was hearing this in lovely surround sound, which I don't have at home so it's always a really special treat!!

 

The music was absolutely marvelous. Certainly, it makes way more of an impression in the film than, say, The BFG. 

 

The MACUSA intro was stunning as well. So was "Inside the Case," which played over a scene that really brought the fantasy element of Potter, as well as the gorgeous scene in "Newt Releases the Thunderbird," which is almost a graceful dance, only picture and music. 

 

As should be the case in a fantasy film, JNH got many chances to shine, and it was glorious. 

 

Of course, there are moments where terrific music is overshadowed by sound effects -- for example, the Christmas-y stuff in "The Erumpet" was almost impossible to hear, unfortunately. 

 

And of course, the "End Titles" were glorious too. Just the music, blasting out of the speakers, fanfares heralding the end of an adventure. 

 

The end credits music is as follows, I believe:

 

End Titles 

End Titles, Pt. 2

The soaring part of Newt Releases the Thunderbird

The jazzy end of A Man and His Beasts

Some emotional quieter music (maybe Newt Says Goodbye to Tina)

 

Hedwig's Theme was used three times, two of which are on the OST. One is over the opening WB logo, the second is when Newt is holding one of his creatures in the bank early in the film, I believe, and I can't remember what the third covers.

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The third is when they are in the zoo.

 

The two uses of Hedwig's theme in the film are a bit random. The first one isn't so bad but the one in the zoo is really random. 

 

The one over the titles makes sense. 

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